NoFibs Australian election coverage 2016

The Singapore deal to acquire land around the existing defence bases at Shoalwater Bay & Townsville may have been kept from Queensland voters at the 2016 federal election.

Welcome to the new Australian senate where Malcolm Roberts, from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party was elected the 12th Senator for Queensland with just 77 Primary votes, according to the AEC. As the second candidate on the party group ticket he received ticket votes after Pauline Hanson was elected, and preferences from other parties and […]

Inconsistencies alleged by the Liberal National Party in the polling for the Queensland federal seat of Herbert echo the 1995 legal challenge to Labor’s victory in the Queensland state electorate of Mundingburra.

The Coalition will just have to take care of itself, because the political wedge has finally hit its target. AFTER the Coalition’s narrow win, the plebiscite on Marriage Equality should be getting ready to kick off, yet the same election promise has been blamed for the major swing against Malcolm Turnbull. And the paradox has […]

    The result in the seat of Indi is final. Only in the last few weeks, as her 2016 campaign collapsed, has the topic of Sophie Mirabella not rekindled in me the upset and anxiety of the last decade. Rather the emotion was one of grudging compassion. With hindsight, the similarity in the unrelenting […]

The final act in the Australian election campaign for 2016.

Like all political parties, One Nation sends mixed messages, and its followers are able to live with policy blind spots, just like other Australians. WITH no result on election night, it wasn’t too surprising when people came up to our market stall at Cleveland in South East Queensland on Sunday morning asking who’d won. We weren’t selling anything, […]

Perhaps it’s the weight of all our first-world problems, but Westerners have lost touch with one of our strongest power bases. PROGRESSIVES internationally are being hit with some hard facts, from the reality of the United Kingdom’s vote to end its politico-economic links with the European Union (EU); through the rise of Donald Trump as […]

The final act in the Australian election campaign for 2016.

As we watch who might form a majority government, or whether we might have a hung parliament, here are the six seats to watch for the Greens on Saturday night: Melbourne, Batman, Wills, Higgins, Melbourne Ports, and Richmond. Another 6 seats of interest where the Greens vote is substantial but may fall short includes: Gellibrand […]

The Liberal Party in Victoria has run a divisive election campaign designed to wedge the vital volunteer emergency service the Country Fire Authority (CFA), creating deep divisions within communities and families. After the Liberal Party and their flying squad of media goons unsuccessfully went after the #Indivotes kids who dared oppose and beat them – […]

Gonski decided it for me. Such a hard-won consensus to end the state-private war and embed a funding system based on need instead. Giving every child the best chance we can to succeed is an economic investment, proof of Australia’s commitment to egalitarianism and insurance against the ‘two nations’ phenomenon threatening revolution in the United […]

The husband of #Indivotes Liberal Party candidate Sophie Mirabella has been involved in an incident at Wangaratta pre-polling with a local Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteer from the local integrated fire station. No Fibs has been told a third person stepped inbetween the pair to stop Mr Mirabella advancing towards the volunteer. Both people involved […]

Ongoing coverage of the Australian election campaign for 2016.

Still undecided after several weeks of the election campaign? Are you confused on policies? Do you have a pet issue that may influence your vote? I might have just the election issue scorecard to help you decide. I have always been more interested in party policies than voting for the personality of a candidate or […]

Vox pop questions Have you taken an interest in the election campaign? What is the most important election issue to you? Will the CFA dispute impact how you vote? Are you satisfied with how Cathy McGowan has represented Indi? Tolmie Wade Jackson Not really. Look at re-doing roads. Yes, the CFA saves all the towns […]

On thursday 23rd June a host of eminent Australians called on the next Australian Government to declare a climate emergency. The call was made in an open letter published as a half page advertisement in The Age Newspaper. Yet the open letter produced just two news stories at the ABC (here and here) There was […]

[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”auto” height=”” background_color=”#ECE9D8″ border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Speaking to ABC radio on Tuesday morning, Mirabella said the forum failed to raise “any questions about what I think the top issues of concern for Indi are”, which she said were jobs, infrastructure and roads. Excerp from The Guardian – link at end of story.[/dropshadowbox]The ABC […]

Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals candidate for New England, Barnaby Joyce, attended a lunchtime candidates forum in Tamworth, but was a no show for the Energy Futures Forum at Armidale in the evening of Tuesday 21 June. The New England electorate is a tight contest with former Independent MP Tony Windsor standing for election. Nofibs […]

Ongoing coverage of the Australian election campaign for 2016.

The High Court has found there is an implied right of political speech in the Australian Constitution, but that doesn’t stop the Liberal Party putting pressure for an inconvenient election billboard to be taken down. Environment Victoria paid for a Billboard opposite and a bit down the road from the Liberal Party campaign headquarters in […]

As expected, #Indivotes got a whole lot more interesting with pre-polling, the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) even parachuted Mark Latham into the marginal seat. On the Sunday before pre-polling, Cathy McGowan MP (@IndigoCathy), Marty Corboy (@martycorboynats) and former Nationals member for Murray Valley Ken Jasper, put on a very public display of (and […]

Ongoing coverage of the Australian election campaign for 2016.

An election promise by the Prime Minister to divert $1 billion in Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) funding to improve reef catchment water quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been soundly criticised as legally problematic, inefficient and far below the funding scientists say is required to Save the Reef. As they say, the ‘devil […]

Ongoing coverage of the Australian election campaign for 2016.

During a tour of flood affected areas in Tasmania on Thursday 9 June, the Prime Minister was asked a question (See SMH report) relating to extreme weather events and climate change: Journalist: “Prime Minister, it is widely accepted in the scientific community and among insurers and infrastructure companies that climate change will affect the predictability, […]

The Prime Minister’s electorate of Wentworth in Sydney played host to a Solar Citizens forum at Paddington Town Hall: the Wentworth 100 percent renewables forum. Former MP for Wentworth John Hewson turned up and gave the keynote address. Wentworth is one of the wealthiest electorates in Australia, but it also has the second lowest uptake […]

Ongoing coverage of the Australian election campaign for 2016.

The latest Vote Compass data on carbon pricing and climate change shows that Australians want more action on climate change and back carbon pricing. Some 63 per cent of Australians want carbon pricing back and 74 per cent support more government action on climate change. But Coalition voters remain split on carbon pricing. Support for […]