Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has blamed bikies, union thugs, activists and "sneaky" Labor tactics for his plummeting popularity in the Queensland seat of Dickson.
As of Monday afternoon, Mr Dutton was ahead by just 1250 votes in a two-candidate contest with Labor's Linda Lavarch. It represents a 5.8 per cent swing against him - far more than that suffered by the Coalition nationwide.
Mr Dutton had been touted as an alternative deputy Liberal leader to Julie Bishop, but his political future now hangs in the balance. If he retains the seat, in Brisbane's outer north-west, it will be on the slimmest of margins.
The Coalition frontbencher, who presides over a contentious, hard-line refugee policy, has pointed to a negative campaign by Labor for the dent in his standing, AAP reported.
He claimed Labor leader Bill Shorten ran a "negative, sneaky and tricky" campaign, in which unionists harassed the elderly. Sydney Morning Herald
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| Briggs blocked me on Twitter after I blocked him because of my mental health issues. He is a gutless piss head juvenile. *click to enlarge |
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| Briggs laughing about injuring himself in the post Abbott PM piss up |
Adelaide. Rebekha Sharkie has become the first member of the Nick Xenophon Team to take a seat in the lower house, taking Mayo from the one-time Liberal Party minister Jamie Briggs.
Mr Briggs resigned from his ministry in December after a late night incident in a Hong Kong bar involving a public servant travelling in the same group.
The race was particularly bitter as Ms Sharkie is a former staff member for Mr Briggs. The incident clearly resonated with some voters, one of who upbraided Mr Briggs in front of assembled media as he went to vote earlier in the day. \
"Certainly, I didn't feel that Jamie and my personal values were aligned. There were things said that were misogynist in nature," Ms Sharkie told The Australian of her time in Mr Briggs' staff. He responded that her claims were baseless and that she was an opportunist.
At about 9pm, Mr Briggs conceded he had lost, Tweeting:" After a tough fight tonight hasn't been our night, thanks to those who supported me and my best to the new member, its a great electorate" Sydney Morning Herald
More than 30% of doctors say they will have to stop bulk billing all patients due to the Medicare rebate indexation freeze, a survey by a doctors’ group has warned.
The survey of 50 GPs in Sydney by the Doctors Reform Society also found more than half of those surveyed said they would increase their fees.
The society’s vice-president, Dr Con Costa, said “because of the cuts we’ve seen under this government, many doctors are telling us that they will stop bulk billing all patients”.
“Based on our survey, I predict patients will be paying a GP copayment of up to $39 – more than five times the Abbott GP copayment of $7,” he said.
“With fewer and fewer doctors bulk billing, we’re genuinely concerned that people are going to stop seeing their local GP because the cost will be too high.” The Guardian
There are 15,676,659 people enrolled to vote for this election. That's up almost one million since 2013. The participation rate is estimated at 95 per cent, compared to 92 per cent in 2013.
The estimated number of eligible voters who aren't enrolled has slumped from 1.22 million to 816,000.
The participation rate of 18 year olds has risen from around 50 per cent to over 70 per cent.
The AEC attributes much of the lift in participation to the fact you can now register to vote online. That may indeed make it easier to register to vote. But it doesn't mean you have to.
Equally, a staggering 2.2 million people had already cast votes at pre-polling centres by Thursday morning. That's just under 15 per cent of voters: a lot of people rushing to be disengaged (or practice obscene art on their ballot papers).
There are the obvious points to make about how, more than usual, that means the vote will freeze frame changing views of politics over the past couple of weeks.
But there has never seemed such a big gap between what the published polls tell us – a tight race and a hung parliament; and the overwhelming expectation of a now comfortable win for the Coalition.
Some of this apparent disparity will be played out in the story of votes for independents and minor parties. But another layer in the complex story of the electorate lies in what is still a huge undecided vote: in published polls it is still hovering around 10 per cent (double the more normal levels). Australian Financial Review
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| No fuckin hate |
David and I can't afford going to the movies, but this is released on Friday in the US and Nov 8th here in Australia. Perhaps the loc...
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