Barton has covered Kogarah and surrounding areas on the north shore of the Georges River since its creation in 1922, currently extending north through Rockdale to Earlwood and Kingsgrove. Past members for Barton include Herbert “Doc” Evatt, who won the seat from the United Australia Party in 1940 and held it until 1958, when he moved to Hunter after close shaves in 1951 (when World War II hero Nancy Wake, running for the Liberals, came within 243 votes of victory) and 1955 (when Evatt prevailed by 226 votes). The seat nonetheless stayed with Labor until the 1966 disaster, subsequently changing hands along with government in 1975 and 1983. Gary Punch held the seat for generally narrow margins in the 1980s, but put enough fat on the margin in 1993 that his successor Robert McClelland survived the 1996 landslide.
A member of the NSW Right, McClelland held a series of senior portfolios after entering the shadow ministry in 1998 and served as Attorney-General since the election of the Rudd government. McClelland emerged as an important part of the Kevin Rudd camp during Julia Gillard’s prime ministership, an association going back to Rudd’s ascendancy over Kim Beazley in December 2006. An oblique reference by McClelland to the AWU affair in June 2012 was invoked as validating the subsequent blizzard of media interest in the matter, and was generally seen as a deliberate effort to undermine her. He had been dropped from the ministry after Rudd’s failed leadership bid the previous February, which followed two months from his demotion to emergency management and housing.
McClelland announced in January 2013 that he would bow out at the election, causing concern to Labor that the NSW government might seek to precipitate a by-election by offering him a position on the state’s Industrial Relations Commission. Reports in mid-2011 suggested McClelland was being advised to step aside to avoid a preselection stoush. It was thought the seat might provide an entry for former Premier Morris Iemma, who told the media he would not be interested if it involved “backstabbing friends”. The Iemma for Barton idea was again raised in October 2012 by Bob Carr, who speculating on the possibility that McClelland might decide to retire. When that duly came to pass in January 2013, Iemma did not emerge as a starter for the seat, encouraging the conclusion that he was not fancying Labor’s electoral prospects.
Labor will instead take the field with Steve McMahon, chief executive of the NSW Trainers Association (as in thoroughbred horses) and former mayor of Hurstville. McMahon won a local preselection ballot with 128 preselection votes against 101 for Shane O’Brien, Rockdale mayor and NSW Public Service Association assistant secretary, a former adviser to Tony Burke. McMahon reportedly had backing from Morris Iemma and state upper house MP Shaoquett Moselmane, key to votes from the Lebanese Muslim community, leading O’Brien to complain that his own support had come instead from “free-thinking individuals”. O’Brien’s opponents accused him of being a sore loser who had himself had courted the Macedonian and Greek vote. Moselmane had himself been a nominee early in the process but he quickly withdrew, amid suggestions he was merely seeking leverage to shore up his position on the upper house ticket.
The Liberal candidate is Nick Varvaris, accountant and mayor of Kogarah.
1934C You lucky devil 🙂 It’s a neat little contraption compared to the other one.
BH
I agree the Queen has been an absolute rock but does she actually make many important decisions? I suppose she does make lots of small soft diplomacy decisions which have added up over time.
For good or bad, I’d think the major popes had more influence.
Pyne must be a big fan of the UN to have included Wilson so highly, which is unusual for a conservative.
[Presumably you could also euthanize]
yes he can, especially on a used bum, or useless bum
bemused
[Presumably you could also euthanize. ]
I’m generally opposed to euthanasia but in Finn’s case I’m prepared to make an exception for the good of mankind. 👿
confessions
[If it means THLV is actually working FOR the interests of the Labor govt instead of against its interests, then why should people have hold their noses?
This is nothing less than what Labor members like me have been demanding all along.]
Your modesty abounds! You have been demanding this all along? Really?
BTW What does THLV stand for? And when are you predicting the by-election will be held.
[I’m generally opposed to euthanasia but in Finn’s case I’m prepared to make an exception for the good of mankind]
Diog, now i know you like bum 😛
While we are discussing frontal lobotomies…
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me (than a frontal lobotomy)
Finns
I’m a utilitarian. The greatest good for the greatest number of people. And dolphins don’t count.
[You have been demanding this all along? Really?]
Yes MTBW I have. And not just me, but all those other Labor supporters who have been sickened by the constant whiteanting and destabilising by THLV and his rump of malcontents.
THLV = The Happy Little Vegemite.
spur212
[I think the craziness over Crean this morning is overblown.]
Me as well and agree with you re it being a battle over what the Party stands for.
Confessions
You have talked to them all?
You can’t bring yourself to use his name?
MTBW@112
Now confessions is being quoted in the Daily Telalie.
[“But some Gillard forces appear intent on continuing the war, recently spreading rumours Mr Rudd was preparing to announce his retirement from parliament, which Mr Rudd denied.”]
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nervous-peace-so-kevin-rudd-can-campaign/story-e6freuy9-1226619422213
My top 20 would include
Lenin
Stalin
Gorbachev
Sun Yat Sen
Mao
Chou En Lai
Deng
Hitler
FDR
Kennedy
Reagan
King
Churchill
Gandhi
Nehru
Ho
Mandela
Khomeini
John XXIII
John Curtin….because he changed the course of WW2 and without any doubt is the greatest leader this country has produced.
On the interchange bench…
Brandt
Thatcher
John Paul II
Eisenhower
De Gaulle
Adenauer
[You can’t bring yourself to use his name?]
Discussing the man simply generates bad vibes here – look at this morning. In the space of a few comments, we’ve gone from a pleasant environment, to your sneering sarcasm at anyone who expresses a view you disagree with, and bemused sniping at other commenters.
confessions @ 115…entirely right
[Labor is very lucky they have had Gillard to stop it.]
To funny. Gillard and the factional bosses who put her there are the whole problem and why the party is an ideological-less pigsty.
The party has been extraordinarly unlucky to have her.
But keep on trying to polish her.
the
thing that you should be discussing
is Joyce’s
comments re china
imagine if like wtte he suggests we should not be trading
with china our biggest trading partner
I think most of us would go bankrupt
along with the country,
now that’s what should be trending top of twitter
internal matters
should be left alone,
Joyce could end up as DEPUTY PM
imagine that,
but in fact I think most people could not careless about
crean,
who cares he should retire ,
daretotread
Posted Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 7:41 am | Permalink
Fred
Not sure what you mean about the NSW right.
Tony Burke was a NSW right wing lad, close to Obeid and co, and there are many other NSW right who are solid Gillard backers – Bradbury,Rowlands spring to mind but there are many others.
The group that split seem to be a subset of the NSW right – BUT NOT THE ARBIB/OBEID faction
I think Pseph, although a Victorian, is closer to what’s happened in NSW then you. He warned some time back that the main driving force for a leadership spill was the NSW Right, aided to some extent by Kim Carr’s Left faction.
In fact, to put it in further perspective, the move to dump Rudd did not come from the NSW Right, but the various factional orgaisers in Victoria and SA. Arbib and Howes were very visible but they were later on the scene. Gillard’s decision to finally join them was probably influenced by the NSW Right joining the revolt.
Where it got confusing was that Arbib and Sitar took over the show from then on, including the disastrous election campaign. It’s probably the main reason Gillard has been distancing herself from them ever since.
The NSW Right resented not being the central power, and the shift towards Melbourne. Part of the move towards Rudd was based on that desire for relevance. Gillard does seem to have maintained good relations with Dastyari, however. That is probably the reason the faction was not under a binding vote, which would have favoured Rudd.
An attempt to enforce it might also have risked a split, because the ministers you mention plus Clare would have stayed with Gillard.
It remains important, notwithstanding Obeid, but it is not the national power that in was in the recent past.
Confessions @95
The generational split is between those who want to return the ALP to the way things were before 1983 (Gillard, Swan et al) and those who want to join the modern world (everyone else)
Agree with those saying Crean’s comments are part of bringing the split to a head. The split is about the type of party the ALP is to be into the future. The issues behind the split have been well outlined by Faulkner, Cavalier, and more recently Latham.
It’s a huge tussle between those who now have control of the party practising pure pragmatism/ careerism adopted in 2010, and those who want the party to have philosophy vision /progressivism.
This is as nothing compared with what will be seen after the election defeat chosen by the careerists a few weeks back.
confessions
[Discussing the man simply generates bad vibes here – look at this morning. In the space of a few comments, we’ve gone from a pleasant environment, to your sneering sarcasm at anyone who expresses a view you disagree with, and bemused sniping at other commenters.]
Sneering sarcasm?
Pot-Kettle?
Crean, as usual, showing his years of political experience have made him wiser by airing dirty laundry in public. I do not give a shit about who he supports or who’s leading the ALP, it’s unnecessarily destructive and not clever at all.
GD
I totally agree that the move to topple rudd was a Victorian driven thing with a bit of help from the NSW right.
BUT I think originally ie Rudd topple 1 Kim Carr and co were with Gillard.
Spill 1 saw Ferguson, Carr and co move, mainly I think on the issue of the manufacturing industry. Some elements of the NSW right also joined – Bowen most notably but the number small.
Spill 2 that wasn’t saw more of the NSW shift ie led by FizGibbon. It also presumably saw some of crean’s group move (whoever they are)
I think Dio is winning. But Bemused running interference is a bit rough, unless Finny thinks he can take on two at once.
More popcorn.
Fiiiiiiinnnnnnny,
Don’t let me down, now.
spur212:
It is the Creans the Fergusons and the Carrs who want to go back to the 1980s, rather than move into the 21st century. It is common for people as they get older to yearn for times when things seemed more simple, ie a world they understood.
Australia is a fundamentally different place to what it was in the 1980s. We can’t go back.
The split in the ALP is between those who believe the ALP’s primary vote should be consistently below the base ceiling of 38% (the current leadership team) and those who believe the ALP’s primary vote needs to break through the 38% ceiling and be consistently above 40% (pretty much anyone who has a clue on how to win elections)
[ it’s unnecessarily destructive and not clever at all.]
Esp as it has come right when the clear air from leadershit saw the coalition shoot itself in the foot over a policy issue.
That is what is so frustrating about these people. I get it’s hard to admit when your time is up, but there’s no need to go off like a suicide bomber taking out everything in your immediate vicinity!
Whatever happened to dignified departures.
spur212:
Frankly, it is stretching credulity to declare that the current leadership team believe the ALP’s primary vote should be below 38%.
[Australia is a fundamentally different place to what it was in the 1980s. We can’t go back]
agreed which is why the ALP needs to reduce the influence of the AWU and the Unions on the party to modernise and move forward. how can an organisation which covers 18% of the workforce control a major politicial party. the influence of fools such as Paul Howes must be reduced.
spur212@128
I am in another camp.
I believe the ALP should be aiming to win > 50% of the vote in it’s own right.
Spur212
Certainly can be put that way.
confessions
Gillard and Swan are appealing to a constituency that wants to return to a time before the 1980’s.
It’s why Abbott’s played the values card at the blue collar, unionised manufacturing base.
Crean, Ferguson and Carr etc were apart of transitioning the union movement to the new economy and they know exactly why Abbott’s been able to get away with this game: because Gillard and Swan don’t understand what Keating/Kelty did to the IR system and the values behind it. They think it’s all Howard
Bemused 🙂
the spectator
[how can an organisation which covers 18% of the workforce control a major politicial party. the influence of fools such as Paul Howes must be reduced.]
I agree with you!
the spectator
how can an organisation which covers 18% of the workforce control a major politicial party. the influence of fools such as Paul Howes must be reduced.]
Well, Murdoch controls the Liberal Party and he is just one person. And is not even an Australian.
[the spectator
how can an organisation which covers 18% of the workforce control a major politicial party. the influence of fools such as Paul Howes must be reduced.]
Well, Murdoch controls the Liberal Party and he is just one person. And is not even an Australian.
the spectator
Yes, a central plank for reform. Union members simply no longer belong to the ALP, yet these careerists are drafted into the affiliated unions under factional fiefdoms at the top, get busy organising more factional support and waltz into the party hierarchy without wielding a tool. They represent nobody but themselves and their brilliant careers. That’s how we ended up with empty pragmatism. It’s absurd.
MTBW
Me too!
[agreed which is why the ALP needs to reduce the influence of the AWU and the Unions on the party to modernise and move forward.]
It’s very difficult to achieve party when:
a) your party is in govt, and;
b) it is a minority govt.
‘achieve party reform’ that should be.
[They engage Rudd to do all the heavy lifting in the campaign because the PM is incapable of doing it.]
Geez, the name “Rudd” is mentioned and Bemused and TP each crack a fat.
He’s not coming back guys.
Get over it.
He’s being given some menial tasks traipsing around a few backwater electorates to take his mind off his overweening self-image.
He’s had the relevancectomy – a non-reversible surgical procedure.
Barnaby Joyce wins National Party preselection for the Federal seat of New England – OMG, potential DPM, wants to ban investmt from China
Spur,
So PMJG, who used to be an IR lawyer, does
[not understand what Keating/Kelty did to the IR system and the values behind it. ]
Yeah, pull the other one, it is full flush.
[Yes, a central plank for reform. Union members simply no longer belong to the ALP, yet these careerists are drafted into the affiliated unions under factional fiefdoms at the top, get busy organising more factional support and waltz into the party hierarchy without wielding a tool. They represent nobody but themselves and their brilliant careers. That’s how we ended up with empty pragmatism. It’s absurd.]
agree 100%
[Geez, the name “Rudd” is mentioned and Bemused and TP each crack a fat.]
Yep, just mention #Ruddstoration, them painful pavlovian doyggs are barking
Confessions
“I’m not the leader of a party called The Progressive Party, I’m not the leader of a party called The Moderate Party, I’m not the leader of a party even called the Social Democratic Party, I am a leader of the party called the Labor Party ”
…
This sort of rhetoric shows the current leadership team believes the ALP primary vote should be below 38%
[Gillard and Swan are appealing to a constituency that wants to return to a time before the 1980′s.]
Sorry, but I don’t agree with that at all. The party’s policy platform and its achievements in govt suggest an entirely different constituency than the baby boomers!
Abbott plays the blue collar card because he is more comfortable with blokey populism.
Wow, all this introspection about the ALP within six months of an election. Way to go, fellas.