The diversion of the South Australian election caused this site to take its eye off the ball during a highly eventful period for federal preselections, which it now endeavours to make good. We start in Victoria, where Labor’s process for the Senate is finally coming to a head. In common with the rest of Labor’s Victorian preselections, the matter has been in the hands of the party’s national executive, which asserted control in response to the branch-stacking scandal surrounding Victorian MLC Adem Somyurek. An already fraught situation was gravely complicated by the sudden death of Kimberley Kitching a fortnight ago, whose hold on the Right-mandated position at the top end of the ticket has since been a matter of fierce dispute.
• Kitching’s vacancy will be filled by Jana Stewart, a Muthi Muthi and Wamba Wamba woman and until recently the deputy secretary at the Victorian Department of Justice, who had previously been lined up to run in the safe seat of Pascoe Vale at the Victorian state election in November. Stewart will serve out the remaining months of Kitching’s term and take the one of the two seemingly unloseable positions on the Senate ticket, in an order to be determined. Tom Minear of the Herald Sun reported Stewart had backing from the Transport Workers Union and Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the chief Right faction parties to a pact with the Socialist Left that has frozen out the Right forces associated with Bill Shorten. The Shorten forces reportedly favoured Natalie Hutchins, the state Corrections Minister and member for Sydenham. Minear further reported that Fiona McLeod, a barrister who performed creditably as the candidate for Higgins in 2019, was “another name in the mix”.
• Following Kim Carr’s retirement announcement on Sunday, the Left-mandated position at the top of the ticket will be filled by Linda White, retired former assistant national secretary of the Australian Services Union. Carr cited health concerns in bringing down the curtain on a Senate career going back to 1993, but it was widely expected he would lose preselection in any case, most likely to White. There were widespread earlier reports that the position was also being pursued by Ryan Batchelor, executive director of the McKell Institute, but both Stewart and White have in fact emerged unopposed.
• A contest has also been avoided in the south-eastern Melbourne seat of Holt, to be vacated with the retirement of Anthony Byrne, with Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association organiser Cassandra Fernando emerging as the sole nominee. The seat will thus remain with the Right, despite what Tom Minear of the Herald Sun described as “a small push from the Left to claim the seat”. The faction’s favoured nominee appeared to be Jo Briskey, political co-ordinator of the United Workers Union.
In New South Wales, the Liberal Party’s long-delayed preselections for Warringah, Hughes, Parramatta and Eden-Monaro and Greenway are to be determined by a three-person committee consisting of Scott Morrison, Dominic Perrottet and state party president Christine McDiven, following an intervention by the party’s federal executive. Here too legal action is afoot, with earlier federal executive intervention being contested in the New South Wales Supreme Court by conservative activist Matt Camenzuli. The party’s conservative forces stand to benefit from party reforms to increase the power and the rank and file, which Scott Morrison and his centre-right factional ally Alex Hawke have been seeking to circumvent.
• The intervention entails the cancellation of a rank-and-file ballot to choose a candidate for Hughes, held by the once Liberal and now United Australia Party member Craig Kelly. Where previously it was thought an intervention would rubber-stamp the preselection of Alex Dore, a management consultant who lives in Manly, Murray Trembath of the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader reports there is “now speculation war widow Gwen Cherne, who was the inaugural Veteran Family Advocate Commissioner on the Repatriation Commission, is being considered”. The acknowledged front-runners for the now-cancelled rank-and-file ballot were state Holsworthy MP Melanie Gibbons and local lawyer Jenny Ware.
• Anne Davies of The Guardian reports that David Elliott, state Transport Minister and centre-right factional ally of Scott Morrison, is considering putting his name forward in Parramatta or Greenway. Elliott’s federal ambitions may be complicated by his recent efforts as minister, which placed him at the centre of a shutdown of Sydney’s public transport network last month.
• One rank-and-file ballot that was allowed to proceed was that to replace John Alexander in Bennelong, which was won by Simon Kennedy, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey. Anne Davies of The Guardian reports that Kennedy, a factional conservative, emerged an unexpected winner in a rank-and-file ballot over moderate-aligned Gisele Kapterian, former chief-of-staff to Michaelia Cash, by 148 votes to 95.
• A weekend meeting of the party’s state council determined that incumbents Marise Payne and Jim Molan will respectively fill the first and third positions on the Coalition Senate ticket, the second being mandated to the Nationals. This amounts to defeat for the third incumbent, Connie Fierravanti-Wells, who has compared her situation to that of Kimberley Kitching. Another unsuccessful nominee was Mary-Lou Jarvis, a lawyer and Woollahra councillor.
Elsewhere:
• Andrew Charlton, economist and former adviser to Kevin Rudd, is expected to be imposed by Labor’s national executive as its candidate for Parramatta, where the Liberals are hopeful of overhauling a 3.5% margin with the retirement of Julie Owens, the Labor member since 2004. Michael McGowan of The Guardian reports Labor “spent weeks shopping for a celebrity candidate in a bid to railroad a local rank-and-file ballot”, with targets including former state Granville MP David Borger and Sydney barrister Cameron Murphy. A rank-and-file ballot would likely have yielded Durga Owen, a former staffer to Owens, who seemingly was not favoured by Anthony Albanese. Other prospective candidates for a rank-and-file ballot were Alan Mascarenhas, a former Sydney Morning Herald journalist, and Abha Devasia, a Left-aligned lawyer. All three are of of Indian background, and thus representative of a demographic with a strong presence in the electorate. The move to install Charlton, who lives in Bellevue Hill in the eastern suburbs, has predictably “infuriated local branch members”, and drawn criticism from Owens.
• Nick Xenophon announced last week he will seek to return to his earlier vocation at the election as Senator for South Australia, a position he held from 2008 until his ill-fated bid to gatecrash the 2018 state election. He has since maintained a profile as a partner of law firm Xenophon Davis. Rex Patrick, who filled Xenophon’s Senate vacancy in 2017 and later abandoned his Centre Alliance party, appears to have recognised that Xenophon’s return has ended whatever chance he had of being re-elected to the Senate, and is reportedly contemplating a run for the lower house seat of Grey.
• Joe Spagnolo of the Sunday Times reports the Nationals will field candidates in lower house seats in Western Australia against the wishes of Mia Davies, the party’s state leader and, thanks to the extraordinary result of the March 2021 election, the state’s Opposition Leader (a nicety that eluded Scott Morrison during his trip to the state a fortnight ago). The party’s strongest seats in the state are Durack and O’Connor, respectively held for the Liberals by Melissa Price and Rick Wilson.
Morrison has started to bellow
I believe cricket is the #2 topic on this blog.
He’s either bullying and boasting, or hiding at the first sign of trouble. Given the amount of compensation he makes for it I’d say, in his heart(for want of a better word), Morrison has very low self-esteem
pukka
“Pauline Hansen supporting CFW.”
I imagine Jacqui Lambie would be too.
Here’s another one for any Labor Party people reading. Do an ad with an announcer asking what Scott Morrison says to people struggling to pay rent and just spam the audio of him saying “buy a house” “buy a house” “buy a house” in the style of the Liberal ad that spammed Keating saying “go and get a job”.
SLAM DUNK.
We’ve had 10 years of of the Coalition serving up attacks like this on a silver platter and Labor attack ads being like the “top end of town” crap and not reminding people of the Coalition’s own words.
The own words thing is so powerful! People still use “I don’t hold a hose mate” against Morrison more than any hit line confected by a communications team.
If this campaign can’t even take advantage of a beauty of a gaffe like this one by Morrison, why even have an ad team?
Morrison withdrawing from 7:30 report is the ultimate “dead cat”.
Quickly followed up by “buy a house: insult to renters.
CWF has touched a very raw nerve.
re: Ritter – he’s clearly a complicated individual. He headed up weapons inspection efforts in Iraq, so he clearly had a good view of what was going on at the time, and had useful (and with hindsight correct) things to say at the time about WMDs in Iraq and the (lack of) justification for going to war.
I don’t see that he’s saying much of any quality about the Ukraine situation, and his utility to RT certainly makes me think he doesn’t deserve to have much attention paid to his views.
But I mostly wrote this to say I don’t see why people keep bringing up his conviction for sex offenses – if his argument sucks (and I think it does) point that out. His conviction tells you nothing about the quality of his analysis of the Ukraine/Russia conflict.
Victoria:
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 1:51 pm
[‘Mavis
I will add that once the Queen exits stage left, the monarchy will go through a very unsettled period. It will change quite dramatically.’]
On that, we can agree, and hopefully, we’ll sever our ties by becoming a republic.
Hugh Moran:
Looks like there’s EV charging for $0.00 at the Lightning Ridge Bowling Club though!
Re Morrison and the Leigh Sales interview, it’s almost certainly just that he doesn’t want to compete for eyeballs with the Warne memorial. His interview with Sales last election campaign was a massive softball that probably helped him a great deal, full of open ended questions to talk about whatever he wanted, in stark contrast to the interview with Shorten in which Sales put Liberal attack line after Liberal attack line to him and nothing open ended. He wants to make the softball pitch count, not end up in a story about how low rating the PM’s interview was.
Arky
I agree, there’s literally a smorgasbord of Morrison’s own stuff-ups to choose from, the only issue will be whittling them down to the worst-of-the-worst. He really is a target-rich environment, an opposition advertiser’s delight.
Does an outgoing PM get to make a valedictory speech?
This week maybe FOSCOMMO’s last chance to yell at his friends on both sides of the house.
And this week maybe the last week the HOR has to endure Andrew Wallace, a speaker devoid of integrity and fairness.
Mr Morrison’s weaknesses.
* “I don’t hold a hose.” (Self-inflicted.)
* Scotty from Marketing. (Who came up with that one?)
* “I don’t believe, I know.” (Macron)
Incidentally, I think Macron carries grudges. I noticed how he responded to Biden and Johnson last week.
What you are listening to now is the ravings of a Prime Minister who is obviously very confident and calm about his chances in the upcoming election.
SM shouting an slurring his words, has he has just got the message about PH?
The thing I’ve been most amazed about in the implosion of the Morrison government is the announcement of the Solomon Islands/China agreement. Morrison bangs on about Labor being soft on China, China wanting Labor to win &c, next minute the deal is announced. China sure does want Labor to win, they just want someone who isn’t nuts in charge in Australia.
I guess it hasn’t exploded in the media because they don’t know where the Solomon Islands are.
Victoria
Thanks. I’m with you, with each gust, I look upward with concern. On the upside, we have a builder coming in days to repair the roof leak from the deluge so if worst comes to worst ………..
Morrisonomics Explained…
3 Budgets as Treasurer
+4 Budgets as Prime Minister
+1 Budget as a member of the Expenditure Review Committee
=EIGHT BUDGETS!
(To ironic applause from the Labor side of the House)
Cronus,
Thank for your reply re skydiving this morning. I guess my cousin was doing the same job up here are you were down south.
And yeah, the gusty wind in Brisbane is unnerving alright.
If Hanson is reinforcing CFWs accusations I’d say the band wagon jumping has begun in earnest.
Everyone has now come to the conclusion that his government’s position is hopeless, and that they are about to lose big, so in the parliament its time to settle a few scores. The public are surely of the same opinion, so all those who hate backing a loser will be taking note. The budget was ridiculed and scorned from the moment it appeared. There won’t be a tightening from here, this will be a blowout, at least that’s what I think(I’m often wrong!).
Barnyard name checking Gladstone (Flynn) and Townsville (Herbert and Dawson)… always entertaining.
Cronus
Hoefully the wind gusts will ease up very soon.
As i mentioned. Strong wind makes me very anxious. As it did for our dearly departed Lizzie.
“Buy a house”
Oh yes, that is going to play out really well.
Nothing changes with the Libs.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/joe-hockey-poor-people-cars-claim-misleading/5671168?nw=0&r=HtmlFragment
There is a mystery stat in Putin’s War.
Ukraine is said to have lost less than 100 tanks. But it started Putin’s War with 3,000.
Morrison should have been in a good position this election. Australia has survived Covid well ahead of many nations both economically and in terms of public health.
However, his response to the bushfires, and the general hamfisted way he approached almost every issue since, not to mention the hectoring tone, the apparent annoyance of being PM during COVID, has put him in this position.
I think that one effect from the CFW and PH attacks on Morrison might be a big decline in preferences flowing to the Libs….people might not want to vote 1 ALP…..but more votes may flow through the preference system as Morrisons already abysmal reputation sinks even lower.
Surely in this current environment the ALP should do better than Shorten Labor?
@nath – even IF everything had worked out, incumbency has started to be a liability now.
Everywhere is experiencing the consequences of over-heated economies etc – add in their general incompetence, laziness and tone-deaf nature… well. Oh and the PM being an unlikable creep.
No I haven’t Sprocket 😆
re Petrol prices
Service stations pay for the fuel by bank cheque or cash before it is pumped into their tanks
Operators are on very low margins for fuel
THUS
the earliest we can expect to see price drop by 22 cents is after the next fuel delivery
ARKY –
I reckon you are right about Morrison cancelling 7:30 interview
subgeometer @ #1271 Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 – 1:26 pm
But, but…”mean girls!”. Or something.
ltep @ #948 Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 – 1:58 pm
I was not expecting you to tell us your personal circumstances. My own personal experience affects my appreciation of all sorts of things. I simply expect that yours may do so, as well.
That argument was never made, either by me or Penny Wong, so your acceptance, or otherwise, of your personally invented straw man is irrelevant..
Good of a bloke who has two rent free government houses to give advice to renters
Is he like many mps with extensive property investments I wonder
It’s just classic Scomo to ruin any chances of a budget bounce with that utterly insane “just buy a house” comment. The man is losing it.
subgeometer @ #1274 Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 – 1:26 pm
I’m looking forward to see Mr Morrison’s instincts in play. Will he throw his treasurer under a bus?
Around two thirds of Australians are home owners or buyers. They were the target audience for go buy a house comment..
@LR – Morrison hugged Frydenberg … and Dutton looked v unhappy, even behind his black mask.
Difficult to chuck the guy under a bus when you’ve embraced him publicly. Embracing them publicly then throwing them under a bus behind closed doors (Malcolm can you hear me?) is different.
@BW – there isn’t a ‘target’ audience for that comment, other than monsters. Home owners or not, most people are not going to ‘react’ to the comment with anything other than disgust – confusion.
(In a Charlie Day voice): Oh, buy a house? Just buy a house? Why don’t I strap on my house helmet and squeeze down into a house cannon and fire off into house land, where houses grow on housees?!
I have just checked and there area three articles on Concetta on the front page of ‘The Australian’. The one by Sharri Markson is brilliant and incisive. She just totally sticks it to the Mean Boys in the Liberal Party. Albrechtson writes demanding an inquiry by Morrison while Paul Kelly states that Morrison’s treatment of Concetta is just what you would expect from Albanese showing that it is time for the Labor Party to stop being hypocritical.
jt1983 – I’m probably hoping for too much. After all Mr Morrison has made it clear this is HIS budget. His 8th one now I’m told. (Thereby tying himself to the economic situation all Australia finds itself in.)
Which is more ridiculous?
‘Go buy yourself a house’
OR
‘You can have one of the million that I am going to build for you!’
calyptorhynchus
So true, he just totally rolled over onto his back for China on this issue, it’s a national disgrace that appears will only go noticed in hindsight sadly. Our greatest abrogation of national security ever.
BW:
There is an increasing number of people who own houses but are very bothered by how insanely difficult it is becoming for their adult children to buy a home of their own.
Whoops. I thought the Coalition was committed to the concept of Indigenous Rangers. It turns out that most of the new spending is due until 2025.
Fancy deliberately trying to dud Indigenous communities with fake news.
Intellectual and ethical corruption has many flavours.
I’m sure all the homeless people in the flooded parts of nsw would like to buy a house … somewhere else
Fat chance of that
I’m sure all the homeless people in the flooded parts of nsw would like to buy a house … somewhere else
Fat chance of that
Wat Tyler @ #1290 Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 – 1:46 pm
https://youtu.be/RdZB_MFWotA?t=123
(at 2:03)
‘Asha says:
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 2:53 pm
BW:
There is an increasing number of people who own houses but are very bothered by how insanely difficult it is becoming for their adult children to buy a home of their own.’
——————————-
I was not arguing the merits of the comment. I WAS pointing out that it was a deliberate signal to a constituency that he is seeking to gain votes from. He has long ago lost most of the renters votes. They are 100% disposable. HE DOES NOT GIVE A FLYING FUCK FOR THEM.
Dandy Murray
Camera work by your cousin suggests he’s an accomplished jumper, it’s hard work keeping up …… and sometimes down especially with new jumpers, it takes considerable skill and nerve.
nath @ #1273 Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 – 2:29 pm
Morrison’s gangsters used the pandemic to shift billions of taxpayer dollars into their corporate donors pockets.
Apart from that , the neglect of our seniors in Fed aged care was delivered with the coldest of hearts. Anyone with friends/family in aged care would have seen that.
Morrison’s gangsters were nothing but a hinderance.