We’re entering the final week of the Tasmanian election campaign, with a hotly contested by-election for the South Australian state seat of Dunstan to be held the same day. On the federal polling front though, it’s likely to be a quiet week. There is the following federally relevant electoral news to relate:
• Arch-conservative South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic, who was elected in 2019 from third position on the party ticket, will be the lead candidate after a preselection vote on Saturday that will reduce fellow incumbents Anne Ruston from first to second and David Fawcett from second to third. Paul Starick of The Advertiser reports Antic won the ballot for top position ahead of Ruston by 108 votes to 98. This was despite Ruston’s greater seniority within the parliamentary party as Shadow Health Minister, and Peter Dutton reportedly “using his personal authority” to protect her. A conservative challenger, Leah Blyth, lost to Ruston by 118 votes to 82 in a vote for second position and to Fawcett by 106 to 103 in the vote for third.
• New South Wales Nationals Senator Perin Davey, who made headlines last month after a tired and emotional performance at Senate estimates, narrowly survived a preselection challenge at a party ballot held on March 8. Andrew Clennell of Sky News reports Davey scored 42 votes against 37 for Juliana McArthur, the party’s federal secretary.
• Liberal sources cited by Paul Starick of The Advertiser say Nicolle Flint has been declaring interest in returning to the Adelaide seat of Boothby, which Labor won when she vacated it in 2022. Flint “appears to have effectively ruled out” a run for the state seat of MacKillop, which it was long thought she was planning in pursuit of leadership ambitions.
• It was reported last week that Labor is developing legislation to place caps on political donations, to be balanced by greater public funding. This would be most consequential with respect to Clive Palmer, whose company Mineralogy gave $117 million to his United Australia Party before the last election, and businessman Mike Cannon-Brookes, who donated $1.2 million to Climate 200. The cap is “likely to be in the tens of thousands of dollars”, with the government concerned it be able to survive the kind of High Court challenge that Palmer says he is “absolutely considering”. It is also proposed that a cap be imposed on the amount that can be spent on campaigning in any given electorate, which teals and the Greens complain would disproportionately affect those who target small numbers of the seats. Any changes would not take effect until after the next election.
And yet, he got the job 😮
I first came across Alex Antic when he claimed Magnum ice creams would come under attack from anti-gun activists.
The next Federal election, and to a lesser extent upcoming state elections will be determined by the overseas owned/controlled right wing media as they position Australia for a lesser democratic forum and less information.
Today’s senate positioning in SA, the law and order fear campaign in Qld. and the AUKUS dog’s breakfast are just three of the many “contrarianistic” positioning by those wishing to impose their will and beliefs over a population.
How long before right wing leaders in Australia start ” threatening Australia with “bloodbaths” if their success is not guaranteed ?
The vast inequality of wealth is the “driver” for the right wing maneuvering to distort the views of the voting public.
The “fear” campaigns are well advanced.
Their “operatives” kicking at all levels, well planned and well financed.
The “voice” was hijacked, as is the irrigation overuse in the inland river system, as is the “poker machine” jobs in Tasmania, the anti transmission lines in Eastern Australia, the utes, the bank closures, the “China” peril and the endless parade of disinformation and self interest.
The hugely successful Union instigated superannuation industry is mother of “golden eggs” for the right wing acolytes.
And Dutton, the MSM and the acolytes have us talking about nuclear energy !
They have all the discretion of “fire ants” and the public won’t react to it “bites them on their expansive bums”.
”
Britain doesn’t need ‘reform’. It just needs to rejoin the EU, suggests William Keegan.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/17/britain-doesnt-need-reform-it-just-needs-to-rejoin-the-eu
”
This is another huge delusion of British people.
British people or commentators think that they have to be either in or out.
It is like “bazball” in all circumstances. Agressively going down the track irrespective of the merits of the ball.
FUBAR’s point is that Rushton is a worse performer than each of the male shadow spokespersons in Duttons shadow ministry and that therefore she deserves to be put below Antic who can safely be considered to be the colt from Old Regret when it comes to FUBAR’s preferred Liberal KPIs.
The real criticisms of AUKUS are not safety. The real problems are:
1. Cost
2. Decades away delivery
3. Being tied to US military policy, including potential war with China
4. Being unable to protect Australia from dangers of that war
The AUKUS delivery pathway is very slow. It is effectively “kicking the can down the road” compared to building replacements for the Collins class.
The USA may or may not supply Australia with SSNs. What the USN really wants from Australia now is access to our bases for maintenance. That is far more valuable to the USN than a few more subs. The distance from FBW in Perth to the South China Sea is half the distance from Pearl Harbour.
There was an essay in a recent issue of the USN Naval Proceedings about a hypothetical war with China in the Taiwan Strait, presumably based on wargames. It gives some insight into what the USN thinks is important.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2023/december/you-cant-win-without-more-submarines
Nath
“ I first came across Alex Antic when he claimed Magnum ice creams would come under attack from anti-gun activists.”
The history of Alex Antic has a generous supply of such anecdotes. I see him as a younger, male version of Pauline Hanson. In previous decades the Libs would have expelled him. Now they adopt him to pursue the One Nation voting demographic.
”
Donald Trump said this weekend if he does not win November’s presidential election it will mean the likely end of American democracy. One should not wish ill on anybody, but . . .
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-predicts-the-end-of-us-democracy-if-he-loses-2024-election-20240317-p5fd0s.html
”
But according to him, he will be ‘dictator’ on day one if he wins election and “it will mean the likely end of American democracy. “
Well, maybe. But he isnt like Trump in many ways. Trumps is a mobster whose only ideology is Trump. Antic has a political ideology. Hmmmm. I will have to think about that.
It was more a comment on how major party factional politics, or…. well…. power in general, works in Australia and perhaps more so a point about just what a bunch of useless, spineless, stand-for-nothing windsocks the moderate faction of the Liberal party are. It is quite astounding to see the multi millionaires in the party with a track record of not giving a F about anyone else and only being in the Liberal party to make sure at least one party represents their full interests – being the ones with moral spines trying to stop the party being taken over by far RW religious NJs. Gone are the days a good and powerful moderate would show some ticker and either be an independent and/or work with the centrist (even right of centre sometimes) SA ALP.
Antic is a very small man holding a large ice cream.
Women’s performance in the Liberal Party is always judged to a different standard to that of the men. I guess because it’s such a testosterone-fuelled party these days, ‘Ute Man and ‘Ute Taxes’; firm, hard Nuclear Energy against that namby pamby wind and solar that only comes on sometimes. To go with Dutton’s own Hard Man of politics persona. He doesn’t walk away from a fight, he walks right up to them…like a ‘Real Man’. And it’s true, as has also been observed, that there are some women that like that in their men, and he’s also trying to appeal to them, which he thinks are mostly located in the outer suburbs and the regions, hence his aim at those seats to get him back into government. However, as was also correctly observed, he’s had two goes now to make that a success, in Aston and Dunkley, and he’s failed.
Not that that will stop him, because that’s all he’s got. So, expect that to be put…on steroids. Which is all he’s got to work with, really. Testosterone, steroids, a party mostly full of men and their Antics.
How successful that will be, only time will tell. But, so far, no good.
”
”
A new metro line was recently built (a year ago) in the city of Hyderabad, India, in Southern India. One of the metro station name is “Victoria Park Metro station “.
No, The station doesn’t derive its name from the suburb, which is not called Victoria Park. Apparently, there is a park named ‘Victoria Park’. Not many people other than people living around the park know that park. Queen Victoria is long dead. India got independence after that. India celebrated 75 years of Independence and being a Republic. King Charles did not inaugurate that metro station let alone the Metro line. It is weird selection of name to put it mildly.
Pied pipersays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:38 am
Rushton was a rolled gold dud in gov no wonder labor like her.
=====================================================
How surprising, our resident cooker is an Alex Antic fan.
Quote: “Birds of a feather flock together”
”
WeWantPaulsays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 8:33 am
A cunning Hezbollah plot where they take a highly trained operative into Mexico to cross into the US and he gives his real name and full life story.
Yeah sure
”
🙂
Modern day Baldrick has devised that plan. 🙂
It is quite astounding to see the multi millionaires in the party with a track record of not giving a F about anyone else and only being in the Liberal party to make sure at least one party represents their full interests – being the ones with moral spines trying to stop the party being taken over by far RW religious NJs.
Team Katich,
This is what I meant when I said it sounds so Trumpesque. As a description of the Republican Party that has morphed into pretty much the same thing under Donald Trump. The project goes on in Australia. And Scott Morrison, its lead proponent here, has decamped to America to help co-ordinate the global transition, leaving behind acolytes like Antic to keep the home fires burning.
”
Andrew_Earlwoodsays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 8:52 am
To be honest, Ruston isnt exactly top draw, is she?
Ruston vs Antic tells us everything we need to know about the current state of the marketing scam that is the Liberal Party. Crumb collector vs Ratbag … and the Ratbag wins … again …
”
It appears ratbag always wins after John Howard became PM. 🙂
Boerwar says:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:47 am
Tourism providers, get-away destinations, eco-resorts and the like derive an income flow from providing protected access to the environment. This income flow is resource rent. Businesses set up to exploit the environment are rentiers. They should be paying resource rent tax, which could be thought of as environmental maintenance fees. The fees would be passed to customers, who would then be contributing to the protection of environmental systems.
Renter businesses will object. But they are monetising the social estate. They cannot escape that. They and their customers should be charged something for the benefits they privately extract from the commonly-owned natural environment.
”
Pied pipersays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:38 am
Rushton was a rolled gold dud in gov no wonder labor like her.
”
PP is an Antic supporter. Enough said.
Even the Dutton did not want him in first place (I couldn’t resist)
Japan,South Korea, India, Sweden, Germany and the UK are all aligned or allies of the US but produce their own Subs thus remaining able to make choices in their national interest.
Socratessays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:56 am
Nath
“ I first came across Alex Antic when he claimed Magnum ice creams would come under attack from anti-gun activists.”
The history of Alex Antic has a generous supply of such anecdotes. I see him as a younger, male version of Pauline Hanson. In previous decades the Libs would have expelled him. Now they adopt him to pursue the One Nation voting demographic.
=================================================
Alex Antic is the sort of thing you might see under a rock. The smart thing to do would be to leave him there.
Known unofficially as the 5th Slam, Alcaraz wins back-to-back Indian Wells titles defeating Medvedev 7-6, 6-1.
”
Entropysays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 10:30 am
Socratessays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:56 am
Nath
“ I first came across Alex Antic when he claimed Magnum ice creams would come under attack from anti-gun activists.”
The history of Alex Antic has a generous supply of such anecdotes. I see him as a younger, male version of Pauline Hanson. In previous decades the Libs would have expelled him. Now they adopt him to pursue the One Nation voting demographic.
=================================================
Alex Antic is the sort of thing you might see under a rock. The smart thing to do would be to leave him there.
”
But he is out there flaunting his wares.
As a world leader in the use of behavioural science to “nudge” customers to overcome emotions and make rational financial decisions, it is not surprising that Commonwealth Bank is switching the focus of its behavioural economics team to climate change.
The savings on the average electricity bill from installing rooftop solar, batteries and heat pumps are now so attractive that it is economically irrational not to go for it, especially when financed with discounted lending rates.
CBA’s motivation in trying to develop “nudges” for Australia’s 10 million households to electrify their homes is, of course, not entirely altruistic.
There are potentially billions of dollars of loans to be made to customers electrifying their homes by switching from coal-fired power and gas appliances to solar and battery powered.
An equally large line of lending opportunities will be available from the switch to electric vehicles and
CBA comes to household electrification with a number of advantages. It is the main financial institution for 35 per cent of Australians, it has a quarter of all mortgages sold in Australia, and it has a suite of products for financing rooftop solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and Teslas, which account for more than half the EVs sold in Australia.
It is possible the federal government will step in with its own loan products for electrifying households as suggested by scientist Saul Griffith in AFR Weekend. But with the likelihood of means testing there will still be an enormous lending opportunity for the banks.
Griffith told the CBA’s third annual sustainability conference in Sydney last week that about $2 trillion could be spent electrifying residential houses between now and 2050. If that happens, he says there will be $1.7 trillion in fossil fuel savings.
https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/cba-wants-to-corner-the-2trn-market-for-household-electrification-20240316-p5fcxg
A fine essay from Timothy Snyder on “The Strongman Fantasy
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-strongman-fantasy?publication_id=310897&post_id=142669610&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=2sg42&triedRedirect=true
Snyder uses history to demolish the myth of the strongman. Most strongman rule for themselves, not the nation. Life under strongman ends up poorer and less secure for everyone except the strongman.
nath:
LMAO, where does the Liberal Party find these crackpots!?
giles is a weak-as-water dud, time to push him aside Albo… 😡
immigration need a f….ng head kicker not a jelly roll 😮
“Lambie joins Coalition’s calls for immigration minister to step down
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie.
It came as the Coalition warned up to 150 further detainees could be released if the government loses its High Court hearing next month. Follow live.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-news-live-labor-plans-new-immigration-defence-tiktok-faces-new-calls-for-ban-20240318-p5fd4b.html
Ashasays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 11:17 am
nath:
I first came across Alex Antic when he claimed Magnum ice creams would come under attack from anti-gun activists
LMAO, where does the Liberal Party find these crackpots!?
________________________________
It’s more a case of how does the Liberal Party find somebody who isn’t…
Asha
I think the crackpots find the liberal party.
They are not so stupid as to not recognise the opportunity to take advantage of a moribund organisation where average member is not that smart.
Before you know it they endorsed and elected.
Another one, Phil Twiss, has bobbed up on a winnable spot on the WA Legislative Council ticket.
Ashasays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 11:17 am
nath:
I first came across Alex Antic when he claimed Magnum ice creams would come under attack from anti-gun activists
LMAO, where does the Liberal Party find these crackpots!?
—————
Both parties have their crackpots but the ALP keeps their crackpots away from where they can do damage and they are happy to let the Greens have them but the Liberals have not worked this out.
Uber settles class action.. to avoid massive ( HUGE even) payout in other jurisdictions?
‘Fought tooth and nail’: Aussie taxi drivers set for whopping $272m Uber payout in world first
Uber is set to pay Aussie taxi drivers an eye-watering $272 million in a historic world-first class action settlement.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/on-the-road/fought-tooth-and-nail-aussie-taxi-drivers-set-for-whopping-272m-uber-payout-in-world-first/news-story/9e5101727384dc23ee5da1e621d64e7e
‘Stooge says:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 10:25 am
Boerwar says:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:47 am
Tourism providers, get-away destinations, eco-resorts and the like derive an income flow from providing protected access to the environment. This income flow is resource rent. Businesses set up to exploit the environment are rentiers. They should be paying resource rent tax, which could be thought of as environmental maintenance fees. The fees would be passed to customers, who would then be contributing to the protection of environmental systems.
Renter businesses will object. But they are monetising the social estate. They cannot escape that. They and their customers should be charged something for the benefits they privately extract from the commonly-owned natural environment.’
===========================
Uh huh. All very well but this is not what it says in the Antarctica Treaty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Treaty_System
Antic and the Brisbane Council elections are examples of the lure of the extremes.
Dunkley was, IMO, something of an example of the opposite.
The by-elections were an example of the Overton Window sliding quite rapidly to the right.
Socrates says:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:54 am
The real criticisms of AUKUS are not safety. The real problems are:
1. Cost
2. Decades away delivery
3. Being tied to US military policy, including potential war with China
4. Being unable to protect Australia from dangers of that war
The AUKUS delivery pathway is very slow. It is effectively “kicking the can down the road” compared to building replacements for the Collins class.
The USA may or may not supply Australia with SSNs. What the USN really wants from Australia now is access to our bases for maintenance.
———————
Trump and Biden are pleased Australian $’s will contribute to build their new nuclear powered submarines. Courtesy of the Albanese government. The slow down in their build will mean delivery of any US second hand ones these $’s are a down payment for will be well beyond the early 2030’s.
Labor certainly are poor money managers when it comes to Defence, pharmacists, child care, aged care, low rental housing, immigration, public hospitals, our public schools,…
And Labor is helping out ex Liberal PM Morrison, ex Liberal Treasurer Hockey, ex Liberal Defence Ministed Pyne with well paying consultancy jobs. From the taxpayer contribution of $368billion for AUKUS. Which may increase as most Defence purchases do.
Think too ex WA Labor Premier Mark McGowan has joined Hockey’s consultancy group, Bondi Partners. May help with the HMAS Stirling Naval Base in Perth where low grade nuclear waste will be stored.
March 13, 2024. The United States Navy and Royal Australian Navy have launched a PR assault on Perth this week to address a looming AUKUS recruitment crisis.
The USS Annapolis Los Angeles-class fast-attack nuclear submarine docked at HMAS Stirling Naval Base on Sunday where much of its 155 crew will use their time on land to sell the job to Australians who will be needed to man the RAN’s own Virginia-class nuclear submarines over the next decade.
US Navy’s Nuclear Submarine AUKUS charm offensive begins in Perth
https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/western-australia/us-navy-s-nuclear-submarine-aukus-charm-offensive-begins-in-perth-20240312-p5fbxr.html#
And the bases, certainly in the Northern Territory, are courtesy of the Gillard and Albanese Labor governments.
Labor are more pro USA than the Liberal Party. Why, I wonder? Any idea?
Are they looking at future jobs for certain Labor MPs? Or is it the need for helping the US attack China?
Or the need to guarantee US will come to our defence. The ANZAS agreement states there is no guarantee the US would.
That’s a win.
Some more grist to the grinder:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/17/calls-wider-war-israel-border-hezbollah
Irene running Xi’s lines again?
What a surprise!
You are right Entropy, dolt is at best mild PG- as proven in the seinfeld episode ‘the susie’.
Elaine is called a dolt inadvertently by a colleague and didn’t blink an eyelid and just went on with her business. Rainman is just jealous because ‘dolt’ would be quite the promotion for him.
Interesting that November is shaping up for albo to call it- no doubt his strategists are concerned for a Trump win and subsequent tearing up of the AUKUS sub deal. But then if that was the case shouldn’t he have the election run on a late october saturday?
Every time I see giles on the telly I cringe, he behaves and acts like a meek
useless primary school teacher out of his depth with a class full of kiddly winks 😡
Seems inevitable he’ll soon be managed out.
giles should be managed out…
‘However, as was also correctly observed, [Dutton]’s had two goes now to make that a success, in Aston and Dunkley, and he’s failed.’
The Candidate in Aston wasn’t suited to that electorate, but Dutton reportedly selected the Dunkley candidate, but if his concessio speech is anything to go by, he wasn’t a good candidate either.
Harking back to the 2018 S:44 byelection in Longman [neighbouring Dickson], I wonder if Dutton had a hand in selecting ‘Big Trev’ Ruthenberg, who crashed and burned there and ended up taking Turnbull down too? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Ruthenberg
If so, then Dutton’s judgement of people can be called into question.
BW: ‘… Antic … can safely be considered to be the colt from Old Regret …’
… and all the crackpots had gathered to the fray.
‘British activist Kellie Jay Keen told 3AW on Monday she had instructed lawyers to launch an action this week.’
Another RWNJ snowflake.
They’ve been doing that a lot lately.
I still believe the 2019 election result had more to do with an anti-Shorten judgement than an outright rejection of policies such as with NG.
The High Court finds that Coalition legislation defective and the Labor Government Minister has to resign? Not seeing the logic there.
Lambie calls for Giles to step down over detention debacle.
Jacqui Lambie is demanding Andrew Giles move to the backbench ahead of a critical High Court decision next month.
Scooping up some pre election votes in Tasmania.Clever move.
Meanwhile the job for life trash at the weather bereau are labors besties!
How the BOM’s big dry weather forecast cost millions
Farmers and other weather-dependent businesses are lamenting the financial costs due to the Bureau of Meteorology’s big dry warning that turned out to be wrong.
Davo
Every time I see giles on the telly I cringe, he behaves and acts like a meek
useless primary school teacher out of his depth with a class full of kiddly winks ????
Don’t you worry about that !, I’m more interested in the $13.93 Billion surplus he
will be talking about in the June budget !.
Irenesays:
Monday, March 18, 2024 at 11:50 am
Labor are more pro USA than the Liberal Party. Why, I wonder? Any idea?
======================================================
Because as far as USA Presidents go Biden is probably slightly better than average. Which means the ALP can work with him and the LNP think he is far to moderate for their preference in USA Presidents. Should Trump get in it will be a totally different story though. With Dutton’s ideological leaning far closer to Trump and his MAGA nutters than the ALP would be.
Regardless as to whoever is Immigration minister, the opposition under Dutton will use immigration to satisfy their right wing nut job supporter base, with its self entitlement, self interest and hypocrisy.
Lots of votes in racism !
Just ask the First Peoples !
Just ask Asians!
Just ask the wops!
Just ask the wogs!
Just ask the Sudanese!
Just ask Indonesian fishermen!
Pied Piper is the Trump of Poll Bludger.