Zuvele

On to something there - I mean, council workers removing your Australian flag tent would rightly draw the condemnation of all true patriots...

Paterson: '"They want to see us stand up for things like the flag and the anthem and the Constitution and Australia Day and our Anzac tradition because they see in us, or they hope to see in us, a patriotic Australian party."

Ah, hence the six flags... #auspol

Paterson:
'"Our traditional supporters are telling us they don't recognise what we stand for and they think we're divided, so of course, you would expect that there would be a debate. There has to be a debate."

If there has to be a debate, that means further division... #auspol

Paterson: '"The first and most important task in politics is to lock down your base …'

And this is the Liberals' problem.
Your base will vote for you (either directly or indirectly) regardless.
You need to win over those who weren't going to.
#auspol

1. If she's talking about who will stand for the seat, there isn't a fight. They both will.
2. If she's talking about retaining the seat at the next election, whoever wins the by election will.

Yes. So?

And - worse than that - it's the determination to paint anything Australia does as a failure, rather than celebrating our strengths and aiming to build on these.
At their heart, the Coalition thus comes across as unpatriotic, unable to appreciate what we have and are.
#auspol

The nuclear power obsession is symbolic of many of the Coalition's woes - climate denialism, economic irresponsibility, refusal to listen to expert advice, inability to understand how Australia is different to other countries, letting policy be dictated by outside interests...#auspol

Closest thing Hume came to a policy this morning was reaffirming support for nuclear power. #auspol

Ah, thanks - I couldn't make enough sense of it to work out the problem! My bad.

'The Liberals, or Nationals (depending on who wins that fight),'

What fight?

They will both run candidates, as they always do in these situations, as per the Coalition agreement.

Seriously crap sentence --

'New deputy leader Jane Hume was right last week when she said expected Albanese to take advantage of the Liberal Party’s decline and call an early election.'

...there is no reason for Labor to want more Lower House seats.
A recalcitrant Senate might lead to a DD - but the relevant groupings in the Senate are aware of that, hence the deals being done...

#auspol

Lightweight Libs have Labor laughing all the way to an election Short of his party moving against him, Anthony Albanese is almost certain to win another term as Prime Minister.

'Jane Hume was right last week when she said expected Albanese to take advantage of the Liberal Party’s decline and call an early election.'

(Seriously crap sentence).

There is no reason for Labor to go to an early election.
www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...

#auspol

Labor winning more seats in the Lower House is sort of irrelevant.
A DD because of recalcitrant Senate, perhaps, but Senators will be alive to that possibility (which is why there's been deals there...)

#auspol

Lightweight Libs have Labor laughing all the way to an election Short of his party moving against him, Anthony Albanese is almost certain to win another term as Prime Minister.

'Jane Hume was right last week when she said expected Albanese to take advantage of the Liberal Party’s decline and call an early election.'

There is no reason for Albanese to call an early election.

#auspol

www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...

Hume was punished after the election. Now she's been crowned Liberal deputy The Victorian senator was unceremoniously turfed from Sussan Ley's ministry after being tarred personally with much of what went wrong in the Coalition's cataclysmic loss. On Friday, she ascended to t...

'Hume, along with new Liberal Leader Angus Taylor, made up Peter Dutton's economic team. Whether they can shake that association in the minds of voters, who emphatically rejected the party the last time around, remains to be seen.'

Love this pair of sentences.
#auspol
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

One living former PM made the same choice as Sussan Ley The issue for the Liberal Party is not simply the toppling of a female leader. It's also about what happened to that leader while she was in the job.

'Of the seven former prime ministers of this country who still draw breath, there is really only one who has consistently employed a similar approach. It's the only other woman. What an interesting coincidence.'

Well, it might be. If Ley had been Prime Minister.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

It's not like it's a scoop or anything. Abbott'd turn up at the opening of an envelope if you asked him to tell everyone there how they should be opening it (despite failing Envelope Opening 101 himself...)

Email from Angus: 'We will get rid of Labor’s carbon taxes that are pushing up the cost of food, cars and housing. '

Yeah, well you can f*ck right off then.

#auspol

For some reason, I get Dalton's facebook posts.
She's obsessed with 'down river' issues, which won't play as well with the 'up river' areas she'd need to win over.

So Mirabella got Indi and Ley - against all expectations, although the Nats made a bad choice of candidate - won Farrer.
#auspol

They laid down the law: either Mirabella or Ley were getting Indi. The one who didn't was guaranteed a run for Farrer (seen as less desirable as not Liberal held).
They were acting on Howard's instructions, as a way of dealing with 'the woman problem'.
#auspol

Mirabella was based in Melbourne and Ley's local presence was negligible compared to others in the room.
Neither was seen as a contender until the reps from Lib HQ (50% of the vote) came up from Melbourne.
#auspol

OK, a bit of history.
I was basically a 'fly on the wall' for the Indi preselection which resulted in Mirabella being selected - strong links, at the time, with at least four of the candidates (at least two regularly asked me for my advice).
Mirabella and Ley were seen as outsiders.
#auspol

Howard insisted Ley be preselected, despite not being a local, over the wishes of the local branches BECAUSE he wanted more women.
She went on to win the seat from the Nationals, and rose to be leader.
Surely those advocating for more women in the party should be using this as a template.
#auspol

'"It's...up to the party members... at the end of the day, that is why Sussan was first elected to that seat," O'Brien says.'

Lib Party admin TOLD their Farrer branch that they had to select Sussan - Howard's orders - after she failed to be preselected in Indi (where she lived).
#auspol

Listen to her for the comedy value.

I find that incisor tooth strangely disturbing.

Both Angus and Jane are pollies who I love to hear are coming up in an interview. They're both sure to provide plenty of LOL moments. #auspol