The mercurial Roy Morgan organisation put out a newsletter this week saying its fortnightly poll had Labor leading 56.5-43.5 and would be published in full within 48 hours, but nothing more was heard. However, there is no shortage of other electoral news to relate, even without getting too deep into the developing situation of the New South Wales Liberals’ federal preselection tangle, which was covered in depth here. Note that I also have a separate post dealing with the imminent Super Saturday of four New South Wales state by-elections.
• The Liberals in New South Wales have at least resolved their dispute to the extent of proceeding with plans for a preselection ballot for Bennelong, which David Crowe of The Age reports is likely to be held in March. The candidates are Gisele Kapterian, former chief-of-staff to Michaelia Cash and current executive at software company Salesforce; Craig Chung, a City of Sydney councillor; and Simon Kennedy, a former partner at McKinsey.
• Labor also has a few loose ends in New South Wales, having yet to choose candidates to succeed retiring members Sharon Bird and Julie Ovens in Cunningham and Parramatta. A membership ballot for Cunningham will be held on February 19 between Misha Zelinsky, Australian Workers Union assistant national secretary and former criminal defence lawyer, and Alison Byrnes-Scully, staffer to Sharon Bird (and wife of state Wollongong MP Paul Scully). Zelinsky has been in the news over social media posts and an e-book he co-authored nearly a decade ago which featured jokes denigrating women. The Guardian reports that Labor is struggling to find a candidate in Parramatta that the party hierarchy considers up to standard, having lately been rebuffed by Cameron Murphy, prominent barrister and son of Lionel Murphy.
• Northern Territory Senator Sam McMahon, a Country Liberals member who sat with the Nationals in Canberra, resigned from the party last week and is leaving open the possibility of contesting the election either for a different party or as an independent. McMahon lost her preselection last June to Alice Springs deputy mayor and conservative media identity Jacinta Price.
Noteworthy matters of electoral law and administration at state and territory level:
• A headache looms in South Australia ahead of its March 19 state election, with no contingency in place for voters put in COVID-19 isolation who are unable to meet the deadline for a postal vote application. A bill to allow for voting to be conducted over the phone in this circumstance was passed by the lower house and amended in the upper, and the lower house had not considered the amendments when it rose in early December. The Advertiser reports that Labor says it would be a simple matter for the house to reconvene and agree to the amended bill, but Premier Steven Marshall says there is not enough time to pass legislation before the government enters caretaker mode ahead of the election. Marshall blames Labor for supporting the amendments, but it appears to me that the government chose to sit on the bill for the last three days of the session.
• The Canberra Times reports Labor has “indicated a willingness” to support a Greens bill to make voting compulsory for 16 and 17 year olds in ACT elections, notwithstanding the local electoral commission’s evident horror at the resulting administrative burden.
• Remy Varga of The Australian reports the Victorian government is taking a stand against the pernicious practice of political parties handling postal vote applications so they can harvest data from them.
Insiders opens up with those texts and character assessments of ScoMo
And who sends a photographer up a ladder to take a photo of them, likely pretending to, cook dinner? I cook curries and the amount in that pan would be unlikely to feed a mouse. Sure, other ingredients may be to come but even as base ingredients it looks paltry for a family of 4 (5 with the photographer, or does he eat with the rest of the staff after his job is done?)
Smirko losing his smirk
The pattern keeps repeating . The US Neocons’ founders started off as Marxists. Dog’s Brunch@ 7:51 am linked twitter feed had a mention of someone described as BoJo’s ‘brain’ who had resigned and……
I guess for ‘true believers’ being a ‘true believer’ is what matters rather than what they believe in. Or maybe it’s the having an enemy to hate that counts ?
The Liar is hoping no-one else is watching Insiders – the montage of the texts is damning. And Barnyard is not helping.
Scomo will wish he could cancel Parliament sittings over the next two weeks with so many fires to put out –
1 Labor will go after the PMs character and integrity after Joyce, an un named front bencher and GB ripped into him in private texts.
2 Ms Higgins and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame are due to speak at the National Press Club and raise questions about delays in responding to a damaging report.
3 Stood-aside Education Minister Alan Tudge allegations remain unresolved after an investigative report became due last Friday. Scomo said they are still “going through the process”.
4 The controversial religious discrimination bill is creating big headaches within the Liberal Party ranks; some will be dragged kicking and screaming to accepting the Bill.
5 Gerard Rennick, George Christensen, Alex Antic and Sam McMahon kicking up a stink about vaccines .
6 Calls for the resignation of Aged Care Minister Colbeck over the Covid pandemic mismanagement in his portfolio area.
7 Hunt and Scomo claiming 60% of aged care deaths have been people “in palliative care” and producing no data to support this claim because there is none . It is BS.
8 Craig Kelly introducing private members bills against mandatory domestic vaccination passports and planning to put every incumbent last on HTV propaganda.
9 Smoco doing a backflip and supporting McGowan’s decision to keep his borders closed in WA…. saying one thing in Freemantle and another in Sydney.
10 Nationals MPs and Senators incensed that Barnaby offered his resignation to Scomo.
Get the pop corn out, slip on the thongs and crack a can: it is going to be an entertaining fortnight.
Could Barnyard also be a liar? Shocked I am, shocked..
Probsy cataloging discrepancies in Barnyards story.
He actually does think The Liar is a liar, but changed his mind when back as DPM
Sounds like Barnaby is the one who isn’t telling the truth.
28 COVID deaths in NSW :
There are 2,321 people with the virus in hospital, of which 147 are in ICU.
There were 7,893 new cases in the reporting period, of which 4,337 were from rapid antigen tests and 3,556 were from PCR swabs.
Six COVID deaths recorded in Victoria :
The number of people in hospital after contracting the virus sits at 652, down from 687 a day earlier.
Of those patients, 73 are in intensive care units, with 28 people on ventilators.
The state reported 7,169 new infections — 2,703 from PCR results and 4,466 from rapid antigen tests. It is the lowest daily case count in just over a month.
It takes the number of officially reported active infections to 60,917, down from 63,409 on Saturday.
About 43 per cent of the state’s adult population has now had a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Speersy has another quote – the panel are swapping anecdotes about Promo’s character.
Everyone says he is a liar
Sarah Martin points out the obvious: there’s a conga line of people outlining issues with Morrison’s character. This isn’t an isolated person, but many.
Join the dots…
Well it wasn’t hard for Barnaby to lie about an affair with staffer.
Lying about other stuff, would be just as easy for him. It comes naturally.
Morning all. Thanks BK for the roundup. I thought Insiders might make up for the absences this morning but Barnaby is in hiding there as well.
William thanks for the poll summary. I had forgotten about the approaching NSW bi-elections. Hard to see much good news coming the PM’s way from those.
The SA State election will now also probably happen before the Federal one. Steve Marshall maneuvering to avoid realistic covid safe options for voters is cynical to say the least and might backfire. Since December Marshall has been increasingly ignoring the advice of his CMO.
Barnyard doing a hostage video is painful
Macron said Morrison was a liar and hence why the election was stalled at the time.
Karma is a b@tch.
Brilliant!
A colleague on Morrison: “He’s the only man I know who can enter a revolving door after you, and still come out first.”
BB:
Yeah that quote was a beauty!
Victoria @8.51am
“what possesses a young person to fall for a man who is not even aging well for his demographic.”
Well,
It could be the bulging “Marty Feldman” eyes !
Or the receding hairline !
the ruddy cheeks!
the gut!
the varicose veins!
Not to mention the yellow toenails!
Certainly not alcohol.
Many a fine, unlikely relationship has been formed and maintained from questionable circumstances.
LOL some Nats apparently don’t want Barnaby campaigning in their electorates.
Apparently many MPs especially the Nats don’t want The Liar campaigning in their electorates, according to Speers.
The panel thinks it’s too late for a party room LibSpill
Went to the Yarra Valley yesterday after first being in Richmond. Went via Kew. Some observations:
* Frydenberg’s face is everywhere around Kew Junction. From a number of hugely expensive billboards to Telstra public phone boxes. His grinning face is impossible to miss.
* Left Ringwood and headed towards Healesville. The heart of the Deakin electorate. Smack bang on the Maroondah Hwy, it’s not possible to miss Sukkar’s giant face. There’s even one billboard saying that he’s still backing the cancelled east-west link to the tune of a $4b commitment.
Desperate times for the Vic Libs, clearly.
Isn’t Barnaby Joyce telling an obvious lie about Scott Morrison and his truthfulness or otherwise, just reinforcing the impression that the Coalition is a bunch of liars?
Searching for ‘clear air’
As I heard it –
Context on Joyce’s messages to BH was the quest for submissions to ‘her’ enquiry to be exemption-free from FOI enquiries, with Joyce warning BH of Morrison’s lack of character and unreliability suggesting his or any promise to that effect should be treated carefully.
FANTASTIC first question to Andrews from Speers. “Have you had a gutful of cleaning up after the blokes make a mess?”
First question to Karen Andrews
– ‘have you had a gutfull of having to mop up after the blokes’
Goll
so many redeeming features to choose from. Lol
Next 2 questions variants on ‘Is Scott Morrison a liar’
Andrews says “No he’s not!”
Huge if true…
something like that
It is hard to miss Frydenbergs face!
I haven’t ventured into Sukkar territory as yet,
You almost have to pity Karen Andrews. She’s really having to eat shit for Morrison and Joyce.
Integrity and Trust are the next questions
‘ Can we trust him?’
Andrews prattling on, the talking points well rehearsed…
“We need to get him out”, says Andrews of SfM.
Yep, out of office!
Andrews ‘the ALP going for personal attacks…’
Speers ‘It’s your own party…’
“We need to get him out… er… let me rephrase that…”
Having had the misfortune to read some of Vicki Campion’s opinion pieces, I’m of the opinion that she and Barnaby are probably soulmates.
Completely ineffectual blather from Andrews.
Next set of questions on Aged Care..
‘What’s going on…’ Speers
Andrews prattles on
sprocket_says:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 9:20 am
“Next 2 questions variants on ‘Is Scott Morrison a liar’
Andrews says “No he’s not!”
Huge if true…”
Actually I thought I heard “No, that has not been my experience”. Bit of a difference.
something like that,
I was in Paterson or Shortland, I’m not sure which it was, the other day, and there were 3 monster billboards on the side of the highway. Two for Clive Palmer, but the other one was for the Liberal candidate. Where are they getting the money to pay for them, not only for sitting MPs but also just for candidates in Labor-held seats!?!
Anyway, my judgement was that they were all a waste of money because everyone was concentrating on negotiating the traffic and couldn’t be distracted long enough to take any notice of them!
The Aged Care crisis is someone else’s problem – ‘Management has to step up..’
Reynolds is in complete denial.
Shorter Speers interview:
“Yes he is.”
“No he isn’t”
“Yes he is.”
“No he isn’t”
“Yes he is.”
“No he isn’t”
“Yes he is.”
“No he isn’t”
“Yes he is.”
“No he isn’t”
“Yes he is.”
“No he isn’t”
PaulTu @ #89 Sunday, February 6th, 2022 – 9:24 am
with that tell-tale blink.
Even Gladys Liu is on Bus Stops in Glen Waverley
The Coalition always send out a woman to attempt to clean up the mess the men have made.
NSW:
– 2,321 hospitalisations
– 147 people in ICU
– 28 lives lost
– 7,893 positive tests: 4,337 RAT & 3,556 PCR
Just incredible that we are contemplating the closure of aged care facilities because of staff shortages.
This is exactly what the Let It Rip approach to Covid has brought on.
Scomo and Perrottet really need to account for their arrogant incompetence in ignoring the public health advice.
C@tmomma says:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 9:25 am
—
Kew Junction is always jammed with traffic, so that’s likely more effective a location than the side of a highway. But as you suggest, the only real winners are the advertising agencies. Money for jam. And probably a lot of jam.
Paultu
Good correction there, Andrews is from the ‘never happened to me’ school, so can’t be an issue, can it?
Bushfire Bill says:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 9:13 am
Brilliant!
A colleague on Morrison: “He’s the only man I know who can enter a revolving door after you, and still come out first.”
_________________________________
That was a line in one of my favourite ‘Yes Minister’ episodes. Hacker was describing a coup leader from Africa visiting the UK, who he recognised as a fellow student at the LSE.