Many preselections

Scott Ryan’s retirement brings the Victorian Liberal Senate preselection to a boil; Labor lines up its ducks in New South Wales; a federal voting intention poll from the ACT; and much more besides.

We begin with the unusually complicated state of affairs arising from Senate President Scott Ryan’s announcement yesterday that he will retire from politics before parliament resumes next month, having previously planned to do so when his term ends in the middle of next year. The Victorian Liberal Party now has the task of both filling his vacancy and determining its Senate ticket for the coming election, with the latter process having been up in the air due to the lockdown. Candidates for Ryan’s vacancy are reportedly likely to include Simon Frost, staffer to Josh Frydenberg and former state party director, and Greg Mirabella, Wangaratta farmer and husband of Sophie Mirabella.

The Coalition secured three long-term Senate positions at the 2016 double dissolution, which went to Mitch Fifield, Bridget McKenzie of the Nationals and Scott Ryan. Fifield quit politics after the 2019 election and his vacancy was filled by Sarah Henderson, lately defeated in her lower house seat of Corangamite. With the second position on the ticket reserved to the Nationals, and hence to McKenzie, Henderson urgently needs to win top spot on the ticket.

Rob Harris of The Age reports that she will probably need a rank-and-file ballot for this to happen, since she is unlikely to win a vote of the administrative committee if it exercises its power to take matters into its own hands. The same apparently applies to Frost in his bid to fill the Ryan vacancy, which would appear to suggest that the administrative committee would pick Mirabella both to fill the immediate vacancy and top the Senate ticket at the election. This would, however, be a hugely contentious move, given resentment over the rank and file being denied preselection ballots before the last election.

Further preselection news:

• Daniel Repacholi, a former coal miner who represented Australia in pistol shooting at the Olympics, was confirmed as Labor’s candidate to succeed Joel Fitzgibbon in Hunter by the party’s national executive yesterday. The Australian reports Repacholi “will run as a factionally unaligned candidate but he has the backing of elements of the Right, including Joel Fitzgibbon, and also the Left, including Mr Albanese and the CFMEU”. Preselection hopefuls thwarted by the move include Stephen Ryan, Newcastle barrister and former Cessnock councillor; Morgan Campbell, a former lawyer and local councillor; and Jo Smith, executive director of the Australian Guild of Screen Composers and unsuccessful candidate for Lake Macquarie at the 2019 state election. A late withdrawal was Cessnock nurse Emily Suvaal, whom The Guardian reports had support from Right-aligned unions. The Nationals candidate for the seat is James Thomson, 28-year-old community relations officer at Maitland Christian School; One Nation, who recorded 21.6% of the vote in 2019, have endorsed Singleton hotelier Dale McNamara, who ran for the party at the state by-election for Upper Hunter in May.

• As reported in The Australian, Gordon Reid, a local doctor of Aboriginal heritage, has been preselected unopposed to run as Labor’s candidate for Robertson, held for the Liberals by Lucy Wicks on a margin of 4.2%. The preselection for Reid, held by Fiona Martin on a margin of 3.2%, will be contested between Sally Sitou, a University of Sydney doctoral candidate and one-time ministerial staffer to Jason Clare, and Frank Alafaci, president of the Australian Business Summit Council. In Banks, held by David Coleman on a margin of 6.3%, will be contested between former diplomat Xian-Zhi Soon and Georges River councillor Warren Tegg.

• The West Australian reports Ian Goodenough, Liberal member for the Perth northern suburbs seat of Moore, has won a preselection ballot ahead of Vince Connelly, whose existing seat of Stirling is to be abolished in the redistribution, by a margin of 39 to 36. Goodenough is noted for his support network among local Pentecostal churches, and his association with a broader grouping within the state party known as “The Clan”. The report says Goodenough owed his win to support from Young Liberals and religious conservative powerbroker Nick Goiran. Further contested preselections for the Liberal-held seats of Swan and Durack will follow over the fortnight to come.

• The Greens have announced candidates in the two Melbourne seats they could potentially win from the Liberals: Piers Mitchem, an employment lawyer with corporate law firm Thomson Geer, will run against Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong, which Julian Burnside came within 5.7% of winning for the party in 2019 after outpolling Labor; while Sonya Semmens, owner-director of a fundraising consultancy, will run against Katie Allen in Higgins.

• Legal academic Kim Rubenstein has cleared the new-and-improved benchmark of 1500 members to register a party called Kim for Canberra in support of her run for an Australian Capital Territory Senate seat.

Other news:

• A uComms automated phone poll of 1057 voters in Canberra, commissioned by of The Australian Institute, records federal voting intention results for the Australian Capital Territory that are strikingly similar to those at the 2019 election. When the results to the forced-response follow-up for the initially undecided are included, the poll shows Labor on 41.1% (up 0.2% on the election), Liberal on 31.3% (down 0.8%) and the Greens on 16.9% (up 0.4%). One Nation, who did not field candidates in 2019 and probably won’t next time either, were on 3.9%. The poll also gauged Senate voting intention, which had Labor on 35.9% (down 3.4%), Liberal on 29.7% (down 2.6%) and the Greens on 21.1% (up 3.5%), with independents on 7.4%, One Nation on 4.0% and others on 1.7%. However, the disparity between the House and Senate results would be typical of an issue to common to Senate polling, which often inflates minor party support. In any case, both suggest the usual result, in which Labor wins the house seats and the two Senate seats divide between Labor and Liberal.

• Also from the Australia Institute, a tidy display of Essential Research COVID-19 polling data, including time series charts of the regular question on federal and state governments’ handling of the situation.

• Final results from the Daly by-election in the Northern Territory: 2022 votes to Labor candidate Dheran Young (56.1%), 1582 to Country Liberal Party candidate Kris Civitarese, for a swing to Labor of 7.3%.

• A federal election preview from Daniel Smith of CGM Communications draws on state-level poll trend calculations I provided, suggesting Labor stands to pick up 13 seats based on the current numbers.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,085 comments on “Many preselections”

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  1. The same apparently applies to Frost in his bid to fill the Ryan vacancy, which would appear to suggest that the administrative committee would pick Mirabella both to fill the immediate vacancy and top the Senate ticket at the election. This would, however, be a hugely contentious move, given resentment over the rank and file being denied preselection ballots before the last election.

    Plus the fact that yet again it’s a man who wins a safe Liberal seat, doing nothing to improve the gender balance within the partyroom.

  2. The problem for Morrison is the way this “triumph” was conceived and announced has done more to reinforce perceptions that you can’t take what he says at face value. When it suits him, he will set out to deceive.

    French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s description of Australia’s actions – “lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt” – feeds into perceptions already in play about Morrison. And AUKUS, rather than being a distraction from the undelivered promises on vaccination and an integrity commission or the multibillion-dollar mismanagement of the JobKeeper scheme and unfettered pork-barrelling, is a stark reminder of how the government goes about its business.

    The prime minister defended this betrayal of France’s trust and the sneaky way he did it in terms of the national interest. Eighteen months ago, so we are told, the Defence Department concluded nuclear-powered submarines were required for the defence of Australia rather than the conventional French submarines that had already been ordered. Peter Dutton, with the help of well-placed people, secretly set about ingratiating himself in Washington and London at the expense of Paris.

    As late as June, Morrison was personally assuring the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that the contract was still on track despite problems. There was much backslapping in the courtyard of the Élysée Palace. In the same month, Le Drian says he called his counterpart, Marise Payne, and specifically put to her the option of converting the contract to the nuclear-powered Barracuda-class submarines that France manufactures. He says he received no reply.

    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2021/09/25/morrison-the-jaded-emperor/163249200012551#mtr

  3. In the same month, Le Drian says he called his counterpart, Marise Payne, and specifically put to her the option of converting the contract to the nuclear-powered Barracuda-class submarines that France manufactures. He says he received no reply.
    —————-
    And with the obvious caveat that the context of international diplomacy is not the same as that of standard commercial relationships, you’d think that suggestion from the French would’ve given Scomo et al the perfect opportunity to exit the existing deal in a less dysfunctional way. If nuclear powered boats were now part of the discussion, it would not have seemed so unreasonable for Australia to look at other potential suppliers, for benchmarking at the very least.

  4. Interesting so many people on here were glowing in their praise of Biden and Pelosi in 2020 – who now it seems are glowing in their praise of ScoMo. Will the glow on here now extend to ScoMo?

  5. And The Greens’ candidate in Kooyong is a corporate lawyer.
    Whereas, Labor’s candidate for Robertson is an Indigenous Doctor.

    And the party of the Elites is…
    And the party of the Common Man is…

  6. The pressure being applied to the flim flam man by the Americans must be overwhelming now the pivot to zero emissions seems to have been made by the libs if not the Troggs of the National party. How will this flim flam man wriggle,cavort and jive his way out of these commitments when the dust settles post election. I think ALP should take a strong stand on this issue. Shorten made a miscalculation with his honest assessment of Trump back there but it would have been noted by voters once Trump was in power. Similarly Scomo will never be in the sync with the climate change policies of the rest of the world so long as coal is one of the pillars of LNP orthodoxy ( along with rubber on road as opposed to mass transit). Only Labor can implement these changes. I live in Brisbane and city seats here vote overwhelmingly ALP at state level why not target these seats currently held by LNP rather than worry about the one or two high viz seats in the delusional thrall of Canavan.

  9. Plus the fact that yet again it’s a man who wins a safe Liberal seat, doing nothing to improve the gender balance within the party room.

    That’s the way the Patriarch of the Nation likes it.

    However, sadly, this position will come as a twofer. 🙁

  11. It seems that the Australian conservatives are not quite as ruthless as their UK counterparts.
    “England’s Chief Medical Officer admits to deliberate mass infection of millions of children”

    (The language in this piece is deliberately provocative, as it is written for the World Socialist Web Site.)

    Whitty and Van-Tam made their comments in support of the Tory government’s decision to vaccinate 12-15-year-olds, against anti-scientific opposition from the ultra-reactionary wing of the Conservative Party. But this necessary decision has been made only after children have already returned to the classrooms, and it will be longer still before vaccinations in this age group actually begin.

    The government, with the support of the Labour Party and the education trade unions, rushed children back to school to facilitate the reopening of the economy, in the interests of the corporations and the super-rich. So vital was this policy to the ruling class that Johnson did not even wait for the cover of a vaccination rollout to enforce it, sending overwhelmingly unvaccinated children into crowded settings five days a week.

    The move to vaccination is driven by the same cold economic calculation, out of fear that the unchecked spread of COVID-19 will cause a breakdown in the school system, undermining the reopening of the economy and the return of parents to work. Whitty argued, “You would have fewer days lost as a result of being vaccinated compared to allowing people to be infected.” He spoke of “damage that could be done” only “in terms of disruption.”

    Children of secondary school age already have the highest rate of COVID infections, followed by primary school children, and the numbers are increasing rapidly. Infection rates among five to 14-year-olds increased 80 percent week-on-week to September 19, to a record 811 per 100,000. Infection rates for the five to nine age group stood at 382 per 100,000.

    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/09/23/couk-s23.html

  12. MFW@MFWitches
    ·
    Every time someone says “Vaccine Passport” in future, tell ‘em they should instead use the phrase we’ve used in AUS for decades: “Immunisation Record”.

    Because “Vaccine Passport” discourages others from getting vaxxed & stirs up emotional anti-vax sentiment.

    Words matter.

  13. Insiders Sunday, 26 Sep – a not to be missed Beet-Rooter Special !!

    David Speers joins Stan Grant, Annika Smethurst and Cameron Stewart to discuss protests in Melbourne over vaccine mandates, foreign relations with the US, UK, India, Japan and France, the submarines deal plus climate change

    Guest : Barnaby Joyce – Nationals Leader

  14. phoenixRED @ #NaN Saturday, September 25th, 2021 – 7:21 am

    Insiders Sunday, 26 Sep – a not to be missed Beet-Rooter Special !!

    David Speers joins Stan Grant, Annika Smethurst and Cameron Stewart to discuss protests in Melbourne over vaccine mandates, foreign relations with the US, UK, India, Japan and France, the submarines deal plus climate change

    Guest : Barnaby Joyce – Nationals Leader

    Barnaby’s enjoying the limelight while he can!

  15. May be SFM – doesn’t seem to get the 7PS, just all photo-op without the follow up, let alone that trade, Silk Road to OBOR, ASEAN, Quad will be more influential than AUKUS/ ANZUS/ OTAN – has figured out the 5Cs?

    CIC/ fICAC. (Or should that be Ca$h and Christian, c…. and rorts.
    The CPI/ Geoffrey Watson has got the death of FoI downunder at the time ‘on water matters’ emerged as a practice, heralding dents to transparency, integrity, accountability across the board.)

    Climate.

    Corporate welfare if not social support.

    Covid. (Quarantine, vax, app.)

    CHYNA.

    Doubt it. It’ll be back to splashing currency on marginal electorates.

    Then again, the old, old normal – rulers and religion – went before the Enlightenment – merchants and science, besides America/ French/ continental European/ Russian revos – mercantilism normal, just like world order normal post GWOT/ GFC/ pandemic will go next normal – sustainability and circularity.
    Even Frytheplanet this week talked capital flows, rather than conservative or progressive.
    Besides, social may be liberal democracy, consistently seems to outdo communism, theocrazy-ism, fascism.

    Expect more labour vs capital.

    SFM, well, he’s with them (them extreme disaster capitalists).

  16. Binchook still sending out her plague rats to us.

    National News Live
    NSW traveller to WA arrives without G2G pass, tests positive for COVID-19

    WA Premier Mark McGowan said the woman would now remain in hotel quarantine for “at least” 14 days. WA Police would consider the appropriate penalties.

  17. There’s an election in Germany this weekend as the Angela Merkel era comes to an end:

    As Germany goes to the polls this weekend, I am reminded of a slogan used by Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of West Germany, in his 1957 re-election campaign: Keine Experimente! (“No Experiments!”). It was his way of cautioning the electorate to avoid taking risks on untested parties and politicians and to stick with the steady postwar stability Adenauer and his party were offering.

    Adenaeur’s admonition seems to be animating almost all of the major parties involved in this year’s German election—not only those that are usually lumped into the “conservative” camp, but also the two largest parties of the left.

    This election represents a major turning point in German politics: Chancellor Angela Merkel is retiring after almost 16 years at the helm. She has remained unflappable and inscrutable over that time, and earned a reputation for competence, calmness, and pragmatism. While her handling of the refugee crisis in 2015 was probably the most controversial policymaking in Germany since 1989, she sold it in the same composed, understated manner you would expect of a regulation on the Leber content of Leberwurst. This levelheaded attitude toward policymaking, irrespective of its import or topic, has been one of Merkel’s great strengths, and Germans have become accustomed to it. Even when there have been experiments—such as the emphasis on renewable energy and the decommissioning of coal-fired and nuclear power stations, or the way the Merkel government has dealt with 2.5 million asylum claims in the past decade, officially accepting 1.15 million of them—those experiments have generally been presented not as proactive changes but common-sense reactions or moderate progress.

    For most of her tenure, Merkel’s favorability ratings have been high, which is why—unlike every previous postwar chancellor—she is leaving office by retiring at a time of her choosing. But her favorability does not guarantee success for her party, the Christian Democrats. Her attempt to handpick a successor failed, and going into Sunday’s election the CDU is in second place in the polls.

    The Bundestag is the biggest national legislative body in the free world. (The number of seats changes frequently, and will change after this election—more about that in a moment.) Only once in the postwar period has a single party won an outright majority of seats—the 1957 Adenauer re-election mentioned earlier. Which means that forming a government almost always depends not just on the election results but on the construction of a coalition of parties into a majority. Current national polls indicate an advantage for the leftish, working-classish Social Democrats (SPD, 25 percent) over Merkel’s rightish Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU, 21 percent), followed by the bourgeois-guilt Greens (15 percent), the flirting-with-Nazis-but-no-kissing-unless-I’m-drunk Alternative for Germany (AfD, 12 percent), the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP, 11 percent), and the we-promise-this-time-socialism-will-work/Che-Guevara-leftovers Left (7 percent). Due to Germany’s peculiar two-vote voting system, current estimates suggest there will be a whopping 872 seats in the Bundestag after the election, with the SPD predicted to win 238; the CDU/CSU 204; the Greens 153; the FDP and the AfD each 105; and the Left 67.

    https://www.thebulwark.com/heres-what-to-watch-for-in-germanys-election-this-weekend/

  18. I think you repeated the uComms lower house numbers. For the Senate, it should be Labor ~35%, Liberal ~29%, etc. Apologies if I’m misreading

  19. Prof Andrew Scott
    @ascottnlights
    10h
    I’ll certainly always remember these words of John Elliott which summed up his values. From the front page of The Age, 10 March 1999. #auspol

  20. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    Laura Tingle writes that Scott Morrison’s AUKUS submarine deal and ‘BFF theatre’ leaves Australia in a tricky spot. What she writes is hardly reassuring.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-25/missing-details-on-australia-uk-us-submarine-deal/100490564
    With his sights on domestic navel-gazing, Morrison’s all at sea on the world stage, says George Megalogenis.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/his-sights-on-domestic-navel-gazing-morrison-s-all-at-sea-on-the-world-stage-20210923-p58ucu.html
    Between East and West, Australia is no longer the misfit. That would be China, writes Peter Hartcher. He does say, however, that “Labor is asking reasonable and responsible questions about exactly how AUKUS will work. Morrison should resist the urge to turn this into a divisive fight. The Prime Minister should recognise Labor’s legitimate concerns as the future custodian of the arrangement, rather than weaken the national position for partisan gain.”
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/between-east-and-west-australia-is-no-longer-the-misfit-that-would-be-china-20210923-p58ucx.html
    Frozen out in Europe, feted in Washington, alarming some of its south-east Asian neighbours: questions are being raised about whether Australia has the right diplomatic skills and resources to perform on the world stage, says Anthony Galloway.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-in-defence-mode-as-aukus-fallout-goes-global-20210924-p58ui2.html
    Pontificating Paul Kelly declares that, with the AUKUS alliance, Morrison has seated Australia at the top table of diplomacy.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/aukus-alliance-morrison-has-seated-australia-at-top-table-of-diplomacy/news-story/966c44a860127207ffbbc75ac3a8e7cb
    Paul Bongiorno reckons Scott Morrison’s plans to make the looming election as much about keeping Australia safe from a Chinese threat as anything else have begun to take serious water.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2021/09/25/morrison-the-jaded-emperor/163249200012551
    Greg Sheridan opines that Xi Jinping is the real creator of AUKUS and Quad unity.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/xi-jinping-is-the-real-creator-of-aukus-and-quad-unity/news-story/f49a39b980bc8deed2ef55d45a99e888
    With the AUKUS treaty, Australia may have hitched its fate to a nation soon to be led by people who make Trump seem competent. Britain and Australia’s democracies are under threat; America’s future is in dire peril, warns Lucy Hamilton.
    https://johnmenadue.com/with-us-democracy-under-threat-from-within-aukus-puts-australia-in-danger/
    Bevan Shields tells us that France has no immediate plans to restore diplomatic relations with Australia, as Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson move to heal a damaging rift triggered by the Morrison government’s new pact to counter China.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/no-timeframe-let-alone-a-date-france-has-no-immediate-plans-to-speak-to-canberra-20210925-p58uo8.html
    Hours before cancelling a $90 billion contract for French submarines, Australia was still telling the company to proceed with design – but the plan to renege had been in the works since 2019, reveals Karen Middleton.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/09/25/under-the-surface-australias-submarine-deal/163249200012546
    Tony Wright has a look at Australia’s history with submarines, going right back to Gallipoli.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/caution-submarines-approach-with-great-care-20210923-p58u41.html
    John Hewson writes about Christian Porter and the ‘born to rule’ mentality. Wow!
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2021/09/25/christian-porter-and-the-born-rule-mentality/163249200012550
    Rob Harris reports that the shock departure of Senate President Scott Ryan from federal Parliament nine months earlier than planned has sent the Victorian Liberals scrambling to organise a complex process to choose his successor.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/senate-president-scott-ryan-s-resignation-leaves-liberals-scrambling-20210924-p58uif.html
    Katherine Murphy says that, as insurgents limber up for a federal election, the Coalition is worried about its restive right flank.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/25/as-insurgents-limber-up-for-a-federal-election-the-coalition-is-worried-about-its-restive-right-flank
    Vaccine fears have plunged to a record low in a strong sign of support for the national plan to ease lockdowns, with only 9 per cent of Australians objecting to the jabs compared to 29 per cent in the early phase of the rollout. The findings suggest the country could achieve a 90 per cent vaccine target across the adult population as the federal government promises more supplies of Pfizer and Moderna doses over the next three months, reports David Crowe.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-plunges-to-record-low-poll-finds-20210923-p58uc6.html
    Low vaccination rates in some NSW regions have prompted the government to reconsider allowing regional travel after the first vaccination target is met. The curse of reliance on averages alone strikes again.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/homes-opened-sport-restarted-under-new-freedoms-considered-by-crisis-cabinet-20210924-p58uju.html
    Further to this, Berejiklian is distancing herself from the term “Freedom Day” and is opting for graduated relaxations.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-reported-1043-new-local-cases-on-friday-11-deaths-20210924-p58ugs.html
    The SMH editorial reflects upon the week that Sydney turned the corner on COVID-19.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-week-that-sydney-turned-the-corner-on-covid-19-20210924-p58um5.html
    Coronavirus has taken hold at Parklea Correctional Centre, with at least 140 inmates infected. Treatment is cursory and prisoners with the virus are largely prevented from contacting family members and even lawyers, reports Denham Sadler.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/09/25/inside-the-parklea-prison-covid-19-outbreak/163249200012549
    As contact tracing collapses in NSW, differences are opening up in the key health modelling commissioned by government, writes Rick Morton who looks at the significant sensitivities of the Doherty modelling with respect to the assumptions used.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/09/25/covid-figures-splits-emerge-government-health-models/163249200012541
    The Age says that Victoria Police is conducting a review into its handling of last weekend’s anti-lockdown protests following furious complaints from the police union when multiple officers were injured after being overrun during a botched crowd control operation in Richmond.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/police-order-investigation-after-officers-overrun-at-anti-lockdown-protest-20210924-p58uf5.html
    On this week’s Melbourne protests, Chip le Grand writes, “Condemning the violence is the easy bit. A more difficult task is understanding who these protesters are, what drove them to this point and whether there is more to come as the NSW and Victorian governments pursue their two-speed exits out of lockdown for the vaccinated and unjabbed.”
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/mayhem-and-sadness-in-a-week-melbourne-finally-snapped-20210924-p58uhr.html
    Paul Karp looks at vaccine passports in Australia, who will impose them, and how they will work.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/25/vaccine-passports-in-australia-who-will-impose-them-and-how-will-they-work
    “Australia’s healthcare workers are reporting that they are exhausted and burnt out after the pandemic wrought profound change to their work practices. As the health crisis continues, how can the quality of care be sustained”, ask Karen Willis and Natasha Smallwood.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/09/25/healthcare-workers-suffering-exhaustion-and-burnout/163249200012545
    “Workers’ rights or the far right: who was behind Melbourne’s pandemic protests?”, ponders Michael McGowan.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/25/workers-rights-or-the-far-right-who-was-behind-melbournes-pandemic-protests
    Zoe Daniel writes, “There were shades of Trumpism in Melbourne this week as a hi-vis-helmeted mob (of largely white men) took their anger to the streets. More than one Trump-Pence flag was seen amid the crowd, along with a red MAGA cap or two. The disparate group of unionists, anti-vaxxers, anarchists, right wingers (including Proud Boys and neo-Nazis) and general troublemakers shut down parts of a city already crippled by COVID-19”.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2021/09/25/zoe-daniel-melbourne-protests/
    David Penberthy tells us that a former South Australian health minister who has relaunched the Christian party Family First is planning a major campaign against compulsory Covid vaccinations and vaccine passports, saying it is the No. 1 issue of concern for ­people of faith. What a dangerous pinhead!
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/vaccination-rules-top-issue-for-people-of-faith/news-story/6f7d24f7afd8eb760b75f78c83d53d05
    “Not fit for purpose: it may not be the most encouraging way to describe Australia’s taxation system but it’s certainly the most accurate”, writes Peter van Onselen who says we shouldn’t be holding our breath waiting for meaningful tax reform.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/dont-hold-your-breath-waiting-for-tax-reform/news-story/43f4248978369b7d42c5261676b7c861
    Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham has signalled his opposition to offering the National party “handouts” to clinch a deal on climate policy, as the Morrison government wrestles with internal divisions in the lead-up to a crucial UN summit, report Daniel Hurst and Katherine Murphy.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/24/morrison-government-will-avoid-handouts-to-nationals-to-clinch-climate-deal-birmingham-suggests
    The SMAge tells us that IMF Australia mission chief Harald Finger says, given Australia is not using a carbon price to drive down greenhouse gases, it should toughen the rules around industrial emissions.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/imf-urges-australia-to-tighten-controls-on-industrial-polluters-20210924-p58ujp.html
    China’s pledge to kick the coal habit comes at a critical moment for the planet, says Sam Geall.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/24/china-pledge-coal-beijing-climate-crisis
    Australia’s failure to regulate flood plain harvesting was “a real embarrassment”, but the practice was unlikely to be illegal, the former chair of South Australia’s royal commission into the Murray-Darling basin plan has told a New South Wales parliamentary committee. What a bloody mess!
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/24/failure-to-regulate-flood-plain-harvesting-a-real-embarrassment-bret-walker-tells-nsw-inquiry
    Runaway residential property prices could threaten the stability of Australia’s financial system and need to be reined in, the International Monetary Fund says. That warning, delivered in the IMF’s first financial health check of the economy since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, follows rising local concerns about the threat that high household debt and surging house prices pose.
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/imf-pushes-for-lending-curbs-to-cool-aussie-housing-market/news-story/77f22c843c9168e87b663ad9bb6d544d
    The former chairman of Australia’s competition regulator Graeme Samuel says the nation’s cosy director networks can prevent new faces from being appointed to the country’s boards.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/boards-are-looking-for-a-name-ex-accc-chair-says-cosy-networks-limit-diversity-20210923-p58u9h.html
    Rupert Murdoch may have turned 90 this year but his news empire continues to grow. A week after announcing a new UK TV channel, TalkTV, and a Sky News program starring Piers Morgan, his Australian empire will next month unveil a dedicated news streaming service called Flash, writes Amanda Meade in her weekly media roundup.
    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/24/flash-in-the-pan-or-money-spinner-murdoch-pins-hopes-on-news-streaming-service
    Peter Dutton will seek aggravated damages in his defamation claim against refugee activist Shane Bazzi following recent tweets suggesting the “wealthy and powerful cabinet minister” should focus on his defence portfolio, not the defamation case.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/24/peter-dutton-to-seek-aggravated-damages-in-defamation-claim-against-shane-bazzi
    In this essay on CBDs, Elizabeth Farrelly says that COVID forces us to question both the overwhelming centralism of Australian cities, and their ongoing dominance by business. But cracks were appearing well before that.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/seismic-and-exciting-sydney-s-covid-given-chance-to-dump-the-cbd-20210923-p58u3p.html
    Lisa Visentin reports that the offices of Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian are considering how to manage defamation risks on their social media pages, as Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said he would turn off comments on some posts on his Facebook page due to a High Court ruling.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/andrews-and-berejiklian-weigh-defamation-risks-of-allowing-facebook-comments-20210924-p58uiq.html
    Ministers are poised to agree an extraordinary post-Brexit U-turn that would allow foreign lorry drivers back into the UK to stave off shortages threatening fuel and food supplies. Boris Johnson ordered a rapid fix on Friday to prevent the crisis escalating. Ministers met in an attempt to agree a short-term visa scheme permitting potentially thousands more lorry drivers from abroad to come to the UK.
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/24/supply-chain-crisis-tories-poised-turn-foreign-worker-visas
    The Catholic church tried to stop a survivor suing it over the childhood abuse she suffered at the hands of a parish priest in northern New South Wales, despite its own records showing it knew the man was a paedophile but did nothing other than move him from parish to parish. But the NSW supreme court rejected the Catholic church’s request for a permanent stay of proceedings brought by a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted in 1968, when she was 14, by Father Clarence Anderson, a priest with the Lismore diocese.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/25/bid-by-catholic-church-to-stop-child-sexual-abuse-case-rejected-by-nsw-supreme-court
    Meanwhile, Mike Seccombe reports that Cardinal George Pell has spent the past several months in Sydney, as the Catholic Church prepares for its first reform conference in more than 80 years.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/09/25/exclusive-george-pell-returned-australia-ahead-church-reforms
    Yesterday China’s most powerful regulators intensified the country’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies with a blanket ban on all crypto transactions and mining, hitting bitcoin and other major coins and pressuring crypto and blockchain-related stocks.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/bitcoin-dives-as-china-says-all-crypto-related-transactions-are-illegal-20210924-p58unh.html
    Today’s “Arsehole of the Week” nomination goes to this white supremacist jailed for possessing child-abuse material and an arsenal of weapons in 2017 and who is set to spend another two years behind bars after officers found disturbing hand-drawn pornographic imagery in his cell.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hand-drawn-child-abuse-images-land-jailed-neo-nazi-additional-two-years-20210924-p58ul8.html

    Cartoon Corner

    David Pope

    Alan Moir

    David Rowe

    John Shakespeare


    Mark David


    Jon Kudelka

    Mark Knight

    Simon Letch

    Jim Pavlidis

    Leak

    From the US












  21. The Arizona election “audit” ends, with disastrous results for the Cyber Ninjas – and Donald Trump – Bill Palmer

    When Arizona’s Republican legislature hired a clown troupe called the Cyber Ninjas to “audit” the results of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County, it was obvious from the start that 1) This was being done simply to soothe Trump’s hurt feelings, and 2) it would end up having absolutely no impact of any kind on anything.

    Now the phony audit is over, with the Cyber Ninjas’ own report revealing that President Biden actually won Maricopa County by a slightly larger margin than originally tallied, according to AZ Central.

    This audit charade was a strategic failure from the start on the part of the Republicans. In fact they weren’t even trying to win, because there was nothing to win; they were just trying to curry favor with Trump and his damaged ego.

    In the end, the only real “damage” the Republicans did was to themselves – and Trump, who merely looks like even more of a loser.

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/09/23/arizona-audit-draft-report-confirms-biden-beat-trump-2020/5835521001/

    https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/the-arizona-election-audit-ends-with-disastrous-results-for-the-cyber-ninjas-and-donald-trump/41651/

  23. Well you put alot in and you worked real hard
    there were days when you tried, there were days when you starred
    trying to please the crowd, when their unforgiving
    there are easier ways to make a living
    well you’ve come along way since the start of things
    when you’ve seen the joy, that hard work brings
    you’ve made us cry, you’ve made us smile
    you’ve hit the front, now its all worth while.

  24. BK, that Leak cartoon is dystopian.

    The reality is that Qld is open, the NRL had a full stadium in Brisbane last night, and again today. The rugby will fill Townsville stadium tonight, whilst the Australia v India ladies cricket series continues with (some) spectators in Mackay.

    And when international borders open, with rules for vaxxed travellers and incoming/returning people having options at home, or in the 2 being built quarantine centres – Qld will be a full participant.

    WA the same. And those ever so quiet SA and Tassie Liberal states will be enjoying the same privileges.

    Will the borders open up to the plague states? Will the non-plague states take Morrison’s advice to ‘get your hospitals ready..’? Will Leak’s cartoons and the Murdoch pearl clutching shame the non-plague states to unleash the virus into their population?

  25. President Joe Biden will not invoke executive privilege to prevent Donald Trump’s phone records from being shared with the committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.

    “The President has already concluded that it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege and so we will respond promptly to these questions as they arise,” Ms Psaki told a press briefing.

    “We have been working closely with congressional committees and others as they work to get to the bottom of what happened on January 6, an incredibly dark day in our democracy.”

  27. At least there will be some people who will actually be laughing at a Leak cartoon today, everyone in Qld. At him, not with him but by golly it’s a start.

  28. The Editorial in The Saturdaypaper is insightful..

    ‘When conspiracy theorists stormed the US Capitol, Murdoch commentators feigned surprise. James Murdoch said the damage wrought by misinformation was profound. The criticism was clearly aimed at his own family. “Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years.”

    On Monday, before the riots, the Herald Sun’s front page carried a photograph of Daniel Andrews and a single-word headline: “Hopeless.” By Wednesday there was a picture of the West Gate Bridge overrun by protesters. An inset photograph showed a woman in her car, crying. “Innocent people trapped, terrified as lawless hi-vis mob takes over city.”

    It is a coincidence, of course. Just like the Capitol riot. Just like Morrison’s decision to meet News Corp’s chief executive as soon as he arrived in America, before even seeing the president.

    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/editorial/2021/09/25/rupert-bare/163249200012552

  29. Absolutely predictable:

    Flash in the pan or money-spinner? Murdoch pins hopes on news streaming service
    Amanda Meade
    Amanda Meade
    Foxtel cannibalisation continues with News Corp adding news service Flash to streaming apps Binge and Kayo. Plus: newshounds or booze hounds?

    Rupert Murdoch
    Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has been expanding its empire with a new streaming service, Flash, but he was unavailable to meet with Scott Morrison when the PM visited New York. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP
    Fri 24 Sep 2021 13.27 AEST

    168
    Rupert Murdoch may have turned 90 this year but his news empire continues to grow. A week after announcing a new UK TV channel, TalkTV, and a Sky News program starring Piers Morgan, his Australian empire will next month unveil a dedicated news streaming service called Flash.

    Flash – which had the working name of NewsFlash – will be offered alongside Binge and Kayo as a one-stop shop for news junkies wanting access to 20 news channels for an expected price tag of $10 or under.

    With its linear Foxtel service already owning the rights to global and local news channels CNN, Sky News, Fox News, BBC World News, CNBC and Bloomberg, Flash has a number of brands on board but needs to get more news services signed up to be an attractive offering. The ABC has yet to be convinced it is worthwhile.

    Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

    Whether there is a local market for a paid news service when the ABC news channel already provides a free one, and catch-up news is available 24/7 from channels Nine, Seven and 10, remains to be seen. Some industry observers are highly doubtful it will fly the way the entertainment and sports services have.

    Sources say viewers will be able to choose between watching a live stream or a highlights package and, like other streaming services, an algorithm will learn your news preferences.

    The Foxtel boss, Patrick Delany, says Flash will offer “a new way to stay informed about politics, business and local and international events”.

    The streaming business is certainly booming but is there space for a third product? While Foxtel has struggled to remain profitable with its high-cost cable service, Binge and Kayo have driven subscriber growth and paid streaming subscribers have increased by 155% to more than 2 million last financial year.

    Never wrong for long
    Meanwhile, the West Australian had an international scoop about Murdoch this week when it published a juicy headline: “Morrison meets with Rupert Murdoch in New York”.

    The headline for the West story said “Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has met with media mogul Rupert Murdoch in a private dinner in New York.”

    The meeting between Scott Morrison and Rupert Murdoch never happened.
    The internet never forgets: the West Australian reported on a meeting between Scott Morrison and Rupert Murdoch that did not happen. Photograph: The West Australian
    The only problem was it wasn’t true. Morrison met with the News Corp chief executive, Robert Thomson, because Murdoch wasn’t available.

    The story was quickly corrected, but the headline remained on social media posts and cached on Google.

    Readers who clicked through to read the whole story from social media posts were told it was Thomson who hosted Morrison, but those who saw only the headline on social media got a completely different impression.

    Facebook cold shoulder
    Facebook has confirmed it won’t be making a commercial deal with SBS or the Conversation under the news media bargaining code, months after News Corp, Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media, as well as smaller publishers including Guardian Australia and Australian Community Media signed deals.

    While they won’t spell it out, the social media platform says neither outlet has the right kind of content, reach or engagement to make it viable.

    Three lifestyle websites – Broadsheet Media, the Urban List and Concrete Playground – have already been refused a deal on the basis they were not newsy enough.

    The head of Facebook’s news partnerships for Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Hunter, said there are types of news content that can best deliver value for publishers and for Facebook.

    How the Australian and the IPA’s attack on the ABC went horribly wrong
    Amanda Meade
    Amanda Meade
    Read more
    “Our commercial deals are based on a range of factors, including the type of content developed, and reach and engagement,” Hunter said. “We’re continuing to engage with publishers to support them with how they can benefit from free referral traffic, monetisation products, and other initiatives and investments.”

    Peter Lewis, the director of the Centre for Responsible Technology, has called on the government to intervene on behalf of the smaller publishers.

    “Facebook’s decision flies in the face of the news media bargaining code’s core proposition, that Facebook was an advertising monopoly that should be required to compensate public interest journalism for the content,” Lewis said.

    “Refusing to recognise the value of academic journalism and multicultural broadcasting says a lot about Facebook’s commitment to fact-based public interest journalism.”

    Labor’s communications spokeswoman, Michelle Rowland, also questioned why Facebook won’t do a deal with “one of Australia’s most trusted news platforms, particularly for ethnically diverse communities”.

    Booze flash
    We can all agree that a high court decision, a leadership spill or an earthquake constitute genuine breaking news and as such probably deserve a breaking news alert from the news app on your mobile phone.

    There is nothing like a news alert to get one’s attention.

    But the Australian has given the news alert a commercial makeover of late and readers of the Oz have snapped to attention only to be told about the latest deal from the Australian’s Wine Club.

    The Australian told its readers in a recent news alert that they were “blessed to be able to offer a divine deal on divine Clare Valley wines”.

    It is no coincidence that a former editor of the Australian John Lehmann is now the paper’s commercial director and managing editor, as well as a wine columnist. Lehmann quit journalism some years ago to become a wine maker before returning to Holt Street as a reporter, but he has retained his passion for wine.

    Behind the Wine Club push is, of course, the drop in revenue from News Corp’s news media division, which includes the Australian newspapers, in last month’s global financial results for the year to the end of June.

    Last month revenue plunged by 21%, from about US$2.8bn to about US$2.2bn, according to figures released by Thomson.

    Australian newspaper ad revenue fell by $90m because News closed a string of regional and suburban papers, and due to “continued weakness in the print advertising market, exacerbated by Covid-19”, the company said.

    Strewth blunder
    The Australian’s Strewth editor, Alice Workman, has apologised for a story published in Wednesday’s paper about Kristina Keneally’s plans to move to a new home in the safe south-west Sydney seat of Fowler.

    “Keneally and hubbie Ben are mulling over their migration options, now that the couple’s three children have moved out of their northern beaches home,” Workman wrote.

    But Kristina and Ben Keneally’s second child Caroline was stillborn in 1999, and Labor’s deputy Senate leader has spoken publicly about her personal loss and the issue of stillbirth in general.

    She even established a Senate select committee on stillbirth research and education, and wrote about her loss as recently as last November.

    Ben & I were stunned by that Strewth column this week.

    It did cause hurt.

    It cut through us like a knife.

    We ask the @australian to provide support (a donation or in-kind advertising) to @StillbirthAUS

    Perhaps something good could come of this wretched situation. https://t.co/qfCxkt9SnQ

    — Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) September 23, 2021
    Under Correction Corner, Workman wrote: “In an item about Kristina Keneally’s move to southwest Sydney on Wednesday, Strewth incorrectly stated three of the Labor senator’s children had moved out of home. While this is the case for her two sons, her daughter Caroline was stillborn. We apologise sincerely for any hurt this may have caused.”

    But the article contained more than the hurtful reference to the Keneally children. It contained information about the location of her home which the Senator asked the Australian to remove because it could pose a threat to her safety. The Asio director general, Mike Burgess, has publicly stated in hearings that Keneally is a target for some rightwing extremist groups. The entire piece has now been removed.

    SMH apology
    On Friday, the Sydney Morning Herald did some grovelling, apologising to Prof Raina MacIntyre, head of the biosecurity program at the University of NSW’s Kirby Institute, for an article published on 24 July.

    We won’t go into the detail of her complaint, but suffice to say the Herald said it sincerely regretted any suggestion MacIntyre had “acted dishonestly in expressing her comment about the AstraZeneca vaccine”. “It apologises for any hurt and damage to her esteemed academic and professional reputation this has caused,” the apology said.

    Same old tune
    Just weeks after it was reported News Corp Australia would end “its longstanding editorial hostility towards carbon-reduction policies”, the Australian has accepted a half-page paid advertisement from climate denialists headlined “The Great Climate Furphy”.

    On page 9, the Climate Study Group, an unincorporated group of seven Australian conservative men that was formed in 2009, called on the government to cease subsidising renewables and not impede new efficient coal power stations.

    As well as placing ads in the Oz, the group has issued reports and submissions to the Australian government rejecting the science of human-caused climate change.

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/24/flash-in-the-pan-or-money-spinner-murdoch-pins-hopes-on-news-streaming-service

    The Murdoch empire’s death bed conversion away from Climate Change Denial and support for Fossil Fuels is a sham.

  30. OMG! Sorry about that! With no Edit function if you have C+, it’s there for good.

    This is what I meant to only highlight:

    Same old tune
    Just weeks after it was reported News Corp Australia would end “its longstanding editorial hostility towards carbon-reduction policies”, the Australian has accepted a half-page paid advertisement from climate denialists headlined “The Great Climate Furphy”.

    On page 9, the Climate Study Group, an unincorporated group of seven Australian conservative men that was formed in 2009, called on the government to cease subsidising renewables and not impede new efficient coal power stations.

    As well as placing ads in the Oz, the group has issued reports and submissions to the Australian government rejecting the science of human-caused climate change.

  31. Singapore on Friday moved to tighten Covid-19 measures as daily infections soared to record levels, with diners once again limited to groups of two – instead of up to five – and companies directed to make working from home the default setting.

    The restrictions kick in on Monday and will last for a month, until October 24. Their resumption comes after authorities in the city state on August 10 allowed residents to eat in at restaurants, following the lifting of a previous round of restrictions.

    The government had upped workplace capacity to 50 per cent of employees on August 19 as part of a slew of measures linked to a so-called living with Covid blueprint that was being operationalised following a successful vaccine roll-out.

    Singapore has one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, with 82 per cent of its population fully inoculated.

  32. French Trade Minister Franck Riester has declined an offer from his Australian counterpart to meet next month in Paris.

    Dan Tehan told ABC radio on Monday he would be “very keen” to meet Riester when he is in Paris for a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

    “We won’t follow up the Australian minister’s request for a meeting. We can’t go on as if it was business as usual,” a French official said.

    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2021/09/24/france-rejects-tehan-meeting/

  35. Key People

    According to an April 2015 submission to government, the Climate Study Group’s members are: [5]

    Tom Quirk — Former IPA director, director of Australian Environment Foundation
    Bob Officer — Former IPA director
    Mark Reyner — A former mining company director in the aluminium industry and former chairman of National Australia Bank
    Richard Morgan (convenor) — Career in agricultural fertilizers
    Graham Sellars-Jones — Former stockbroker
    John Chambers
    Andrew Miller

  36. ‘Thank you, BK

    China’s pledge to kick the coal habit comes at a critical moment for the planet, says Sam Geall.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/24/china-pledge-coal-beijing-climate-crisis‘
    ___________________________________
    China was exporting the construction of coal-fired power stations using the well-worn ‘foreign aid’ loan/debt trap technique.
    Their state victims are now refusing to accept this ‘largesse’.
    China’s pledge is hollow.
    It emits 53% of the worlds coal-fired CO2 emissions. Increasing.
    It emits around a third of the world’s CO2 emissions. Increasing until at least 2030.
    A pledge from Xi Jingping is worth a fart outside on a windy day.

  38. What is it with the French?

    Murdoch’s SmearStralian is trumpeting Morrison’s triumph in international diplomacy and canny tactics… for example, Pompous Paul Kelly leads with this

    ‘Morrison claims seat at top table of diplomacy
    Australia is now at the centre of the West’s response to China’s challenge.’

  39. Sceptic @ #NaN Saturday, September 25th, 2021 – 8:34 am

    Key People

    According to an April 2015 submission to government, the Climate Study Group’s members are: [5]

    Tom Quirk — Former IPA director, director of Australian Environment Foundation
    Bob Officer — Former IPA director
    Mark Reyner — A former mining company director in the aluminium industry and former chairman of National Australia Bank
    Richard Morgan (convenor) — Career in agricultural fertilizers
    Graham Sellars-Jones — Former stockbroker
    John Chambers
    Andrew Miller

    And how do you make fertilisers? In an energy-intensive way.

  40. news.com.au
    @newscomauHQ
    · 14h
    Waleed Aly says there was a subtle difference to how Melbourne handled the vaccine mandate, compared to NSW, and it caused the “cycle of rage and contempt”. https://news.com.au/national/victoria/news/the-projects-waleed-aly-explains-true-cause-of-melbourne-tradie-rally/news-story/61addfb160713cae81d8a1fba43170c3

    Waleed Ali defending his conservative media mates? A “subtle difference”? Doesn’t he ever see the Herald-Sun?

  41. Victoriasays: Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 8:30 am

    Grand final day and highest positive cases ever.
    847 for Victoria.
    Sigh……

    ********************************************************

    Victoria has recorded 847 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and one further death, amid warnings to stay home this grand final day.

    The new infections were found from 57,342 test results processed on Friday. It is the highest single-day tally of the outbreak to date.

    It brings the total number of active infections in the state to 7,611, the vast majority of those acquired in the community.

    Parts of the state remain in lockdown and a strict, daily 9:00pm–5:00am curfew is still in place in Melbourne, so it will come into effect midway through tonight’s AFL grand final.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-25/victoria-records-new-local-covid-cases-vaccine-progress/100491112

  43. @DocAvvers
    ·
    10m
    Oh, come ON, @theage! Why must you say “churches” when you mean “the Catholic Archbishop”.
    And @FarrahTomazin, how could you write this article without talking to the Anglican Archbishop and the Moderator of the Uniting Church? This is such poor journalism!

  44. Victoria

    If there is going to be a weakening of the track-and-trace system, how will they find the source of spread, and how can we know which areas to avoid?

  45. This slipped below the radar but it is significant event. A meeting at this level wouldn’t be for a chat about the weather.

    HELSINKI, Finland (AP)
    The meeting in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, between Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov
    ………..Both sides agreed not to disclose details of the talks, as has been the practice in previous meetings and calls. Afterward, Milley said: “It was a productive meeting. When military leaders of great powers communicate, the world is a safer place.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-top-military-officer-meets-with-russian-counterpart/2021/09/22/7567528e-1b7f-11ec-bea8-308ea134594f_story.html

  47. @SusanSmithAus
    ·
    33m
    Morrison says “when it comes to climate”, he wants nations at Quad talks to “produce a roadmap over the next 12 months”

    In other words, no commitment until after the next federal election

  48. Lizzie

    Checking exposure sites on the Dhhs website.
    They are always updating it.

    When NSW went with the living with covid and getting as many people vaccinated, Victoria followed suit. They had no choice. Too many incursions were happening and were going to continue to happen.

    Especially when a mental switch such as that, is front and centre from the biggest state.

    We were then told to get vaccinated as if your life depended on it, and to expect cases to rise in the 1000s.

    Here we are.

  50. Barney in Tanjung Bunga at 8:56 am
    Perhaps he is a farewell middle finger from Coal Fitzgibbons as he heads out the door to an awaiting sinecure somewhere ?

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