Laying down the law

The latest on voter identification law and other electoral legislation, plus reams of federal preselection news.

This week should see the fortnightly federal voting intention poll from Roy Morgan, the regular fortnightly Essential Research poll which is scheduled to feature neither voting intention numbers nor leadership ratings, and possibly the more-or-less monthly Resolve Strategic poll from the Age/Herald. Until then:

• Tom McIlroy of the Financial Review reports the Centre Alliance will push for an inquiry into the government’s voter identification bill when it comes before the Senate, to which it will presumably progress swiftly after coming before the House of Representatives today. Three further electoral bills come before the House on Tuesday: to reduce the thresholds beyond which those who spend money on their own election campaigning are required to lodge annual disclosures; to provide for measures deemed desirable under emergency conditions such as pandemics, including greater flexibility with postal and pre-poll voting; and to require security assessments and such like for the computer systems and software used to conduct the Senate count. Two notable bits of detail include bringing forward the deadline for receipt of postal vote applications from the Wednesday before the election to the Tuesday, and requiring the Australian Electoral Commission to publish the Senate vote data files within seven days of the return of the writs, having presumably been allowed to play it by ear in the past.

• A preselection vote on Saturday to determine the successor to Victorian Liberal Senator Scott Ryan, both in respect to the vacancy arising from his imminent retirement and the third position on the Coalition ticket at the election, was won by Greg Mirabella, Wangaratta farmer and husband of Sophie Mirabella. James Campbell of the Herald Sun reports Mirabella won the final round by 165 votes to 141 over Simon Frost, staffer to Josh Frydenberg and former state party director. Incumbent Sarah Henderson comfortably won the ballot for the top position, with the second reserved for Bridget Mackenzie of the Nationals. Other unsuccessful candidates were Emanuele Cicchiello, former Knox mayor and deputy principal at Lighthouse Christian College, and Ranjana Srivastava, an oncologist who also contested the preselection for Casey.

• A dispute within the New South Wales Liberal Party affecting preselections for Warringah, Hughes, Gilmore, Eden-Monaro, Dobell and Parramatta reached a new pitch at a meeting of its state executive on Friday night, which resolved to close nominations on December 3 with plebiscites likely to follow in February. However, James Massola of the Sydney Morning Herald reports the issue could be settled next week by a deal between Scott Morrison and Dominic Perrottet, potentially through the federal executive choosing candidates with plebiscites. Broadly speaking, the dispute pits centre right powerbroker Alex Hawke against the combined forces of the moderates and the hard right, with the former wanting candidates to be promptly installed by the state council and the latter wanting party plebiscites at the cost of delaying the process until February. One aspect of this is that Scott Morrison, who is close to Hawke, is backing state MPs (specifically Holsworthy MP Melanie Gibbons run in Hughes and Parramatta MP Geoff Lee’s for the federal seat of the same name) for preselection in federal seats while Dominic Perrottet, from the hard right, would sooner avoid the resulting state by-elections.

• Dominic Perrottet’s concerns apparently do not extend to the done deal of Bega MP Andrew Constance contesting preselection for Gilmore. However, Constance’s field of competition has now expanded to include Jemma Tribe, a charity operator and former Shoalhaven councillor, and Stephen Hayes, a former RAAF officer and staffer to Christopher Pyne. They join Shoalhaven Heads lawyer Paul Ell, who by all accounts has strong support in local branches, while Constance is favoured by Alex Hawke and the centre right.

• Sharon Bird, who has held the Illawarra seat of Cunningham for Labor since 2004, has announced she will retire at the election. With the seat seemingly the preserve of the Right faction, candidates to succeed her reportedly include Misha Zelinsky, Fulbright scholar and assistant national secretary of the Right faction Australian Workers Union, who aborted a planned challenge to Bird’s preselection before the 2016 election; Alison Byrnes, an adviser to Bird; and Tania Brown, Wollongong councillor and an administrator at the University of Wollongong.

• Labor’s candidate for north coast New South Wales seat of Page, which was held by Labor through the Rudd-Gillard period but now has a Nationals margin of 9.4%, is Patrick Deegan, who works for a domestic violence support service and also ran in 2019.

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.

1,089 comments on “Laying down the law”

Comments Page 3 of 22
1 2 3 4 … 22

  1. Take the orange pill.

    The Emory researchers named their drug molnupiravir, after Mjölnir—the hammer of Thor. It turns out that this was not hyperbole. Last month, Merck and Ridgeback announced that molnupiravir could reduce by half the chances that a person infected by the coronavirus would need to be hospitalized. The drug was so overwhelmingly effective that an independent committee asked the researchers to stop their Phase III trial early—it would have been unethical to continue giving participants placebos. None of the nearly four hundred patients who received molnupiravir in the trial went on to die, and the drug had no major side effects. On November 4th, the U.K. became the first country to approve molnupiravir; many observers expect that an emergency-use authorization will come from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December.

    and then there’s the Pfizer team, doing a combo:

    …. Pfizer announced that its antiviral, Paxlovid, was also staggeringly effective at preventing the progression of covid-19 in high-risk patients. The drug, when taken within three days of the onset of symptoms, reduced the risk of hospitalization by nearly ninety per cent. Only three of the nearly four hundred people who took Paxlovid were hospitalized, and no one died; in the placebo group, there were twenty-seven hospitalizations and seven deaths. Paxlovid is administered along with another antiviral medication called ritonavir, which slows the rate at which the former drug is broken down by the body.

    https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/how-will-the-covid-pills-change-the-pandemic?

    (As I said already, the Pfizer is the sort of thing I’d like to be talking just before getting on the A380)

  2. #Breaking Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP has rejected a Senate bid to give Parliament more say over emergency pandemic decisions such as the closure of the international border, even as he tells voters he wants the government to get out of their lives | @CroweDM #auspol

  3. Jihad Dib

    The Government hated it when we pointed to a Tale of Two Cities. They accused us of being political – evidence we were speaking the truth! When the health advice said one thing, the Government did the other. We were right to feel targeted. #nswpol – https://t.co/oFdLAGM3Ci

  4. Victoria says:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 11:46 am

    FIVE Coalition senators crossed the floor to back One Nation’s vaccine mandate bill: Rennick, Canavan, Alex Antic, Sam McMahon and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
    _______________
    There isn’t enough brain activity in that group to power a light bulb.

  5. It feels like the 1990 election where the government was smashed in Victoria but held up elsewhere but unlike then this government has no margin to lose anything.

  6. “I think the unusual aspect of this election is Palmer, Hanson, the nationals and now the Liberals are fighting like cats and dogs over the far right vote.”

    ***

    Indeed. Don’t forget about Clive and the UAP or the Lib Dems either. There’s quite a few far right parties fighting over the same voters.

    The other unusual aspect that ties into the above is the pandemic and how it may have changed some people’s vote, especially in electorates on state borders. I’m thinking particularly ones which have the major highways travelling through them or which have large border communities, such as my electorate of Richmond which contains the Pacific Highway border crossing from NSW into QLD. Currumbin on the Gold Coast will be one to watch too, as will all the ones along the Vic/NSW border.

  8. ”
    Rikalisays:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 10:31 am
    You can’t say the UK Tories don’t have a sense of humour.

    ”

    My relative who lives in UK told me that Priti Patel is like the Protestors of Melbourne. She is anti everything aka cobtrarian.

  9. Alpha Zero says:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 10:55 am

    The following additional Victorian seats can be and should be in play.
    Casey: Losing the speaker and a factional infight for candidacy.
    Deakin: Sukkar is odious and hasn’t delivered his planned car parks.
    Aston: Tudge – the cleanskin family values man who naturally isn’t.
    La Trobe: Jason Wood’s career highlight is still his speech on GMOs. Has lost his seat previously and can lose it once more.
    —————————————
    Aston is rock solid Liberal and its mostly made up by the state seat of Rowville formally Scoresby which stayed with the Liberals in the 2002 2006 and 2018 state elections landslide defeats.

    Casey is more likely than Aston but it is a socially conservative electorate.

  12. One Nation’s vaccine mandate bill has just been rejected by the Senate, despite five government senators crossing the floor.

    Liberals Alex Antic, Gerard Rennick and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, National Matt Canavan, and Country Liberal Sam McMahon voted for the One Nation bill, while the rest of the government, Labor, Greens and crossbench voted against.

    In one final twist – Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts were unable to vote for their own bill, because they are still in Queensland, attending parliament remotely.

  14. Holdenhillbilly @ Monday, November 22, 2021 at 12:07 pm

    As One Nation cannot even vote for their own bill, it was purely a stunt. A poor one at that.

    How will the current Senate situation that play out for the voter ID legislation, I wonder?

  15. Briefly,

    It was simple proposition:
    If you were put into a position where you had to make a forced choice between Liberals and Greens as the destination of your vote, who would you choose to preference?

    Anyone who votes for a party that doesn’t finish in TTP contention is forced to make a choice between the lesser of two evils. I’m curious to know which you’d choose.

    I’m gathering from your bloviation that you would prefer to elect a Liberal rather than countenance a vote for the The Greens.

  16. Coalition accused of breaking promise on federal integrity commission

    The Morrison government has been accused of abandoning an election commitment to legislate a national integrity commission, as time runs out in this term.

    On Friday the independent MP Helen Haines told Guardian Australia the government was backing away from the commitment “in the dying days of this term of parliament.”

    She said it was now a “near impossibility” to introduce and pass it before the 2022 election, which is due by mid-May.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/20/coalition-accused-of-breaking-promise-on-federal-integrity-commission

    Gee, what a surprise! The Greens also have a bill for a Federal ICAC before the Parliament too but the Coalition won’t support that one either.

  17. This guy is a real treat:

    An Australian senator has revealed his love of Magnums, and his hope that the ice cream won’t be “cancelled” over its name.

    Alex Antic, of the country’s Liberal party, aired his unexpected concerns on Facebook, posting a photo of himself nursing one of the chocolate-covered frozen treats.

    Alongside the snap, he wrote: “Taking a moment in between estimate sessions to eat a MAGNUM before the radical left try to cancel it for glorifying gun violence.

    ?width=990&auto=webp&quality=75

  19. Sceptic

    “The NSW government imposed harsh lockdown restrictions on the poorest areas of Sydney’s west and south-west despite Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant advising that the rules should be implemented consistently across Greater Sydney.”

    It was blatantly obvious at the time that Kerry was being ignored.

  22. • Sharon Bird, who has held the Illawarra seat of Cunningham for Labor since 2004, has announced she will retire at the election. With the seat seemingly the preserve of the Right faction, candidates to succeed her reportedly include Misha Zelinsky, Fulbright scholar and assistant national secretary of the Right faction Australian Workers Union, who aborted a planned challenge to Bird’s preselection before the 2016 election; Alison Byrnes, an adviser to Bird; and Tania Brown, Wollongong councillor and an administrator at the University of Wollongong.

    Well, surely we don’t want another fossil fuel cartel puppet from the AWU …?

  23. Good to see nath supporting his Lunar Right mates:

    Alongside the snap, he wrote: “Taking a moment in between estimate sessions to eat a MAGNUM before the radical left try to cancel it for glorifying gun violence.

    And where, exactly, has anyone from Labor said they want to change the name of Magnum ice creams?

    Especially when Magnums get their name from the synonym for extra large. 😐

  26. bakunin says:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 12:11 pm
    Briefly,

    It was simple proposition:
    If you were put into a position where you had to make a forced choice between Liberals and Greens as the destination of your vote, who would you choose to preference?

    Anyone who votes for a party that doesn’t finish in TTP contention is forced to make a choice between the lesser of two evils. I’m curious to know you’d choose.

    I’m gathering from your bloviation that you would prefer to elect a Liberal rather than countenance a vote for the The Greens.

    The Greens are the splitters of the current era. The groupers. The NCC. Would I have put the Liberals ahead of the DLP? Damn right. The Greens pose as progressives. But they campaign against the authentic voice of working people 24/7. They cannot both oppose Labor and remain progressive or reformist at the same time.

    When the Greens start to campaign for Labor not against them I will change my mind about them. Bob Brown wanted to eradicate Labor. I think reciprocation is in order.

  27. Cud Chewer @ #119 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:14 pm

    Sceptic

    “The NSW government imposed harsh lockdown restrictions on the poorest areas of Sydney’s west and south-west despite Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant advising that the rules should be implemented consistently across Greater Sydney.”

    It was blatantly obvious at the time that Kerry was being ignored.

    I don’t think it was blatantly obvious, but it’s good to have it made clear that Gladys put politics before health.

    Perhaps Plibersek may now retract her gushing praise of Gladys when she resigned …?

  28. I admit I’m a language/pronunciation snob, and Morrison can’t do anything to make me dislike him more, but I suppose no one has the courage to correct his pronunciation of NUCULAR.

  29. Griff @ #113 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:07 pm

    It shall be interesting whether this issue will affect Federal voting in the NSW marginals: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/kerry-chant-urged-consistent-lockdown-restrictions-across-all-of-sydney-emails-reveal-20211121-p59aq4.html

    Just FYI, the Liberal LGA candidate in my local ward (in the affected LGAs) is using corflutes with a sticker over the word Liberal. I wonder why 🙂

    Some of the candidates for the Council elections have completely disassociated themselves from the Liberal Party, and the Liberal Party from them. They think no one will notice. Going back to what they used to do before they started to proudly declare themselves.

  30. Unfortunately the covid anti-virals haven’t been (so far as I’m aware) trialled as a prophylaxis. So popping one before you go on that holiday to a covid-infested 3rd world country (like the UK or the US) probably won’t be an option for a while.

  31. Rex Douglas @ #127 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:19 pm

    Cud Chewer @ #119 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:14 pm

    Sceptic

    “The NSW government imposed harsh lockdown restrictions on the poorest areas of Sydney’s west and south-west despite Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant advising that the rules should be implemented consistently across Greater Sydney.”

    It was blatantly obvious at the time that Kerry was being ignored.

    I don’t think it was blatantly obvious, but it’s good to have it made clear that Gladys put politics before health.

    Perhaps Plibersek may now retract her gushing praise of Gladys when she resigned …?

    Why should she bother wasting one more second on the woman? Let the facts speak for themselves.

  32. I’d love to ask the protestors who converged on all the capital cities this weekend, what they have done to help their fellow Australian during the pandemic.

    It would be interesting to see what their responses are.
    Although, I think I have a fair idea.

  33. ”
    Victoriasays:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 11:50 am
    Jihad Dib

    The Government hated it when we pointed to a Tale of Two Cities. They accused us of being political – evidence we were speaking the truth! When the health advice said one thing, the Government did the other. We were right to feel targeted. #nswpol – https://t.co/oFdLAGM3Ci
    ”

    I was one of the first along with sprocket? to raise the issue on PB day in and day out.

  34. Cud Chewer @ #119 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:14 pm

    Sceptic

    “The NSW government imposed harsh lockdown restrictions on the poorest areas of Sydney’s west and south-west despite Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant advising that the rules should be implemented consistently across Greater Sydney.”

    It was blatantly obvious at the time that Kerry was being ignored.

    Am I wrong in remembering that there were times when you co-opted her into your anger?

  35. Cud Chewer @ #118 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 9:14 am

    Sceptic

    “The NSW government imposed harsh lockdown restrictions on the poorest areas of Sydney’s west and south-west despite Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant advising that the rules should be implemented consistently across Greater Sydney.”

    It was blatantly obvious at the time that Kerry was being ignored.

    So, why were you so critical of her?

  36. ItzaDream @ #125 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:18 pm

    C@tmomma @ #118 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:14 pm

    Victoria @ #100 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 11:46 am

    FIVE Coalition senators crossed the floor to back One Nation’s vaccine mandate bill: Rennick, Canavan, Alex Antic, Sam McMahon and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells

    Maybe they should have the courage of their convictions and run for PHON?
    😈

    Good to see them flushed out though, if not away, sadly.

    That’s why I suggested they should run for PHON. 😉

  37. Rex

    It was clear in Kerry’s body language. And it wasn’t just the whole “bad LGA vs good LGA” thing. It was there in the initial refusal to have a hard lockdown and it was there when Gladys was saying “there’s nothing more we can do” and Kerry was about ready to sink her teeth into Gladys’s butt.

  38. Firefox @ #116 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:11 pm

    Coalition accused of breaking promise on federal integrity commission

    The Morrison government has been accused of abandoning an election commitment to legislate a national integrity commission, as time runs out in this term.

    On Friday the independent MP Helen Haines told Guardian Australia the government was backing away from the commitment “in the dying days of this term of parliament.”

    She said it was now a “near impossibility” to introduce and pass it before the 2022 election, which is due by mid-May.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/20/coalition-accused-of-breaking-promise-on-federal-integrity-commission

    Gee, what a surprise! The Greens also have a bill for a Federal ICAC before the Parliament too but the Coalition won’t support that one either.

    Corruption is rife at the federal level.

    While Labor has committed to an ICAC, I’ve yet to see whether their version has teeth and will include retrospectivity …?

  39. ”
    nathsays:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 11:50 am
    Victoria says:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 11:46 am

    FIVE Coalition senators crossed the floor to back One Nation’s vaccine mandate bill: Rennick, Canavan, Alex Antic, Sam McMahon and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
    _______________
    There isn’t enough brain activity in that group to power a light bulb.
    ”

    What is your point?

  40. C@tmomma says:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 12:16 pm

    Good to see nath supporting his Lunar Right mates:
    ____________
    Well I did post that to demonstrate this guy’s stupidity, but guess what? You trumped him….

  41. Victoria @ #132 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:22 pm

    I’d love to ask the protestors who converged on all the capital cities this weekend, what they have done to help their fellow Australian during the pandemic.

    It would be interesting to see what their responses are.
    Although, I think I have a fair idea.

    They’re too busy being wackadoodles on their Telegram wank chat groups to have any time to help others.

  42. Cud Chewer @ #130 Monday, November 22nd, 2021 – 12:21 pm

    Unfortunately the covid anti-virals haven’t been (so far as I’m aware) trialled as a prophylaxis. So popping one before you go on that holiday to a covid-infested 3rd world country (like the UK or the US) probably won’t be an option for a while.

    It shouldn’t be difficult once they’re approved. How much $ remains to be seen.

  47. C@t

    Yep. They are concerned about all the children that have been put through the tunnels etc. for the pedos.

    Have they bothered even searching for these children.

    The cognitive dissonance is quite frankly hard to understand.

    No one wanted this pandemic. But as people we need to accept reality and make the best of it.
    But not these buffoons. It’s all me me me.

  48. “The Greens are the splitters of the current era. The groupers. The NCC. Would I have put the Liberals ahead of the DLP? Damn right. The Greens pose as progressives. But they campaign against the authentic voice of working people 24/7. They cannot both oppose Labor and remain progressive or reformist at the same time.”

    ***

    TAFKAB reveals himself as the kin of Libs!

    …you can’t be serious though, right? Come on mate, you know in your heart that the Libs are far worse than us.

    I know that Labor gets a hell of a lot wrong and is a massive part of the problem, but even I preference them above the Libs and vocally encourage others to do the same. That’s no endorsement of Labor, rather it’s a damning indictment on just how bad the Liberals are.

    You don’t have to like the Greens or support us to acknowledge that we’re far better options than the Libs.

  50. Ven says:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 12:23 pm

    ”
    nathsays:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 11:50 am
    Victoria says:
    Monday, November 22, 2021 at 11:46 am

    FIVE Coalition senators crossed the floor to back One Nation’s vaccine mandate bill: Rennick, Canavan, Alex Antic, Sam McMahon and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
    _______________
    There isn’t enough brain activity in that group to power a light bulb.
    ”

    What is your point?
    ____________
    My point is that those 5 people are not very smart. Is that clear enough?

Comments Page 3 of 22
1 2 3 4 … 22

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *