The site has been grappling with a few technical issues over the past day or so, which are hopefully now resolved. Perhaps this was the reason yesterday’s post following the count for the New South Wales state by-election for Northern Tablelands, which as expected was a lay-down misere for the Nationals, attracted a grand total of zero comments. Or perhaps not. Looking ahead, I believe we have a quiet week coming up on the polling front, unless The Australian treats us to quarterly Newspoll aggregates with state and demographic breakdowns, which are about due. Other than that, there is likely to be only the weekly Roy Morgan until the three-weekly YouGov poll, which past form suggests should be with us on Friday.
Much of this week’s preselection news relates directly or indirectly to the federal redistributions, which I discussed with Ben Raue of The Tally Room in a podcast you can access at the bottom of this post:
• The West Australian reports former state Nationals leader Mia Davies has confirmed approaches from “senior Nationals in the eastern states” to run in the proposed new seat of Bullwinkel, which partly corresponds with the state seat of Central Wheatbelt that she he has held since 2013. The idea has been talked up by party leader David Littleproud, and not ruled out by Davies. Davies led the Nationals from the defeat of the Barnett government in March 2017 and held the title of Opposition Leader after the party emerged from the 2021 election landslide with more seats than the Liberals, before stepping aside in January 2023 and announcing she would not contest the next election. She became a figure of controversy within the party when she called for Barnaby Joyce to resign in 2018 over sexual harassment allegations.
• Paul Sakkal of the Sydney Morning Herald reports “teal sources not permitted to speak on the record” say Nicolette Boele, who was gearing up for a second run as an independent in Bradfield, remains keen despite expectations Kylea Tink will seek to move there with the mooted abolition of her seat of North Sydney. Boele came within 4.2% of unseating Liberal member Paul Fletcher in 2022. Reports last week suggested former state Treasurer Matt Kean, who announced his impending departure from state parliament on Tuesday, might challenge Fletcher for Liberal preselection, but Sakkal reports party sources saying he will only seek the seat if Fletcher retires. Alexandra Smith of the Sydney Morning Herald reports any path to preselection for Kean in Bradfield would be complicated by the fact that the redistribution leaves his “Liberal branch enemies” within the redrawn seat.
• Aaron Patrick of the Financial Review reports Hunters Hill mayor Zac Miles has been lobbying for the NSW Liberal Party to reopen the preselection process for Bennelong, after the proposed new boundaries made it more favourable to the party by adding territory from abolished North Sydney. Such a move would come at the expense of Scott Yung, a tutoring business owner who came with 1.8% of deposing Chris Minns from his seat of Kogarah at the state election in 2019, who was preselected unopposed last October. A source is also quoted saying Gisele Kapterian, who had been preselected for North Sydney, also canvassed for support for Bennelong, but has decided not to proceed.
• Annika Smethurst of The Age reports on resistance in local Labor branches to a Socialist Left faction fait accompli that appears set to deliver preselection for the outer northern Melbourne seat of Calwell, which will be vacated with the retirement of Maria Vamvakinou, to Basem Abdo, a communications specialist born in Kuwait of Palestinian parents. Sensitivities are heightened by the fact that members only had preselection rights restored to them a year ago after a three-year takeover of the state branch by the national executive following branck-stacking scandals, with some reportedly threatening to back a “Dai Le-style campaign”.
• Blake Antrobus of news.com.au reports Queensland Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick has failed in his court bid against his preselection defeat last year, the court having ruled that the Liberal National Party was within its rights to set a 60-day time frame for lodging an appeal which Rennick failed to meet.
🙂
Lordbain @ #599 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 9:06 am
Misconstrue what I’m saying all you want. I don’t really care.
So, do you agree with everything Paul Keating says?
No I don’t CAT… and what I don’t do is assume everything his saying/doing is the signs of dementia/senility when I personally disagree with him. And it’s hardly miscontruing when it’s your own comment barely above this one 🙂
The Moir cartoon is missing the 3rd eye, apart from that it is perfect….
goll @ #592 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 8:49 am
Not poking at the Greens here, but if 30% of a party’s voters support a policy then there’s a door with a crack opened somewhere. I’d say if they went anywhere near supporting nuclear they’d be toast as a party.
Meanwhile, Albanese is going to win back support by going after Supermarkets, according to The Oz:
It’s all about the economy:
PM’s bid to win back support
P4
One bleak winter … consultants Watt Clarity say …
Alpha Zerosays:
Monday, June 24, 2024 at 9:17 am
[The Moir cartoon is missing the 3rd eye, apart from that it is perfect….]
They are on the torso
I mean its hard to disagree with that Mostly; I think the polling I saw was 28 percent are open/in favor of nuclear power, with 8 percent in favor of the LNP nuclear policy.
Certainly a potential change in the party makeup, but then again it also seemed to show they would prefer renewables over nuclear, but are not opposed to nuclear in principle (which I think is a fair position, contrary to some Green hardliners).
Lordbain @ #602 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 9:14 am
I’m amazed that you won’t even consider the possibility. His perspective on China is certainly delusional, and hence his attacks on Penny Wong, if nothing else.
No doubt Albo is The Oz’s fair haired boy.
The cope from Simon Benson today is sad, some crap about ‘double haters’ who will ‘hold their nose’ and vote Labor/Albo anyway.
My opinion, when they’re wheeling Keating out it’s panic stations.
CAT, by that logic I would argue your delusional because you support the Labor party in spite of its policy choices… but I am hardly going to claim your experiencing senility.
Morning all. Thanks for the roundup. Another round of some quite good articles with actual journalism pointing out the gaping holes in Dutton’s nuclear policy scam.
Labor should keep on attacking the nuclear scam especially on the basis of no relief for cost of living. Allowing a vacuum only gives room for the LNP noise machine to fill it with lies.
As for that poll, seriously who did it? I thought the industry had adopted a voluntary code of conduct for pollsters after 2019?
I saw the chatter last night about the RedBridge polling on nuclear but could not see a coherent explanation of the discrepancy between between the 33% support for the Coalition’s nuclear plan and the net likeability of 8% for nuclear.
Anyone able to unpack that for me as I’m a bit slow this morning?
This whistleblower prosecution case is a lot worse than the Bernard Collaery / Witness K prosecution. In that case Collaery was not trying to expose the war crimes, but assist the alleged perpetrators.
Whereas Richard Boyle was a whistleblower with a strong public interest motive – exposing wrong doing within the ATO. In most OECD countries the whistleblower would be protected when public interest was proven. This prosecution would not then be legal. Dreyfuss should stop this case, if he wants to remain credible as AG.
“The reasons of the South Australian Court of Appeal on why Richard Boyle will face criminal charges will make every Australian (except the Australian Tax Office leadership) sick in the stomach. Former senator Rex Patrick reports.
https://michaelwest.com.au/the-making-of-a-criminal-from-a-whistleblower/
Keating wheels himself out when he wants to say something , unlike the old right wing warrior John Howard who is constantly pressed into service when things look bleak for the right wingers. If you see an old fella who has an inflated sense of his own importance around the traps you know Labor is going to win big and his presence never seems to alter even one vote, just solidify the votes of the oldies and goldies who would vote that way anyway.
Look at Moi Bandt does not like Humpty Dutton outstunting him.
I would have expected the Greens to be “first out of the block” and unequivocal regarding the “desperation dinner” being served by up by Dutton’s mob.
The Greens need to get back to their “roots”.
The Dutton Mob’s nuclear gambit is a direct challenge to both the Greens and Teals, and should be rebutted immediately and strongly.
MSM publications and broadcasters should be made aware of their ethical obligations to be truthfully free of propaganda and outright lies.
Some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs, business people and academics are the vanguard against nuclear energy and it’s time for others to step up.
Badthinker:
Monday, June 24, 2024 at 9:29 am
[‘My opinion, when they’re wheeling Keating out it’s panic stations.’]
I doubt he was wheeled out. He offers his opinion on subjects he strongly feels about and is sometimes critical of Labor. I add that
Albanese should take Dutton seriously – ridicule can have a short shelf-life; reference thereof is drawn to the Voice referendum.
I have to say, on a cold morning in Adelaide, getting our home fitted with solar PV, home battery and reverse cycle electric AC replacing gas heating is looking like one of our best investment decisions.
Rusted on Coalition voters will dutifully support whatever policy Dutton puts forward, no matter the cost, level of detail or whether the policy is actually realistic.
Here is the Dutton Plan to transform the energy base of Australia’s economy as per public communications from the Liberals and the Nationals and the Liberal Nationals. I note in passing that two Coalition state party leaders, assorted backbenchers and assorted shadow spokespersons have jumped onto the grossly overloaded policy kayak in order to try to paddle it in various directions at the same time.
Dutton is all piss and no pot.
They don’t know their emissions targets between now and 2050.
They don’t know when their unknown emissions target will be met.
They don’t know whether or not they are pulling out of the Paris Accords.
They don’t have a target percentage nuclear contribution to power.
They don’t know the completion date.
They don’t know how much radioactive waste they will generate.
They don’t know what kind of reactors they are buying.
They don’t know the size of the reactors they are buying.
They don’t know how many reactors they are buying.
They know how much this will cost and will let us know shortly.
They don’t know the level of the investment cap that they will put on renewables.
They don’t know when they will enforce the investment cap on renewables.
They don’t know how long they will enforce the investment cap on renewables.
They don’t know how many gas-fired power stations they want.
But they do know that nuclear will be cheaper!
They do know they hate transmission lines.
They do know they hate windfarms.
They do know they will force whatever all this is down the throats of the states.
They do know they will force whatever all this is this down the throats of the communities.
Dutton is all piss and no pot.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/23/nuclear-confusion-the-coalitions-power-plan-is-becoming-less-and-less-clear
@Socrates would your board game group be interested in running a play testing session on a game we are designing? It’s still in alpha but we’ve just done the first round of testing and rule revision. It’s a puzzle game that looks to use ideas of reciprocity to turn ideas into solutions for epoch challenges. Once complete it’ll be available for print and play (not going to do a hard copy distribution). Probably ready for external testing in about 3 or 4 weeks.
Lordbain @ #610 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 9:29 am
Do what you want. Suffice to say that, as I age I do constantly question my mental acuity, whether it’s the same or worse than it used to be, and so I think it’s only fair and reasonable to analyse and question that of others, no matter how smart they used to be or how important. I mean, if we took your perspective as the only reasonable one then we could never question Donald Trump.
Mavis at 9:41 am
…
Ridicule [and Barnaby Joyce taking Littleproud out] is all Labor have got.
Keeping on banging on about Cost when the deputy PM won’t deny that the Renewables rollout will cost at least $1.3 Trillion is a road to nowhere.
CAT, if your comparing Keatings attitude towards Wong and China with Trumps action.. then you are (once again) missing the point. We question Trumps mental health not because we disagree with him, but because he does things that are … well, the actions of a lunatic. If you go around accusing people of being senile just because you disagree with them… then good luck
Boerwar:
But they do know that nuclear will be cheaper!
They do know they hate transmission lines.
They do know they hate windfarms.
They do know they will force whatever all this is down the throats of the states.
They do know they will force whatever all this is this down the throats of the communities.
None of this is broadly unpopular.
Nuclear owned and operated by the Federal Governent would have to be cheaper than Intermittent Energy produced by private companies, that’s just backing self interest.
Socrates @ #611 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 9:35 am
The key word there is, ‘voluntary’.
Mostly Interested
“@Socrates would your board game group be interested in running a play testing session on a game we are designing? It’s still in alpha but we’ve just done the first round of testing and rule revision. It’s a puzzle game that looks to use ideas of reciprocity to turn ideas into solutions for epoch challenges. Once complete it’ll be available for print and play (not going to do a hard copy distribution). Probably ready for external testing in about 3 or 4 weeks.”
Thanks for asking and yes certainly. We meet on most Thursday nights.
William
Would you please give MI my email details so that he can send me the material. Otherwise if you are in Adelaide we could arrange a time and place to meet.
Off to work for me. Have a good morning all. I wonder what fresh lies Dutton has in store today?
We won’t need high speed rail in future for inter-city travel. We can have atomic planes instead. This is a real Soviet example from the 60s. Yes of course, stupid idea.
CAT, if your comparing Keatings attitude towards Wong and China with Trumps action..
Long bow.
Answer: No I’m not. I can make the general point without it having to be that specific. Which I did.
I have seen interviews with both Sarah Hanson-Young and Adam Bandt since Dutton announced his nuclear ‘policy’, both were strident critics of it, as has been every ‘Teal’ I’ve seen when asked about it. The greens and ‘Teals’ get FAR less air time than the government, so I’m not really sure what more posters like C@t and Griff think those groups could be doing to oppose this ‘policy’ when they’ve called it out for the nonsense that it is and certainly wouldn’t vote in favour of any such proposal in the parliament?
Badthinker @ #623 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 9:53 am
Yet again you LIE about the cost of the Renewable policy, the majority cost of which will be shouldered by private investors, via some spurious reference to something the Deputy Prime Minister ‘won’t deny’ (I’m sure the context is completely different to your assertion).
So, because you keep lying about the cost of Labor’s plan, here are the facts:
Using data from the CSIRO’s latest GenCost report and the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan, the Smart Energy Council estimates the plan’s cost to taxpayers will be at least $116 billion.
This is equivalent to delivering 82 per cent renewables by 2030, and an almost 100 per cent renewable energy mix by 2050, including the cost of building all of the enabling transmission infrastructure, the council said.
Under the operator’s forecast, the total expenditure required to fund all generation, storage, firming and transmission infrastructure was found to have a 2024-dollar value of $121 billion, to be invested gradually out to 2050.
The bulk of the $121 billion would be invested by the private sector between now and 2050 to deliver about 300 gigawatts of capacity by 2050.
These figures compare to just 11 gigawatts of nuclear capacity funded by the taxpayer in the opposition’s proposal, the council said.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/climate-denialist-paul-keating-launches-scathing-attack-on-peter-duttons-nuclear-power-plan/ifoeuxc5b?cid=23aad4a94842e48f5432f3f164405fb1
If you continue to deny these FACTS, then you are just trolling for effect, as Confessions says.
PageBoi @ #630 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 10:08 am
I have constantly and consistently posted Adam Bandt’s remarks when other people have questioned his response to the issue. Please don’t criticise me for something I haven’t done. I’m no whipping boy.
A fascinating analysis about the Right Wing media ecosphere in the USA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw_JAYKUk94
ok apologies C@t, I went back and it was Goll and Griff demanding that the Greens ‘do more’, I think I lumped you in with those responses by accident because of how you jumped on Lordbain for pointing out the Greens nuclear policies……….
PageBoi says:
Monday, June 24, 2024 at 10:08 am
I have seen interviews with both Sarah Hanson-Young and Adam Bandt since Dutton announced his nuclear ‘policy’, both were strident critics of it, as has been every ‘Teal’ I’ve seen when asked about it. The greens and ‘Teals’ get FAR less air time than the government, so I’m not really sure what more posters like C@t and Griff think those groups could be doing to oppose this ‘policy’ when they’ve called it out for the nonsense that it is and certainly wouldn’t vote in favour of any such proposal in the parliament?
________
https://greens.org.au/mps/adam-bandt/news
Bandt is arguing with one hand tied behind his back. Cannot talk about nuclear without dragging Labor into it.
“The Australian Greens have said Peter Dutton’s nuclear ‘plan’ is nothing more than a distraction from both major parties’ support for opening up new coal and gas mines.”
And let’s compare with the Teals
Allegra Spender
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/nuclear-power-keeps-getting-more-expensive-allegra-spender/video/d21077683dd10f524aae3e11c0e89343
Zoe Daniels
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/zoe-daniel-and-keith-wolahan-climate-emissions-reduction-target/103966926
Zali Steggall
https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/national/there-is-no-actual-proposal-coalitions-nuclear-power-policy-slammed/video/f5bc9f5e4b0efc81294554230d17608c
I cannot be bothered looking for the others. Safe to say, the Teals can prosecute the policy on its own (lack of) merits. A clear difference to The Greens.
Griff, moving those goal posts certainly helps keep you strong 🙂
And The Guardian blog 2 minutes ago:
Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have appeared at a press conference spruiking Pocock and MP Kylea Tink’s call for housing to be recognised as a human right. Both were also asked about nuclear energy.
Lambie said:
I would love to see nuclear energy, but quite frankly I watched the Liberal National parties argue for nine years about low level waste and they couldn’t get their shit together then. So, let’s be honest, good luck to them.”
Pocock said:
Let’s debate energy policy on its merits. I’m failing to see the merit of what they are proposing. You hear from experts that this is going to make energy more expensive at a time when we’re in a cost of living crisis, and one of the key drivers of that is energy prices going through the roof.
You can see some of the cracks in the Coalition’s thinking when they say we need nuclear but we also need household solar. Because they know that is where cost of living can be helped – having solar on more households … looking at batteries on households … That’s the future for Australia.
We need to call out the nuclear play for what it is. We’ve heard Liberal Matt Kean talk about this: they brought the nuclear stuff … below it is the fossil fuel industry delaying the transition, and that would be disastrous for all of us. We’ll pay the price when it comes to energy bills, and increased insurance premiums, and we’ll saddle future generations with the climate in much worse shape.”
See? Not that hard PageBoi. Pocock’s first sentence is perfect 😉
Lordbain says:
Monday, June 24, 2024 at 10:22 am
Griff, moving those goal posts certainly helps keep you strong
_________
What shift? I asked where is The Green’s get up and go on nuclear. Too busy attempting to wish cast Dutton’s nuclear policy as a smokescreen for same-same politics. Sad.
[‘One in five projects in Australia’s environment assessment pipeline are renewable energy projects, as voters are warned the coalition’s nuclear plan poses a “big danger” to clean investment.
Nuclear power would be much more expensive than renewables, according to a study by the CSIRO. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
…
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said 20 per cent of the projects before her for approval were renewables which were at “record highs”.
“The big danger is that Peter Dutton will distract and divert investment, and at the end of the day, he won’t tell Australians what this will cost,” she told ABC’s RN.
“Anybody in the energy sector will tell you that uncertainty kills investment.”
Ms Plibersek said there was “no shortage” of interest in renewable projects because investors understood nuclear was “expensive and unattainable”.]
https://www.inqld.com.au/politics/2024/06/24/government-warns-of-big-danger-in-duttons-nuclear-investment-plan
I find that Plibersek is very polished before the cameras. Of anyone, she’s capable of getting the message out re. the pros & cons of renewables -v- nuclear energy and in a non-aggressive way.
Griff continues to demonstrate the classic “moving the goal posts” tactic; first, the Greens arnt protesting, now its that they arnt protesting in a way that griff approves of.
Griff,
I take your point, but that doesn’t make what Bandt is saying wrong does it? I mean, it IS Labor policy to open new coal and gas projects, 54 of them so far this parliament if I’m not mistaken?
It’s actually a very weird place that we find our polity in. We now have the coalition seemingly embracing socialism in their nuclear plans (because the privates sector wouldn’t touch it with a 40′ barge pole), and the ‘socialist’ ALP worrying about ‘investor confidence’ being a threat to the renewables rollout, because heaven forbid a government actually spend money directly on fixing a problem. I mean what next, people might start demanding that the government builds houses when there’s a housing shortage, and we just can’t have that!
Albanese has called a presser for just about now. No doubt he’ll be having a go at Dutton and Ted the Dill’s nuclear announcement.
Socrates
We are so glad we went solar.
We’ve had no bills & atm we are $849 in credit.
Matt Kean appointed as chair of Climate Change Authority.
PageBoi says:
Monday, June 24, 2024 at 10:29 am
Griff,
I take your point, but that doesn’t make what Bandt is saying wrong does it? I mean, it IS Labor policy to open new coal and gas projects, 54 of them so far this parliament if I’m not mistaken?
It’s actually a very weird place that we find our polity in. We now have the coalition seemingly embracing socialism in their nuclear plans (because the privates sector wouldn’t touch it with a 40′ barge pole), and the ‘socialist’ ALP worrying about ‘investor confidence’ being a threat to the renewables rollout, because heaven forbid a government actually spend money directly on fixing a problem. I mean what next, people might start demanding that the government builds houses when there’s a housing shortage, and we just can’t have that!
_______
And housing is where The Greens could be progressive rather than destructive. Pocock, Tink and Haines have an interesting policy announcement on housing. It would be great if the Australian population could be convinced that housing is at least as important as energy. Can we develop a similar policy for housing as we have for renewable energy development?
UK cartoons and other miscellany
(saved up until images were working again)
Christian Adams
Graeme Bandeira
Ben Jennings
Dave Brown #RoguesGallery
The original Giulio D’Anna (Football)
Peter Schrank
Matt
Martin Rowson
Matt Davies
Wayno
Andy Davey
Jonsey
Happy #Brexit Anniversary, people
Tom Gauld
Dennis Goris
Morten Morland
Fergus Boylan
Mac
Chris Riddell
Peter Brookes
================
Steve Brodner
Someone mentioned Project 25 – perhaps this cartoon sheds some light?
Steve May
Stolen from the Internet
Jane of the North
It’s in the bible. I shitteth you not.
BK @ #642 Monday, June 24th, 2024 – 10:36 am
Unbelievable. When will Labor learn that you never appoint your political opponents to these sorts of sinecures!
Matt Kean apppointed… oh man, this will do wonders about how LibLab are totally different 🙂
Albo appoints Matt Kean as Chair of the Climate Change Authority