The federal redistributions for Victoria and Western Australia have been finalised, with only minor changes made to the proposals published in May. Higgins duly remains abolished, with adjustments made to the boundaries between Ballarat and Bendigo, Bendigo and Nicholls, Chisholm and Hotham, Corangamite and Wannon, and McEwen and Scullin. My estimates of the new margins suggest this increases the Labor margin from 3.5% to 3.7% in McEwen as compared with the original proposal, reduces it from 12.0% to 11.3% in Bendigo, and is barely measurable anywhere else.
In Western Australia, Fremantle and Tangney swap territory and Canning gets to keep the Shire of Waroona. The closest any of this comes to being of electoral interest is that Labor’s margin in Tangney is down from 2.9% on the proposed boundaries to 2.6%. The finalisation of the New South Wales boundaries can presumably be expected very shortly.
Preselection news:
• Bill Shorten announced yesterday he will bow out of politics at the next election, creating a vacancy in his safe Labor western Melbourne seat of Maribyrnong. Shorten will take up a position as vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra in February, which will presumably be close enough to the election that no by-election will be held. John Ferguson of The Australian reports the ascendant Left is hopeful of gaining the seat, with one potential contender being Jo Briskey, national political co-ordinator of the United Workers Union and unsuccessful candidate for the Brisbane seat of Bonner in 2019. Potential candidates from within Shorten’s own Right faction Australian Workers Union orbit include state minister Natalie Hutchins and former AWU official and political staffer Shannon Threlfall-Clarke.
• Labor’s candidate for the new seat of Bullwinkel on Perth’s eastern fringe will be Trish Cook, deputy president of the Shire of Mundaring. Cook was chosen ahead of widely touted front-runner Kyle McGinn, a member for the state upper house region of Mining and Pastoral who failed to secure a winnable position on the ticket for the March state election. Hamish Hastie of WAtoday reports the preselection was determined by the party’s national executive, at which “some in the party were surprised” since it would normally be left to the state party administration.
• Jeremy Neal, a paramedic and former Cairns councillor, won a Liberal National Party preselection vote last weekend to succeed retiring veteran Warren Entsch in the far north Queensland seat of Leichhardt. The Australian’s Feeding the Chooks column reported rival contenders included “local aviation identity” Alana McKenna, who had the backing of Entsch.
• Mal Hingston, a defence contractor with “a long history of work in the manufacturing, mining, oil and gas industries”, has won Liberal preselection for the north-western Tasmanian seat of Braddon, which will be vacated at the election with the retirement of Gavin Pearce. Earlier reports indicated there were five candidates, including Belle Binder, founder of a farm labour scheme, and Vonette Mead, Latrobe deputy mayor.
• Alex White of the Herald Sun reports Fiona Patten, who enjoyed a high profile as member of the state upper house with the Sex Party and Reason Australia from 2016 to 2022, has been announced as the lead Victorian Senate candidate of Legalise Cannabis party.
Jacobin 9.48am
[especially Bowen, who is the worst Human to ever join the ALP]
Don’t hold back fella.
Dave ” A rat leaving a sinking ship is a common theme in political cartoons. So no points for originality sure. But nasty? Please, don’t be so precious, particularly when retiring liberals are routinely portrayed as such in the past.
I’m not even sure Shorten would appreciate your manufactured outrage.”
I am sure that neither Bill Shorten nor Johannes Leak care what I think. But today’s cartoon, like nearly all of Leak’s I’ve seen, is trite, nasty, unoriginal and completely lacking in wit. It’s a propaganda piece. It does not work as propaganda. If he was on my side I’d want someone better.
Bill Shorten has resigned unexpectedly, possibly because he’s given up on career advancement, possibly because he doesn’t fancy Labor’s chances next year or maybe at 57 he just wants to do something else. He has resigned in such a way that minimises damage to Labor and the Government, avoided a by-election and allowed plenty of time to wind up and hand over his work. He hasn’t taken a Government sinecure nor gone through the revolving door to a lobbyist or a job in disability services provision, so I don’t think that the “rat” metaphor is fair. Not that cartoons have to be “fair” of course.
Johannes Leak is a poor cartoonist but he’s not without talent as an artist. Here is an example of his work, the official portrait of Tony Abbott, in shirt-fronting pose.
https://citynews.com.au/2022/abbott-portrait-hung-in-parliament-house/
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has warned some Australians will have to sell their homes to cope with high inflation and interest rates amid business fears they may have to restructure their operations and lay off staff to survive. Shane Wright and Penry Buckley report that Bullock, speaking in Sydney, said lower-income Australians were over-represented among those struggling to get by, with some likely to dip into their savings or buy lower-quality goods to help make ends meet.
————————–
This government has the chance to get serious about economic inclusion but is going slow and is missing chances to get on the front foot.
Mexicanbeemer
What should the govt be doing right now?
Oliver Sutton:
“The inevitable next question:
Is Leader actually Boerwar? ”
Nope, we are different people, but I do look forward to reading BW’s comments. He reminds me of the achievements of the Labor government and the failures of the LNP to come up with anything substantive to offer should they win office (which is understandable considering they are the party for small government – which is double speak for a government that does nothing except rack up an incredible debt with nothing to show for it).
Most of all, I read his comments to remind me how misguided people are when they support the Greens. I discuss politics with neighbours who are Greens supporters, they are quiet shocked when I point out how different the Greens party policies are to what they think they are.
But, unlike Green supporters on this blog, they don’t abuse me when these things are pointed out to them. They are quiet civil.
But, the Greens supporters on this blog do serve a purpose. When they go ballistic with their abuse at BW’s particular point about the Greens policy, it tells me it is important to convey this point to my neighbours.
So once again BW well done and thanks for your contribution.
(And thank you Greens supporters for helping me gauge which Greens’ policy is the most stupid).
Insiders Sunday, 8 Sep
GUEST : Jim Chalmers – Treasurer
Leader, let me guess, you also think BW is a handsome fellow 😉
Considering BW lies about every Greens policy known to man, it says alot about you that you find him… insightful (not to mention the venom he throws at people who dont agree Albo is the best thing since sliced bread)
goll says:
Friday, September 6, 2024 at 10:03 am
Oakeshott Country 9.51am
[I always thought it was an overactive spleen]
An imperfect matrix of contributing factors from past excursions into a fragile political anatomy and quite possibly untreatable.
_________________
Hey, thanks for your concern. Sorry about Shorten never being PM. I’m sure you will recover in time.
Victoriasays:
Friday, September 6, 2024 at 10:18 am
Mexicanbeemer
What should the govt be doing right now?
—————————-
They can start by enacting the disability royal commission recommendations around disability employment. They accepted in principle but would be better if they just did it.
The government is wedged by inflation but people on welfare payments and low incomes would be finding it very hard to buy a proper trolly of groceries but inflation and because many of the issues are state government does limit what the federal government can do
Hi Victoria. Looking forward to Hawthorn’s first final in 6 years?!
I’m leaving work early to catch up with fellow hawks supporters/members to celebrate the occasion before we head to the MCG!
It’s a shame Boerwar decided to sack the coach 4 months ago or he could have enjoyed the day as well!
Leader says:
Friday, September 6, 2024 at 10:19 am
but I do look forward to reading BW’s comments. He reminds me of the achievements of the Labor government and the failures of the LNP to come up with anything substantive to offer should they win office
Most of all, I read his comments to remind me how misguided people are when they support the Greens.
______________________
This man must have a memory like a sieve! He needs daily reminders for probably everything.
Lordbain, How the fuck would I know how BW looks?
You assert: “BW lies about every Greens policy known to man”, but you do not challenge him on these so called lies. Not one.
I wish you would point out any lie he makes. I don’t want to face my neighbours with lies.
You don’t do so because you know he does his homework and they are not lies. All you got is abuse.
Johannes Leak got the job because he is Bill Leak’s son and it is simply an act of culture war trolling by the Australian.
Dave: “This man must have a memory like a sieve! He needs daily reminders for probably everything.”
Useless personal abuse. Typical Greens, can’t get their abuse right.
I’ve come to enjoy the circus that is BW v Greens defence Dept on PB. Sure BW doesn’t get everything right and I sometimes think that’s going too far mate but on the whole I love his passionate conviction and enjoy reading his posts. Keep at it BW. You are a keeper mate. If our resident Greens want to dish it out, don’t complain when you cop some push back. Must be listicle time again. Go get em BW.
FUBAR
I’m going to keep hedging my bets and say Coalition gain. I don’t know how the city vs country conservative vote will break and I still feel like it’s a bit of a Pearce-like seat which your mob held consistently.
goll @ #51 Friday, September 6th, 2024 – 10:11 am
Leader, does the term strawman mean anything to you?
Also, lets start with his greatest hits;
“THE GREENS WANT THE ADF TO REMOVE ALL HEAVY WEAPONS”
Buzz, wrong; the greens want a reduction in funding. They also want us to ensure we continue to engage with nuclear non proliferation treaties, and to have checks and balances when it comes to autonomous weapons. Hell, one of the points of the Greens defence policy is to ensure we are not reliant on a single country relating to arms goods. So, BW is wrong/lying here.
“THE GREENS WANT TO DESTROY MANUFACTURING/INDUSTRY”
Ignoring how both the big 2 have had their parts to play in the wind down , its a bit funny that the Greens are seen as the villians in this section. Furthermore, Greens policy on manufacturing is both a reduction (which if you actually follow advice regarding combating climate change needs to be done) but also a reinvestment to shift existing manufacturing where possible to low emissions. So, contrary to BWs statements, the Greens do not want to remove all manufacturing.
” THE GREENS WANT TO HAVE A GREAT BIG NEW TAX WHICH WILL SCARE EVERYONE AWAY”
BW keeps making reference to a 40 percent tax on everything; this is wrong, because its a 40 percent tax on super profits above $100 million in turnover in Australia. They also want the return of the mining tax (ooooo scary), a 6% annual tax on the global net wealth of Australia’s 122 billionaires, and a 6% annual tax on the net value of Australian assets owned by foreign billionaires whose net holdings of Australian assets is greater than $1 billion. So thats not a 40 percent tax on all business, and this is based on a designed floated by Wayne Swan (as in the Labor treasurer) back in the day, with work done by… modern day Labor Treasurer Chalmers. So this is pretty much rejigged Labor policys from just over a decade ago.
Thats 3 examples Leader, and I can keep going if you want 🙂
JJ Hall
Enjoy!!
My OH and son are going to the game. I’m watching it at home.
I prefer it that way. Son in particular gets very invested in the game! Lol
Btw son was paying out on Sam Mitchell earlier in the year as well.
We love reminding him. Haha
Victoria @ #54 Friday, September 6th, 2024 – 10:18 am
Either setting a realistic inflation target that can actually be met, or by overriding the Reserve Bank’s godawful and heartless decisions.
The first option would be better, but either one would do the job.
Sadly, there is little hope of either. Because just like the Reserve Bank, the government apparently thinks it is better politically to ruin the lives of the least well off rather than impact at all on their wealthy supporters. And by not doing anything, they have someone they can blame.
Lordbain is really digging his own grave here. Defund the defence force a bit, tax our comparative advantage, tax peoples wealth etc.etc….
So what the hell are you spending the money on? Housing?
MB we must go to the same optometrist. I have a very similar view of the Hawke led Labor lads we had back then. Rose coloured glasses
? Na. Hawke and Keating ditched the class wars mantra and aimed to make things work for both workers and capitalist investors in my view. The current Labor Party is a different animal signalled by the last of the consensus advocates, Bill Shorten who lost because he turned 2019 into a class war again, probably against his own better judgement amongst other things.
UK Cartoons and other miscellany
Peter Brookes #Deregulation
Martin Rowson #Pickles
[Pickles (at the Grenfell Inquiry)
“I have changed my schedule to fit this in, but I”m missing important lunches to do it.”
Was head of fire safety when Grenfell burned. Now in the House of Lords]
Matt
Andy Davey
Ben Jennings
Tjeerd Royaards
Klaus Tomanke
Guy Venables
Banx
Jonsey
deAn
==========================================
Stolen from the internet
Arthur ASCII @arthur_ascii
The next time you hear a Tory talking about cutting “red tape”, just remember that those inconvenient regulations protect the vulnerable.
Lee Anderson (Reform UK) did not pay attention in his English lessons.
Duncan Mackay
I love that google street view has blurred out Emperor Trajan’s identity
Player one
One of my offspring bought ppty in early 2021 when Covid was still impacting the economy and jobs. Their loan was given based on the interest rates increasing to the current rate.
This has enabled them to pay off a substantial amount at the outset, and able to meet the increased repayments now.
I would be surprised if this was not common practice.
And my youngest is now getting pre approval for housing loan as well.
The amount of paperwork she needs to complete and proof she has to provide before they will approve a loan is intense to say the least.
Russian President Vladmir Putin gives wry support for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ White House campaign
Russian President and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin has thrown his support behind Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris just days after two Russian nationals were charged with interfering in the US election.
https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/united-states/russian-president-vladmir-putin-gives-wry-support-for-democratic-candidate-kamala-harris-white-house-campaign/news-story/8cbfc3443ff471ad909208839a7af11c
out of sorts, for starters… dental as part of medicare.
Not sure people prefer guns over teeth but hey, I could be wrong 🙂
Lordbain, have you ever been anywhere near Griffith? 😉
Why are Greens Explainers always so long? Is it necessary in order to draw a fine distinction between the criticism and their reality?
Wheretofore all the hate for poor old Bowen?
He is a genuine Westie who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in a small suburban house in Smithfield, where a macchiato or a glass of unwooded chardonnay of the types beloved by most Green voters would have been hard to obtain. (These days you can get these in the remotest corners of the outback, but not back then.) And I believe he still lives in Smithfield today.
Like Chalmers, he idolised Paul Keating, but unlike Chalmers, Bowen was inspired by his hero to get himself a degree in economics.
I don’t see where the “DLP” criticism comes from. Although he represents a very socially conservative seat, he was an active supporter of SSM.
My biggest ever disappointment with him was that he crossed over to the Rudd side of the fence in late 2013. But so did some other people I admire, such as Penny Wong (while, to their lasting credit, Tony Burke and Tanya Plibersek stayed strong).
He’s also closely associated with the disaster that was the 2019 election campaign, although – if one is inclined to believe Sam Maiden’s book on the subject (and I’m 50/50 on that) – he wasn’t the main culprit for that.
But, on the whole, I’ve always found Bowen to be an intelligent, reasonable spokesman on behalf of the ALP. As far as I can see, he’s doing ok in his current ministry.
My list of “worst ever humans” to join the ALP would include convicted criminals such as Rex Jackson, Milton Orkopolous and Keith Wright, plus perhaps Bob Collins (whom the NT Coroner found had killed himself while facing charges, so we’ll never know for certain what he might/might not have done). And then there were interesting characters such as Ladislaus Joseph Meissner. I think it’s ridiculously, ludicrously unfair to elevate Bowen above all of them.
Albo announces a package for victims of domestic violence. I wonder how long it will take for a right winger to complain about all those poor blokes who are bashed by their wives not being included, even though they probably are. After all, compared to the number of female victims, the number will be very low.
Ahhhh I see; when BW makes multiple running comments of multiple paragraphs, its insightful and award winning criticisms (and when he launches into insults its just some banter), but if anyone else does… its boring.
I suppose what I am missing here is having copy paste responses and more!!! usage.
Carry on 🙂
Thanks Victoria!
Will be the best final I’ve been to in a long time. Nothing but upside for the hawks.
Lose by 10 goals – they were beaten by a more experienced side with a proven finals record.
Lose by 2 or 3 goals or less – they’ve capped off a great season with a gritty finals performance.
Win – well, the lid comes off! Over to Adelaide to face an already bruised Port and the chance to play in a preliminary final in Sydney!
JJ Hall
Agreed. It is a win win!!
Yeah Putin is just trolling. Now that the right wing US influencers have been found to have taken money from Russia Today which is a Bona fide arm of the Russian Govt.
And that won’t be the last of it either. Tip of iceberg stuff.
Putin is nothing but predictable. Sheesh
Good to see ALBO finally coughing up some $ 4.7 billion to address DV. Not enough, but it’s a start.
meher B, Elmer Fudd and Mr Ed
I agree that neither the ALP or Coalition politicians are as effective or talented as those of the times of Hawke and Keating.
I would also add that the current crop of Greens are nowhere near the caliber of Bob Brown and Christine Milne.
I think there are a number of factors at play:
1) The 24 hr news cycle and social media – someone is always watching for a misstep, and so anyone who tries for a reasoned discussion around issues will say something that becomes a gotcha, and then finds themselves out of contention. Doug Cameron talked about the “political lobotomy” that you get when you are elected to parliament.
2) The current media funding model (almost non-existent), which means that “news” reported is driven by clicks, not public interest.
3) The need for outrage by the general public. If you go near Twitter, many posts are just feeding on outrage about “facts”, that when you look at the entire story, are cherry picked factoids (thanks BC last night for the cherry picking reasoning fallacy) which do not stand scrutiny. The outrage demands solutions! Now! But no discussion will be entered into! Dissenting opinions will be blocked!
4) The lack of a “town square”. During the Hawke and Keating years, we had good news and current affairs coverage. People could choose to watch the ABC or the commercial channels, and each would have a different slant, but the same issues were discussed in depth. And even the Daily Telegraph, which many bought for the sport, provided reasonable coverage of issues. At least people knew what the issues were!
5) Everybody is an expert, and can find somewhere to publish their screeds. So no matter what you think, you will find someone, somewhere, even if it is the Upper Barcoo Fuel Price Action network, who have a good looking website, you will have a ready made argument to support whatever it is you think.
6) People with expertise and good reasoning skills (scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers) are dismissed as “elites”. e.g. Everyone is suddenly in a panic about microplastics / forever chemicals in the water, but who (apart from a swot like me) had bothered to read the Guardian? / SMH? / ABC? article explaining why we are suddenly detecting these things, and explaining the vanishingly small risk of drinking Sydney water. Not to mention a Google search algorithm that only sends you to the most clicked-on articles. I am trying to find the article on microplastics by a scientist from U Sydney, but all I can find is shock! horror! outrage! We are all gunna die!
7) A different generation at the helm, where the first experience of politics was university politics?
It is an important question, because I have no idea how to get people listening to evidence, discussing things, and then making a considered decision, rather than jumping to emotional conclusions. It is not a good way forward for good outcomes from democracy.
Hawks, Tuah!
Spit on dem things…
With the benefit of hindsight I think Shorten would have made a much better PM than Albo.
Albo’s body-double has been a real disappointment.
John Setka did not commit an offence by appearing at two construction sites, it seems.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-06/john-setka-cfmeu-worksite-police-no-charges/104319552
“Former CFMEU boss John Setka will not face police charges after appearing at two Victorian construction sites this week.
The premier Jacinta Allan referred the matter to police after video emerged of Mr Setka delivering a speech to workers at the Footscray Hospital site and reports that he attended Metro Tunnel construction sites.
Ms Allan described Mr Setka’s presence at the workplaces as unacceptable and unlawful.”
Due process can be a bastard sometimes.
Thank you, Alpha Zero. 🙂
Did quotas kill the Labor Party?
Looking at MBs listicle of Labor greats from the 80s, one notices that many of those seats are now held by female backbenchers whose careers never went anywhewre.
Perhaps quotas for Cabinet jobs are required?
>Lordbain says:
>Friday, September 6, 2024 at 10:52 am
Don’t forget what he wants the greens to do:
1)Ban all livestock farming but keep the live animal export industry going.
2)Ban all tourism.
Ante Meridian says:
Friday, September 6, 2024 at 12:07 pm
If he is no longer a Union Rep then he probably isn’t subject to the Right Of Entry laws – loophole that clearly needs to be closed.
Douglas and Milko @ #85 Friday, September 6th, 2024 – 11:54 am
Thanks for this. I agree absolutely with every word of your whole post.
Boerwar examines the Greens policies at face value and takes them to their logical conclusion. The resulting whinges would do Gerry Harvey proud.
Perhaps the Greens supporters should participate in development of policy which is better grounded in reality. Fat chance. There is neither the will nor the opportunity to contribute to policy within the Party. It is policy by decree.
Labor needs to get rid of people like below out of Australia asap.A couple of hundred thousand of them.
Rejection forces student to scramble for $7k to stay in Darwin
An experienced international student based in Darwin has been forced to find thousands of dollars so she can appeal her visa rejection, after being told her application did not seem ‘legitimate’.NT News today.
Or else interest rates stay high or increase.
“Boerwar examines the Greens policies at face value and takes them to their logical conclusion.”
So you admit he gives them a surface level appraisal based on no investigation what so ever.
Glad we are on the same page 🙂
The fact that John Setka is no longer a union rep is why his actions were supposedly illegal in the first place, but…
“For there to be a trespass offence, a person must be asked to leave by someone in charge of the site or who has authority at the site,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
“The person then has to refuse to leave within a reasonable time.
“There is no evidence that this occurred on Wednesday or Thursday, therefore there has been no trespass offence committed.”
“Badthinkersays:
Friday, September 6, 2024 at 12:11 pm
Did quotas kill the Labor Party?
Looking at MBs listicle of Labor greats from the 80s, one notices that many of those seats are now held by female backbenchers whose careers never went anywhewre.
Perhaps quotas for Cabinet jobs are required?”
Please correct me if I am wrong Badthinker but aren’t 10 of the 23 current Federal cabinet women?
I dont see the need for quotas if this becomes the norm
Greens do not have policy by decree. The Greens appoint “shadow” spokespersons who have interests. They get to create a policy if and when it’s needed. That’s how Lydia Thorpe got to decide Greens policy on The Voice. It’s how Max Chandler-Mather is constructing a housing policy on the trot, and it’s how Jordon Steele-John (the Greens spokesman for “Peace and Disarmament (covers Defence”) gets to dictate their defence policy.