FOR THOSE ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN POLITICS
Spill is ON.
Anger is high, and allegiances have changed several times over the past 15 hours.
It appears Scott Morrison may be the moderate compromise.
Note that regardless of outcome, there WILL be a by-election in Turnbull’s electorate, Wentworth in about 4 weeks. I believe there isn’t anyone preselected (candidates must be preselected before elections are declared), so this is a problem. Previous PM Abbott’s sister is a possible candidate and they’re trying to get her to nominate. This is huge - she’s gay, Abbott is hugely against equal rights and wouldn’t endorse her relationship/marriage.
Note also there is a lot of anger against Murdoch/Sky and ‘Fairfax’/Nine for pushing this.
There is a lot of puzzlement as to why the Governor-General hasn’t stepped in, and Shorten (Opposition Leader) might yet step in and ask him to, even if a national election is held and LNP win. Been done before.
If a national election is declared, most electorates don’t currently have preselected candidates - the election actually isn’t due until next year. Once declared, it’s over within about 12 weeks.
Scott Morrison by 5 votes.
No idea on deputy leader yet.
It may be Julie Bishop again although officially she’s not on that list. All contenders believe in massive mining; all are climate change deniers.
Pray it’s not Cormann as deputy.
I’m not happy but it’s almost bearable until an election. He’s nasty but not outright Nazi. Still, this might have been The Plan.
Deputy is Josh Frydenberg.
Not happy about that, read up on the Great Barrier Reef trust grant scandal.
The junior Party in the Coalition, The National Party, is not happy at all.
Plus all deals made with the cross-benchers and Turnbull to keep Supply going in order to keep government functioning are apparently now open for renegotiation.
Dutton is still open to legal challenge to face the High Court (because of the size of the benefit his family trust gives him, of the government monies).
If Bishop, Turnbull, Dutton quit politics (any or all), government majority is lost.
Turnbull has just announced he's leaving politics, soon but no date given. Morrison is on his way to Governor-General to be sworn in. Note that majority is lost though, so by-election, and prob general election.
I reckon Shorten (and probably Wong in Senate) will call 'no confidence' when Parlt next sits, or will block Supply. Guarantees federal election.
Meantime, whole new Cabinet, probably reorganisation of government Departments yet again. What a criminal waste of taxpayers' money (which of course they keep telling us we don't have enough of)
yahooyahoo said:
dave23 said:But she is a rallying cry for Trump and his cronies.
LOST said:Exactly.
The Right does not hate her because they think she was not effective.
So what? They are a bunch of lunatics, they will make something else up as a rallying cry. What these GOP clowns think should have zero influence on who we select.
Joanne,
Fascinating. I've watched a couple of Australian TV Shows ( Rake and Secret City) that were about politics or touched on politics but truth is stranger than fiction.
I Googled "Preselection" and most of the hits were about dating! But there was an article about the political process of picking candidates. It was not specifically about Australia. My understanding is that you have Preselection Conventions where "delegates" choose the Party's Parliamentary Candidate in their local constituency. But how does one become a Delegate?
Avenatti seems serious about running for President.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/23/avenatti-dnc-chicago-795129
I feel funny posting when it’s a politics-free zone.
Back when Obama ran for the last time, we had a similar but brief conversation. Our parties are run similarly to your sports clubs: local branches, roughly based on ‘seats’ or electorates of that state. Each branch has its own President, secretary etc, and rank and file members. For local seats, they would nominate several candidates, Party officials confirm eligibility then local members vote for who they want. (This has been an issue with some branches, as allegations of ‘branch stacking’ come out.) For Senate elections, which means State wide nominations, someone from each branch would vote - I’m guessing probably the President. Each party has its own rules.
Independents self-nominate but need a certain number of backers and $ to prove they’re serious. You can be Independent for either Representatives (your local area/Lower House) or Senate (Upper House). This works for both both State and Federal, except for Queensland which doesn’t have a Senate.
Our Party Conventions are when they get together to choose policies, not candidates.
Does that make sense?
Oh, and our Liberals are Conservatives, and worse than Tea Party.
This could go in marksierra’s blog, or in Travel, but it also fits here:
We’ve got a Prime Ministers’ Garden, commemorating all their terms of office, which is located in a prominent cemetery. Several PMs are buried there, too.
I’m trying to remember, the closest you have to similar would be Arlington, is that right?
joanne said:
Our Party Conventions are when they get together to choose policies, not candidates.
Does that make sense?
Oh, and our Liberals are Conservatives, and worse than Tea Party.
Yes. I assume any citizen can join a Branch-Club. Also I assume that as soon as an election is called the President of the Branch calls a meeting of the Branch Members who hear from those persons who wish to be that Party's candidate for the seat.
How big are the Branches? How many Members of the lower house of Parliament?
A Congressional District here can half more that half a million people. We couldn't operate the same way.
I’m trying to remember, the closest you have to similar would be Arlington, is that right?
Arlington is for Military, not civilians. If a politician served in the Military he/she can be buried there, like JFK. I am not sure if any other former President is buried there.
re: preselection. Once the election is called, it’s too late for nominations - the candidates’ names for the Seat are already lodged at the Electoral Commission. (Ideally, you’ve nominated at least 3-6 months before so the electorate can really get to know you) So candidate nominations are usually taken when Party leaders call for it (I think it’s about 6months prior to the elections.)
Electorates are meant to be roughly the same size, so I guess branches are too. But I’ve never been a member, so I don’t know. (We don’t declare any party allegiance or preference when we enrol to vote). I can try to find out.
What’s thrown everyone out of cycle here is the furious round of by-elections last year, when we discovered a rash of sitting Members and Senators weren’t eligible (citizenship & financial issues), plus it was a year when federal elections bumped into State elections and a lot of local (council) elections. The branches handle all levels, but might not have good candidates for all levels all the time let alone loads of $$$.
FWIW, this is the Liberal Party’s document about themselves (note: they’re separate from the Country part, but in government referred to as LNP)
maybe the title of this should be For Those Actually Interested in Australian Politics 
ml1 said:
maybe the title of this should be For Those Actually Interested in Australian Politics
True - I'm thinking we need to add an Australia category. Must be weird to see Australia topics on here from any new people coming on here.
joanne is an active member of this community. She and I compare our political systems and educate each other. As a person interested in politics in general I am interested in how other political systems operate.
Australia is an English speaking country but that is not the only similarity to the US.
I actually joined many many years ago, following my penfriend's invitation, because of a Soapbox: All Politics discussion that was following several Australian domestic issues, and getting everything all wrong. Firstly, the posters didn't understand our political spectrum or the names of the Parties; then, they didn't understand how we vote; and they certainly didn't understand how the superficially important matter of a PM's appearance somewhere was generally a laughing matter here (from memory, that PM was Howard and most of us disliked him intensely, there just wasn't any decent alternative PM).
Now, I figure it's important especially with a capricious President, that international politics are spotlighted. What happens around the Pacific/SE Asia over the next 10 days will greatly impact your trade and exchange forecasts, and your military movements.
A surprising number of smaller nations have been in serious talks with China and Russia over the 6 weeks, bypassing US dithering and grandstanding. Trump might think it's not going to matter much, since the aid budget is lower - however these nations also represented ports and bases on which to call for supplies etc when on greater regional military missions, diplomatic exchanges, developing markets and all the relationship things you were doing so well over the past 70 years or so.
My niece will vote for the first time in the next election; she’s never paid much attention before, apart from environmental stuff. We’ve had 7 PMs in her lifetime.
dave said:
Kids in Australia have grown up never seeing a full-term PM.
Better than what kids growing up in the USA are seeing in POTUS.
yahooyahoo said:
Kids growing up in the U.S. have never seen a functional Congress.
Children don't know much about Congress. They know who the President is.
Sanders endorsed candidate won Florida Gubernatorial Primary. If elected he will become first African-American Governor of Florida.
The Republican candidate is a Trumpite who defeated the more establishment Republican in the Primary.
There may or may not be a Blue Wave coming but the Republican Party is acting like it is.
Hopefully the Dems will not get over optimistic but they are known for grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.
LOST said:
Hopefully the Dems will not get over optimistic but they are known for grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.
This is my fear!
Naval exercises. Not sure if you’re getting all the international news, particularly significant news for SE Asia, Pacific, Pacific Rim.
Your President has decided he doesn’t have time to visit us this and probably not next year (well, not the first half anyway), although Mr Pence will catch up with PM Morrison in November at a forum (can’t remember which one).
Meantime we’re running naval exercises from Darwin. Usually some of your sailors, marines join in - you’ve got a base nearby - and so do a few other allies. This year, China’s come bringing the total of participating nations to 27.
is anyone of importance from your administration actually attending this event this year? There's some very disturbing things happening around the region (I'm not saying we're blameless) and usually the Forum would be a good opportunity to negotiate solutions.
We had all been given the impression that the US wasn't interested in attending, until maybe a week ago, when things started to change in regards to Korea(s) again
Honestly, it would be nice to have some predictability for a change.
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Good morning, Lost. Key time for us would be around 10am, I reckon (that’s in three hours), but really it’s anyone’s guess.
See what you can find on Roy Rene; sadly, stereotyped for that time but very influential crossover of Kadimah to ‘WASP’ Australia. So many Aussies use Yiddishisms (mangled Yiddish mixed with Strine) and have no idea, but even Strine is dying out.
(Look up Strine, Fraffly, and Affer Beck Lauder)
Edited at noon to add: Solicitor-General’s learned advice was that Dutton was ‘probably’ not incapable of sitting Parliament which means the party room meeting is about to go ahead. Petition was delivered.
Political cartoons today:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/gallery/2018/aug/24/deadly-chess-and-a-burning-broad-church-cartoonists-on-the-liberal-party-crisis-in-pictures