The big news at the moment is of course yesterday’s New South Wales state by-elections, where you can continue to follow the count here. On the polling front, there may be a Resolve Strategic result this week and presumably a Roy Morgan – Newspoll isn’t due, unless The Australian has decided to quicken the schedule with an election in view. That leaves the following preselection news:
• Alison Byrnes, staffer to Sharon Bird, will succeed Bird as Labor’s member for the safe Illawarra seat of Cunningham after the withdrawal of Misha Zelinsky, Australian Workers Union assistant national secretary and former criminal defence lawyer. Rob Harris of the Age/Herald reports it had “become clear in recent days he would not have enough support among branch members”, his prospects having been harmed by the emergence of past online activities in which he made comments denigrating women.
• Some new Labor candidates for unlikely-but-not-impossible seats: Amanda Hunt, chief executive of Uniting WA, will run against Andrew Hastie in the Perth fringe seat of Canning; Naomi Oakley, former police officer and owner of a private security firm, will run in the eastern Melbourne seat of Menzies, where Keith Wolahan will succeed Kevin Andrews as Liberal candidate; and Sonja Baram, a family therapist, will run against James Stevens in the eastern Adelaide seat of Sturt.
• Recently announced independents of note: Kate Chaney, Anglicare WA director of innovation and strategy and member of a family of local Liberal Party and business notables, will run against Celia Hammond in the blue-ribbon Perth seat of Curtin; and Craig Garland, a local fishing identity who made a minor splash in the seat at the by-election in 2018, will again run in the north-western Tasmanian seat of Braddon.
• It was reported this week that ASIO had rumbled an effort by Chinese spies to financially support “sympathetic and vulnerable” candidates for Labor preselection in New South Wales. Anthony Galloway of the Age/Herald reports the agency is satisfied no candidates of concern were endorsed, but that it remains concerned about the ongoing activities of “a wealthy businessman with deep ties in both Australia and China, who was known to ASIO as ‘the puppeteer’”.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Alexandra Smith and Tom Rabe report that Dominic Perrottet has conceded the Liberals will lose the regional seat of Bega, while his government has also suffered a swing against it in Gladys Berejiklian’s former seat of Willoughby as voters sent a clear warning to the Coalition in byelections yesterday.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/coalition-expects-to-hold-willoughby-in-super-saturday-byelections-20220212-p59vwv.html
Technology entrepreneur and environmentalist Mike Cannon-Brookes is yet to financially back any political candidates for the upcoming 2022 federal election but believes the climate independents have been effective in moving the debate on the environment, integrity in politics and gender, writes Caitlin Fitzsimmons.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/moving-the-debate-mike-cannon-brookes-on-climate-independents-and-his-budget-wishlist-20220201-p59sw0.html
Scott and Jenny Morrison’s decision to sit down for a much-anticipated interview with 60 Minutes says a lot about the Prime Minister’s current political standing – and not much of it is good, opines James Massola.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/familiar-tune-morrison-opens-up-his-home-amid-kitchen-sink-strategy-but-will-it-actually-work-20220211-p59vqk.html
Masola says that stood-aside cabinet minister Alan Tudge will contest the next federal election, but his future on the frontbench remains under a cloud and he will not return from leave to attend Parliament next week.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/jenny-morrison-sick-to-her-stomach-about-psycho-texts-targeting-prime-minister-20220211-p59vt4.html
“It is difficult to know how to begin a column on politics after a week when national debate ended at the high-water mark of our Attorney-General – the first law officer of a government with pretensions to seriousness – discussing which toilets schoolchildren should be able to use”, begins this contribution from Jacqui Maley on the las week in politics. It’s a cracker!
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-political-week-that-ended-in-the-toilet-literally-20220211-p59vqw.html
Australia’s public sector isn’t big enough to meet the challenges of the 21st century, good enough to meet the expectations of the Australian public, or well governed enough to cope with the inevitable expansion heading its way, writes Richard Denniss in a thought-provoking article. He says, “The idea that the smaller the public sector, the more efficient the economy, is completely without foundation. Just as economics is silent on how much is too much to spend on a bottle of wine, it is also silent on how much a country should spend on its health, education and welfare systems.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/government-will-get-bigger-but-will-it-get-better-that-s-up-to-us-20220209-p59v2v.html
Dana Daniel posits that the gulf between city and rural healthcare sparks call for new funding model.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/gulf-between-city-and-rural-healthcare-sparks-call-for-new-funding-model-20220208-p59ure.html
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide will this week hear allegations from army nurses that standards of mental and physical healthcare have declined since Bupa won the ADF health services contract in 2019, writes Tim Barlass who provides some examples.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/jenny-morrison-sick-to-her-stomach-about-psycho-texts-targeting-prime-minister-20220211-p59vt4.html
Head of this royal commission, Dr Peggy Brown, writes, “I was struck by the resilience of the women who appeared before me and my fellow commissioners to answer our questions. They share a bond forged by immeasurable loss. Many were at the forefront of calls for a royal commission. Even after their loved one’s death, they continue to advocate for their children, brothers or sisters.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/you-have-been-heard-providing-a-voice-for-loved-ones-lost-to-defence-suicide-20211218-p59ipp.html
John Faine examines trends in law and order, incarceration, and restorative justice in this worthwhile contribution.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/lock-up-logic-it-s-time-to-rethink-the-use-of-prisons-20220211-p59vnj.html
Freedom of faith can’t be an excuse for freedom to hate, argues a former Australian high commissioner to Ghana, Gregory Andrews.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7616836/freedom-of-faith-cant-be-an-excuse-for-freedom-to-hate/?cs=14258
A St Kilda man set to sue Victoria Police over his mistaken arrest at gunpoint will attempt to use a recent law change to access body-worn camera footage of the incident in the state’s first application of its kind.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/man-sues-victoria-police-in-test-case-of-new-body-camera-footage-rules-20220211-p59vrh.html
The Australian Electoral Commission is increasingly assertive at correcting misinformation online, responding to public posts amid growing fears about foreign interference and homegrown conspiracy theories, explains Caitlin Fitzsimmons.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/defend-democracy-the-race-to-tackle-conspiracy-theories-this-election-20220111-p59nfq.html
Finn McHugh looks at the “Convoy to Canberra” and finds that the lack of a coherent message derails the protesters’ lofty aims.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7618027/lack-of-coherent-message-derails-protesters-lofty-aims/?cs=14264
Cartoon Corner
Peter Broelman
Matt Golding
Reg Lynch
Warren Brown
From the US
” Anthony Galloway of the Age/Herald reports the agency is satisfied no candidates of concern were endorsed, but that it remains concerned about the ongoing activities of “a wealthy businessman with deep ties in both Australia and China, who was known to ASIO as ‘the puppeteer’”.”…
I wonder whether ASIO is also investigating interference by Trumpist USA “puppeteers” on Australian political parties such as the Liberal, PHON and UAP (the PHON and UAP being in turn puppets of the Libs via preferences). The Chinese ones are also a possibility, but I would look for anti-Beijing sources. The pro-Beijing ones were likely to be very supportive of the Liberals before the Libs switched to their “the Reds under the ALP bed” desperate tactic only recently.
In any event, Dutton and his mates are in BIG troubles and yesterday NSW state by-elections have been a clear demonstration that the opinion polls, this time around, will very likely get it right! ASIO won’t come to save them…..
the ongoing activities of “a wealthy businessman with deep ties in both Australia and China, who was known to ASIO as ‘the puppeteer’”.
————————————————–
The well known Politicians who were spotted with a wealthy businessman who has ties with china, were Peter Dutton and other Liberal party members.
Dutton was claimed to be a very close friend of that businessman
Thanks BK. I enjoyed the Maley article.
How did Australia get to this point?!! 😮
Does anyone find the ASIO article deeply concerning? Not totally for the reasons they want to have it though but about the fact that this is being used against a political party in such a public way? It’s really dangerous stuff in my view for ASIO and security agencies to be dragged into this (sadly, it seems as though it’s not the first time in recent memory). It undermines their work if they are seen as partisan. None of this appears to have been raised with NSW Labor according to the article and yet the article is awash with references to them on the eve of a by election as well. Terrible stuff in my view.
Confessions @ #5 Sunday, February 13th, 2022 – 7:31 am
Trump/Murdoch/Fox News/facebook/Telegram
Wranslide:
It isn’t the first time the coalition in government have used our public institutions or public service agencies for their own political purposes.
Anecdotally does anyone else on here think charities and not for profit organisations might be a good source of high paying jobs for the progeny of well connected LNP families? I note that Kate Chaney was with Anglicare and have heard of other examples of this as well. If so it makes you wonder for who’s benefit these organisations are really run and maybe a lot of them wouldn’t be needed if we had a government that looked after everybody and not just the well heeled. I also take issue with their money raising strategies using young people who assail you on the street or when you are trying to go into a supermarket, how is this legal?
https://twitter.com/TwoEyeHead/status/1491934118309154816
Duttonation: ChiNESE or AlbaNESE …
Firefox congratulations are in order. The Green/Liberal alliance is working well. Without exhausted Green preference the Liberals would not have retained Willoughby.
PP
Quite a few of those organisations exist for the sake of existing – as in, once they may have met a need but now they’ve got offices and infrastructure, even if the need is being (largely) met by other means, they still have to keep going.
To be fair, in my time as a local councillor, I found multiple examples of this with local boards and community provided services – for example, one had been set up to amalgamate council tips and was still in existence a decade afterwards.
Some of them did just seem a way of keeping some old bloke who would be otherwise unemployable going…
G’morning Bludgers
“New Zealand authorities resorted to playing Barry Manilow’s greatest hits in an attempt to dislodge protesters camped outside its parliament building.
Songs by the US singer crooner we being played on a 15-minute loop, along with the Spanish dance tune, Macarena.”
http://news.thenewdaily.com.au/c/1wq7KPx1cx8i2iiCtDz0utBGv
Gotta luv those Kiwis. That is such a good laugh to start the day.
We’re just going to brave SkyNews for the reaction to an interesting vote yesterday.
@frednk come on. Really? Voter’s also have choice. Greens voters tend to follow the card but they are not as disciplined on it especially at a state level.
Whilst these independents might disrupt the party machine and cruel funding for the Libs (a great thing) at the end of the day most of them are voting for the Libs in parliament forever more. It is not the fault of the Greens (they have many) that Willoughby was lost. At least they put a candidate up I guess. Labor could have done the same and just run dead with little cost.
Wranslide,
It actually costs quite a bit to run a candidate in a seat you are highly likely to lose. Better for NSW Labor to keep the money for the soon come federal election.
Labor was concentrating its efforts in Strathfield and Bega, seats it had a realistic chance of winning.
@catmomma I understand the cost and it was a no brainer for Labor not to run there. I am not critical of it. I was just trying to temper down this whole Greens made Libs win Willoughby.
‘Wranslide says:
Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 8:04 am
@frednk come on. Really? Voter’s also have choice. Greens voters tend to follow the card but they are not as disciplined on it especially at a state level.
….’
———————————–
Some facts that the Greens may or may not wish to confront:
The Greens voters choices made the difference with the Liberals retaining Willoughby.
Bandt is a dud. (As far as I am concerned it is in the interests of Labor for the Greens to ignore this obvious fact.)
The Greens face the same problem with the other protest minors that Labor faces with the protest Greens: they suck up oxygen, they force a dispersion of scarce campaign resources, they result in wedges, they sap primary votes and they bleed preferences.
Voters are not buying halving the ADF.
Voters are not buying wholesale destruction of several industries.
Voters are not buying spending four hundred billion on covering 200,000 acres on a million houses.
Voters are not buying taxing billionaires out of Australia.
Voters know that the Greens cannot save the Reef.
The women’s revolt is not going to the Greens.
ICAC is not resonating for the Greens.
Focusing on LGBTIQ+ concerns is not swaying voters to the Greens.
Wranslide,
It’s not a conclusion I drew. However, I still think it was petty of The Greens not to direct their preferences anywhere, even when in other seats they would have known that Labor directed their preferences to The Greens above the Liberals. In Willoughby it would have been interesting, to say the least, to see if a preference direction may have made a difference to the vote of the Independent candidate. With the codicil that Greens’ voters are perfectly able to make up their own minds. 🙂
After the crowing of triumph this week by Adam Bandt and his acolytes, how did the Greens fare in NSW Super Saturday? Greens primaries at COB are:
Bega – 8.0% a fall of 2.7%
Monaro – 7.5% a fall of 0.3%
Strathfield – 6.1% a fall of 2.8%
And in Willoughby, which was uncontested by Labor, the Greens finished a poor third behind Liberals on 43.5% and a Teal Independent on 32.2%:
Willoughby – 11.9% a rise of 0.8%
But never mind, comrades – onwards and upwards to the next gig!
BH @ #13 Sunday, February 13th, 2022 – 8:03 am
Not sure this would work with the Pinkeyed Brownshirts infesting Scummostan at present – most have severe irony deficiency and are actually attracted to brainworms. I think it’s all the ivermectin flavoured Kool Aid they swallow…
Albo is on SkyNews Sunday Agenda this morning… in a good mood
sprocket:
Thanks for that injection of reality.
I have thought during the week that the gloating by Greens here was a tad premature. Now it would seem not only premature, but they’ve ended up looking just a tad silly.
Wranslide says:
..
Labor could have done the same and just run dead with little cost.
The ultimate run dead is to not put-up a candidate. In a system that allows preference to exhaust it is an important decisions. Labor had no chance of winning, they gave the independent the best chance by not running.
In a seat that the Greens had no chance of winning they fielded a candidate and did not even direct preferences. Bet the Green voters that did not understand the system and exhausted preferences didn’t realize they were voting for the Green/ Liberal alliance, and as the Green had no hope of winning the Liberal candidate was the candidate being supported by the alliance.
As I posted, Congratulation are in order, a Green/ Liberal alliance success.
As good as any summary of the decayed state of the contemporary Liberal and National Parties than:
“ After this week in Parliament, it has never been clearer how scared the government is of the future and how ill-equipped it is to lead Australia into it.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-political-week-that-ended-in-the-toilet-literally-20220211-p59vqw.html
Wranslide at 7.44am
ASIO ‘allowing itself to be used’ might be generous to ASIO!
Always seeking opportunities for revenge over Lionel Murphy’s raid on their HQ back in the 70s, or am I just paranoid?
Very convenient timing of this supposed info (a combination of its vagueness and ‘national security’ means it cannot be verified) becoming public…
There’s no point in voting for a minor party or independent without directing preferences. The vote will most probably be wasted and worse, would be likely help see the voter’s less preferred major candidate get up. You should number preferences if for no other reason than to put your less preferred major party last.
In my cases, had I been able to vote in Willoughby (I’m on the Lane Cove side of the border) , I would have voted for the Teal first, Green second, numbered the others and Liberal last.
The Murdoch Parties are determined to make Australia as second rate as their Patron. Sadly those Parties, and the media, have successfully run this disastrous ideology since the odious Howard. Mass migration and tax cuts are the only “economic” policies they have.
“ Contrary to 25 years of Australian economic orthodoxy, the richest, happiest and healthiest group of countries has the world’s highest tax rates and public sectors much larger than Australia’s. The Nordic countries, with their ‘bloated’ public sectors and ‘burdensome’ taxes, have also delivered faster productivity growth than Australia. While we have moved on from ‘don’t mention the war’ and ‘the inconvenient truth’ of climate change, the Nordic countries remain the policy examples whose names we dare not speak.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/government-will-get-bigger-but-will-it-get-better-that-s-up-to-us-20220209-p59v2v.html
Fiona Kotvojs in Bega doing a Trump and not conceding the election in Bega yesterday. 🙄
The interesting thing about the NSW by-elections is that the really heavy swings were in ‘safe’ Liberal seats (Willoughby and Bega), whereas the traditional Labor seat (Strathfield) moved only a little to Labor. This is similar to the last Victorian election, where Andrews picked up a lot of Liberal heartland seats but there was actually a slight swing against Labor in Werribee, a strong Labor seat. A more worrying trend for the Liberals than Labor, I’d say.
NSW records 22 deaths and 6,686 new cases
There’s now 1,614 cases in hospital with 93 of those in intensive care.
NSW:
– 1,614 hospitalisations
– 93 people in ICU
– 22 lives lost
– 6,686 positive tests: 4,301 RAT & 2,385 PCR
Wow Karen Middleton quoting direct text to show up SfM as lying.
And she’s not letting Speers interrupt her either.
I have always noticed the highest taxing countries are the ones with the highest HDI, wages, standard of living, life expectancy etc…… the lowest taxing countries are usually the basket cases in Asia and Africa.
People dont usually like this little fact being pointed out in chat sites!
Ha!
Speers is being steamrollered on his own show! Give it to him PK! Kick him again, Sam!
Hartcher isn’t holding back either!
Scott Morrison can’t read people well. Who knew?
Confessions @ #37 Sunday, February 13th, 2022 – 9:15 am
Got it wrong and said Labor instead of Liberal. Are the Liberals as bad in his mind now as Labor in their darkest days? 😆
Could the seat of Aston be the canary in the coalmine on the night of the election with Alan Tudge determined to contest again? I hope Labor have a good candidate lined up there.
C@t:
Harcher is right though that this is just rank incompetence from the mob who couldn’t deliver vaccines or RATs and now couldn’t deliver a 3 year old promise in a chamber it controls.
NZ Police get tough with the protestors and James Blunt offers to help 😆
.
James Blunt
@JamesBlunt
Give me a shout if this doesn’t work. @NZPolice
bbc.co.ukNew Zealand plays Barry Manilow to repel parliament protestersProtesters opposed to Covid-19 vaccine mandates remain camped outside parliament.
https://twitter.com/JamesBlunt/status/1492586180226990083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1492586180226990083%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nzherald.co.nz%2Fentertainment%2Fcovid-19-omicron-convoy-parliament-protest-james-blunt-offers-to-help-nz-police-with-his-music%2FF6NVQ5XMJTMR3ZD7JKHOPK7LDA%2F
Scomo is a control freak. Who knew? 😆
Confessions @ #41 Sunday, February 13th, 2022 – 9:19 am
Couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery, even though they are considering giving people 30 cents off a schooner? 😉
poroti:
Air Supply would be watching with interest!
I would like to see a Teal Independent stand for the seat of Aston now ALAN TUDGE has announced he will re-contest his seat . This is despite being stood down as Education Minister following abuse allegations made by a former staffer and the “investigation” into the matter still “going through the process” according to the PM.
Labor only got 29.8 % of the PV in 2019 so a female Independent might have a shot. Labor is no real chance in this seat but an Indy winning this seat would mean one less seat Labor has to win to beat the Coalition. Sure they might vote with the Coalition in most areas but on women’s issues, ICAC and climate change an ASTON Teal would be bound to side with the ALP.
Interesting times ahead.
They should’ve gone straight to the hard stuff and blasted out the Nickelback. 😀
Kristina outlasts Speers… smiling the whole way
David Speers trying for the gotcha’s with Kenneally, it is showing the nuance of the process that showed the ammendments were there. The fact they were needed is the point – why did the Coalition introduce it in the first place.
The government put forward the legislation – Labor put appropriate amendments up.
Getting somewhere at last … the ‘statement of belief’ is the stumbling block, not that that’s news.