Oakeshott as Speaker of the House?

If Rob Oakeshott were to become Speaker of the House of Representatives 2010 may yet go down in Australian history as the year of the most theatrical 'dragging to the chair' on record.
Indeed probably the most undignified installation since the 13th century.

Seventeen minute rulings on points of order during Question Time might become the norm. With hammed softshoe segues for the benefit of the visitor's gallery.

It would be hard to imagine anyone less likely to be able to manage a fractious Lower House or preside over Department of the House of Representatives .
Harry Jenkins' jaw must have dropped when he first heard of Oakeshott's ambition to replace him.

Still Oakeshott would easily live up to an early description of the office of speaker - The Mouth.

However, it may be a position Labor wants Oakeshott to fill in the hope it will lessen the chance that he will recant his support of the Gillard Government.

Being of a cynical turn of mind I recall that The Speaker receives an additional salary and expense of office allowance (slightly more than those of the majority of Ministers) in addition to salary and allowances as a Member of Parliament.

Power, extra money and on camera every day the House is sitting. Aaahh......................

The Australian online poll on 15 September 2010

Hartsuyker shuffled into yet another minor shadow ministry

No matter which way you look at it the Nationals Luke Hartsuyker has lost out in the gravitas stakes in Tony Abbott's shadow ministry reshuffle - leaving him tagging yet another minor ministry.
He's still chasing the snake's tail as Shadow Minister for Sport and Youth with Spokesperson for Regional Communications tacked on, which follows on from the minor Shadow Consumer Affairs, Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law position he previously held.
Obviously Luke doesn't yet have the full confidence of his leaders outside of the one area in which he sometimes excels - creating havoc on the floor of the House as Deputy to 'Poodle' Pyne's Manager of Opposition Business.
I predict that Malcolm Turnbull is going to find his colleague something of an embarrassment whenever he opens his mouth on regional communications.

Federal Politics 2010 Crib Sheet: who's shadowing whom

The Gillard Ministry and its Opposition counterparts are set out here in a rough preliminary guide to the principal House of Representatives and Senate shadow ministers, shadow parliamentary secretaries and spokespersons.

Feel free to expand this list by adding names in the comments section below this post.

Government members are printed in black and underneath their names the Opposition members having shadow responsibility for all or part of ministerial portfolios are set out in red.

CABINET

Julia Gillard, Prime Minister

Tony Abbott

Eric Abetz

Wayne Swan, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer

Julie Bishop

Joe Hockey

Mathias Cormann

Chris Evans, Minister for Jobs, Skills, Workplace Relations and Tertiary Education

Eric Abetz

Brett Mason

Christopher Pyne

Sussan Ley

Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity

Malcolm Turnbull

Simon Crean, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government; Minister for the Arts

George Brandis

Barnaby Joyce

Bob Baldwin

Ian MacDonald

Kevin Rudd, Minister for Foreign Affairs

Julie Bishop

David Johnston

Stephen Smith, Minister for Defence

David Johnston

Chris Bowen, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

Scott Morrison

Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport

Warren Truss

Barnaby Joyce

Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Ageing

Peter Dutton

Bronwyn Bishop

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells

Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Mitch Fifield

Sussan Ley

Nigel Scullion

Kevin Andrews

Marese Payne

Tony Burke, Minister for Sustainable Population, Communities, Environment and Water

Scott Morrison

Penny Wong, Minister for Finance and Deregulation

Andrew Robb

Peter Garrett, Minister for Schools, Early Childhood and Youth

Christopher Pyne

Fiona Nash

Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

Sophie Mirabella

Richard Colebeck

Robert McClelland, Attorney-General

George Brandis

Joe Ludwig, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

John Cobb

Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism

Ian McFarlane

Bob Baldwin

Greg Combet, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency

Greg Hunt

Craig Emerson, Minister for Trade

Julie Bishop

MINISTERS

Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Human Services; Minister for Social Inclusion

Brendan O'Connor, Minister for Home Affairs and Justice; Minister for Privacy and FOI

Michael Keenan

Kate Ellis, Minister for Employment Participation, Childcare and the Status of Women

Sussan Ley

Mark Arbib, Minister for Indigenous Employment and Economic Development; Minister for Sport; Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness

Luke Hartsuyker

Fiona Nash

Nick Sherry, Minister for Small Business; Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism

Bruce Billson

Bob Baldwin

Warren Snowdon, Minister for Indigenous Health, Veterans' Affairs and Defence Science and Personnel

Michael Ronaldson

Stuart Robert

Bill Shorten, Assistant Treasurer; Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation

Mathias Cormann

Mark Butler, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing

Bronwyn Bishop

Gary Gray, Special Minister of State

Bronwyn Bishop

Jason Clare, Minister for Defence Materiel

PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIES

David Bradbury, Treasury

Tony Smith

Jacinta Collins, Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

Julie Collins, Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Mark Dreyfus, Climate Change and Energy Efficiency; Cabinet Secretary

Justine Elliot, Foreign Affairs and Trade

Teresa Gambaro

Don Farrell, Sustainable Population, Communities, Environment and Water

Mike Kelly, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Catherine King, Health and Ageing; Infrastructure and Transport

Darren Chester

Kate Lundy, Immigration and Citizenship; Prime Minister and Cabinet

Corey Bernardi

David Feeney, Defence

Jan McLucas, Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Scott Ryan

Richard Marles, Foreign Affairs and Trade

Gary Humphries, Fiona Nash, Don Randall, Simon Birmingham, Ian McFarlane, Micaelia Cash, Andrew Laming, Richard Colbeck, Andrew Southcott - shadow parliamentary secretaries for Attorney General, Regional Education, Local Government , Murray-Darling, Rural Remote Australia, Immigration, Regional & Indigenous Health, Fisheries & Forestry Innovation & Science, Primary Health Care, respectively.

Phillip Ruddock, Shadow Cabinet Secretary

Koi Kids are opening act at Lismore Show's Under The Tent music event, Saturday 23 October 2010

The very talented Koi Kids, 2010 winners of "Best Youth" at the NSW North Coast Dolphin Awards, are the opening act in a full and diverse day of music from midday to late at the North Coast National (Lismore Show) on 23 October 2010.

The Tendons, The Re-Mains, Sara Tindley and her Kingfishers, Holly Throsby, Peno and Salmon, and Ed Kuepper will be rocking along on the day for your enjoyment.

Under The Tent at the Lismore Show is free once you have gained admission to the North Coast National. Tickets available at www.norpa.org.au, at Newcastle Permanent branches or at the gate on the day and start from $8 . Early bird tickets available until October 15.

The Koi Kids are also booked to perform at the earlier Nimbin Music Festival at the Nimbin Showground on 2nd & 3rd October, where fifty acts are expected over that long weekend.

October is a music month on the NSW North Coast - join us for the fun!

Locals turn their backs on eco vandals at Coffs rally?

I've had enough of listening to all that whinging and whining coming from the mouths of recreational fishermen over the fact that marine parks and no-go areas have been created along the NSW North Coast.

If you keep your eyes open it isn't hard to find illegal crab pots littering coastal estuaries and lakes, fellas regularly taking home undersize catches or even using their outboard motors to cut into protected sea grass beds so that they can plop their boats in the middle of a fish feeding spot.

And they wonder why the fishing isn't what it used to be!

It seems that I'm not alone in thinking that these moaning minnies are more than a little hypocritical. When some of their ilk held a rally last Sunday against plans for the Solitary Island Marine Park only around 130 people turned up.

The commies are coming, the commies are coming! And they're bringing Oakeshott, ice & death duties!

Here is a Northern Rivers resident (published in The Daily Examiner yesterday) who obviously believed everything Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop said during the August 2010 federal election campaign and during the formation of the minority government:

Australia takes a lurch to the left

WELL, it looks like Australia has its first communist government.
As for this climate change tripe - climate change has been occurring since time began.
I have heard that there is more ice than a few years ago in the sea leading down to the South
Pole, not less.
So, what's going on?
Why don't they tell us the truth just for once?
Don't forget the Liberal mob got over 600,000 more votes in the election than the other mob, not the other way around.
Labor also lost about 15 seats.
God only knows what Julia Gillard promised the two turncoats to support her in this new parliament.
Did they take into consideration the new mining tax?
Talk about killing the hen that laid the golden eggs - bringing back death duty.
Or were they just thinking about this broadband rot?
Has anyone been told just how much it is going to cost to get this broadband into your home?
Will it be hundreds or thousands of dollars?
The Labor Party has just had three years stuffing up Australia.
Now it is going to get three more years to complete the job.
The Australian voters did not elect Julia Gillard; the two turncoats gave her the job.
Robert Oakeshott only thinks he is prime minister.

CHARLES DEAN
Junction Hill

Enough with the opinion polls already!

Didn't we just declare the Oz silly season over when Gillard formed a minority Government?
So why is Essential Research sending out polling results on questions such as;
How would you rate the performance of parties since the election?
Fair crack of the whip! No-one's being sworn in until later today (at the earliest) and the new parliament isn't sitting yet.
The only thing 'opinion' has to bounce off at the moment is hyped-up journalists and the often biased Murdoch meeja.
Surely long suffering voters and pollies alike deserve a few days grace.

Banned advert is political statement or encouraging suicide? You choose [video]

Exit International which asserts that is is a non-profit information and advocacy group (supporting the idea that all individuals should have end of life options available to them such as voluntary euthanasia) has run foul of FreeTV's legal advice that its attempt to run an advertisement on free-to-air television is in fact '"...a promotion or encouragement of suicide as voluntary euthanasia would be considered to be a subset of suicide."

Now I cannot see that motive in the short advertisement which was originally scheduled to run on Channel 7. To me it seems to be a straightforward attempt to lobby Australian governments.

The advertisement was posted on YouTube. You decide.

Warning! Senatorial Idiot Alert!

Apparently Australia now has a legitimate federal government except when its policies conflict with Family First Senator Steve Fielding's desire to remain in the political limelight.

Here is the politically-challenged senator from first to last in his role as principal media tart on Channel 10 Meet The Press yesterday:

SENATOR STEVE FIELDING, FAMILY FIRST: What I've said is that the Australian public gave the Labor Party a whack over the head. I do not think the Australian public wanted to give them a second term. But equally, they did not give the Coalition, Tony Abbott, an endorsement to actually govern as well. So what I will be doing is looking at the legislation like I have in the last five years on its merits and if it is good, it will get the tick and go ahead. If it is bad, I will seek to change it and to make sure that it is good for Australia. If the government of the day will not listen to those changes, I will have to vote against it.
ALISON CARABINE: Senator Fielding, Rob Oakeshott last week said that neither major party has a mandate, that was before he gave his vote to Julia Gillard, you would've thought about this, do you believe the Gillard Government is legitimate? Does it have a mandate?
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: Obviously it is legitimate. We have a wonderful democracy in Australia and it has delivered a very strange result but that is because the Australian public had nothing to vote for. A vote for Julia, she was saying it was going to stop us from Tony. A vote for Tony was going to stop us from a bad Labor government. In the end, Australians didn't have a real choice between the two of them and the result we ended up with was probably what the Australian public were thinking "I really don't want either of them".
ALISON CARABINE: One of the key Bills that you will have to consider in this term of Parliament is the resources rent tax. We know the Opposition will vote against it. One more vote and it is sunk, that is if the Bill comes in before July next year. What are your intentions?
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: I do not like raising taxes and I think the Australian public do not like it either. I think the way that Kevin Rudd introduced it was a complete surprise to a lot of people and it was part of his non-consulted approach that in the end, lost him the leadership of the Labor Party. I am opposed generally to increasing taxes unless there is a very good reason to do so and secondly, it makes sense. The Henry had a tax reform package and they've picked up sort of one piece of it and run with that because the wanted to actually do what they like doing in Labor, spending money. We've got to get very careful here about whether we are going to keep on spending or saving. I am not really predisposed to the tax, but I'm happy to listen to the new arguments that they are putting forward, It did change at the very last moment and there has been no debate, no consultation within Parliament with that particular issue.
ALISON CARABINE: Have you discussed your voting intentions with Tony Abbott? Have you had any talks at all with the Liberal leadership about how you will vote in the Senate?
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: Not on anything specific and it was a very general conversation going back a few weeks and that was some time ago. So there is nothing specific. My view on this mining tax is I think it is ill conceived to start with and I do not think they have across the board support from the industry at all. I know the big miners seem to be a little more happy…
ALISON CARABINE: It sounds like a "no".
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: Put it this way, I am hesitant to vote for tax increasing. I am very hesitant.
MARK KENNY: You say Senator Fielding that you're not sure that the people of Australia wanted to elect a Labor government. You say that you are going to listen to the arguments about the mining tax but you don't sound like you're too supportive of it. What about listening to the electors of Victoria, you are a Victorian senator. Labor did very well in Victoria as it did in my home State of South Australia. It is not across the board that people were wanting to chuck the government out. Is that not a factor that you will take into consideration?
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: I think Victoria and South Australia have not had the impact of a bad Labor government. Queensland and New South Wales…
MARK KENNY: But they are State governments. What has that got to do with it?
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: Hear me out here. Queensland and New South Wales had a very big swing against Labor because they know what a bad government ends up doing…
MARK KENNY: So you are admitting that….
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: Victoria and South Australia I think felt a little more, not as concerned I suppose with a bad government and I think most people thought that Labor had lost their way. In initial fact the Prime Minister told us that Labor had lost their way. The question is, did they find their way during the election campaign? I am not so sure they did. The Australian public didn't think so. So putting that to one side, I said I will look at legislation, bills that come before Parliament on their merit. I think that is what the Australian public like and that is what I will be doing.
MARK KENNY: It seems to me that you are admitting that it was State factors that played out in New South Wales and Queensland for example and yet you are using that as an argument against a policy that was on the table in the federal election and which Australians voted on.
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: Not at all. What I did say was that the people of New South Wales and Queensland have seen the results of what happens when you have a bad government. I do not think Victoria and South Australia have got that same sort of feeling about what happens when you have a bad government. I did not say they had different views on it, they just had different passion levels on what happens when you have a bad government.
ALISON CARABINE: Senator Fielding, your term will expire on 1 July next year. Do you think the Gillard Government will last that long? Do you believe that Julia Gillard can fulfil her promise of a stable and effective government?
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: I think it is going to be very challenging for the Prime Minister Gillard. I think it is going to be very challenging. I know that normally a government has the numbers in the Lower House and it's the Senate they have to worry about. Now they have to worry about both houses of parliament. I think it is going to be tricky. But Julia Gillard is a very could [sic] negotiator. She is very consultative. She does listen. I think she has a very good chance of making it work.
PAUL BONGIORNO: Senator Fielding, just briefly, it looks like you've lost your Senate seat to the Democratic Labor Party. I guess if you had to lose it to anybody, they would seem to be fellow travellers on many issues, wouldn't it?
SENATOR STEVE FIELDING: I think there is a lot in common. The counting is still going. I have not given up yet. They didn't think I would get elected in 2004 so we have to wait for this following week for the rest of the count but there is a lot in common.
PAUL BONGIORNO: Thank you very much for being with us today, Senator Steve Fielding. Thanks also to our panel Mark Kenny and Alison Carabine. A transcript and a replay of this programme will be on our website. Until next week, goodbye.