Tuesday, November 17
Blogger and former Liberal Party activist Tim Andrews offers a colourful take on the Greens preselection process, alleging widespread discontent in local branches over the imposition of Clive Hamilton.
Friday, November 13
The ballot paper draw has been conducted, and the order of candidates can be viewed here. Candidates I hadn’t known about: independent Peter Brohier (“lawyer”), Isaac Roberts of the Liberal Democratic Party (“accountant”) and Democratic Labor Party regular John Mulholland (“psychologist”).
Friday, November 6
AAP reports Steve Raskovy, “a 72-year-old former Hungarian wrestler and refugee”, will run for One Nation. Antony Green has embellished his by-election page with candidate details.
Wednesday, November 4
From Friedrich in comments we learn that Joseph Toscano, Anarchist Media Institute director and prolific writer of letters to the editor, is seeking the local residents’ signatures required to lodge a nomination.
Tuesday, November 3
LATE: The Australian Democrats have announced their candidate will be David Collyer, who contributes regular posts to the blog of the party’s Victorian division.
EARLY: Climate Sceptics announces that Stephen Murphy, a Melbourne computer programmer who “speaks five languages”, will run as an “Independent Climate Sceptic”.
Thursday, October 29
Antony Green weighs in on the by-election, adding further voice to the consensus that the Greens’ nomination of Clive Hamilton is tactically unsound. Danielle Crowe of the Manningham Leader reports Crikey empire founder, Manningham councillor and perennial deposit non-recoverer Stephen Mayne has “not ruled out” running as an independent. Nominations close November 12, with the ballot draw to follow the next day.
Monday, October 26
Speaker Harry Jenkins has confirmed that the Higgins and Bradfield by-elections will be held on December 5.
Saturday, October 24
A wide-ranging chorus of critics has chimed in to argue Hamilton’s decidedly non-liberal political and economic philosophies are a poor fit for the electorate he has chosen to contest. As “Carlton’s lone classical liberal” Andrew Norton puts it: “It’s not often that Pollytics, Andrew Bolt and Catallaxy blogs all reach the same conclusion”. Christian Kerr of The Australian reports similar sentiments from RMIT University economist and Institute of Public Affairs senior fellow Sinclair Davidson, who argues voters in Higgins (which as Kerr notes includes “Chapel Street, Toorak Road and the High Street strip”) are unlikely to respond to the “ascetic” and “spartan” lifestyle Hamilton demands to ward off ecological apocalypse, to be achieved if need be by “the suspension of democratic processes”. On top of which, his views on internet filtering could potentially alienate parts of the Greens’ core constituency, particularly if they have an alternative candidate to turn to.
Friday, October 23
The Greens have unveiled a high-profile candidate in Clive Hamilton, founder and former executive director of left-wing think tank the Australia Institute and current professor of public ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.
Thursday, October 22
Labor has slightly surprisingly decided it won’t be entering the fray. Andrew Landeryou at VexNews reports: “Labor insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity explained that the widespread presumption of demographic change in Higgins, and a big swing more generally, was not substantiated by the party’s secret polling, presented on Powerpoint to the Prime Minister recently, which showed a likely Liberal victory even in the tough circumstances in Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberals find themselves.”
Monday, October 19
Peter Costello formally tendered his resignation today to Speaker Harry Jenkins, who is expected to announce an election date of November 28 or December 5 in the coming days.
Saturday, October 10
Phillip Coorey of the Sydney Morning Herald reports Peter Costello will officially resign when parliament resumes on October 19. Given a campaign of average length, this will mean a polling date of November 28 or December 5: after “the final two-week parliamentary sitting in which the Coalition – if it doesn’t filibuster – will have to vote on Labor’s emissions trading scheme”. Antony Green at the ABC and Ben Raue at The Tally Room have guides to the by-election posted.
Wednesday, October 7
Samantha Maiden of The Australian reports Peter Costello is “set to resign from Parliament today”, which will most likely result in a by-election for his seat of Higgins on the same yet-to-be-announced date as the one for Bradfield. Costello holds the eastern suburbs Melbourne seat with a margin of 7.0 per cent, having suffered a swing of 1.7 per cent at the 2007 election. The preselection to replace him at the next election was held a fortnight ago and won by his former staffer Kelly O’Dwyer.
369 Comments
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Higgins by Election December 5th is it?—sorry Im just a bum thses days, used to vote Liberal at one time.
Stephen, you don’t vote for who is best, you vote for who is least worst. And that’s Rudd Labor by a long shot.
There is not a snow flakes chance that Clive Hamilton will get up in Higgins against a Liberal candidate. I am exactly the voter profile that he will need to appeal to (actually I’m left leaning so a softer touch than most) and from what I’ve read about him in the last week or so, having not heard of him before, I wouldn’t be voting for him even if its a two horse race. I’ve read his piece on Crikey and IMO it was a pretty threadbare offering from someone who is being lauded as an intellectual force. He mentions the issues of climate change and refugees which are, admittedly, hot button issues generally at the moment but there was no mention of health and education. Mr Hamilton surely realises that he is running to be elected as a representative of the community and not to lecture to the community. I can’t help but feel that he’s using the run for Higgins as a platform from which his views can be delivered. I just don’t get why Mr Hamilton, with his views on conspicuous consumption would want to live in this electorate, let alone represent it? I really hope I have misinterpreted what I have seen and read so far and that Mr Hamilton may turn out to be a credible candidate. For what its worth I suggest Mr Hamilton get together a document post haste that addresses a range of issues because others’ impressions of him will become gospel and the race will be over before it has started. BTW, it’s not encouraging when even those who share the same side of the political divide with Mr Hamilton suggest that he’s an outrider with a radical agenda.
Bob, only problem is that Labor isn’t fielding a candidate in Higgins which is going to cause huge problems unless a left leaning independent decides to run.
I enjoyed Antony Green’s response to a commenter on his blog:
Ha! Well said, sir.
I see in this weeks Progress Leader that Kelly O’Dwyer’s first ad is up and it is interesting that in the photo she is joined by the former MP Peter Costello.
All the issues O’Dwyer mentions are state issues but two things in her credit, first she seems interested in a broader range of issues than the MP for Kooyong and secondary she has appeared in the local paper at least as many times as Petro.
o and she seems to have a bigger smile than Costello! maybe we will call her Lady Smirky
With Costello it wasn’t his size, it was how he used it
#255
Antony does have a very dry, academic sense of humour, which is very good for disarming some of the more “enthusiastic” commenters (of which there has been a big increase, probably due to the by-elections/preselections currently going on…)
http://www.democrats.org.au/news/index.htm?press_id=6648&display=1
Couldn’t they find someone that lives in the electorate with strong community involvement? I hope the Sex Party runs here too, and some really mad independents
Dr Joseph Toscano to run as an independent for Higgins.
Dr Toscano is not you average Joe. A medical practitioner, an activist, an anarchist, a long time broadcaster on community radio station 3CR, Dr Toscano is no stranger to elections. He ran for the Senate many times with his Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule platform, as well as the 2008 Melbourne mayoral election.
To get your candidate’s name on the ballot paper, registered political parties pay their deposit and hey presto! Independent activists need to be nominated by at least 50 electors on the electoral roll in Higgins before they are eligible to stand.
Dr Toscano is on the lookout for 12 electors who would be interested in nominating him. In the email I received from the Anarchist Media Institute, Dr Toscano states: “…if you nominate me it doesn’t mean you have to vote for me or even vote at all.”
On his radio show this morning he announced he had 38 signatures so far.
Interested in a candidate to raise ideas in the public domain that are normally never canvassed? Well, if you live in the Federal electorate of Higgins, contact Dr Toscano before 12 November (the closing date for candidate nominations).
anarchistage@yahoo.com
PO Box 20, Parkville VIC 3052
To be eligible to nominate you need to be living in: Hughesdale, South Yarra, Toorak, Windsor, Camberwell, Ashburton, Glen Iris, Armadale, Kooyong, Malvern, Malvern East, Prahran, Carnegie or Murrumbeena.
Well that was my two cents into this Higgins bucket.
Friedrich,
Only a regular listener of Dr Toscano’s programs on 3CR, Melbourne’s community radio station.
WED 10-11am Anarchist World This Week
THU 9-10am Talkback with Attitude
Not sure an anarchist will go down to well in Higgins.
The good Doctor would be better spent saving his efforts for Melbourne, or the state seats of Melbourne, Richmond and Brunswick.
*to/too*
Is there any idea where all these parties are going to put their preferences. So far we have a lot of disenchantment with both the LIARs and the Greens. I’ll be interested to see where the SEX party go with thiers. Maybe they will start the trend of open tickets when faced with options they don’t like.
Greens and other left-wingers no doubt.
One Nation is apparently putting forward a candidate in Higgins, too.
http://vic.onenation.com.au/raskovy.html
How did these by-elections become so incredibly full of candidates from the alarming Right?
The Sex Party has made no decisions on preferences but I am surprised that anyone would think we would send them to Clive pro govt filter Hamilton. We come from a small biz background and while we could be seen as socially progressive I can’t see anarchists and lefties on our list.
Ms Patten, why is it that the only mention of sex workers in the Australian Sex Party’s policy document is regarding immigration-related sex slavery?
Has the party given any consideration to law reform in this area?
Thanks Rewi
at the moment we are standing on federal matters and most needed law reform is state based, however the following platform which is about addressing the discrimination that sex workers face daily and nationally.
To enact national anti discrimination laws which make it illegal to unfairly discriminate against people or companies on the basis of job, occupation, profession or calling.
Any other suggestions very welcome
Welcome aboard miss patten. Play your cards right and you could pull a senate seat. I know the bi elections are for exposure. If you do nothing else, make sure you have people maning every booth with htv’s
In fact Fiona I think the greens would be the most likely preference direction. i know Clive is contrary to party policy on the filter and he is not likely to win. preferencing the lib would conmpletely defeat the purpose of running.
If the Sex party is just some cross between the tory right and the Democrats, and little more than a preference filter for the right, what a waste of time. Mind you I’d enjoy seeing the look on Steven Fieldings face as he explains his second term in office as a Family First Senator on Sex Party Preferences, Howling with laughter down here at foothills of hypocracy.
Preferences are always a danger when these well meaning micro party’s stumble out.
Reminds me of the ‘more beer party’ that ran for the constitutional convention. They got more votes than the ‘Greens, . I can’t help it, why don’t they merge, then we could have the Sex and Beer party, guaranteed a Senate spot for sure. Maybe they could look at some sponsorship from CUB and the Tobacco lobby..
From what I understand of Sex Party policy, there are many policies in line with the Greens. Equal Rights, Discrimination against GLBTI are 2 that are obvious.
Even on the 0,000001% chance that Clive wins, he wont make a difference in a vote on internet filters. But could the sex party live with themselves if it turns out that their preferences would have got a Green in as opposed to O’Dwyer?
I just saw a Kelly O Dwyer truck on Chapel street, same size as the now-famous debt truck the Libs used way back when..
Big smiling Kelly-O, wow what a grin.
I was interested to read the throughts about local voter demographics. IF there is one electorate that is full of Doctor’s wives, its Higgins…yet no mention in the analysis.
And another thing, Fiona Pattern may find more sympathy from Liberal voters than she suspects.
We’re all in the closet to some extent down here in Higgins…some clever ground work in this by-election could pay dividends for the ASP in the next Federal election.
They willl probably need to drop that silly affirmative action/quota for women part of their policy though….
Mr Squiggle
I looked at all the ASP’s policies and agreed with all of them except the affirmative action quota. That one really bothered me as it is undemocratic and it makes them look like they don’t live in the real world. I hope they ditch it and they’ll get my vote.
Squiggle,
It probably is the debt truck just put to a more intelligent and productive use.
One of my great fears is that Greens have sex and reproduce. The Sex Party is patriotic if it preferences against the Greens.
Dio, wow big call..
Actually, I was thinking of offering to help out with How to Vote cards for them, but what if my Mum came to vote at the booth I was working at?
I wonder what’s on their t-shirts?
Squiggle,
“I’m a mothertucker. Mums just brought my lunch”.
GG- The Greens are a bit like coat hangers at the moment.
In the middle of the night you can hear this very faint, rythmic tinkling sound, it gets faster and faster and then suddenly its stops…..and the next morning there’s more coat hangers than ever before….yes…they’re reproducing in secret!!!
I wonder if Adam Bandt will do a few shopping centres around here
Squiggle,
Does Higgins have a shortage of coathangers or do you just like the sound of tinkling?
Neither!! – they are just so liberated these days, they do it anywhere!!
No shame, no shame
Anyway, back to the politics – The ASP is going to poll well here!!! Quite a few areas of Prahran are given over that side of things, sort of a natural constituency if you know what I mean
Squiggle,
At least the ASP stand/sit/lie/bendover/watch what they believe in. Greens could be in trouble.
GG.
Saying the sex party is patriotic if it preferences against the Greens is wrong. For a start that statement makes the assumption that anyone who preferences the Greens are UNpatriotic.
This includes the ALP in case you didn’t know.
So putting together the primary vote of the Greens(~10%), ALP(40-45%), plus others, you are accusing over 50% of voting Australians of being Unpatriotic.
Dave,
Labor is not running in Higgins so they are not allocating preferences.
It is a mistake to think all Labor supporters will be preferencing the Greens. The ASP has a number of attractive policies.
I’m talking about in general. The ALP almost always preferences the Greens. Accodring to your statement in #278, that makes the ALP Unpatriotic.
dave,
It is your peculiar logic that reached your conclusion. So you can own it.
However, I notice you are living in the past.
GG said.
“I’m a mothertucker. Mums just brought my lunch”.
I can now happily disregard any further comment made by this person.!
Today I have been polled on my voting intentions in Higgins
The pollster is Millward and Brown. (never heard of them before actually)
There questions were failry standard, with some interesting attempts to confirm whether my voting would be in consderation of state or federal issues.
Also, if Fiona Patten is interested, the ASP was not named specifically in my allowed responses, although an “others’ catergory was mentioned.
Good to see you aren’t bitter toward all progressive parties.
I’m thinking of putting ASP first in my vote next year.
Labor as always GG?
I’m voting ASP , democrats, greens, the rest, libs last. HTV’s Fiona if you vist black with red writing- Sex big and Australia and party above and below smaller.
On back 5 policies, Vote 1 sex and no preferences
I’m a bit suspicious of Fiona Patten.
I agree with a number of ASP policies, but I’m wary of candidates promoting policies that stand to benefit them so obviously and immediately.
One of the ASP’s policies is to increase accessibility to pornographic material. Along with being convenor of the ASP, she is the CEO of the Eros Foundation – the peak body that represents retailers who sell… pornographic material.
Does the Sex Party have a democratic process or are they just a front? They are looking a bit shabby and they haven’t even got out of the blocks. I have to agree with previous comments.
I should also add “personally”.
Barking, from what I have heard, which is little, they are planning on a consensus aproach when they can. I dont think they have enough active members to have much of a democratic process right now.
I mean active as in running a branch, going to meetings, etc.
Correct me if I’m wrong Fiona.
Barking is just whingeing as he faces the likelihood that Patten will out poll the dud Greens candidate Hamilton.
Having fantasies again GG.
What ever the ASP or The Greens vote will be it will be more than the Labor Party’s,
who need hundreds of thousands of $ to buy democracy.
marg,
Is that all you’ve got?
I’m disappointed.
The ALP can do that.
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