The government introduced four electoral reform bills to parliament yesterday. Antony Green offers a good overview that notes what’s missing from the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters’ inquiry into the 2019 election: the particularly contentions measures of voter identification and optional preferential voting, and arrangements for handling an election during the pandemic, which will presumably have to follow at a later time.
To summarise:
• The most striking is a bill to triple the number of members required of a registered political party to 1500 and to disallow the registration of parties whose names contain, with limited exceptions, words already used in the name of a pre-existing party. The former requirement does not affect the significant exception that exists for parties with seats in parliament, as applies to Katter’s Australian Party, the Centre Alliance and the Jacqui Lambie Network (Antony Green notes it also helped Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party to both register and blag free ABC air time before the last election, not that this proved notably helpful to them). Parties will have three months after the passage of the bill to either pass muster or face deregistration, in which case they will not be identified on ballot papers or eligible for public funding. This would appear to be one in the eye for the Liberal Democrats, who this week confirmed Campbell Newman as their Senate candidate in Queensland.
• A bill encompassing “counting, scrutiny and operational efficiencies” gives effect to JSCEM’s recommendation that the pre-poll voting period should be cut from three weeks to two, which the Coalition, Labor and Greens members were all on board with. It also allows for pre-poll votes to be pre-processed in the two hours before polls close so the actual counting of the votes can begin without delay, which should address an issue of recent election nights in which election day booths are mostly in by 8pm but pre-poll voting centres often aren’t until 11pm to midnight. Similarly, the bill allows for postal votes to be pre-processed so more of them can be counted on Sunday.
• An “electoral offences and preventing multiple voting” bill includes a measure to prevent those suspected of multiple voting from persisting in doing so, and one to target behaviour the Liberal Party has complained of being subjected to by GetUp! activists, specifically “violence, obscene or discriminatory abuse, property damage and harassment or stalking”. Former electoral administrator Michael Maley wonders if the latter measure might capture heckling or asking difficult questions; electoral law expert Graham Orr notes it brings the activities of FriendlyJordies to mind.
• A bill to lower the threshold for which third parties campaigning at elections will have to register as political campaigners, requiring them to file annual financial disclosure returns. The current six-figure threshold does seem on the high side, but the cause of “public confidence in Australia’s political processes” would surely be better served by lowering the threshold for declaring donations to political parties.
Other news:
• The Australian Electoral Commission has published the full panoply of reports and data relevant to the now finalised federal redistributions of Victoria and Western Australia. Antony Green has worked his estimated margins into a finalised 2022 federal election pendulum.
• Rachel Siewert, Greens Senator for Western Australia, announced on social media this week that she will resign her position in the Senate next month. This will allow the party’s preselected lead Senate candidate, Dorinda Cox, to build her profile ahead of next year’s election, a common practice for the Greens.
“ Not sure what the collective term is for multiple clusterfucks”
A guytaur?
It will be interesting to see how the Taliban actually governs this time. There are 300,000 unemployed ex-soldiers who are now wandering around the country. Some of warlords might have gone over to the Taliban at the moment but can they be kept in line.
Also don’t be surprised if the moment the Kabul air lift is finished that the remnants of the Afghan Air Force gets a visit for a few bombers.
clem attlee:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:19 pm
[‘Someone told me today that James Anderson is the biggest loser in test cricket.’]
If I were you I’d get a new circle of friends, acquaintances.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #3101 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:31 pm
I thought that was for brainfarts?
Morrison, Dutton, Payne have a golden opportunity win the peace in Afghanistan.
This site is reaching new heights tonight.
“ Not sure what the collective term is for multiple clusterfucks”
“A guytaur?”
“I thought that was for brainfarts?”
Do not brainfarts begat clusterfucks?
https://www.pollbludger.net/2021/08/13/legal-matters-2/comment-page-62/#comment-3681590
If there had been no appeasement at Munich, there was an army coup plot to oust Hitler when the order to invade the Sudetenland part of Czechoslovakia.
Instead Hittler`s aggression worked and the army followed the invasion orders.
”
Barney in Tanjung Bungasays:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:25 pm
Cud Chewer @ #3094 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:24 pm
Ven
Before the vaccination clusterfuck was other covid related clusterfucks.
Not sure what the collective term is for multiple clusterfucks..
An orgy!
”
LOL
B.S. Fairman at 8:31 pm
There are reports, not confirmed, that a lot of planes/helicopters landed in a neighbouring country. One of ‘Stans’ .
B.S. Fairman at 8:31 pm
There are reports, not confirmed, that a lot of planes/helicopters landed in a neighbouring country. One of ‘Stans’ .
US to recommend boosters 8 months after second jab:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-17/us-booster-vaccines-eight-months-jab/100385442
‘poroti says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:41 pm
B.S. Fairman at 8:31 pm
There are reports, not confirmed, that a lot of planes/helicopters landed in a neighbouring country. One of ‘Stans’ .’
________________________
I was going to suggest that that would have happened. Anything that could fly.
Hitler should have been stopped at the Saarland.
The rest is history.
Dio
haha.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #3107 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:40 pm
A guytaur of brainfarts resulted in an orgy of clusterfucks.
Cynicism is a panacea for depression ( induced by the state of the world.. SfM .. Gladys ) ..
The literature dosen’t agree with me though..
When it comes to cynicism, however, the connection really goes both ways. In some cases, a person with a cynic mindset may find that it spirals out of control and leads to the development of depression.
On the other hand, a person that has already been diagnosed with depression may find that their mental health condition causes a cynic mindset.
https://www.bphope.com/blog/how-cynicism-is-linked-to-depression-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
boerwar
A firmer report.
.
TASHKENT, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Afghan soldiers fled to Uzbekistan in 22 military planes and 24 helicopters over the weekend, including one aircraft that collided with an escorting Uzbek fighter jet causing both to crash, Uzbek prosecutors said on Monday………………..
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-military-jet-crashes-uzbekistan-report-2021-08-16/
“ Morrison, Dutton, Payne have a golden opportunity win the peace in Afghanistan.”
Sure sure, the one combat brigade that Plan Bethsheeba has delivered the ADF, plus the first rate amphibious warfare capability, were all the tools we needed to get that particular job done. All by ourselves.
Pity about the attack helicopters that never worked for the duration of the war. Or the 70 year old APC’s masquerading as IFVs that could not be used, the ASLAVs – which were ok, the Bushmasters – ditto, but were inadequate for all our armour needs. Spot on. We had a golden opportunity to win the peace.
Sceptic @ #3117 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:46 pm
Isn’t cynicism also a quality of conspiracy theorist?
Douglas and Milko:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 7:08 pm
[‘William
Player One’s lust for attention together with the determination of far too many people to give it to him is making this forum a pretty dismal spectacle right now.
Noted. You are, as usual correct.’]
You’ll get on, dear – teacher’s pet. Unlike science, perhaps nuance is beyond you? The joke is that P1 has never, as far as I know, revealed agender, pun intended.
https://www.pollbludger.net/2021/08/13/legal-matters-2/comment-page-63/#comment-3681606
The remilitarisation of the Rhineland should certainly have been countered.
I think what Kabul needs now … is to bid for the 2036 Olympic Games.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #3123 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:51 pm
They may have to look at sharing it with another country for the women’s events.
AE
I think you are blinded by the way Morrison paints the Quad and amplified by the Murdoch press.
The important part of what I posted was the US is coming to the Indo Pacific. They even changed the command name to reflect their policy.
It’s bipartisan policy of the US. Australia chose its alliance some time ago.
Mr Albanese as Prime Minister will be very different in how he deals with being in the Quad. I just don’t see him wanting to get offside with India and leaving it when Japan and the US want to be closer to India too.
“ The remilitarisation of the Rhineland should certainly have been countered.”
The Frenchies blinked.
Hitler actually expected that they would react and there were standing orders to withdraw immediately when they did. Hitler wanted the frenchies on German soil as a propaganda tool as a causa bella for a future war.
Was the remilitarisation of that part of Germany a game changer? I doubt it.
would it have changed the course of history if the Frenchies marched into the Rhineland? Again I doubt it, as it would have given Hitler the propaganda victory he was seeking at that point in time.
Mavis @ #3121 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 8:50 pm
I think Mr Bowe would know.
But keep putting Player One front and centre, Mavis. You know you wanna. Just to be perverse.
Saarland voted to become part of Germany in 1935 through a referendum held under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
“ They may have to look at sharing it with another country for the women’s events.”
I suggest our close Ally and champion of liberal democratic values and human rights, Saudi Arabia.
Tom
Hitler was shitting himself that there would be a humiliating defeat in the Rhineland if the French mobilised. They never did. Just let him walk in.
https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/02/23/the-secrets-of-the-saarland
WB
The Treaty of Versailles was well and truly trampled into the ground by 1935.
Dio: was Hitler really shitting himself? If so, he’d never had undertaken the gambit in the first place, IMO.
AE
He was ready to withdraw his troops at the slightest sign of opposition.
Andrew_Earlwood
Hang on. The women’s sports may still be doable…………..
.
The UN children’s agency (UNICEF) said Taliban representatives in some parts of Afghanistan have expressed support for educating girls after they seized control when U.S. troops withdrew, its field operations chief for the country said…………
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/17/evacuation-flights-resume-as-biden-defends-afghanistan-pullout#:~:text=the%20country%20said.-,Mustapha,-Ben%20Messaoud%2C%20UNICEF%E2%80%99s
Diogenes @ #3130 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:58 pm
Did they have McDonald’s back then?
https://www.pollbludger.net/2021/08/13/legal-matters-2/comment-page-63/#comment-3681622
And the French would not move without the UK and Edward VIII was a Nazi sympathiser (the likely real reason he was forced out, his marriage plans were just the excuse to push him out).
https://www.pollbludger.net/2021/08/13/legal-matters-2/comment-page-63/#comment-3681618
An attack through the Ardennes forest is a lot harder to surprise the French with if you have to fight the French to get to said forest.
The Taliban commander I listened to promised that women and girls would be allowed to learn…religious texts.
yabba @ #3023 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 6:57 pm
We’ve done that joke once already. Don’t you have anything original to offer?
‘Andrew_Earlwood says:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:48 pm
“ Morrison, Dutton, Payne have a golden opportunity win the peace in Afghanistan.”
Sure sure, the one combat brigade that Plan Bethsheeba has delivered the ADF, plus the first rate amphibious warfare capability, were all the tools we needed to get that particular job done. All by ourselves.
Pity about the attack helicopters that never worked for the duration of the war. Or the 70 year old APC’s masquerading as IFVs that could not be used, the ASLAVs – which were ok, the Bushmasters – ditto, but were inadequate for all our armour needs. Spot on. We had a golden opportunity to win the peace.’
______________________________
My suggestion was, of course, partly tongue in cheek. Violence has failed. Is there anything by way of diplomacy that might work? Complete disengagement is probably the only option being considered by Morrison, Payne and Dutton. But perhaps they should be a little bit more imaginative than that. The Taliban, right now, have a brand new set of vulnerabilities. They might actually appreciate a diplomatic approach.
Mavis @ #3121 Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 – 8:50 pm
Nice one, Mavis. William probably knows. But will he tell? … stay tuned …
C@tmomma:
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 8:56 pm
[‘But keep putting Player One front and centre, Mavis. You know you wanna. Just to be perverse.’]
That’s not the case at all. As I said to dear GG, I don’t like bullying, groupthink. I think P1 has been singled out for mounting a counter-argument, however misguided it is from time to time – but it’s P1’s view. Argue against P1’s view but don’t attack P1 personally, as so many do.
“ He was ready to withdraw his troops at the slightest sign of opposition.‘
Yes. Was that because he was shitting himself, or because he wanted to play the martyr for the german people, to remind them of the old grievances and stoke anti French, anti foreigner sentiment?
Given the numbers of troops involved in the operation, he wasn’t actually committing himself or Germany to go all in for the Rhineland at that stage, was he?
‘ concern trolling
noun
1.
the action or practice of disingenuously expressing concern about an issue in order to undermine or derail genuine discussion:’…
The last plane out of Kabul’s almost gone.
Clive Palmer is going back to the high court to challenge WAs vaccination policy to keep people out of the state.
“ An attack through the Ardennes forest is a lot harder to surprise the French with if you have to fight the French to get to said forest.”
Heinz Guderian would say, “Ja Good. We get to do Blitzkrieg as a home game to kick off the 1940 summer soccer league. More frenchies for dinner time. Escargot and schnapps”.
Little known potential Saarland Mk 2 avoided:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_annexation_of_German_territory_after_the_Second_World_War