Three items of electoral relevance to emerge amidst the New Year news and polling drought:
• Paul Sakkal of The Age reports Stephanie Hunt, corporate lawyer and former legal adviser to Julie Bishop and Marise Payne, will seek Liberal preselection for Goldstein, which Tim Wilson hopes to recover after losing to independent Zoe Daniel in 2022. Wilson remains the front-runner, in the estimation of a further report in The Age today.
• Lydia Lynch of The Australian reports Margie Nightingale, former teacher and policy adviser to Treasurer Cameron Dick, is the front-runner to succeed Annastacia Palaszczuk in her seat of Inala, the by-election for which is “tipped to be held in March”. Palaszczuk’s former deputy chief-of-staff, Jon Persley, had long been mentioned as her likely successor, but he has withdrawn from contention, saying the party’s gender quota rules played a “big factor” in the decision.
• Sue Bailey of the Sunday Tasmanian reports that veteran former Liberal Senator and conservative stalwart Eric Abetz will seek state preselection in the division of Franklin for an election due in June next year, assuming Jeremy Rockliff’s government is able to keep the show on the road that long.
Socrates
Noting your comments about the fatal Wallerawang crash, it was obvious from the first pictures that the ute and trailer pushed their (and everyone’s ) luck overtaking from the single lane. These setups would work well normally but the drivers piloting lethal vehicles have gone feral.
A quadruple fatality at Jier Creek between Yass and Canberra was a ute entering a passing lane after a lengthy and apparently frustrating section of single lane driving behind a slower vehicle. They enter the overtaking lane on a sweeping left hand bend and I’ve regularly seen vehicles encroaching on the single lane on the other side of the road to ‘get around’ the object of their frustration.
We have a lethal mix of dangerous vehicles driven by aggressive and immature drivers.
With respect to UK roads…their safety standards don’t apply to the 1000s of kms of single lane country roads, especially in high tourist areas!
Hello all
Thanks BK for your round up
I thought Hastings was the site of
Steelworks
Terminal to offload natural gas from Gladstone
So plibersek blocking wind farms is very disappointing
timbo
Haha indeed. There’s a lot of good stuff built on that single item of faith, and only one problem if it’s wrong. And as Sabine points out at the end, if that faith is misplaced, no-one will care.
I think it’s past time the Australian government pressed the UN to intervene in the ME situation with a peace keeping force.
Work your magic Albo !
”
Confessionssays:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 7:13 am
Another factor causing a lack of spots for women and renewal in the Liberal Party is that the defeated men simply won’t go away. Tim Wilson, Scott Morrison and many others – they seem incapable or unwilling to move on from politics after clear rejection by the electorate
Eric Abetz…
”
No. Erica betz….
Hence he is acceptable. 🙂
There was another horror crash at Lithgow yesterday. The road looked to be, again, single lane either way. 🙁
@RexDouglas
The main beneficiaries of S3 tax cuts are not the rich but the middle class, “Howard aspirational” class who see it as being an incentive to earn more money and some well-timed cost of living relief.
It’s harder than you think for someone in their late-30s or early-40s with a young family to pay off a mortgage, even on two full-time incomes in the upper 100s/lower 200s.
Rex Douglas @ #54 Monday, January 8th, 2024 – 9:47 am
You do know that Penny Wong, our Foreign Minister, whose actual job it is, is going over there on behalf of the Australian government, don’t you?
Of course you do, but it doesn’t suit your narrative to mention that. Does it?
C@tmomma says:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 9:48 am
There was another horror crash at Lithgow yesterday. The road looked to be, again, single lane either way.
I think that was an 8yo victim of the wallerawang crash, could be wrong.
Holdenhillbilly @ #6 Monday, January 8th, 2024 – 6:48 am
No … words … 🙁
The death yesterday of the young girl related to the Lithgow crash around christmas.
Confessions @ #18 Monday, January 8th, 2024 – 7:23 am
Locally we know that this is a vanity project by Abetz. He’s still doing the grassroots campaigning job for the Libs, things like manning the stand at local agricultural shows and the Referendum early voting locations.
He’s still absolutely behind the scenes trying to pull the strings of the religious conservative side of the Liberal party, he is advising the two northern ex-libs who recently left the party. He is known to back Michael Ferguson the Deputy Premier who can be classified as Christian conservative and who would challenge Rockcliff for the top job if he had the numbers.
Abetz says he has the support of the voters as he got 15k or so below the line votes when he was put in the unwinnable third Senate position in the 2022 election, but those people probably dont live in the seat of Franklin where he wants to stand, one of the few seats in Australia that voted majority Yes in the referendum.
So would he win a seat in Franklin? Probably yes. Will he win Liberal Party preselection? That’s a toss up. He lost a rather secret bid for upper house preselection recently.
I reviewed the comments on the Mercury FB page and they split 50/50 for against Abetz moving into state politics.
Two recent puff pieces in the Mercury.
https://archive.md/i5h2z
https://archive.md/Z3AvF
“Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is one of the most reclusive Pentagon chiefs in recent memory. That’s creating a major problem for him now.
Austin’s failure to inform his most senior advisers, congressional leaders and even President Joe Biden of his hospitalization last week due to complications from a medical procedure has erupted into a controversy that’s left senior White House and Pentagon officials infuriated and befuddled. Some Republicans quickly called for investigations or even for Austin to be disciplined or fired.
Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown was not informed of Austin’s situation until Tuesday, the day after his hospitalization, a senior Defense Department official told POLITICO on Sunday. Even Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who assumed some of his duties while he was in the hospital, did not know his whereabouts until Thursday, a second senior DOD official said after CNN first reported the news…
… Austin’s job appears safe — at least for the moment, but pressure is growing within the administration and on Capitol Hill for someone to lose their job.
“This is basic, sort of subordinate behavior, 101, and the secretary of defense was subordinate to the commander in chief and he failed,” said the second senior DOD official.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/07/austin-has-long-been-a-quiet-operator-that-just-backfired-on-him-00134199
What to say. Public office and over-zealous concern for privacy are rarely good bedfellows. Look at the reaction to then Opposition Leader Mark Latham’s excuse at absenting himself from public comment over the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami: “I’m on leave.”
”
”
But tried to get elected as POTUS using his name and fame.
I read a story in NYT that the night Hillary Clinton was finally defeated in 2016, the Democrat insiders reportedly said finally no more Clinton. Some Liberal journalist wrote that the problem
for Hillary Clinton was she was sandwiched between 2 charismatic POTUSes. As per opinion polls in 2016 she was the second most disliked, who run for POTUS in US polling history (ofcourse the other being Trump).
In some TV sitcom show, they showed Chelsea Clinton as future POTUS in third decade of 21st century.
Trickle up politics at work
@Ven: Chelsea Clinton will never even be a Congresswoman let alone a future POTUS. In the next decade of the 21st century, America will be a non-democratic right wing dictatorship regime. Even the pretense of elections may no longer exist.
”
Rachel Baxendale gleefully reports that Labor’s renewable energy target has been thrown into jeopardy after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek vetoed its lynchpin, Victoria’s offshore wind strategy, over a “clearly unacceptable” risk to local wetlands.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/plibersek-ruling-on-victorias-offshore-wind-strategy-an-illwind-for-alp-energy-policy/news-story/1e36e1ba893c1a62df278db37ac2b48f?amp=
”
What say you Rex and Irene.
”
Michael McGowan reports that the Minns government has been warned that attempting to stop religious schools from hiring or firing staff because of their adherence to “Christian ethos”, including sexuality, would be a breach of religious freedoms.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/religious-groups-argue-for-right-to-hire-fire-staff-based-on-sexuality-20240107-p5evmt.html
”
Right on cue!
We had this discussion yesterday ad nauseum
”
The resilience of the US economy and society during and after the pandemic has been remarkable. But so is the pessimism of ordinary people, writes Paul Krugman who concludes by saying that by most measures, the US is on the mend. He hopes it doesn’t lose its democracy before people realise that.
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/america-is-on-the-mend-but-do-the-voters-believe-it-20240107-p5evmi
”
There you go! Right from horse’s mouth.
The West Australian reports that the first would be Liberal candidate to tackle Kate Chaney in Curtin has emerged.
Needless to say it’s a man.
Private school educated former Barnett government adviser Tom White also was a state and Federal Young Liberals president.
Ticks all the boxes.
Among his gigs as an adviser was time with Clan powerbroker Peter Collier.
His more recent employment was with Uber in Japan and South Korea.
Chaney’s margin in 2022 was 1.26 percent, making Curtin the most marginal of the seats won by independents.
Mostly Interested:
Thanks for that info. I don’t doubt he’s still trying to pull strings and wield influence behind the scenes.
”
In a recent speech to mark the third anniversary of the Capitol attack, President Joe Biden warned that Donald Trump will undo American democracy, reports Julia Conley who says that Trump still remains grave threat to democracy.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/three-years-after-january-6-trump-remains-grave-threat-to-democracy,18220
”
Another right from horse’s mouth!
If Paul Krugman is hind horse, Biden is front horse.
”
Soharsays:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 7:57 am
I guess that if Victoria wanted to build a fossil fuel terminal on the Hastings site, Plibersek would have gleefully said yes. She’s from the same NSW Labor mob (Minns) that wanted to ban wind power in the state.
”
So you don’t have a problem wetlands being destroyed. Good to know Sohar your views on Environmental species protection.
”
MelbourneMammothsays:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 7:58 am
Do the federal Liberal Party actually have any incentive to pre-select more women into their ranks?
It’s patently obvious that their strategy is no longer to win back the leafy, well educated seats in Melbourne and Sydney’s east. They want to go for the outer suburbs and regional/rural areas where they perceive the median citizen’s values are many decades behind that of inner urban areas. This means that these people they are targeting think that men should occupy positions of authority and power in a “strict father” capacity” and “a woman’s job is in the home”*.
*Unless you are an exceptional “woman of calibre”, such as Bronwyn Bishop, Pauline Hanson, or Marjorie Taylor Greene.
”
Or ‘women of calibre’ like Sussssan Ley, Michaela Cash, Linda Reynolds.
Tanya Plibersek’s actual job is to oversee environmental standards as legislated by the parliament, which includes things like wetlands, endangered species, etc, etc.
She does not have any legal power to stop something just becasue it is a fossil fuel project, although she may impose conditions to limit its impact on the immediate environment. Which power she has used on a number of occasions.
Rather than attacking her exercise of her powers, advocacy needs to be focused on the government as a whole implementing a climate trigger on new projects but it needs to acknowledge that any government is not going to commit electoral suicide by being absolutist on this, as keeping the lights on domestically is an imperative.
Obviously the Minister needs to apply the law and any discretion held must be used appropriately, and I haven’t reviewed either the Minister’s obligations nor the breadth of her discretion.
Also as a matter of basic starting point wetlands should not be disturbed.
Disturbing a wetlands to facilitate urgent offshore wind is a sacrifice that should be made and quickly.
”
Macarthursays:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 8:01 am
[from last thread:]
nath @ Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 10:34 pm:
[Entropy:] “Still it is better than having Peter Costello telling you how many children you should have and who owns them: “one [baby] for Mum, one for Dad, and one for the country”
[nath:] “Possibly the most interesting thing Costello has ever said. He didn’t really ever go off script.”
========================
Entropy and nath, that is certainly about the only thing I think of when I think of Peter Costello – which nowadays is only when I hear/read his name mentioned. (Disclaimer – we were direct beneficiaries of his Baby Bonus. And yes, we had three boys, so we did exactly as he urged. And no, his urging was not in any sense the urging which urged us to fulfil his urge for us.)
”
Macarthur
What is the third child doing for the country at the moment as Costello wanted? 🙂
The financial management undertaken by the Victorian Government with its water authorities, if done by a public company, would be lauded in the financial pages as sound capital management, but perhaps criticised for being a bit tame.
Since it seems everything in Victoria was privatised or corporatised by Kennett to enable such financial management, I fail to see how the opposition (in which I include The Age which published this article) can criticise.
WeWantPaul @ #76 Monday, January 8th, 2024 – 9:29 am
I’m sure there are alternative locations and they will quickly be found.
Would they be ‘hostages’ if they broke into Mar-a-Lago: Ex-Trump aide on Jan. 6 rioters
Stephanie Grisham worked briefly as Donald Trump’s press secretary, but she spent the majority of her time working with first lady Melania Trump’s office. She was there on Jan. 6 when the U.S. Capitol came under siege by MAGA fans who tried to stop the Electoral College count finalizing the winner of the 2020 election.
On the weekend of the third anniversary, CNN’s Jim Acosta couldn’t help but notice the new Republican Party talking point to refer to those in prison for their crimes on Jan. 6 as “hostages” rather than convicts. Grisham suspected it’s a new talking point that Republicans are being urged to use to refer to rioters.
“These are people who went to the capitol, broke windows, broke in, had Democrats and again Republicans scared for their lives,” she said. “Police officers were injured. People died that day.”
She asked what would happen, hypothetically, if the script were flipped.
What if Biden encouraged people to go to Mar-a-Lago or to Republican congressional offices and they broke windows and broke into Mar-a-Lago and took things and stole things and had people scared for their lives?”
“I’m sure there are alternative locations and they will quickly be found.”
I hope you are right, but by your own logic there are suitable locations that can be quickly and easily found, and the party responsible for doing it failed miserably on their first attempt. So on your own logic that same party succeeding quickly seems inconsistent.
In the real world, particularly with climate denier types desperate to stop wind power at all costs, it could be a long long time and a lot more taxpayer money.
”
Rex Douglassays:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 9:09 am
Yeah you just wish Tanya was as tough on fossil fuel projects as she has been on this Western Port Bay decision. Labor is all fcked up on energy/environment policy.
Let’s just hope that Labor Fed and Vic Govts sort this out quick smart.
”
Good to know Rex that Wetlands are not worth protecting. This adds to the things you oppose.
1. Don’t tax people who have Super over $3 million
2. Don’t tax wealthy senior citizens for aged care.
And you call yourself a Environmental protection warrior.
WeWantPaul @ #76 Monday, January 8th, 2024 – 10:29 am
This is the bit I find disturbing. Fossil Fuel projects are allowed to destroy the planet and no-one bats an eyelid, but renewables projects are not allowed to disturb a wetlands that is doomed anyway if we don’t act urgently.
Someone has their priorities all wrong.
“This is the bit I find disturbing. Fossil Fuel projects are allowed to destroy the planet and no-one bats an eyelid, but renewables projects are not allowed to disturb a wetlands that is doomed anyway if we don’t act urgently.
Someone has their priorities all wrong.”
Yeah for some there is no habitat more important than a coal mine and no habitat less important than clean energy.
And nimbies of every single koolaid colour stopping or significantly delaying meritorious developments is hardly a new political phenomenon.
billie,
I am going to speak up here for the migratory birds. Many of these birds have flown long distances and are at the point of exhaustion by the time they reach the wetlands on the coast. If they get blown off course, they die.
I suspect that there are other places offshore wind farms – which I am totally in favour of – can be built, and in fact onshore wind farms are actually more efficient produces of renewable energy.
One concern maybe that you need a shallow coastal shelf for the offshore wind farms, and this may be preferentially in areas where there are important wetlands.
I have got to k ow a lot about the importance of wetlands for the survival of migratory species from living not too far (in Australian terms) from the Arcachon basin west of Bordeaux. These wetlands are very popular birdwatching spots, and the annual migrations make the news. Sadly, some very rare species do get blown off course, and are found only dead.
Of course, onshore wind farms in France are no problem – the French farmers actually like them – it provides much needed income, and shelter for the local goats and cows.
Ven says:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 10:11 am
”
Michael McGowan reports that the Minns government has been warned that attempting to stop religious schools from hiring or firing staff because of their adherence to “Christian ethos”, including sexuality, would be a breach of religious freedoms.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/religious-groups-argue-for-right-to-hire-fire-staff-based-on-sexuality-20240107-p5evmt.html
”
Right on cue!
We had this discussion yesterday ad nauseum
The mystification of false beliefs has been used to justify every possible depravity in the past. This should stop. A subscription to false beliefs – being superstitious – should not give rise to a right to discriminate against others.
People are free to believe whatever they like. But they may not act towards others in ways that diminish the rights of others to equal treatment. This should be the code for all, regardless of idiosyncratic cosmologies. This would mean – in fact, certainly does mean – that civil office, for example, is open to all, regardless of their cosmology/demonology. This is a two-way street with respect to make-believe.
For all the hysteria shown here by the usual suspects, you would not know that it is not the wind farm that has been blocked but the port facility to be built at Hastings to assemble the wind farm. Here is some of the report from the Age:
“Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has blocked a port for Victoria’s first offshore wind farm as “clearly unacceptable” because of the risk to fragile local wetlands in the Mornington Peninsula.
The country’s first designated zone for offshore wind generators was declared by the Albanese government in 2022 to be in an ocean bed 20 kilometres off the coast of Gippsland’s town of Golden Beach, with the Port of Hastings proposed as a base for the assembly of the wind farms.
Minister Plibersek refused the proposed port facility in Hastings on December 18, saying in a notification of her decision published on th environment department website that the project was deemed “clearly unacceptable” under national environmental law and “cannot proceed”.”
Still, like the people they purport to despise, the usual suspects here have no respect for international treaties or the rule of law when it interferes with their feelpinions about what should be done.
As migratory birds are almost certainly completely immune to all the negative effects of climate change, I’m sure they’ll be beyond delighted that even little steps towards mitigation are being thwarted. The sooner all those stupid mammals are dead the better.
The wetlands have to be protected. Very simple. The engineers can find an alternative location for a port. Plibersek is right.
Douglas and Milko @ #85 Monday, January 8th, 2024 – 9:46 am
I think the issue here is the wharf from which the windmills are sent to their offshore site, not the windmills operational location . I’m sure that a different site could be found although it might be a bit further to transport the windmills and thus slightly more expensive.
““Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has blocked a port for Victoria’s first offshore wind farm as “clearly unacceptable” because of the risk to fragile local wetlands in the Mornington Peninsula.”
Again as the mornington peninsula wetlands are completely immune to fire, flood and seawater rise, not to mention storm and the other myriad negative consequences of climate change, the wetlands will be delighted to stop even a small shoot of positive action on the existential environmental threat. You know it makes sense.
“Good to know Rex that Wetlands are not worth protecting.”
_____________________
Never said that, Ven.
Wetlands are very much worth protecting.
Australia being a global leader in supply of fossil fuels will kill wetlands and their inhabitants. Does Tanya think about that when green lighting more coal and gas …?
”
Player Onesays:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 10:40 am
WeWantPaul @ #76 Monday, January 8th, 2024 – 10:29 am
Obviously the Minister needs to apply the law and any discretion held must be used appropriately, and I haven’t reviewed either the Minister’s obligations nor the breadth of her discretion.
Also as a matter of basic starting point wetlands should not be disturbed.
Disturbing a wetlands to facilitate urgent offshore wind is a sacrifice that should be made and quickly.
This is the bit I find disturbing. Fossil Fuel projects are allowed to destroy the planet and no-one bats an eyelid, but renewables projects are not allowed to disturb a wetlands that is doomed anyway if we don’t act urgently.
Someone has their priorities all wrong.
”
So P1
What you are implying is that because Wetlands will be destroyed anyway by Climate change, let us destroy them earlier because they have no hope of surviving.
It is like those parents, who commit murder – suicide, thinking their children won’t survive when they die.
Criticise Tanya P all you want whenever she approves FF projects based on her assessment of environmental degradation but criticising her for protecting Wetlands because Wind farms cannot be erected near them is poor form.
We are all already suffering because Amazon wetlands are being destroyed by Brazil government.
https://www.pollbludger.net/2024/01/08/monday-miscellany-open-thread-2/comment-page-2/#comment-4205544
Wouldn’t there have to be a cease fire first?
Besides, I wonder which country would be happy [for their peacekeepers, lightly armed peacekeepers have a mixed track record, and this one would be between an army (or more) and insurgents] to be between various administreerde/ claimed parts of the Holy Land, may be Egypt, may be Syria, may be Lebanon?
It is possible to both build windmills and protect wetlands. This is perfectly obvious. It seems to have eluded the engineers who want to build the windmills. There’s a reason for building windmills – to protect the natural environment and all life within it. An alternative construction/loading site should be found. No doubt one will. The environmental imperative will drive this.
ajm,
Yes, it is the port that has (correctly) not been given the go-ahead.
So, a different location can be found for the port.
In Europe, the decision would not be controversial. The wetlands can be protected, and the wind power generation capacity built.
This report, of course, is what got the usual suspects hyperventilating:
“Rachel Baxendale gleefully reports that Labor’s renewable energy target has been thrown into jeopardy after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek vetoed its lynchpin, Victoria’s offshore wind strategy, over a “clearly unacceptable” risk to local wetlands.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/plibersek-ruling-on-victorias-offshore-wind-strategy-an-illwind-for-alp-energy-policy/news-story/1e36e1ba893c1a62df278db37ac2b48f?amp=
””
The first paragraph – as we now know from the Age (and no doubt reports in more ethical media) – is wrong. Shame on the usual suspects for taking anything in Murdoch’s mouthpiece at face value!
It seems clear, by the way, that building a facility as close as possible to the eventual wind farm would have been the cheapest option and, therefore, what was proposed. I stand to be corrected by someone who actually knows something, but surely a more expensive facility a bit further away which would not pose such an environmental threat is quite feasible.
I have to admit, I very much like wetlands. They’re extraordinary….packed with life; and as havens for migratory birds connect different parts of the world with each other. They’re vital parts of the globe’s natural systems and are a source of inspiration for the love of the environment. Australia is a party to the Ramsar Convention. We should further our commitments under the Convention.
Plibersek is absolutely correct.
VCT Et3e says:
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 11:01 am
https://www.pollbludger.net/2024/01/08/monday-miscellany-open-thread-2/comment-page-2/#comment-4205544
Wouldn’t there have to be a cease fire first?
Besides, I wonder which country would be happy [for their peacekeepers, lightly armed peacekeepers have a mixed track record, and this one would be between an army (or more) and insurgents] to be between various administreerde/ claimed parts of the Holy Land, may be Egypt, may be Syria, may be Lebanon?
__________________________________________
The idea of Australia taking part in an international “peace-keeping” is no more sensible than Australia sending warships to stave off the Houthis. We have enough problems in our part of the world.
As the clock is ticking re the Govts emissions targets, I would expect Tanya would be lobbying Albo to help fund the relocation of the replacement Vic windfarm assembly terminal.