I guess we’re not getting a Morgan poll tomorrow, so a stand-alone post is required to note recent developments. To wit:
• Antony Green has crunched the numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest state and territory population figures and concluded that yet another new seat will need to be created in Queensland next year, again at the expense of New South Wales. Queensland will thus have boomed from 26 seats to 30 in little over a decade, having earlier gained Blair in 1998, Bonner in 2004 and Flynn in 2007. New South Wales lost Gwydir in 2007.
• The Australian Electoral Commission has announced that the finalised new federal boundaries for Western Australia will be gazetted on December 18, and maps published henceforth.
• Possum reckons “it’s time to rethink political demographics”, and explains why across a two-part epic here and here.
• A constitutional crisis is brewing in Canada that has some excited observers invoking the example of Australia in 1975. The election on October 14 saw Stephen Harper’s Conservative minority government re-elected, but again requiring the support of Bloc Québécois. However, Bloc Québécois has now signed an accord with the Liberal Party and leftist New Democrats due to dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the financial crisis. Harper reportedly plans to ask that Governor-General Michaëlle Jean prorogue the parliament so it will not sit until the budget is presented in January. This would avert a sitting on December 8 at which Harper’s government would likely be defeated on a no-confidence motion, and allow him time to pick apart the Liberal-Bloc-NDP deal. This raises the question of whether Jean ought to grant a prorogation to a Prime Minister who might not have the confidence of the House.
UPDATE (5/12/08): Jean agrees to prorogue parliament until January 26. Ben Raue at The Tally Room expresses his displeasure, and proposes reforms to the appointment of prime ministers (citing the practice in the Australian Capital Territory), the scheduling of parliament and the timing elections. I am a little more sympathetic to Jean’s decision, on account of the Liberals’ evident state of disarray – although I can buy the idea that it’s not the Governor-General’s role to make such judgements.
1,278 Comments
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But Swan hasn’t done anything wrong. And underperformance is relative. Performing better than Turnbull and then Bishop might be seen as underperformance but you only have to be a little better than your opponents. Perhaps if the opposition had someone more challenging then Swan would lift his performance.
NOTE: It’s Time, to do blockquotes, just put [ and ] on either side of the quote – The Management.
I don’t get this obsession with Swan.
He’s far from my favourite politician and not as good in Parliament as Tanner or Gillard but he’s doing a fine job policy wise and selling the message. The polls say the public thinks he’s fine as well.
Isn’t he back on the front bench!?
Alex has been since 1998.
Oz Swan couldnt sell you an umbrella on a rainy day!
He is the government’s weakest link because he never sounds sure of himself…struggles in QT and has made some woeful policy errors.
I have heard Bidgood ask a question in QT, the guy sounds like a good bloke. So he may have made a slight mistake, but I agree with BB, there is no way that is a hanging offence.
Yes Grog, anything that’s said in relation to the bible – is loony land stuff!
And Glen “if only Rudd had the gumption to sack Swan”. Swan is the best treasurer since Keating, he is a real economist. Not like his predecessor. If anybody dosen’t believe it they know nothing about economics, or have never seen QT. Like the old saying “if you throw enough mud, it sticks”!
Woeful policy errors? Only in the fevered imagination of Turnbull and the conservative drones. Where are the disinterested parties like academic economists criticizing the government’s economic policies?
And yet the latest polling suggest that Australians prefer Swan the previous mob?
Odd eh?
I don’t really see that? Like I said, he’s not a brilliant performer but he doesn’t “Struggle”. He defends his position well and counter attacks.
I think considering the fact that virtually all of his policies have been on the advice of, or have the support of, the RBA and Treasury they can’t really be considered “woeful”.
Centre…Bidgood sounds like a Pom.
Oz Swanny and Rudd never talked to the RBA Gov about their stupid bank deposit safeguards and they ended up making a meal of it!
Those who think Swan is no good in QT should get their eyes and ears checked. Seriously.
The Treasurer’s department did and the RBA is on the record saying they support it.
I take offence to you calling our trusted, national regulators “stupid.
It’s un-Australian and shameful.
The Parliament House food issue would probably have received far less, as in no, media attention if the owner of the catering company, which had only very, very recently taken on the contract, wasn’t married to a senior political journo who went on and on about it in the days and weeks afterward.
It may well be that the complainants were trying it on, but it may equally be true that there was the odd hiccup.
That’s coz he was born in the UK.
Anyway – people’s accents isn’t necessarily a predictor of what their character is. That said, Alexander Downer, with his Jar Jar Binks-accent, is an exception to this rule…
Sign #235646 that your country is screwed – police enforced dress codes:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24753220-23109,00.html
Who was that?!
That’s because of this!
[Bidgood was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in the East End of London.}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bidgood_(Australian_politician)
I’m guessing the terrible chefs at the Hyatt Canberra (the old caterers) have plenty of hooks in with the pollies – after all, most of them head there for post-QT drinks when Parliament sits…
Shows On @ 115. What the hell is wrong with those people? Women can’t wear tight pants! Guys can’t wear a spiky hair style!
Loooony Tunes! The lot of them. What is their problem?
Absolutely wrong, HSO. A press photographer is always a press photographer. If you’ve never been one, then it’s hard to understand. You shoot first, ask (yourself) questions later.
In this case the ending was a “happy” one and the charity benefited from it.
Can’t see the problem at all.
OK, perhaps I’m being disingenuous. It’s sort-of, maybe, perhaps, unseemly for a polly to be snapping pikkies outside Parliament House, but only if you take a very restricted view of politicians. They have lives outside of their work. They have histories that are hard to relinquish. For mine, Bidgood doing what he loves to do and has a career of doing is perfectly natural. That he sought not to profit from it and instead turned his photographs into a benefit for a chosen charity is something that should be praised, even if it is admittedly a little odd. But no more than that: unusual, but hardly beyond the pale.
As a side issue: I often think the biggest wowsers are from the Left. No reason for that being the case: it just is.
Fortunately that nice Mr Rudd agrees with me about the photos.
I totally agree that his millenarian views are much more of a problem. I’m surprised Dario and a few others are so comfortable having someone in Parliament who thinks the world is about to end and that God has punished us with the GFC. That level of detachment from reality is delusional and frankly dangerous.
Well you’ve just lost both Rudd and Turnbull.
We were right a few days ago , th Libs would back down on Education Bill…and now they hav ….all that money allocated in Bill to private schools must hav resulted in them inundating Libs to pass it
Of course Libs & Private Schools realize where Julia’s trojan horse is heading , but do not knoiw how to stop it First that Nation curiculum , then publishing of results (now that will cause jitters , alegedly top private schools charging a fortune and marks may be no better than less expensive private schools
Of course after that , expect funding will be tied to ‘disclosure’ of “donations” Will be interested to see how they tie up to School commission submissions over years
If process of horsey gets to end game , there may be comparative tax payers monies assessed that directly provide rich schools with state of art facilities matched for benefit/outcomes to poor private & public schools whos facilities ar appaling i can see alot of squirming and red herrings thrown up in future to divert th trojan horsey down th last rack
Press photographers are notoriously sleazy and unprincipled. So are politicians but at least they’re meant to pretend they’re not.
Vera , our Education discussion forcasting Libs backdown
It may be that Israel is preparing a send off to GWB and an unappreciated welcome to the White House for Obama.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24750795-401,00.html
Well, if you’ve got a hate up against the guy, who am I to buck the power of the Lefty wowsers?
I hereby withdraw from the Bidgood case. Good luck to youse all trying to crucify him. for mine, I think it’d be easier to get a life.
Perhaps this might get you on board, BB.
You just know there’s going to be trouble about this. A new Lego-style range complete with a Muslim suicide bomber and terrorist. Osama bin Lego. The photo’s pretty cute.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2002041.ece
Dario back @ 81, sorry, just got headed off at the pass by life, I suppose. I conclude from what you have posted (for which, thanks) that the police were trying to talk him away from any precipitate action, and were successful in doing so. What I find disturbing, and described as paparazzi like, is people inserting themselves into the national media, via photographs taken by a parliamentarian, and that includes the bozzo from Dawson. And does the parliamentarian in question have any clear idea in his mind about what is the role of a member of parliament, local representative, contributor to the development of policy for the party he serves? Apart from what his invisible friend tells him?
I will keep an open mind about the Hon. Member for Dawson, for now, but he hasn’t impressed on first outing.
William,
Bidgood might be right after all. This to follow on from my post at 126.
That’s quite a lot of fire crackers and if the big boys get involved then???
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,23765222-401,00.html
Diogenes,
I think I prefer the video game rather than the real thing.
On the contrary, his religious attitudes scare the bejesus out of me, but I fail to see what that has with him taking photos of someone
William & BB
William , I don’t see th relevance of that religous quote is to th photograpgh
What th quote is this guy is unrepresentative of his electors , and for mine should stand as an independent (and would lose) and has no pace in a mainstream politcal party (Labor or Liberal)
Photograpgh shows something else …BB is quite wrong to assert a pollie following his hobby of taking photos is excused “as a photohrapher” from every other normal human reactions to actualy save th human immediately by instinct This is a separate ground to suggest th guy has no basic decency judgment at all , and should be representing any voter He has no place in th Party , and would only remain on pregmetic ’seat’ politcs reasons
I’m putting good money on it that those statements about God causing the GFC isn’t the first stupid thing Bidgood has said. And there just has to be some intrepid journalist trawling through his past speeches a la Reverend Wright. If I was the journalist, I’d be starting just after 9/11.
It’s hard to beat a bit of publicity.
Bidgood and his revelation currently rating 135 news stories on Google News.
Not bad for just over a day!
If you are minding your own business outside Parliament house and someone chucks a mental, it’s not paparazzi-like to take a photo, it’s human nature. Chasing someone in a car 7 days a week with a camera at the ready is paparazzi-like, and the two shouldn’t be compared.
Kerist Almighty, B.B. Take away the particular case being argued. Imagine, for example, yourself being so distraught about your situation that you douse yourself with petrol and threaten to set yourself alight in a public place. Can you do that? You ant photographs with that?
Dario
They are quite separate and unrelated. Although they are two instances of this guy stuffing up. I’m glad you were only referring to the photo not being a problem (although I disagree). You were getting me worried there.
Shows how little the media cares about policy… in that time how many pieces of legislation have been through parliament, and how many things discussed in QT?
Diogenes, you could probably put a bit of money on the rest of us at some time or another having said something a bit goofy too.
One good thing though, we don’t have the MSM trailing along behind to allert the rest of the world to it.
That is something Bidgood will have to learn and quickly, I would think.
Yeah, and you can bet if he was a Lib, that it would have barely got a mention, if at all.
HSO
On the self-immolation thing. Although they often get terrible burns (and quite a few die), they actually do surprisingly well mentally after. Some commit suicide after, but quite a few do well. Perhaps they concentrate on their burns and rehab instead of whatever was causing them to be mentally unwell. We get quite a few who do it as inpatients, in prison or outside court.
I would bet that Abbott and Fielding have even more ridiculous loony views and beliefs. The only difference is that Bidgood opened his mouth.
Ron there have been a few backdowns in past couple of days by them Libs. Murray water bill, Education bill and expect another backdown before weekend on the Infrastructure bill, being blocked because libs are concerned about pork barrelling no less!!!!
I’m with BB on photogate, mountains outa molehills
At least he didn’t go over with a match and offer the bloke a smoke.
Looks like Turnbull & Bishop’s imaginations have got the better of them again.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24751221-26103,00.html
Their country is run by a minority of people who want to control the majority of people, and one way of doing so is by enacting and enforcing absolutely absurd laws that act as a threat to make the majority of people conform to other even more absurd and stupid laws.
About Half of the Liberal party (the right wing / conservative faction) probably agrees with his views.
Dario, I take your point about the difference, but I’d suggest, if not paparazzi like, which was probably an ill-chosen descriptor, then, how about really insensitive, lacking in common sense and ill considered. And he believes in an invisible friend, who does nasty things to the global economy, cos….retribution & the reckoning, etc.
Oz @ 116 – Tony Wright
BTW, just found this:
[Ms Wright, who took over the catering contract in July, admitted there were still come teething problems.
“It (Parliament House) is an incredibly large building … but we are working it out,” she told ABC Radio today.
Customers have had to adjust from self-service to receiving set portions.
“It has been difficult because the previous contractor had serve-yourself portions.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,24364908-5006922,00.html
As for the photographer/part time pollie, according to someone that was there, Bidgood only began talking about giving the money to charity when it eventually dawned on him that propositioning the media probably wasn’t a good look and when asked which charity he wanted the money sent to couldn’t think of one. Guess he hasn’t been following one of Rudd’s first edicts about getting involved with the less fortunate.
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