Hard Labor: ALP still seeking country candidates

It is most unlike the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party to let a lower house seat go uncontested in a state election.

But less than four weeks out from polling day, Labor has a “vacant” sign hanging over no fewer than seven rural and regional electorates, according to Labor’s latest update to members. Those seats are Mildura, Benambra, Murray Plains, Ovens Valley, Gippsland East, Shepparton and Lowan, and the comrades down at party HQ in Docklands need to find some bodies fast.

Premier Daniel Andrews will be hoping to find some loyalists to stand in seats.Credit: Penny Stephens

That’s because marginal ALP-held upper house seats, like that of Dan Andrews’ favourite Harriet Shing in Eastern Victoria, become very hard to retain if there’s no lower house candidate – which means little or no Labor presence at polling booths – for seats like Gippsland East.

Likewise, the seat held by Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes in Northern Victoria looks dicey if nobody can be found to wave the red flag at Mildura’s booths, although Symes herself should be OK. She’s been moved to the safe top spot on the ticket.

And then there’s the headache caused by the abrupt retirement from politics of upper house stalwart and frontbencher Jaala Pulford just weeks out from polling day.

Party insiders tell CBD that, for reasons unclear to anybody, it has been harder than usual this electoral cycle to find loyalists to undergo the grind of standing in a seat where they know they’re going to cop a flogging.

But with nominations closing next week, Docklands will be looking for a mobilisation of reservists that would make Vladimir Putin proud. Political lives depend on it.

YES, MINISTER

Somehow, former prime minister Scott Morrison managed to cause one of the biggest political blow-ups of the year after losing office, when some News Corp journalists accidentally revealed he’d secretly appointed himself to a bunch of ministries during the pandemic.

Former prime minister and minister for many things, Scott Morrison.Credit: James Brickwood

Former High Court judge Virginia Bell is holding an inquiry into Morrison’s self-appointment as minister for health, finance, industry science, energy and resources, home affairs, and treasurer, so the matter isn’t going away any time soon.

And in what could be an act of trolling, that moment is now immortalised on the former PM’s official biography on the Parliament House website, which lists them on his CV, beneath his more legitimate ministerial appointments.

Some wayback machine sleuthing shows the changes to his bio came into effect in late September, over a month after the scandal first hit the news. We asked both Morrison’s office and the Department of Parliamentary Services who was behind the change, and so far, nobody wanted to own up.

The department flicked us onto the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, who in turn referred us back to Parliamentary Services. Another mystery lost to Canberra’s bureaucratic quagmire.

BOYS FROM BRAZIL

Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took nearly two days to speak after losing the country’s election to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, offering a non-concession but promising to follow the constitution even as many of his supporters raged on in very Trump-esque fashion.

George ChristensenCredit: John Shakespeare

But the ranks of angry Bolsonaro Bros seems to include the former member for Dawson, George Christensen, who’s done plenty of opining on geopolitical matters since quitting politics at the last election.

On Telegram, Christensen shared a post claiming the Brazilian election was stolen and the results were fraudulent. He followed this with two posts from British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, one a 2014 article casting doubt on Brazil’s electronic voting system, and the other alleging digital fraud.

Unfortunately, Christensen didn’t respond to CBD’s calls, but he’s welcome to discuss the state of democracy with this column any time.

PADDY’S POWER

Well-travelled business scribe-turned-biographer Paddy Manning has a tiger by the tail with his new book The Successor: The High Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch.

Readers who haven’t been living under a rock will recall that Murdoch – who the book makes clear is now undisputed heir to the global media empire built by his father Rupert Murdoch – is locked in a high-stakes defamation battle with online publisher Crikey, over an article that doesn’t even mention Lachlan’s name.

Now, we’re sure that Manning and his publishers Black Inc have undertaken their legal due diligence properly, but we can’t help but fret for them, just a little.

Not least because Murdoch’s people, who watch these things very closely, will have clocked by now that the Brisbane launch of Manning’s book at the city’s Avid Reader will be hosted by former prime minister Kevin Rudd who has emerged as the Murdochs’ most vociferous local critics.

Manning, who embarked on the project two years ago, when the Crikey matter wasn’t even on the horizon, conceded on Tuesday to be feeling a little “nervous”.

“Especially in Australia, where you have these restrictive defamation laws, if you write a book about the rich and the powerful, there’s always a risk,” he said.

“Hopefully, there’ll be no litigation out of it, but you can never be sure.”

We asked the Australian outpost of the US-based Murdoch empire if it had had a chance to peruse Paddy’s efforts. They didn’t answer us.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.