Tag Archives: Taylor

Ballot Draws, Preferences and #Watergate

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The week began with Easter Sunday – one of the agreed “days off” this elections campaign, although the media did follow both Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten to their Easter Services. Morrison and his family worshipped at his local church – Horizon Church in Sutherland – while Shorten and his wife Chloe attended his parents in-law’s church St Andrews in Indooroopilly in Brisbane.

The week also saw a pause in campaigning on ANZAC day, and only two retiring parliamentarians attended overseas dawn services – Liberal MP Christopher Pyne and Labor MP Michael Danby attended the dawn service in Villers-Bretonneux to represent the government and the opposition. This has meant that we haven’t seen a great deal of policy promises this week. The Liberals have promised more help for drought-affected farmers. And Labor has continued to talk mostly on their health policy.

The AEC ballot draw took place…and the results are interesting. On the Victorian Senate ballot paper, you’ll see the Liberals in the first column, and Labor in the 24th (and last) column. In Queensland, One Nation and the United Australia Party have ended up first and third on the ballot paper.

With these ballot positions clear, the preference deals between parties are starting to take shape. The Liberal Party has done a deal with Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party that seems to be in part, a way to sure up the Liberal party in the hope they might retain government, but could also give Palmer a decent chance at getting a seat in the Senate. Palmer has said that he also spoke with Labor – however Shorten said that if he were to agree to a preference deal with Clive Palmer, it would be on the condition that Palmer finish paying off his Queensland Nickel employees who are still owed entitlements.

Anti-Adani Mine protesters have a convoy travelling around Queensland at the moment, raising awareness about what they see as the detrimental impacts of the potential mine. Towards the end of the week they ended up in “coal country” where they were met with quite a bit of resistance from pro-mining locals and some of the unions. However, they’re unfazed and will spend a few days in the area holding rallies before moving on.

There are questions over the WeChat accounts of Scott Morrison, Bill Shorten and several other senior MPs. WeChat – the Chinese version of WhatsApp or Messenger – is being used to engage with voters in the Chinese community, but there are questions over who owns or has started these accounts on the Chinese mainland. Not only that, but WeChat users have to follow Chinese censorship rules, which has led some to question if Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison who have both done Q&A sessions on their accounts have censored themselves. Scott Morrison refused to answer, while Shorten said that the translators were the ones who chose the questions.

The saga that has been dubbed #Watergate by the Australian media has continued into this week. On Barnaby Joyce’s authority, the government bought back $80 million worth of water – that experts believe doesn’t actually exist – from a company registered in the Cayman Islands. The company formerly employed Energy Minister Angus Taylor – and while Taylor says that neither he nor his family have any links to the company at the time of the buy back, it doesn’t exactly pass the “pub test”. Barnaby Joyce was interviewed on the ABC by Patricia Karvelas, but it did not go well.

Finally this week, controversy has followed Fraser Anning into the election campaign, with one of his supporters allegedly assaulting a news photographer during Anning’s candidate announcement at Cronulla Beach.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Mark Humphries’ take on the #watergate issue – ABC

Michael Rowland on the rise of vitriol as the election campaign continues – ABC

What we can learn from fashion on the campaign trail – SMH

 

More Gaffes, Stonewalling and Alt-Right Infiltration

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Oops, a bit late with the posting…working in retail during holiday periods tends to lead to that.

I hope you had a restful Easter break.

Last week, we saw policy promises from both major parties around health, jobs and the economy. The parties both rallied their volunteers on Sunday, and so began a week of campaigning with tempered by truces on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

This week saw another gaffe, with Bill Shorten saying there would be “no new taxes on superannuation” – except, well, he has one planned should he get into government. He apologised and said that upon reflection he should have said that there would be no new taxes on superannuation other than what had already been announced by Labor in the last few months. Scott Morrison has attempted to jump on this gaffe, but it feels overdone, mostly because he’s using the line he’s been using for the last ten days about Labor and Bill Shorten being liars.

When not selling their policies to the electorate, both Shorten and Morrison have been frustrating journalists (and voters) by stonewalling on certain questions. For example, when the Prime Minister was in the electorate of Deakin with MP Michael Sukkar, he was asked he felt confident in Sukkar’s support, given Sukkar had backed Dutton last August – and Morrison responded:

That is such a bubble question, I’m just going to leave that one in the bubble

Shorten on the other hand, got into a terse exchange with Channel 10 reporter Jonathan Lea, who asked about the costs of Labor’s emissions reduction target five time and didn’t get a “proper” answer – Lea was rightfully frustrated.

It is a worry that both leaders feel they can control what is put out by the media by stonewalling and avoiding questions. It doesn’t work, because we have a fairly independent and free press, which means that politicians or governments can’t control the story anyway. If anything it makes both leaders look like they’re hiding something, which one might think would be something they would rather avoid.

There weren’t a huge range of announcements this week due to the agreement to not campaign on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but Labor has promised to give Indigenous community organisations more say in where money goes, combined with further promises to invest $115 million in indigenous health, and to make Pat Dodson the Indigenous Affairs Minister should Labor win the election. Otherwise, most of the week was spent either talking more about previous policy announcements, or debating whose policy costings were correct. There are so many millions and billions floating around, my head is spinning.

Meanwhile, Fraser Anning had been embroiled in some sort of alt-right conspiracy to infiltrate politics. It seems that at least one of his political staffers and some of his campaign staff have links to an ultra right-wing group that tried to infiltrate the Nationals (they were unsuccessful, after they were discovered and expelled from the party in October last year). However, it gets a bit weirder, as one of these alt-right guys worked for Clive Palmer a few years ago. He only worked for Palmer and his eponymous – but now-defunct – Palmer United Party, but only for three weeks. Palmer doesn’t see it as a big deal, he apparently fires people all the time.

Meanwhile, Clive Palmer is having another stab at politics – he is now running a new political party, the United Australia Party, and will be running for the Senate. Palmer was planning to contest the ultra-marginal Queensland seat of Herbert, but because he’s quite unpopular there, he’s decided to put someone else in the seat and try for the Upper House where he potentially has a better chance.

Many in the government now believe that George Christiansen’s electorate of Dawson in Queensland is going to be lost in the election, as he comes under more fire for being an “absent member” – he’s spending more time in the Philippines than in Australia, mostly because Christiansen has a Filipino girlfriend. The main concern for the electorate Dawson for both major parties is that the One Nation vote is generally quite high and they don’t really want a member of the Lower House from One Nation.

There are also questions surrounding Barnarby Joyce and Angus Taylor over the $80 million government purchase of water rights from two farms owned by a company that is domiciled in the Cayman Islands. If that wasn’t enough, the company did at one point employ Angus Taylor. Taylor denies that he or any family members have benefitted from the sale, and Barnaby Joyce was “out of range”.

Tweet of the Week

Election campaigns that have Easter in the middle of them means politicians take photos with the oddest of characters…

Thing’s I’ve Been Looking at Online

The logistics of the world’s biggest single-day election – The Interpreter

Annabel Crabb says we shouldn’t be distracted by the billions and millions – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – January 17 to January 23

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The week has been relatively quiet with Malcolm Turnbull back on tour. He first travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan to meet with troops, before travelling  to the USA to hang out with Obama after his invitation in November.

Turnbull signed a cybersecurity agreement with the FBI, Twitter and Facebook, spoke to Obama and Defence Secretary Ash Carter about fighting Islamic State and having “the right boots on the right ground”. He then went to Hawaii to meet the Commander of the US Pacific Command and talked about concerns about China’s claims in the South China Sea.

The economy is causing concerns again, with Australian shares down 8% since January 1st. There are questions over whether or not the Australian economy will have a recession, which some experts are saying may not be all that bad. Either way, Scott Morrison has called for “sober and wise heads”.

Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel (QNI) company has gone into voluntary administration with continuing concerns about the company’s finances and how much money has been given to the Palmer United Party (PUP). As the administrators get to the bottom of the whole thing, Palmer has announced that two other companies he founded/owns (it’s complicated because of the whole political thing) will give QNI around $250 million to help them get back on their feet.

As we begin an election year, there are tensions within the NSW Liberal Party over the candidates in certain seats. Because NSW has been redistributed by the AEC this year, some MPs no longer live in their original electorates, and also due to some scandals, and the fact that we have a moderate PM, there are certain seats that are being fought over between the conservative and moderate factions of the party. Mackellar – held by Bronwyn Bishop, Berowra – held by Phillip Ruddock, and Hughes – held by Craig Kelly are at risk. It is believed that the plan is to put forward younger, more moderate candidates, supported by the moderate faction. Two others, Angus Taylor and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, while at risk have been supported by Turnbull and it might be less concerning for them.

Finally this week, NSW Premier Mike Baird has spoken about accepting and welcoming refugees into Australia, using the example of lawyer Deng Adut (of Western Sydney University advertisement fame) to remind people that refugees do make positive contributions and Turnbull has moved into the lodge.

Tweet of the Week

Bauer announced the end of Cleo.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Lisa Wilkinson on being one of the editors of Cleo – Huffington Post Australia

First Dog on the Moon on Border Force Medals – The Guardian

*I would have also linked to Sharri Markson’s piece on the folding of Cleo, but it’s on The Australian website behind a paywall.