Australia General Discussion 2.0

[Barnes]

The AEC has released the proposed electoral boundaries for New South Wales.

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[Barnes]

The Cabinet has (once again) removed Knights and Dames from the Order of Australia.

[Barnes]

Antony Green has published estimated seat margins for the NSW federal redistribution. Three Liberal seats have been shifted in favor of Labor.

They are:
Barton
Dobell
Paterson

[Barnes]

The High Court has finally handed down its ruling on the validity of Bob Day's election to the Senate. In sum, Day has been deemed to have been ineligible to serve since February 2016, obviously before the last election. As a result, he was also ineligible to be elected at the July election and a re-count of the votes will be conducted by the AEC to choose his replacement.

The High Court has yet to decide if Family First is still entitled to it's above-the-line votes or if they are disqualified.

[Barnes]

The High Court has finally handed down its ruling on the validity of Bob Day's election to the Senate. In sum, Day has been deemed to have been ineligible to serve since February 2016, obvisouly before the last election. As a result, he was also ineligible to be elected at the July election and a re-count of the votes will be conducted by the AEC to choose his replacement.

The High Court has yet to decide if Family First is still entitled to it's above-the-line votes or if they are disqualified.

What would be the difference between this case and One Nation in Queensland in 1998, where their above-the-line votes were obviously maintained?

That was a pretty clear-cut recount with Len Harris being deemed elected in place of Heather Hill. Here, Family First received so few below-the-line-votes that if they were denied their ticket the seat would almost certainly go to Labor's Anne McEwen, who was defeated last July.

[Barnes]

Found a bit more clarity on the above topic and High Court precedent over several cases would see Day's votes remaining and being distributed to the number two on the list, Lucy Gichuhi, electing her to the Senate.

A single justice of the court has to now decide the specific mechanics of the recount to instruct the AEC, but Gichuhi's election is a foregone conclusion. To be honest, the ALP (and really just McEwen more than anyone else) were really grasping at straws here.

[Barnes]

I thought it interesting that following the result in WA, the Nationals opted to pick a new leader who not only prefers to not coalesce with the Liberals, still wants mining companies to pay taxes, and even goes so far as to call herself a feminist.

The WA Nationals always have a renegade streak. Depending on whether or not Labor can get a Liberal elected President of the Legislative Council (thus giving them and the Greens a one-seat majority), working with the Nats is probably their next best option.

[Barnes]

Tony Nutt, the Director of the Federal Liberal Party, resigned from his position a few days ago. He was appointed soon after Turnbull took over and oversaw the 2016 campaign.

Also, the party's internal review of its handeling of the 2016 election is due to be presented to MPs today. It's expected to be pretty wide-ranging and damning of the party's performance.

[Barnes]

The first sittingof the new Parliament of Western Australia is on Thursday 11 May. The new MLCs take their seats after 21 May.

[Barnes]

Terrible news: Palmer United disbands.

God, the end of an era...

In other news, Labor is going to formally challenge the new Family First's senator's eligibility to sit in Parliament because of purported concerns over dual citizenship.

[Barnes]

Terrible news: Palmer United disbands.

God, the end of an era...

In other news, Labor is going to formally challenge the new Family First's senator's eligibility to sit in Parliament because of purported concerns over dual citizenship.

Gichuhi, right? Since she's the last person on the South Australian FFP list, if she is kicked out of the Senate (what a fail for Family First, having an entire list of people ineligible to serve), there would be a recount of those votes with probably Labor but possibly One Nation picking up a seat, correct?

EDIT: Although this seems unlikely to happen since under what was then Kenyan law, she lost her Kenyan citizenship in 1989. Means Gichuhi doesn't hold any citizenship other than Australian and hasn't in 28 years. Also, if Gichuhi is seated, she becomes the first African-Australian to serve in Parliament, which is an interesting milestone.

It's uncertain what happens; that's never really happened before. No idea if there's a recount or by-election or anything else.

No, it would be quite clear. If Gichuhi was deemed invalidly elected, the AEC would simply conduct another recount with her votes excluded and most likely see Labor elected to the seat. By-elections to not exist for single seats in the Senate. The whole Senate election could be deemed invalid as with WA in 2013, but that was down to misplaced ballots.

Also, the claims against Gichuhi do not seem particularly credible to hold up in court but we shall see.

[Barnes]

Cory Bernardi's one-man-band, Australian Conservatives, is set to merge with Family First. Well that lasted long.

EDIT: The initial headline was misleading, Family First will be absorbed by AC at the state and federal level. However, Lucy Gichuhi will apparently still stay in a rump Family First. How silly.

[Barnes]

Cory Bernardi's one-man-band, Australian Conservatives, is set to merge with Family First. Well that lasted long.

EDIT: The initial headline was misleading, Family First will be absorbed by AC at the state and federal level. However, Lucy Gichuhi will apparently still stay in a rump Family First. How silly.

Family First is a joke anyway. Bernardi's new party seems to be very SA-focused. Mark my words, in six years, the Conservatives are going to dissolve when Bernardi runs back to the Liberals.

I never thought, and still don't honestly, he'd last outside of the Libs before 2022. The amusing thing is that he only has name recognition in SA and Xenophon with his merry band of unknowns have really stollen the air from the "anti-establishment, keep the bastards honest" niche.