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.
This woman is an embarrassment.
Reynolds slips in a new reason for kicking Djokovic out:
“He couldn’t prove he had a medical exemption.”
That was never mentioned, not in court, not by the Minister.
Andrews struggling on the refugees who have been incarcerated for 10 years…
“Even Gladys Liu is on Bus Stops in Glen Waverley”
Dangerous!
Bushfire Bill @ #101 Sunday, February 6th, 2022 – 9:31 am
It was Karen Andrews, not Linda Reynolds.
I wonder if Morrison will attempt to make hay on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s ascension?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-06/queen-platinum-jubilee-70-years-throne-death-king-george-vi/100804086
Of course Barnaby is a liar , he could have resign immediately as National party leader, Morrison could not do anything about it
‘The embattled Minister Richard Colbeck’ said with raised eyebrow by David Speers.
Crisis – the word half chokes Smirko – can’t finish it.
The failure in Aged Care won’t pass with the Omicron variant..
C@tmomma says:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 9:27 am
Which they can’t even get done right.
Thanks, ‘fess. You would think that people would get a Minister’s name right.
Scott @ #107 Sunday, February 6th, 2022 – 9:36 am
And Morrison not accepting a resignation that he had no business to accept, or not, was tossed out by Joyce as a mark of Morrison’s (new found) good character. FFS.
Fess,
Yes, Karen Andrews. I’m terrible with names. Excellent at faces.
I’m all for lowering the voting age, though I agree with Zoomster that making it compulsory for the under-18s is probably for the best. (I don’t think it would be the end of the world if it was compulsory, however.)
Many 16 and 17-year-olds work, drive, rent, are in trades or at university, or if still at high school are at that point where they are expected to make decisions that will often impact the rest of their lives. They are among the most vulnerable and exploited members of our workforce, and with many being sexually active, the present public discourse on consent and treatment of women is especially relevant to them. Government decisions impact them every day. They deserve a say in the political process.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be opposed to making the voting age even lower. If you’re old enough to work, you should be old enough to vote. But 16 is a reasonable compromise.
Bravo Karen Middleton for pointing out the obvious that much of the rhetoric from the Morrison govt about aged care workers makes it sound like they really don’t give a shit about them or the sector as a whole.
Scomo’s excuses for refusing to consider pay rises just hasn’t passed the sniff test.
Yes, Zerlo. Women are the hand maidens of men in the Coalition.
BB:
Karen Andrews was once described as a Howard pot plant (a woman parked in the corner of the room and forgotten), which is the only reason I know of her.
The NPC performance by ScoMo was meant to reset in an election year.
Complete failure on every level.
‘Too optimistic on Omicron… we raised expectations..’
That should read “making it non-compulsory is probably for the best” at the start of my post above.
Maybe, a la Tony Abbot – Sir Prince Phillip, Morrison could make the Queen a Dame.
She would be well chuffed.
Has anyone else seen/commented on the Labor ads that were shown on high rotation a night ago (when I was watching) that said wtte, ‘don’t vote for Perrottet’ and showed lots of less than flattering images of him while detailing his Covid failures?
**Quiet voice at the end speaking quickly can be heard saying the Labor Party.**
..and in the #realworld of the Canberra Truckers we have this…
Mark Fenton
@007phantom69
·
19m
The Australian people holding the politicians accountable in Canberra.
The politicians have delayed parliament for a week obviously they do not want to face everyday Australians that are holding them to account.
Waiting for the MSM to say anything about this apparently 🙂
This RDA is another ScoMo fwark up
Overpromise, under deliver
Dog’s Brunch:
I’m not in New South Wales, but I remember seeing one like that on – I think – YouTube a few days back. Seemed quite effective.
Kurri Kurri gas plant backflip – Speers and Sarah Martin on the same PMO drip as Coorey
FS:
With the sort of decisions Morrison has been making lately, he’d probably be more likely to knight Prince Andrew.
Dog’s Brunch @ #120 Sunday, February 6th, 2022 – 9:49 am
Labor’s ads get a good airing during the evening news every night in the form of Chris Minns with a series of quick, cutting one-liners highlighting the Perrottet’s government’s incompetence on a range of fronts.
Herald Sun 06/02
Somurek.
“I am putting myself at grave risk here because we (Labor MPs collectively) acted corruptly, and then we did not co-operate with the Ombudsman’s inquiry and the various police investigations because the Labor Party lawyers told us not to,” he said in a leaked email to MPs.
“There is a reason why red shirts does not go away and that is because it was wrong, and we knew it.
Give it up , Taylormade, that unicorn died years ago.
bug1says:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 8:40 am
In a mostly useless measure of how bad the LNP is going;
A family member who has voted for them for 50 years and rarely even tries to be objective say, he doesnt see how they can win.
_____________________
Yep. Useless.
When the news broke that Joyce called Morrison a hypocrite & liar, he immediately rang the PM, apparently apologising profusely and offering to resign. I’m thinking that Morrison saw an angle in this, that despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (ie, everyone in the room wrongly thinks he’s a psycho, liar, fraud & charlatan), he could make some political mileage by being magnanimous, refusing to accept Joyce’s resignation. He may’ve been slighted by Joyce but Morrison’s above retribution. Of course, given the office of deputy prime minister is within the gift of the Country Party, it’s arguable whether Morrison had the authority to accept or reject it.
Across the pond, things are going from bad to worse for Boris Johnson:
The Guardian: ‘Partygate’: Johnson’s removal is now inevitable, warns loyalist.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/05/partygate-johnsons-removal-is-now-inevitable-warns-loyalist
Taylormade @ #129 Sunday, February 6th, 2022 – 10:05 am
Another ‘useless’ observation from me:
At my younger sister’s belated birthday lunch at a restaurant on Friday, attended by two long time friends of said sister, with spouses, who are Lib cheer squad from way back, both couples stated that ‘Scomo is gone’, and ‘Barnaby is an idiot’, after which it was agreed that politics would not be mentioned again.
Yesterday I received a flyer for Jo Dyer, the “Voices if” candidate for SA’s most marginal federal seat of Boothby. Looks quite professional in 2 shades of purple. Could split a few votes off both major parties but whose preferences will probably decide the winner.
The “Voices of” movement are also supporting the current Mitcham mayor in the seat of Waite in the upcoming SA election. That could be interesting in a normally safe Lib seat but where the incumbent has gone “independent” (after being a Christmas party pest) and will stand for re-election as such against the official (and rather uncharasmatic) official Lib. The seat has long held a large “non-major” vote dating back to when the electorate was known as Mitcham and was the only lower house seat anywhere won by the Aus Democrats (3 times). The Labor candidate also looks quite strong.
Could decide the state election.
And in other news, Rudy Giuliani apparently attempted to move on from his present vocation of humiliating himself while committing treason to something completely different: humiliating himself on reality TV!
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/03/politics/masked-singer-rudy-giuliani-analysis/index.html
Morrison tried to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
He ended up with a deaf sow, an angry feminist movement, animal rights supporters in uproar, an indignant boar with a defaced mate, and the Chinese Silk Producers Association demanding sanction being imposed by their Government.
Red Shirts may be one thing, but personally, I’m disappointed Taylormade has completely ignored Tirath Khemlani’s role.
And where does Lionel Murphy figure in all this?
Quite frankly, I also thought Mick Young got off far too lightly.
More to the point, did we ever get to the bottom of John Cain and Docklands?
So many questions needing answers…
Asha said
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 10:12 am
“Across the pond, things are going from bad to worse for Boris Johnson:
The Guardian: ‘Partygate’: Johnson’s removal is now inevitable, warns loyalist.”
I just saw BoJo being interviewed about the price of bread. He got that one right but went on to say (unprompted) that he doesn’t normally know things like that but does know the price of Champagne.
Aim gun, release safety, accurately shoot own foot.
Pretty light analysis, with a minor reference to something called the high court notwithstanding the extremely rare nature of its intervention
Nothing at all about specific facts which may be ok when there is jury about to be impaneled.
Really the trial of the year.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/06/zachary-rolfe-trial-what-the-case-is-about-and-what-to-expect-when-it-begins
PaulTu:
Jesus!
Fulvio Sammutsays:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 10:03 am
Give it up , Taylormade, that unicorn died years ago.
_____________________
Still making news though. I wonder what they have in store for us later this year.
My favourite is still the young public servant whose job was threatened if she did not agree to prance around Melbourne in a lobster costume on a stinking hot day.
Confessions says:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 9:55 am
Dog’s Brunch @ #120 Sunday, February 6th, 2022 – 9:49 am
Has anyone else seen/commented on the Labor ads that were shown on high rotation a night ago (when I was watching) that said wtte, ‘don’t vote for Perrottet’ and showed lots of less than flattering images of him while detailing his Covid failures?
**Quiet voice at the end speaking quickly can be heard saying the Labor Party.**
For the first time that I’ve ever noticed, Palmer’s ads on YouTube (the free channel, at least) have popped up a number of times. I’ve been sampling various recordings, especially of Beethoven and Handel, during the past week. Palmer’s voice comes on as background to some extremely well executed visuals. I haven’t watched them for more than a few seconds but, from their frequency, he’s obviously trying to reach right across the market with his material. Google is making a lot of money disseminating adverts on a broadcast-to-everyone basis.
The only other ads I’ve noticed are those that pop on to my facebook feed, and they’re from Labor figures. Albo has been featuring in these more frequently recently. I have to admit, I never watch ads. I’m inured to them, I guess.
Taylormade,
Yeah, what is Matthew Guy doing these days?
GG, Mathew guy has come out of witness protection to appear on an ad showing during the nine news espousing his 2,957th position on lockdowns and mask mandates.
With regard to Morrison’s ‘Too optimistic on Omicron… we raised expectations..’
It wasn’t so much being too optimistic. They rolled the dice on Omicron being relatively benign, and lost. Maybe it’s their ‘maximum risk, maximum return’ mentality. They decided the best electoral outcome for them would be urging opening up and there being very few negative consequences. Obviously, the worst case would be opening up and there being a lot of consequences.
They were prepared to risk peoples lives for the pay-off of electoral success. And it didn’t work.
[‘The Political Climate Being Conjured by Morrison Is Hardly the Way Forward
Earlier this week, it came to light that Brisbane’s Citipointe Christian College had sent out an updated enrolment contract to parents specifying that the religious school reserved the right to expel their children on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.
This abhorrent document outlined that the school believes “any form of sexual immorality is sinful”, and went so low as to then lump homosexual and bisexual acts in with bestiality, incest and paedophilia.
Unsurprisingly, the backlash over this Dark Ages regression led to the retraction of the contract.
Scott Morrison has since publicly denounced it. Yet, the school was following his lead on the issue. And while he’s further said he’ll revoke the law allowing LGBTQ kids to be turfed out of religious schools, he made the same promise in late 2018 and, obviously, has never followed through on it.
Anti-LGBTIQ sentiment is a key signature of Morrison’s term in office, which has led to an escalation in homophobic and transphobic actions like those of the college. And this is all being promoted under the guise of religious freedom from discrimination, or, more succinctly, the right to be a bigot.
This episode, however, is only the latest blemish to have occurred in the public sphere that’s been facilitated and actively encouraged by Morrison and Co. And if re-elected, the political climate under this the most corrupt of all governments the nation has seen is set to become much nastier.’]
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-political-climate-being-conjured-by-morrison-is-hardly-the-way-forward/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=week-7
Oh great, another AWU hack a possibility to be added as a fossil fuel puppet.
WRT lowering voting age, 16 year olds are arguably under the control of their parents/guardians, certainly under their influence. Is there a risk there?
PaulTu says:
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 10:24 am
I just saw BoJo being interviewed about the price of bread. He got that one right but went on to say (unprompted) that he doesn’t normally know things like that but does know the price of Champagne.
For some years now there has been a concerted effort by right wing politicians around the world to play the comedian.. that way they always have the ” it was a joke” defence… Maybe it started with Bunga Bunga Berlusconi?
I hope Yabba’s Mensa abilities and self-professed superior decision making and analytical gifts extend to his recommendations of Ebay 2nd hand laptop suppliers.
Purchased for Photoshop/Premiere purposes.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/234396199121
Needed a laptop rather than a desktop (which would undoubtedly have been faster dollar for dollar) due to maybe/perhaps (hopefully never!) having to cut and run in a hurry due to potential future bushfire threat.
Difficult to do with a desktop+ attachments.
Oh well… what’s done is done.
They’re not even trying anymore. Just taking the proverbial. Disgusting people.