I’ve been a bit lax in keeping up on federal preselection developments of late, which have naturally been gathering pace as the big event gets closer. To keep things manageable, I will focus in this post on developments in New South Wales, which is where most of the action has been.
Things have been particularly lively in the Liberal camp, where Scott Morrison finds himself in the thick of factional warfare between his centre right faction and its principal numbers man, Mitchell MP Alex Hawke, and an alliance of the moderate and the hard right factions. As Mike Steketee at the Saturday Paper relates, the latter have accused the former of obstructing the process so as to avoid rank-and-file ballots that may not go their way, potentially endangering Hawke himself. Steketee reports expectations that the end game will be a deal that leaves all sitting members undisturbed, with ballots to proceed in a number of important seats where it may have been prudent to have had candidates in place quite a bit sooner.
• Jim O’Rourke of the Daily Telegraph reports the failure of Scott Morrison’s seemingly desperate attempt to recruit Gladys Berejiklian in Warringah leaves Jane Buncle, a “high-flying junior barrister who believes in climate change”, as the favourite to run against independent Zali Steggall. However, James Massola of the Sydney Morning Herald reported party polling tested the prospects of Berejiklian, Buncle, former Premier Mike Baird and management consultant Alex Dore (who according to the Telegraph is still considering running), and found only Berejiklian would win the seat.
• In a particularly helpful account of the broader state of play, Linda Silmalis of the Daily Telegraph reports three candidates have nominated in Parramatta, which the party is hopeful of knocking over with the retirement after 17 years of Labor member Julie Owens. These are Maria Kovacic, co-founder of Western Sydney Women; Felicity Findlay, acquisitions manager for property investment firm Merc Capital; and Charles Camenzuli, engineer and unsuccessful candidate for the seat in 2010 and 2019. Silmaris notes the party has extended nominations in the hope that a stronger candidate might come forward. Former Parramatta councillor Martin Zaiter is “being wooed”; efforts to interest Geoff Lee, who holds the state seat of Parramatta, have come to nothing.
• One of the preselection challenges Alex Hawke is keen to head off is that against Environment Minister Sussan Ley in Farrer, where she is threatened by Christian Ellis, a public relations specialist who has made a name locally campaigning for water rights. Linda Silmaris’s report says “Mr Ellis’s supporters believe their candidate has the numbers, triggering panic among those backing Ms Ley”.
• Hawkesbury councillor Sarah Richards has been preselected to run against Labor member Susan Templeman in Macquarie, where she fell short by 371 votes on her first attempt in 2019.
On the other side of the aisle:
• Sarah Martin of The Guardian offers a revealing account of the complex state of play in Labor’s preselection for Parramatta. Local branches are dominated by the soft left faction associated with Laurie Ferguson, which duly favours a rank-and-file ballot. However, the faction is split between supporters Julia Finn, member for the state seat of Granville, and Durga Owen, criminal lawyer and Western Sydney University lecturer, neither of whom are “seen as acceptable to the federal executive”. This would appear to include Anthony Albanese, who may be about to sanction a push for the executive to take matters into its own hands due to familiar concerns about branch stacking. Albanese’s own branch of the Left favours Abha Devasia, legal director of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. However, the Right seemingly wants in as well, demanding compensation for the selection of the unaligned Daniel Repacholi to replace Joel Fitzgibbon in Hunter.
• Also noted in Sarah Martin’s article is that a rank-and-file ballot to choose Sharon Bird’s successor in Cunningham is expected to be won by Alison Byrnes, a staffer to Bird and the wife of state MP Paul Scully.
• Labor’s candidate for Lindsay, which Melissa McIntosh won for the Liberals from Labor in 2019, will be Trevor Ross, a firefighter of 36 years.
Ven @ #171 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 12:37 pm
As long as he knocks him out cold. The expletives won’t be necessary.
But I give Albo 8/10 for this effort.
Terminator
I’m in Newie. We’re stunned by the increase in numbers in just 1 week here. Our daughter has had an alert each day on her phone for everywhere she has shopped since last Friday.
My GP rang yesterday to tell me she could bring my booster up a month so I had a Pfizer shot early this morning. My arm is a bit sore but hope I only get the tiredness other Bludgers have mentioned. My OH’s booster is due midApril but Dr is hopeful that the lag may be reduced to 3.5 months otherwise he is virtually locked down til April.
This time last year life was fairly normal in Newie and Christmas was great. This year may be mask wearing all round or cancellations.
btw If you are desperate, the Pharmacies in Wallsend seem to be well stocked with booster shots, more so than the Drs. We had to wait an hour this morning because of late delivery.
Player One @ #197 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 12:40 pm
Log4j. 😐
By sounds of it the ALP are playing for underdog status because polling shows it is too close to call or they are a long way ahead and don’t want to scare the horses.
yabba @ #193 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 1:27 pm
You is a dolt with an inflated opinion of themselves and an undergraduate sense of humour.
Don’t worry about yabba, the silly old fool posted his name and address the other day. I’m still waiting for him to send his back account details! I’m sure it will be arriving any day now. So much for Mensa. More like Dementia.
It looks as though the booster program has also been botched.
Yabba, did you get my special gift I mailed you?
If I had been pinged for sock puppetry I wouldn’t be bringing up other peoples past foibles.
Hmmm.from the Cave again. Due for a booster 29/12/21. Tried to book one with a Pharmacy and then at my Gp’s practice for the 21/12/21 and they wont let me until after the 29th. 🙁 So, will be after the 10th for me.
Unemployment now 4.6%
Sawford conditions in place for Scomo re-election!
Yes nath and you’re the kind of person who would have recorded those details.
Simon Katich says:
Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 1:58 pm
If I had been pinged for sock puppetry I wouldn’t be bringing up other peoples past foibles.
__________
SK, you’re just a better person than most of us. I’m sure you’ll remind us again soon enough.
You can’t fault him for it if it’s true.
Quoll
Cathy McGowan admitted that she didn’t get funding for anything she asked for.
Zoomster
Quick one to you before I hop off to finish jobs I’m procrastinating over.
We bought some BR cherries last week. Gorgeous fruit and beaut packaging. I didn’t know that your area grew cherries.
When I was at Primary School, in SA, Premier Tom Playford’s cherry orchards ran along side the school but fenced with only a couple of strings of wire. With Tom’s permission we gorged on big, black cherries at lunchtimes all through December. The only rule was hands, not feet, through the wire. Lovely memories.
a r says:
Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 2:02 pm
You can’t fault him for it if it’s true.
________
Ah but there’s the rub. It’s always the handsome rogues like Lars and I that are the true heroes. The saccharine goodies are always hiding a thing or two.
And SK is a really nice guy. Too nice perhaps. At the moment he’s my leading contender for a possible PB serial killer. 🙂
BH
Two great cherry farms in Myrtleford. Both are netted, so the fruit is sublime.
I used to have to go 5k out of my way to buy mine, but now the second farm has opened up, and it’s on my direct route home.
(Which is where yours will have come from…)
We also have a Murray cod hatchery on the same road, but I haven’t got around to sampling that yet.
Zoomster
Is there any talk within the ALP about whether the mood against the government mirrors that of 1996?
nath @ #210 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 1:30 pm
Nah, but I have come to terms with my misdeeds. My good deed is to be the annoying little sprite on your shoulder nagging at you to stop being a numbnut. We all need a reminder. Some more than others.
C’mon SK. Anyone who puts angel wings on their avatar is hiding some really dark shit.
Player One @ #202 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 1:49 pm
I am the designer and co-builder of a comprehensive modelling tool, used to model all aspects of complete electrical generation, transmission, protection, load-balancing and consumption systems, in use at multiple locations throughout the world.
i is something different, being much more complex than I.
You don’t have the faintest clue of the extent of your patent ignorance in relation to almost every topic on which you post.
Zoomster
Lucky you. Compliment them for me please. We’ll be buying them til the season ends.
Murray Cod hatchery sounds interesting. Friends told us they’d stopped fishing for cod in the Riverlands because of the shortage so a hatchery is good news.
Lars Von Trier @ #205 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 1:57 pm
Was that a dog turd, or one of yours? Probably a dog. You post yours on PB, and you wouldn’t waste any.
Bravo Yabba, and yet the alp couldn’t even include u in the Albo central coast photo op?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofibNrYDjdY
Lars Von Trier says:
Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 2:19 pm
Bravo Yabba, and yet the alp couldn’t even include u in the Albo central coast photo op?
_________
Once they saw him frothing at the mouth it was decided not to include him.
mb
Out of those loops atm.
nath @ #225 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 2:22 pm
Nath and L’arse right into the circular arse sniffing and licking, on cue. Sad, but sick-funny all the same. It’s not hard to identify the rabid curs. They self report, and project.
History doesn’t repeat but
Government behind in the polls
Unpopular leader
Government scores an unexpected election win
Improving economy
losing support in party heartland
I wonder if Palaszczuk is regretting opening up the state now that a new, more infectious variant is established in Oz? At least masks should be mandated; we’re used to them up here. And the fact that the majority were double-vaxxed is a worry even though the evidence appears to indicate that this cohort will have better outcomes than the un-vaxxed.
[‘Queensland has announced a dramatic spike in Covid cases to 22 after the state’s borders reopened last Monday.
Eighteen of the cases had been infectious in community, while two were detected in home quarantine and two in hotel quarantine.
The state detected only six cases yesterday.
The new cases had been infectious in the community for between one and seven days, Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said.
The majority of the new cases had arrived into Queensland from interstate and were all fully vaccinated. The state now has 67 active Covid cases.
‘There is no where in Queensland where you can hide from this virus,’ Ms D’Ath warned.’] – Daily Mail
yabba @ #220 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 2:12 pm
You are really impressed with your own feeble attempts at humour, aren’t you?
I’ll bet you had all the boys in the engineering dorm cracking up after lights out.
I wonder what this will do for people attending restaurants in SA (and other states opening up)?
If you are unvaxed or just short of a booster, in a high risk category or close to someone who is high risk… eating at restaurants, indoors, seems a dodgy endeavour.
Nanny Plum is not an angel, she is a fairy. You’re not very knowledgeable, are you.
‘i’ is imaginary.
The first item on the agenda after the establishment of the ICAC should be an investigation into the methodology in calculating the unemployment figures, the people involved in the publication of the unemployment figures, the amount of public money outsourced to private enterprise in regard to unemployment, the ownership of the organizations receiving public money for providing employment roles for the government in regard to employment services and the purpose, role, ownership and profits associated with the Indue card.
Next…..
OK Nanny Plum. Right. Sounds all very non-weird……..
In regard media
I have spent 20 minutes flicking on and off ABC24 because of the Pentecostal with the glass jaw yelling at the camera
Seemed like the same old bullshit of government “getting out of your lives” and how wonderful our economy is (so, I repeat, why has the Cash Rate been where it has been since the GFC)
And shouting from his Pentecostal pulpit to his media
I trust others are turned off as I am by this obese, yelling, ugly Bible basher
Staring down the virus to live with the virus and grow the economy
Didn’t Pat Cummins stare hard enough?
Mind you some who live their lives 24/7 on this site are right up there with the blubbering Pentecostal idiot
Ah, the Australian postal service. Item sent from Italy, first 4 days, 19,000 km, 5 countries, 3 Continents. Next 4 days Matraville, NSW, going nowhere. 🙁
Simon Katich says:
Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 2:38 pm
“I wonder what this will do for people attending restaurants in SA (and other states opening up)?
If you are unvaxed or just short of a booster, in a high risk category or close to someone who is high risk… eating at restaurants, indoors, seems a dodgy endeavour.”
Correct. And SA health is releasing exposure sites over a week later. “Get tested immediately, on day 6 and on day 13” … and you find out on day 8 ??
Player One @ #230 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 2:38 pm
Powerful put down. You should be proud. I’m suitably cowed. Moo.
I lived at home. Caught red rattlers from Concy West to Redfern for many long years, until I inherited my Dad’s 48-215.
Please expound again for us, your profound insights on the comparative transmission losses of Snowy 2 vs Shoalhaven pumped hydro.
nath
Careful , the Nanny is described as being armed with ……………..
The Morrison government has killed off a gas exploration permit within 50 kilometres of Sydney’s coastline after a community and environmental backlash that threatened the government’s prospects in half a dozen key seats.
Visiting beachside Terrigal in the marginal Central Coast seat of Robertson, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would reject an application to rollover the Petroleum Exploration Permit 11, or PEP 11, a zone covering more than 8200sq km from Newcastle to Wollongong.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/pm-stops-gas-drilling-off-sydney-s-coastline-20211216-p59i3o
I have been trying to post some assistance to Catmomma about Kiwi. Not getting the post through
Will try again on the laptop
yabba @ #238 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 2:52 pm
Why? Do you find such stuff as interesting as you apparently find train spotting?
U.S. COVID update: Number in hospital continues to rise
– New cases: 147,826 ………………… – New deaths: 2,022
– In hospital: 67,902 (+1,669)
– In ICU: 16,210 (+387)
823,390 total deaths now
Holdenhillbilly @ #240 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 2:59 pm
Terrigal? I wonder if Morrison is taking the mickey out of Labor with this stunt?
Player One @ #242 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 3:09 pm
Because you stupidly denied posting them, which is where we started. A lie. (They weren’t profound. More like pathetic. But you posted them, all the same.)
Mexicanbeemer @ #217 Thursday, December 16th, 2021 – 2:07 pm
…or 1969?