Santorogate kills
Posted by Christopher Sheil on Tuesday, March 20, 2007
In breaking news, the disgraced Queensland Liberal and former minister for ageing, senator Santo Santoro, has walked the plank, quitting from the parliament effective next week. Why? There are too many reasons to pick from. Choose your own preferred logic, and double it, as more seems set to follow.
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The continuing apparent decline and fall of the Howard government is turning into a bother, I must confess. I only intended to blog the odd political and perhaps rugby piece, as a convenient outlet. Now, every other day, it seems, the Ruddster is breaking opinion polling records or the government is suffering casualties. I’ll update this post. Then, I think I will resume the planned posture.
We can take it that the ALP is seriously competitive in the 2007 election. There’s no more news in that. I’m not going to blog every blip on the polling radar from here to election day. This jam is over. The next time I want to think seriously about prospects will be around August, I reckon.
I’m also quitting on government members being sacked, unless they’re cabinet level, and government members being investigated by the police, unless they’re convicted, and John Howard faltering in parliament, unless he literally falls over.
I might be back for the economic debate, or other weirdness. These seem like remarkable times. See you at the business end. Tks for your company. Cheers.
Update: Newspoll’s political attitude survey confirms that the economy and national security remain the government’s strongest fronts. It also confirms that, since Kevin Rudd became leader, the opposition has narrowed the difference on the former from 39 to 11 points, and the latter from 30 to 8 points. The ALP leads on the other fronts, on most of which its lead is large and still growing.
Update: Some unintended Santorogate laughs via Alexander Downer. Tim Dunlop tallies things that are not happening in the Howard government and the Liberal Party at the moment. Bill Leak sums up.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 10:21 PM and filed under Politics - national.
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Chris
The filling of a casual Senate vacancy hasn’t been purely a matter of convention since the 1977 referendum put (and passed) to remedy Joh’s appointment of Albert Patrick Field. see Constitution section 15 as explained in e.g. Wikipedia.
Posted on 20-Mar-07 at 10:27 pm | PermalinkDidn’t Fraser carry a referendum on the rules for casual vacancies way back in 1977. I also think it was passed. I’ll check later.
Posted on 20-Mar-07 at 10:36 pm | PermalinkKen, you got there before me. I was surprised to hear the non-possibility discussed on Lateline. The irony is that Fraser was the one who initiated the Constitutional amendment.
Here’s the text of the amended s. 15:
Posted on 20-Mar-07 at 11:12 pm | PermalinkIt’s also perhaps worth observing that Santoro himself has never been elected to the Senate, having been appointed under the same section 15 to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of John Herron for his unexpired term. I haven’t checked, but he may be the only never-elected Senator to have become a Minister.
Anyway, go well, cs. The blogosphere does get its mitts into us, that’s for sure.
Posted on 20-Mar-07 at 11:27 pm | PermalinkThat amendment is the only time ‘political party’ is mentioned in the Australian Constitution as well. Not necessarily a good thing.
Posted on 20-Mar-07 at 11:37 pm | PermalinkThe filling of a casual Senate vacancy hasn’t been purely a matter of convention since the 1977 referendum.
Chris, you’ve had a bad week when it comes to matters bicameral. The Senate’s the red one - hope that helps.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 3:22 am | PermalinkStill, the way things are going for the Queensland Liberals - cronyism and corruption investigations, oh my - perhaps there will be “no member of that party available to be chosen or appointed”
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 6:23 am | PermalinkThanks Ken, Mark and others. I made a messy correction, but it looked so messy I then deleted the misleading words altogether.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 8:30 am | PermalinkI will miss the hats.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 8:54 am | PermalinkI didn’t read cs’s post as indicating he was quitting the blogosphere (again). When we discussed Chris posting again at Troppo during the run-up to the federal election, he indicated that he only intended posting occasionally on big issues, and perhaps more frequently during the campaign itself. He never intended, as he says, to do blow-by-blow posts throughout the year. That’s too time-consuming, especially for a writer like Chris whose style tends to generate vehement opponents who he then feels compelled to argue with. Unless I’m misreading what he’s saying, I expect we’ll be seeing posts from Chris from time to time as really major political issues arise relevant to the election. I’d be surprised if we don’t see at least three or four posts from Chris between now and when the election is called.
Mind you, the lack of rugby posts is disapppointing, if understandable in view of the Waratahs’ current dreadful form. Are there any positive signs? What would Chris do if he was Ewan McKenzie? And where’s Patrick?
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 9:48 am | PermalinkOn the subject of hats, who is responsible for the hat graphics? They’re rather nifty.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 10:25 am | Permalinkcs inserts them, and I’d like to know how he does them too.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 10:59 am | PermalinkI’d sack myself (if I was Ewen McKenzie) - I thought I had made that much clear!
And cheer for the Force, who I thought would be this year’s big story in Aust Rugby.
But unfortunately I am under the pump at work so not much to write
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 11:16 am | PermalinkQuestions are being raised about Ewen. He seems to have lost the plot. His backline calls have been zany, replacement policies incoherent and everyone appears to have forgotten how to pass and catch. All the talk at the ground is that the only thing up for the Tahs this season is the consolation prize of beating Queensland.
Ewen seems to be, at heart, a mini Eddie Jones. The Tahs problems are a magnified version of the Wallaby problems, which date from the Eddie Era, with Knuckles yet to prove he has any real answers. I’m horrified that the ARU has bought another high profile League guy. All Australia’s rugby problems also date from Eddie’s preference for fast-food solutions, and I thought we had just about phased these troublemakers out. Woe. One bright spot is Kurtley Beale, who has shone as youngster in a losing team. If he can do this good playing with klutzes, I’d love to see him get a run with experienced talent on his either side, pronto.
And no, I’m not quitting blogging. Just stepping back to occasional visiting status. It’ll be interesting to look back on the recent political phase in about six months time. There is a decent amount of support around for the idea that elections can be won and lost well before the campaigns proper. Many attribute Clinton’s second term to the success of his campaigning in swing states a year or more out from the poll. There are theories that Keating lost with the infamous Dawkins budget, or in November 1995. Based on research six months or more before the 2004 election, Hugh McKay was a rare commenter in never giving Latham a chance in hell. As always, these things are indeterminant, but one possibility is that the election is decided - only time’ll tell.
For graphics, I just use Adobe Photoshop Elements. I have no idea how the nerds rate it, but I find it dead easy.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 12:24 pm | PermalinkI keep reading your beloved boy Hewat is one of the chief klutzes.
I’d love to see him get a run with experienced talent on his either side, pronto.
Like Mat Rogers is now? Heh.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 1:56 pm | PermalinkHewat has been one of the better players. The main klutzes in the backs have been at half-back, where neither Shehan nor Valantine have looked anywhere near the goods (and Whits is greatly missed), Halangalo, who seems to be incapable of passing the ball, and Norton-Knight, who seems on the verge of nervous collapse. Whether he is also at fault, or has had limited opportunities, Lote has also failed to penetrate, and has had his share of the can’t-pass-or-catch disease.
Speaking of inability to pass and catch, did anyone notice the pm hear Ron Walker’s name when it wasn’t there in parliament today? The embarrassment followed yesterday’s “mishearing” about the exit strategy. Like an old rugby player, the pm looks to need a politician’s equivalent of League, so he quietly can go off and retire into a simpler world.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 2:25 pm | PermalinkSo right about the Waratahs being representatative of the Wallabies problems under Jones.
Howard in QT attempting to thunder his government’s economic prowess said “.. and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!”. Nearly choked laughing.
A little something for everyone, for after the election.
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 2:50 pm | Permalink[...] way that is long term, “nation building”, transforming and captures the imagination. cs on his Santogate post at Troppo provides support, at least for the contention that events six months from polling day can be [...]
Posted on 21-Mar-07 at 8:48 pm | PermalinkIn line with some discussion at Troppo regarding Question Time, and while it’s customary to bag it for a load of cods, here’s a note to say QT seems to have taken a turn for the positive. Obviously each side has been digging into history, and is challenging each other, and while it’s still walloping a lot of cods, what occurred today is rather healthy. In amongst the distaste and mud, it seems there is a good national debate to be had as we go along. Issues are being dug up and examined, both of a “personal”-are-you-credible nature, and in policy credibility and effectiveness. Don’t want to overstate it, yet there’s some value in acknowledging this election will amongst the uglies unpack a heap of important relevence.
In one effect then I believe the electioneering process (which is what we have) is acting a bit like a dose of epsom salts for the system for that while.
On tactics, it seems the Coalition is preparing ground to undermine Labor’s electiveness by focusing on State failures, to exacerbate the problems of an Australian Labor Party nation. This flies in the face of Kevin Rudd’s blame game platform, so if that’s a correct viewing then the State-Federal responsiblity machine is in for a doctoring, at least as much as diagnosis. Some real value may roll out of that, here’s hoping.
The ALP have undergone a change as far as I can tell, too, in that under Rudd they re-engage the answers of the Coalition in subsequent questions more often and more effectively.
With nothing substantial yet from Rudd, it seems the mere perception of an effective Opposition is enough to square the system up: don’t know what that says about the system itself, but it’s welcome.
Posted on 22-Mar-07 at 2:51 pm | PermalinkYes, I also seemed to notice that the opposition is actively anticipating the government responses and sits ready with a better follow-up, depending on which way the ministers step. I guess it’s no great shake to anticipate the government answers, given they are so predictable. As soon as you see it, you wonder why the ALP has not been doing this all along. It is kinda like reversing the process, i.e. turning parliament into a real question time, rather than simply a government soapbox.
My other thought was that Costello is sounding so incredibly over-hyped that his public credibility is at risk of heading towards that of dear old Alexander. I’m further suspecting that this might be a consequence of him having had a very large hand in the government’s disastrous recent strategy, and a measure of him being desperate to make-up.
Posted on 22-Mar-07 at 5:59 pm | Permalink