Day 2, first Monday of the Abbott era: Tasmania swept clear of heavy weight Labor men; Julie Collins ( Mercury here ) the sole survivor of a Tasmanian rout which also dragged down (by 8 per cent) Green support. Triumphant Andrew Wilkie achieves an astonishing swing ( Mercury here ). Triumphant Libs target State Labor-Greens and the TFA ( Eric Abetz, ABC here. Will Hodgman, ABC here ). While the PUP is likely to get its first Senator ( TT here ). Interesting days …
YOUR MONDAY MENU:
• Former Labor Party pollster Rod Cameron provided one of the best overviews of the Labor campaign on Fran Kelly’s RN Breakfast: Listen here Labor’s primary vote at Saturday’s election was its worst for 110 years. A former Labor campaign strategist told RN Breakfast that this was among the worst election campaigns run by the party. This week it the party begins a search for a new leader and a new direction. Listen here
• Mercury
• Examiner
• Advocate
• Crikey
• Cathy Alexander, Crikey: Is this your new PUP balance-of-power Senate warrior?
Jacqui Lambie, a Tasmanian Senate candidate for PUP, looks likely to win a seat and co-hold the balance of power. So who is she?
A Palmer United Party candidate who seems likely to co-hold the balance of power in the Senate wants a return to national military service, looks to a “higher power” for policy guidance and has been described as “Steve Fielding without the stunts”.
With 78% of the vote counted, the PUP has won 6.9% of the Senate vote in Tasmania (0.48 of a quota). Candidate Jacqui Lambie is a good chance to win the state’s sixth Senate seat, which would put her in the balance of power along with a motley crew of microparties. The result may not be known for two weeks.
It’s understood Lambie told SurgFM this morning that if Clive Palmer didn’t win Fairfax, she would run for leadership of the PUP. Before the election she declared she would be the “special minister for Tasmania” if she won.
So who is Jacqui Lambie? Based in Tasmania’s conservative north-west, she first tried the ALP and the Liberals before turning to the PUP because she needed money to campaign. “To be honest I was running out of money,” she told AAP about her conversion to Clive. “I just didn’t have the money like the big players did for advertising.”
Lambie used to volunteer for ALP senator Nick Sherry; some Labor insiders say there was talk that she may have been considering joining the party and forging a political career. However she left Sherry’s office in difficult circumstances and turned to the Liberals, joining the party and seeking federal preselection for the seat of Braddon (she failed).
Read the rest, Crikey here:
• Libs a ‘boys’ club’ … PUP’s Jacqui comes out fighting, ABC here
The Tasmanian candidate likely to pick up a Senate seat for Clive Palmer’s party says the Liberal Party is a “boys’ club” and should not expect her support.
Palmer United Party (PUP) candidate Jacqui Lambie is in a fight with Liberal candidate Sally Chandler for Tasmania’s sixth Senate spot.
Ms Lambie says if she is elected, Tony Abbott should not expect her support, including on the scrapping of the carbon tax.
“From what I’ve seen the Liberal Party, it’s a very big boys’ club and there’s no room for boys clubs in politics,” she said.
“I think he’s got a very big ego and I imagine after my 10 in years in the Army, Tony Abbott and I will clash quite a bit.
“If he thinks Pauline Hanson was a pain in his rear-end in the past, I can assure you he hasn’t come up against Jacqui Lambie yet, and I’ll be going in hard.
“That’s what I’m up for, that’s what Tasmanians want.”
Ms Lambie says despite the PUP policy to repeal the carbon tax, she wants it kept.
“My thoughts on the carbon tax is that there still needs to be a carbon tax, but it just needs to be a lot lower than it is.”
“A lot of people are struggling economically and I just think a lot lower carbon tax at 3 or 4 per cent would be a good starter.”
etc…
• Christine Milne: Tearing down World Heritage will destroy jobs in Tasmania
• Nick McKim: Liberals threaten to drag Tasmanians back to conflict and division
• Terry Edwards tells Libs’ Will to back off, ABC here:
The Coalition is being urged to let Tasmania’s forest peace deal run its course.
During the election campaign, the Coalition promised to remove World Heritage protection from areas including the Western Tiers forests.
Peace deal signatory Terry Edwards from the Forest Industries Association meeting industry players today.
“I think anyone who is arguing that this is a mandate to tear up the forests agreement is deluding themselves,” Mr Edwards said.
He says there will be ramifications if the deal is wound back.
“They include the requirement that markets are placing on Tasmanian forest companies to achieve Forest Stewardship Council certification.
“The best way to do that is through an agreement of the type we have negotiated.”
Candidates from both major parties are blaming the state Labor-Green minority for the loss of three Labor seats.
The Liberal’s Eric Hutchinson, who took the safe Labor seat of Lyons from stalwart Dick Adams, says the election was the first time Tasmanians had a say on the state government’s policy to halve the forest industry.
“The people of Lyons have said no to half a million hectares of forest from being locked up.”
Mr Adams says it is not going to be easy to wind back the peace deal.
“There’ll have to be a few reality checks in that sort of policy thinking.”
Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim agrees with Mr Edwards view that the election has not delivered a mandate to tear up deal.
“What we’ve got from the Liberals is a pitch to plunge Tasmania back into conflict and division and division, to go back to an unsustainable business model that will mean more money sucked out of schools and hospitals and used to prop up the timber industry,” he said.
“And amzingly, effectively a threat to log in a World Heritage Area and we will fight those things all the way.”
The State Opposition Leader Will Hodgman is pushing on despite Mr Edwards’ plea.
“I don’t subscribe to the view that no-one supports our position.”
He is yet to detail how the deal would be repealed.
etc
• FamilyVoice: Election victory for natural marriage
• Warnings from Elsewhere …
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10287488/Triple-shocks-threaten-Europes-sickly-and-deformed-recovery.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/10287555/Shortage-of-engineers-is-hurting-Britain-says-James-Dyson.html
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/aug/31/two-tier-workforce-low-paid-jobs
• Guy Barnett: Rejection of Same-Sex Marriage at Ballot Box Welcomed by the Save Marriage Coalition
• Nick McKim: Liberals threaten World Heritage environmental and economic vandalism
