Miscellaneous developments of the week so far:
• Former South Australian state Labor MPs Tom Kenyon and Jack Snelling have quit their former party over “moves to restrict religious freedom” and announced their intention to reactivate the Family First party and field candidates at the state election next March. The original Family First was folded into Australian Conservatives when Cory Bernardi joined it in 2016 and wound up at his behest after its failure at the 2019 federal election. Kenyon and Snelling have long been associated with the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association sub-faction of the Right, which is in turn associated with Catholicism and social conservatism, and includes among its number the party’s state leader, Peter Malinauskas. Paul Starick of The Advertiser reports this has the approval of party co-founder Andrew Evans; presumably this explains it obtaining the old party’s database of 6000 supporters, as reported by David Penberthy of The Australian. Whereas the old party consistently directed preferences to the Liberals, Snelling has ruled out preference deals with either major party.
• In other party split news, Peta Credlin writes in The Australian that Ross Cameron, who held Parramatta for the Liberals from 1996 to 2004 but is these days noted as a staple of Sky News after dark, “could head the Liberal Democrats’ NSW Senate ticket”. Earlier reportage on the matter said only that Cameron was involved with the party’s strategy and candidate recruitment.
• Tom Richardson of InDaily reports Matt Burnell, an official with the Right faction Transport Workers Union, has been confirmed as Labor’s candidate for its safe northern Adelaide seat of Spence, which will be vacated with Nick Champion’s move to state politics. Burnell reportedly scored 88 union delegate votes and 68 state conference delegate votes, each amounting to a third of the total, to just two and seven respectively for rival candidate Alice Dawkins, daughter of Keating government Treasurer John Dawkins. The rank-and-file membership ballot that made up the remaining third went 140-42 to Burnell.
• Peter Law of The West Australian reports that first-term Liberal MP Vince Connelly, whose seat of Stirling is being abolished, “looks certain to contest Cowan, which is held by Labor’s Anne Aly”. By my reckoning, the seat has a post-redistribution margin of 1.5%, making it a seemingly unlikely prospect for the Liberals at a time when polls are pointing to a Labor swing in the state upwards of 10%.
• Phillip Coorey of the Financial Review reports a poll conducted on Monday by Utting Research from 1600 respondents in New South Wales found only 7% supported Saturday’s lockdown protests, with fully 83% opposed. The poll also suggested Scott Morrison’s standing is continuing to tumble, with 37% satisfied and 57% dissatisfied (the state breakdown in last fortnight’s Resolve Strategic poll had it at 46% apiece). By contrast, Gladys Berejiklian maintained 56% approval and 33% disapproval, while the state’s chief health officer, Kerry Chant, recorded 70% approval.
• Emma Dawson, the executive director of the Per Capita think tank who appeared set to ran as Labor’s candidate against Adam Bandt in Melbourne, has announced her withdrawal. Dawson said this was for “personal and professional reasons”, although it followed shortly upon her criticism of Labor’s announcement that it would not rescind tax cuts for high income earners if elected.
• Craig Emerson on election timing in the Financial Review:
The December quarter national accounts are scheduled for release on March 2, 2022. Morrison might feel confident that the economy will bounce back in the December quarter from the September quarter’s negative result. But would it be wise to take a chance on a double-dip recession being announced during a federal election campaign? That would be a catastrophe for the Morrison government: marked down for its refusal to accept responsibility for quarantine, presiding over the slowest vaccine rollout in the Western world, and forfeiting any claim to be superior economic managers … But an April or May election would face the same risks, since the March quarter national accounts would not be released until after the election must be held … A late-February election might be the best bet, though the federal campaign would overlap with that of the South Australian state election scheduled for March 19.
Has Wally simply just changed the signage on the Titanic, or the pigs lipstick colour?
BK @ #1197 Friday, July 30th, 2021 – 6:03 pm
The Focus Groups are the ventriloquist and Morrison the dummy?
Here we go, the Olympian effort – gold medal run
Is this 80% of ‘ellligible”?
If so, bullshit.
Cud, Wally was equivocal when asked – but I suspect ‘eligible’ is over 18s
Guardian
Morrison has declined to say how long it will take to reach 70% vaccination.
He is asked if we will reach it by the end of the year.
“We’re not going to set timetables on it. I would hope so, but that is entirely up to how the nation responds to this challenge.”
He says it depends on “each and every one of us”.
Well the bloody obvious question is.. Will you guarantee sufficient vaccine within enough time to administer to meet your end of year target… mind that still means we are in this shit until Feb 2022 att the best.
I’ve got to give a gold medal to all those who are listening to this Morrison press conference to the end. 😀
The Guardian
He is also asked, if Australia misses the target, whether he will lose the election.
Morrison:
The last part I don’t even intend to respond to, because it has got nothing to do with vaccinating the country”
Again the obvious question should have been “If Aust misses the target will you resign?”
Look, I’ve been watching the Olympics for most of the day, so soz if you’ve already read it but we have had our first case of COVID-19 contracted by one of the ‘Freedom’ Marchers last Saturday, reported in the media.
Are Phases B, C, D, E… over the horizon?
80% of eligible would exclude the boofheads who refuse vaccination
e.g. most of hippyland in northern NSW
Steve777
Very interesting.
I suspect may PhD theses over many disciplines will address this topic.
At first glance I like Norman Swan’s theory, and I suspect I shall like it even more at second glance.
I have been concentrating on the “lucky this happened in 2020, not 2000”.
Back in 2000, or even 2010, there was no question of working from home. Maybe that would have been enough for co-operation and hard lock downs.
In 2000, Wifi was not a thing. Dial-up modems could be used for very simple connections: I used Unix mail for email, later pine, but it was all text and very low bit rate.
Little care and especially no responsibility on Morrison’s part.
If by some miracle, all turns out well, Morrison will claim all the credit.
If it turns to sh*t, Morrison will blame all and sundry.
C@t:
Personally, I think all the supposed inconsistencies in his hairline are just the result of different lengths, different hair products, and varying levels of success at combing it over.
Okay, I’ve just been scouted to be part of a Focus Group for the Coalition. They provided me with a list of seats they are conducting their focus groups in, obviously those that they are most concerned about/targeting:
Robertson ( New South Wales)
Lindsay ( New South Wales)
Reid ( New South Wales)
Banks ( New South Wales)
Page ( New South Wales)
Cowper ( New South Wales)
Macquarie ( New South Wales)
Eden-Monaro ( New South Wales)
Dobell ( New South Wales)
Gilmore ( New South Wales)
Greenway ( New South Wales)
Hunter ( New South Wales)
Richmond ( New South Wales)
Paterson ( New South Wales)
Hughes ( New South Wales)
Shortland ( New South Wales)
Lilley (Queensland)
Blair (Queensland)
Herbert (Queensland)
Flynn (Queensland)
Dickson (Queensland)
Cowan (Western Australia)
Swan (Western Australia)
Chisholm (Victoria)
Dunkley (Victoria)
Boothby (South Australia)
Bass (Tasmania)
Braddon (Tasmania)
Lyons (Tasmania)
🙂
Sceptic
I think the whole plan is over the horizon. I didn’t bother to listen to the end because he was just reading as fast as he could. Not much of a marketer. No clarity at all.
I suspect Australian vaccination rates will be about as big an issue as Brittany Higgins in National politics come October.
He has no plan. The states will decide whether they are open or not, like they have been all the way through.Morrison is just a spectator.
Lars Von Trier says:
Friday, July 30, 2021 at 6:30 pm
You do realise that this should haven like first 6 months of Covid19?>
Stage 4 Lockdown for 3 months – vaccinations 3 months after.
Not 2 years later!
Recon
______________________
We’ve been up ourselves ever since Kim Beazley came here and paid homage to the Left, recognizing Melbourne as the ‘only European city’ in Australia. Plus we have trams. You can read a book if you’re not from Melbourne, but you certainly won’t be as stylish. The book will likely be a sports biography.
Good point 😀
I was the product of a mixed marriage.
While both my parents were devout Catholics, Mum was from Melbourne and Dad was from NSW.
Mum never missed a chance to talk about how cultured Melbourne was compared to Sydney, and how uncultured “Thugby League or Union (she did not use these exact words) were compared to the noble aerial ping-pong (my father’s words).
However, when I lived in Albury for a year or so in the late 1980s, where everyone else was from Melbourne / Victoria, and our food supplies came from Melbourne, I started to see the point.
We had much better food available, and I suddenly understood why my Melburnian friend lamented not being able to get Arnotts’ chocolate bears in Sydney.
Australia Covid live news update: Scott Morrison says 70% vaccination target .
Well at least we will know how this statement ages before we get anywhere near the 70%.. the UK et al are running point on that experiment.
Sceptic @ #1221 Friday, July 30th, 2021 – 6:36 pm
I wonder how long before this gets watered down to “70% being offered a vaccine” or “70% having at least one dose of a vaccine”.
I’d give it a month.
Not really Player 1 – over 18% with 2 shots, 40% approx with one shot.
You would have to assume the 40% converts to fully vaccinated within 4-12 weeks. Voila 70%
Looks like the PB Death Riders only have the Sydney lockdown to gloat about now!
Was this answered by SfM today?
National Cabinet is about to receive the COVID-19 modelling that could chart the path out of the pandemic.
Only mention in Guardian blog is..
Morrison says there is no vaccination target set for Australia to move to the final stage of the roadmap out of Covid. That final stage would have little to no restrictions, and would be “living” with Covid like any other infectious disease.
He says that the Doherty Institute did not recommend a target for this final stage.
Lars Von Trier says:
Friday, July 30, 2021 at 6:40 pm
NSW lockdown will continue, that is for sure.
C@t:
How exciting! Finally some genuine insider Liberal party insight.
Zerlo says:
Friday, July 30, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Lars Von Trier says:
Friday, July 30, 2021 at 6:40 pm
NSW lockdown will continue, that is for sure.
_________________________________
Well according to cudchewer – there are another 49987 deaths on the way!
Douglas and Milko says:
Friday, July 30, 2021 at 6:34 pm
However, when I lived in Albury for a year or so in the late 1980s, where everyone else was from Melbourne / Victoria, and our food supplies came from Melbourne, I started to see the point.
We had much better food available, and I suddenly understood why my Melburnian friend lamented not being able to get Arnotts’ chocolate bears in Sydney.
__________________________
There is no greater feeling than alighting from a tram, a macchiato in one hand, the other clutching a batch of chocolate teddy bear biscuits, and thinking ‘How good am I?’
steve davis @ #1219 Friday, July 30th, 2021 – 6:32 pm
A commentator.
Confessions @ #1227 Friday, July 30th, 2021 – 6:43 pm
It will probably exactly match their handout spread sheet. 😀
I for one am looking forward to seeing what the ACTU blows on some dumbarse election campaign spend this time?
What did John Setka say? They would have been better spending it on the gaming tables at Crown for all the effect it had?
Gilmore??? No chance, even with P1 and her playmates supporting the dark side.
Morrison talking to people as if we are all simpletons. A bit of “please” Gladys style would go a long way but of course that would not be appropriate for such a high and mighty one.
Come on – “we’re taking each step together” – he is the sort of person who would abandon others to look after number one. Loyalty is a foreign concept to the man.
Jeff Kennett on today’s sacking/quitting of Alistair Clarkson.
Reporter: Jeff, on the payout, you said in a letter to members that Caroline Wilson’s report (that Kennett would be willing to payout Clarkson’s contract and not have him coach at Hawthorn in 2022) was a “complete fabrication”…
JK: That was absolutely right until about three days ago. I always thought that we would be seeing Clarko and Mitch involved in coaching until the end of next year. What‘s taken place in the last few days, a realisation by Alastair and by all of us that we need clarity, that has changed. What she said then was wrong. It was wrong, because that was always my hope.
Reporter: Have you agreed to a payout …
JK: I’m not gonna talk about the terms, that’s irrelevant. All I can say is Clarko is getting every entitlement to which he is owed and which he deserves.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2021-hawthorn-press-conference-jeff-kennett-vs-media-alastair-clarkson-quits-sam-mitchell-handover-caroline-wilson-report/news-story/0e7d89f95bb27d0d4835dd2ac8cdf608
GG, Whatever happened to showson ?
C@t:
I’m surprised Hasluck isn’t on the list.
Edwina’s on fire!!!!
Lars
You really are a ruthless political animal. Or perhaps, you are as pure and naive as the driven snow ….
Have you read Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy?
The character Angel Clair may be where you get your inspiration: so pure, so caring, but so vicious, when your standards are not met.
Funnily enough, I remembered this from my “Thomas Hardy” phase of reading years ago – yes I have read them all.
And I have thought of some colleagues I have worked with as being of the “Angel Clair” persuasion, virtuously consigning the carers of younger people to the dust.
Not that I am saying you do this LvT, just musing.
But others far younger than me have noticed this antiquarian reference (Angel Clair). I guess Hardy did really write thought-provoking literature:
https://lithub.com/my-fictional-nemesis-why-thomas-hardys-angel-clare-is-the-worst/
So, as a novice at this…. is Clarkson coaching at Collingwood next year??
Douglas and Milko:
Friday, July 30, 2021 at 6:34 pm
[‘I was the product of a mixed marriage.
While both my parents were devout Catholics, Mum was from Melbourne and Dad was from NSW.’]
How you’ve overcome such a bad start to life evidences your resolve.
Outside left @ #1232 Friday, July 30th, 2021 – 6:51 pm
We will vote Labor unless it looks close. We have been burned before … quite literally!
If everything has to wait for vaccinations, Scotty has to take a bit more responsibility for supply and distribution.
Douglas and Milko
The speed of development of vaccines and to finally be able to get an mRNA vaccine to work is another “better 2020 than..”
Outside Left,
Maybe. But Carlton are also actively looking to replace their current coach and you’d say that Carlton has the talent to challenge for Finals and a Premiership sooner than the Pies.
I’d say Clarkson, if he coaches would be looking for a team with more immediate potential.
Outside left at 6:57 pm
I hope so . Jeremey would be great for attracting sponsors etc 😉
https://betterfuture.griffith.edu.au/stan-grant-livestream/
… quite interesting, even if it didn’t move to cosmopolitan/ multi-cultural, rather than white/ black Australia. [Ouch, the little boy that tried to scratch the black skin off in the bath … an exile, citizen of the world, that did make sense to me, somehow.]
I guess missions of NSW, police?
Invasion, more like colonisation after settlement. [Hmmm, legitimacy, change. Finally something about arrivals post 1986. And please go on living in the past …]
Nothing on discrimination by gender, age, … just race, diversity, sexual pref, identify …
Plenty on Judas like behaviour.
I think, therefore I have to explain myself.
“The rules are different.” Well they are between haves/ have nots anyway.
CtG.
Hmmm, post WW2.
And the 24×7 access to data … besides make it matter.
Realist rather than optimist, on the PRC CCP’s ride, a non democracy, managed not to mention Tibet, Western China, SCS (at last), Hong Kong …, how to talk down the escalation, like Taiwan, WW5 etc.
Commies, theocrazies, fascists … democracy in retreat. Very little insight given being involved since 1997, just verbal ‘Engadine time’. Diarrhoea.
I guess perspective is everything?
”
Lars Von Triersays:
Friday, July 30, 2021 at 6:30 pm
I suspect Australian vaccination rates will be about as big an issue as Brittany Higgins in National politics come October.
”
Read your statement again and what does it say about LNP mindset?
https://vietnamnews.vn/economy/999134/buses-sell-vegetables-around-hcm-city.html
HCM CITY – Unable to transport passengers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some bus operators in HCM City have now begun to use their vehicles for selling vegetables and other essential goods.
Bảo Yến Construction Services Tourism Co’s five buses now travel around the city selling vegetables and other items, helping increase supply amid the closure of scores of traditional markets.
Vũ Duy Anh, deputy director of the company’s southern region, said he had difficulties shopping and once had to visit two supermarkets and wait in line for an hour to buy just a small quantity of vegetables. It was then he thought of using his company’s buses to supply vegetables, and it was approved by the Departments of Transportation and Industry and Trade.
LVT
“Not really Player 1 – over 18% with 2 shots, 40% approx with one shot.
You would have to assume the 40% converts to fully vaccinated within 4-12 weeks. Voila 70%”
Can you clarify the maths here. Is the 18% separate from the 40%, or a subset?
“We’re not going to set timetables on it. I would hope so, but that is entirely up to how the nation responds to this challenge.”
Bullshit! Either there is a timetable but it’s being kept secret. Or there isn’t and the rollout blunders on in total chaos.
And what’s this crap on it depending upon “how the nation responds to the challenge’. It’s everyone’s responsibility? That’s the same as saying it’s no one’s, least of all his own. Preparing the ground to avoid his own responsibility and shift the blame yet again.