Election diary Wednesday 10 July 2013 - The Labor climb goes on

And the climb goes on. The gap between Coalition and Labor as measured on our election indicator continues to narrow.

A 30.7% probability is the highest Labor has been all year. The indicator started January at 24.8% and by the end of that month reached its previous 2013 high-point of 26.9%.

 It is an amazing turn around.

It’s never too late. A short extract from my behind-the-paywall contribution today to Crikey. (And if you are not a subscriber you should be. I modestly think we at Crikey are the consistently best of the alternative Australian media.)
Good to see a variation on the leadership change story this morning. From the op-ed page of The Australian:


Now wouldn’t that make it a truly spectacular election campaign? Malcolm Turnbull replaces Tony Abbott on the day the election is called!
A word of warning to Rudd: remember 1983. It is never too late to change leaders. Go sooner rather than later.
Power to the people but not yet. Old habits die hard. Despite all the talk about giving the power to the ordinary party members as part of the great Rudd reforms, Labor today decided to let the Federal Executive make all or any of the difficult pre-selection decisions.

And don't worry about those rules about having to be a party member for a year or two to be a candidate. That's out the window too which must make a loyal rank-and-file candidate who misses out puzzled about the reason to bother joining and attending those often boring branch meetings.

Clearly change does not mean an end to hypocrisy.

 The sharp edge of campaigning. From the PM's official Instagram site:

We are really getting down to the serious matters now.

A champion candidate. Palmer United Party has endorsed current boxing world champion Will Tomlinson for the Victorian House of Representatives seat of Gippsland. While that is unlikely to be of much significance in the final scheme of things, Clive Palmer is doing his chances of picking up a Senate seat somewhere a lot of good. With 47 parties now eligible to stand candidates the last Senator in each state will be determined by a virtual lottery. Having Reps candidates helps mobilise an election day workforce to hand out those last minute how-to-vote card reminders and that may prove vital.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Scott Morrison getting ahead of Malcolm Turnbull in the GST debate?

Image
Michelle Grattan , University of Canberra Scott Morrison has become a true believer in the cause of raising the GST, determined to drive a major switch in the tax mix. The big question is whether Malcolm Turnbull will end up in the same place as his treasurer. Turnbull is keeping his options open. “Changes to the GST are certainly part of the tax debate and certainly being actively considered by the government,” he said on Friday. If Turnbull agrees with Morrison, all will be well and good between them. On the other hand if Turnbull eventually opts for caution and doesn’t walk down the GST road, or in the shorter term feels Morrison is getting ahead of the game, that would be awkward for the gung-ho minister, who would the need to manage his retreat. Morrison wants a high profile and he seeks the limelight. But that carries risks. There is always that salutary tale from Labor days. Paul Keating was passionate about introducing a broad-based consumption tax. Bob Hawke let
Read more

Prime Minister Scott Morrison under pressure as the question about knowledge of a rape gets embarrassing

Image
Any    day   of   the   week Five words by Scott Morrison that fired up social media commentators today. #NotMyPM pic.twitter.com/YiGTGzLNU5 — M🕯️cr💧ft ...... 🍥 🐒🚶......🧠 (@KaurnaCopia) March 18, 2021 They saw an angry and embarrassed Prime Minister. A politician under considerable pressure. Looking for a way out and not being able to see it. Hansard tells the story of how it came about: Members of Parliament: Staff  Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): My question is to the Prime Minister. Thirty days ago, the Prime Minister told this House that he asked his former chief of staff, one of the few people he's ever shown empathy for, to verify what his office knew about the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins only metres from where he works. Mr Gaetjens reported his findings on the Prime Minister's sports rorts within two weeks. Why is this report, about the Prime Minister's staff, taking so long, and will the Prime Minister release this
Read more

Making a mockery of Labor Party pre-selections

  The shenanigans of the SA branch of the Labor Party just gets worse and worse. The Federal Executive of the Party should intervene to stop this madness. What follows is a post I received this evening from my friend Maggie Dawkins about her daughter Alice's courageous decision to take on the power brokers and seek preselection for the seat of Spence. "Alice innocently exercised her right as an ordinary member of the Labor Party to nominate for Spence. What she may inadvertently have stumbled upon is a done deal agreed to by faceless power brokers of the Left and Right factions. Ordinary members have not been consulted, but it is all leaking out as Alice calls the SA Party office to account. It appears that many members may not be comfortable with this done deal, as they are contacting me, not only as Alice’s mum, but also as a board member of Whistle Blowers Australia. Is the deal correct? Who knows? Perhaps time will tell? We know that some of it is correct, for example, Ni
Read more