24 April 2010

Fraser preselection

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Does anyone know who won the preselection vote that took place today ??

[ED – Nothing on the ABC or ALP websites to date]

UPDATE The Canberra Times reports that Mrs Chris Uhlmann, Gai Brodtmann has the nod for Canberra and ANU’s Andrew Leigh has Fraser.

RiotACT’s Caf has added the following analysis:

Possum’s Pollytics reports tonight that Andrew Leigh has won the ALP pre-selection for the seat of Fraser (the northernmost of the ACT’s two House of Representatives divisions), replacing the retiring Bob McMullan (the Crimes also has the story). After the bit of argy-bargy reported earlier in the week, it seems like a quality candidate has won through, against the supposed factional machinations.

At any rate, I’ve been reading Andrew’s work on Core Economics for a while now (where he blogs on a variety of subjects alongside several other economic luminaries), and having someone with a strong belief in empirical evidence involved in the national debate has got to be a good thing. His pre-selection will certainly make me reconsider my voting intentions in the House.

For me, one of the most interesting things about Leigh’s preselection is that he’s someone that has published fairly widely, so we’re able to get much more of an insight into his opinions and ability than is often the case with candidates for Parliament. If you’re interested, you can access many of his academic papers, opinion pieces and recorded spots on the ABC’s Wryside Economics at his site, unfiltered by the ALP promotional machine. There’s also his personal blog.

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Gungahlin Al12:21 pm 27 Apr 10

Thoroughly Smashed said :

Maybe Andrew Bolt can start a “grassroots” tax protest party.

Yeah – like 2% on everything.
Hang on – haven’t I heard that before somewhere?

Thoroughly Smashed12:04 pm 27 Apr 10

Maybe Andrew Bolt can start a “grassroots” tax protest party.

Gungahlin Al10:47 am 27 Apr 10

Andrew Bolt??? Hahahahahaha.
Kudos if he has the guts to put his money where his mouth is – few journos do.
But the problem with Bolt is that his mouth is where his mouth is.

amarooresident39:49 am 27 Apr 10

merlin bodega said :

Nick Martin was overwhelmingly the first choice for almost half the voters but only three of the nearly one hundred preferences went to him.

Last time I looked “nearly half” does not constitute a majority. In fact more than half of the electors preferred someone else. He lost fair and square.

And what are these “interesting outcomes” you speak of. Is the left going to chuck a tanty?

merlin bodega said :

This is merely a victory for what one person called the bigots among us.

So I take it your candidate didn’t get up then. That’s democracy for you, ALP style.

merlin bodega said :

It is interesting that this victory is being painted as a win for independents. Gai Brotman is a member of the Centre Coalition and Andrew Leigh was anointed by John Hargreaves. Let’s wait and see where it all leads. What it demonstrates is that if you want to see haters then look to the independents in Fraser who do a good imitation of “hating as one”. Nick Martin was overwhelmingly the first choice for almost half the voters but only three of the nearly one hundred preferences went to him. Why? Because he was from a faction, not because he was from the left because the same thing happened to George Williams. This is merely a victory for what one person called the bigots among us. There will be some interesting outcomes from this over the next few months and years. Just don’t act surprised when it happens.

I must disagree. Two powerful factions tried to do a deal to get up two particular people. A larger number of people – indeed, a majority – believed that two other people were better candidates, and chose them. Welcome to democracy.

merlin bodega3:19 pm 26 Apr 10

It is interesting that this victory is being painted as a win for independents. Gai Brotman is a member of the Centre Coalition and Andrew Leigh was anointed by John Hargreaves. Let’s wait and see where it all leads. What it demonstrates is that if you want to see haters then look to the independents in Fraser who do a good imitation of “hating as one”. Nick Martin was overwhelmingly the first choice for almost half the voters but only three of the nearly one hundred preferences went to him. Why? Because he was from a faction, not because he was from the left because the same thing happened to George Williams. This is merely a victory for what one person called the bigots among us. There will be some interesting outcomes from this over the next few months and years. Just don’t act surprised when it happens.

Mr Evil said :

I’m guessing it’ll be the usual story of dreams vs reality here. They’ll both be all full of ideas and wanting to change things for the better for the ACT; but once installed in Parliament House they’ll be told to “sit down, do what you’re told, don’t rock the boat and shut-the-f#ck up” from the party factional boys and girls.

On the other hand, neither of them are idiots or politically naive, so it’s reasonable to assume that they know what they’re getting into and have some plans to work within the system.

Mr Evil said :

While I congratulate both winners on being selected, does anyone really believe either of them will be able to make much of a difference in Federal Labor?

I’m guessing it’ll be the usual story of dreams vs reality here. They’ll both be all full of ideas and wanting to change things for the better for the ACT; but once installed in Parliament House they’ll be told to “sit down, do what you’re told, don’t rock the boat and shut-the-f#ck up” from the party factional boys and girls.

Good raw material is a heartening start, whatever we think of what lies ahead for them.

sexynotsmart said :

Tempestas said :

On Topic. Interesting outcomes, Andrew Leigh has a lot of respect, but no doubt the usual suspects will be out to claim the the ANU and ABC are the places of “Teh Left”

Um yeah well… my friends say I’m unusual. But when we see people associated with particular organisations repeatedly winning preselection with certain political parties, we think “pattern” and “evidence-based policy”.

I double-dare Chris Uhlmann to ask “ANU’s Kevin Rudd” if there is a quota for ex-ABC preselections before each Federal election.

I’m pretty sure Andrew Bolt will cast his hat in the ring at some point. If that happens we’re gonna have *so much* fun with posts about the ALP reign at Aunty being OVER now that “Insider’s Andrew Bolt” has done a Maxine McKew.

Seriously though… quality candidates. And that’s great for our sun-bronzed democracy.

Gai Brodtmann, to my knowledge, doesn’t work for either the ABC or the ANU. Chris Uhlmann, according to last weeks’s Oz has left his 7.30 Report role to do something at the new 24h ABC News channel. And in any event, Uhlmann always seemed pretty conservative to me. By the way, there’ve been a few ex-ABC staff who went on to be Liberal politicians – Gary Hargrave comes to mind.

I thought Chris Uhlmann works in the ABC in Melbourne?

Thoroughly Smashed6:16 pm 25 Apr 10

Tempestas said :

Speaking of which JB where is the @RiotACT twitter feed?

Yeah I can’t wait for The RiotACT to be boiled down to truncated english and shortened URL redirects…

Waiting For Godot5:53 pm 25 Apr 10

Tempestas said :

On Topic. Interesting outcomes, Andrew Leigh has a lot of respect, but no doubt the usual suspects will be out to claim the the ANU and ABC are the places of “Teh Left”

Darling, if you can’t even spell a simple word like “the” I don’t think you have much credibility at all.

While I congratulate both winners on being selected, does anyone really believe either of them will be able to make much of a difference in Federal Labor?

I’m guessing it’ll be the usual story of dreams vs reality here. They’ll both be all full of ideas and wanting to change things for the better for the ACT; but once installed in Parliament House they’ll be told to “sit down, do what you’re told, don’t rock the boat and shut-the-f#ck up” from the party factional boys and girls.

sexynotsmart, coincidence does not a correlation make. Possibly those attracted to the ANU or the ABC might also be attracted to running for ALP pre-selection, it’s not universally true though. I’m sure there are those of many political and social views working for both organisations.

Chris Uhlmann appears to be anything but a fan of Rudd so he might be tempted to ask really difficult questions but I suspect yours won’t be it.

Agree quality candidates is a start.

sexynotsmart10:56 am 25 Apr 10

Tempestas said :

On Topic. Interesting outcomes, Andrew Leigh has a lot of respect, but no doubt the usual suspects will be out to claim the the ANU and ABC are the places of “Teh Left”

Um yeah well… my friends say I’m unusual. But when we see people associated with particular organisations repeatedly winning preselection with certain political parties, we think “pattern” and “evidence-based policy”.

I double-dare Chris Uhlmann to ask “ANU’s Kevin Rudd” if there is a quota for ex-ABC preselections before each Federal election.

I’m pretty sure Andrew Bolt will cast his hat in the ring at some point. If that happens we’re gonna have *so much* fun with posts about the ALP reign at Aunty being OVER now that “Insider’s Andrew Bolt” has done a Maxine McKew.

Seriously though… quality candidates. And that’s great for our sun-bronzed democracy.

Ditto to NickD’s sentiments – met Andrew through work last year, I just hope his mind doesn’t get turned to sludge by the realities of politics.

On the basis of his academic work Andrew Leigh is an excellent catch for the ALP and should be ministerial material. I’m not sure why he wants to be a politician, but he’ll increase the average IQ of parliament by rather a lot.

It was on Crikey, therefore it was covered. reports were also available in other places if you follow the right journo’s on Twitter. Speaking of which JB where is the @RiotACT twitter feed?

On Topic. Interesting outcomes, Andrew Leigh has a lot of respect, but no doubt the usual suspects will be out to claim the the ANU and ABC are the places of “Teh Left”

Whilst both have potential it will be interesting to see how they work as local members, of course part of me ponders if the idea of a local member in the multi-connected world is somewhat redundant.

Congratulations to Andrew and Gai lets hope the ACT can get some quality local representation from their efforts.

Gai Brodtman is interesting, considering Chris Ulhman stood locally as one of the Paul Osbourne independents.

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