politicalowl

Grattan on Friday: Michelle Grattan , University of Canberra Only a few months ago Bill Shorten would have thought that if he won the election he’d be delivering same-sex marriage and a royal commission into banks early in his government. Now Malcolm Turnbull is bringing us both – in each case, his hand forced by a (different) group of rebel backbenchers. The marriage bill, which will go through the House of Representatives next week, has some disgruntled conservatives arcing up after the Senate rejected their amendments, but Turnbull will mark it down as one of the achievements of his prime ministership. It’s another matter with the banking royal commission. Seldom is a government’s impotence and frustration as much on display as it was when Turnbull finally capitulated and announced on Thursday that the government would establish the inquiry it has so long resisted and denounced. For quite a time political hardheads had been arguing the government should accept the inevi...

Man on other side of Barnaby Joyce stalking accusation speaks up about hat-flicking pub incident  - Northern Daily Leader The man, a one-time Tony Windsor supporter who said he is no longer aligned with any political party, said the first time he had met Mr Joyce was unplanned at a Bingara pub. The second time was the Graman Hotel. The man said he had canvassed friends on “What would you like me to ask Barnaby?” before he arrived, so “I had a big list of questions to ask”. "He was friendly initially and then I asked him whether he was going to pay back the money he had earned while he was illegally in parliament. That obviously hit a nerve,” the man said. "Then he's like, ‘Who are you with? Who sent you?’ I'm like, ‘I'm with no one’.” The man said that he had mentioned mining magnate Gina Rinehart's $40,000 agriculture award (which Mr Joyce declined) and “he took umbrage with that”. "His supporters, of which most of the people in the pub were, sor...

'Pathetic' and 'pitiful': Veteran Labor MP Laurie Ferguson takes a swing at colleague Sam Dastyari for cameo in The Killing Season  - Sydney Morning Herald June 17, 2015 Veteran Labor MP Laurie Ferguson has hit out at his colleagues taking part in dramatic re-enactments of Labor's leadership wars in the sensational ABC television documentary The Killing Season. Mr Ferguson singled out parliamentary newcomer Senator Sam Dastyari, who served as the ALP's New South Wales state secretary when Kevin Rudd was rolled, for particular criticism. Senator Dastyari was filmed talking on his iPhone 6 walking down Lonsdale Street in Melbourne and sitting at a park bench. He recounted receiving a phone call from the ALP's pollster in 2010 warning the Labor Party would be "bloody stuffed" at an election if Mr Rudd remained leader. Mr Ferguson told Fairfax Media Senator Dastyari's performance was "pitiful".

Bill Shorten avoids New England byelection for entire campaign  - Financial Review Barnaby Joyce has complained about being stalked throughout the  New England byelection , but not by Bill Shorten. The Labor leader will not make a single visit to the seat which goes to the polls on Saturday. It is expected that Mr Joyce, who was dismissed from Parliament for being a dual citizen, will be re-elected. On the campaign trail in the New England by-election, but where's Barnaby Joyce? - ABC Is the outcome of this weekend's New England by-election a foregone conclusion? Judging by the way Barnaby Joyce is campaigning, you could be forgiven for thinking it is. "Barnaby Joyce believes that he is going to win this seat on his reputation and he doesn't need to campaign," said CountryMinded Party candidate, Peter Mailler. Barnaby Joyce claims he is being stalked following a heated encounter at a New England pub  - Brisbane Times Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyc...

Twitter tells us that a politician will be father of a child due in February or March. The ABS population clock predicts the country's population to reach 25 million about the same time. So singalong and wish him luck.

Breitbart editor says 1973 Ringo Starr song proves Roy Moore didn’t do anything wrong  - Think Progress During a CNN appearance Monday morning, Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak attempted to justify Roy Moore against allegations that he molested children and sexually assaulted teenagers by citing a lyric from a song popularized by Ringo Starr more than 40 years ago. “You know, in 1973 Ringo Starr hit number one on the Billboard charts with the song, ‘You’re 16, you’re beautiful, and you’re mine,'” Pollack said. “He was 30-something at the time singing about a 16-year-old — you want to take away Ringo Starr’s achievement?” Why are the banks so scared of a commission of inquiry?  - SMH Banks And Governments Paying Attention As Bitcoin Hits Record Highs  - NPR Over the past year, Bitcoin's price has gone up more than 900 percent. It's a level of growth unheard of in traditional investing markets. Now, banks, governments, and everyday people are wondering if Bitco...

Barnaby Joyce replies to allegations of hiding from public  - Northern Daily Leader We don’t take it as a joke. If they’ve got a bullet, they’ve probably got a fire-arm to use it. We've been to the police but it’s not going to change the way I do things. Barnaby Joyce The Nationals candidate for the New England by-election, Barnaby Joyce, met party workers in Glen Innes and told them he thought they were “going to get a handy sort of result”. He faced some barracking from a few people outside the newly rented Nationals’ office on Grey Street as he addressed about thirty people inside. His visit to Glen Innes was only announced to local media a few hours before and no crowds of either supporters or opponents greeted him. He’s had death threats and a bullet sent to his office but said it wouldn’t change the way he worked (in the video, it’s his first answer). Is he shunning big public events? “I’ve done a number of forums. I’m here. I’m walking up and down the halls. I’m mak...