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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is sent deep into the jungle of the United States of America to try and smooth things over with newly elected President Donald Trump and quickly discovers how things get… "confused out there". Huw Parkinson explores this harrowing tale.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-12/huw-parkinson-trumpocalypse-now/8263228

Attorney-General George Brandis has accused Labor senator Penny Wong of having an "unhealthy obsession" with Pauline Hanson after she launched a fiery attack on One Nation.

The West Australian Liberals have decided to preference One Nation above the Nationals in the Upper House in regional areas, with One Nation preferencing the Liberals in all Lower House seats in return.

Senior Liberal figures have dismissed the deal as a matter for WA Liberal Party officials, but it dominated debate during a testy Question Time on Monday.

Senator Wong took issue with Industry Minister Arthur Sinodinos's comments describing One Nation as "sophisticated" compared to when Senator Hanson first entered Parliament.

"They're more sophisticated because in this chamber, since they've been here, they've supported important pieces of Government legislation, they've been prepared to work with us," Senator Sinodinos said.

Senator Wong said it was not One Nation that have changed since the late 1990s, but the Liberal Party.

"Is it Senator Hanson's plan to scrap the GST and replace it with a 2 per cent tax on everything including pensioners and the poor; or One Nation's plan to force everyone to sign a prenuptial agreement; or her plans to fingerprint everyone in the nation and then force them to provide their fingerprint before they can access Medicare?," she asked.

Former prime minister John Howard decided in 2000 that One Nation should be placed last on all Liberal Party how-to-vote cards, claiming Ms Hanson was fanning "racist sentiment".

Senator Wong said Mr Howard had more conviction and principles than the current Liberal leadership.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-13/brandis-takes-aim-at-wong-after-on...

The Liberal (KONservative) leaership in Australia has no spine, does not know what is real or fake information about coal and electricity supply, is syncophantic, is duplicitous, is hypocritical, is idiotic imbecilic and deranged, and is dangerous. 

But the Liberal (KONservative) leadership knows that the majority of us has no spine, does not know what is real or fake information about coal and electricity supply, is syncophantic, is duplicitous, is hypocritical, is idiotic imbecilic and deranged, and is dangerous. 

The Liberals (KONservatives) are in clover with Hanson.

One Nation candidates in the WA election are threatening to disobey their own party on the controversial preference deal struck with the Liberal Party.

Key points:

One Nation candidates angry over Liberal preference deal

Liberals to preference One Nation in Upper House, One Nation to preference Liberals in Lower House

Individual candidates threatening to do their own 'how to vote' cards

"I feel like I have just received a kick in the fangs by our own party," one candidate said in an email seen by 7.30.

"The party is selling me and the constituents out."

Now some of the party's candidates are openly defying the head office directive and threatening to give their own instructions of directing preferences.

Dane Sorensen and David Miller are two candidates who were prepared to go on the record for 7.30.

When they decided to run for One Nation in Western Australia, they did not expect to become bargaining chips.

But that is what the pair, who come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, believe they have become under the controversial deal between Pauline Hanson's One Nation party and the WA Liberals.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-15/one-nation-candidates-furious-over...

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Pauline Hanson's One Nation is a threat to Australia's national security and prosperity, former ambassador to the US Kim Beazley has said.

The former Labor leader's comments come amid a debate on a preference deal between One Nation and the WA Liberal Party.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-16/politics-live-february-16/8273750

One of the features of modern politics in the age of Brexit and Trump is the collapse of popular support for major political parties. The Liberals and Labor both know they are in trouble but are unwilling to face some of the issues. Meanwhile, the National party is idly standing by while its support base disappears.

The first modern shock for the Nationals was the annihilation of the party in the Northern Territory elections last year. After winning 16 seats and a clear majority at the 2012 election, the Country Liberal Party collapsed to not only lose government but to retain only two seats (in a legislative assembly of 25 members) at the 2016 election. In future elections the way back will be extremely difficult, as independents, the Shooters and Fishers Party, and One Nation will almost certainly be competing for the votes of traditional CLP supporters.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/16/its-goodbye-to-the...

Did I say Neanderthal? I meant to say Nationals, Shooters and Fishers, One-nationers, Bernarditioners, etc... but it would not fit in the headline

The Western Australian Liberal deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has been given the blessing of the former prime minister John Howard, despite his 2001 edict it must be placed last on his party’s how-to-vote cards.

Adding star power to the Liberal election campaign in Perth on Thursday, the nation’s second-longest-serving prime minister said the WA division made a “very sensible, pragmatic decision” to cut a deal with the rightwing party.

“I fully understand why the WA Liberal party has taken the decision,” he told reporters at a shopping centre in the seat of Southern River on Thursday, when he received almost entirely positive responses from voters and children.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/17/john-howard-backs...

read also:

divide and conquer...

Malcolm Turnbull says entering a preference deal with One Nation doesn’t mean the Liberal party supports One Nation, as a new poll shows a majority of voters disapprove of a deal between the Liberals and Pauline Hanson’s party in Western Australia.

Turnbull told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that preference allocations were political calculations designed to maximise the performance of the Liberal party, not value judgments.

Asked about the Liberal party’s decision in WA to preference One Nation ahead of its alliance partner, the Nationals, in some areas, the prime minister said: “Well it’s important to understand ... that in most parts of Australia we have a compulsory preferential voting system, where you have to number a square next to each candidate on the ballot paper so there will always be the allocation of preferences.

“But just because preferences are directed to a party doesn’t mean that you support them – quite the contrary.”

His comments come as the latest Guardian Essential poll says 38% of people disapprove of the deal between the Liberal party and One Nation in WA, while 29% approve. But, among Liberal voters, 43% approved of the arrangement and 25% disapproved.

The deal in the west has also been criticised by the federal Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce. In an interview with Guardian Australia last week, Joyce warned that anti-Islamic statements, such as the ones espoused by One Nation, could harm Australian trade deals.

He said he would give instructions not to preference Hanson’s party before the Liberal party in federal seats.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/21/malcolm-turnbull-...

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Yes, making a deal with the devil means you love yourself so much you will make a deal with the devil to stay young... Idiots !!!!

Malcolm Turnbull's party woes go well beyond Tony Abbott's unholy war.

Because, with One Nation biting deep into National Party heartland, there's a risk the federal Coalition will be torn apart. In a fight for their lives, some MPs might decide they can't battle an anti-establishment insurgency if they are the establishment.

A rational conclusion might be that only way to convince angry voters that you are on their side is to lay siege to the Government. Or leave it. Mr Abbott's latest intervention will only embolden Nationals who already fear the conservative base is haemorrhaging under Mr Turnbull's leadership.

Ground zero is Queensland, where poll after poll shows One Nation is on the march.

The unique problem in the north is that the establishment conservatives have merged into the Liberal National Party. It's possible that the LNP could be disentangled politically — the Queensland MPs and senators still hold separate Liberal and National party room meetings in Canberra — but the real hurdle would be how to divide a $25-million property portfolio. Divorce isn't on the cards because it would be long and messy.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-27/coalition-unity-threatened-by-nati...

See toon at top...

Colin Barnett's eight-and-a-half year reign as WA Premier is over, after his Liberal-National Government was swept out of office by a huge swing towards Mark McGowan's Labor Party.

Mr McGowan will be sworn in as the state's 30th Premier within days, after Labor won a clear majority in parliament and the Liberals suffered disastrous losses above even its most dire fears going into the election.

The ABC called the result less than 90 minutes after polls closed, with early counting showing dramatic swings to Labor.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said he expected Labor to win as many as 41 seats, having needed just 30 to defeat the Barnett Government.

Three Liberal ministers, including Health Minister John Day, have lost their seats while Corrective Services Minister and possible leadership aspirant Joe Francis is also in severe trouble.

The National Party's vote only fell slightly, but leader Brendon Grylls' seat is still uncertain.

In celebratory remarks made to a raucous gathering of Labor supporters in Rockingham, Mr McGowan thanked Mr Barnett for his "many years of public service to West Australians."

Mr McGowan pledged to get to work immediately, as he reaffirmed his commitment not to privatise Western Power.

"Today West Australians voted for hope and opportunity over desperation and division," the Premier-elect said.

"Today we showed we are a state of decency and intelligence, not a state of stupidity and ignorance.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-11/barnetts-reign-in-wa-over-as-labor...

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One Nation is set for a disastrous result at the West Australian election, prompting Pauline Hanson to say it was a mistake for the party to enter into a preference deal with the Liberal Party.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/it-was-a-mistake-pauline-hanson-admits-preference-error-after-one-nation-votes-collapses-20170311-guw5cv.html

See toon at top...

And we've had the usual noise from the rabble she runs with one of her own candidates Ray Gould resigning on Tuesday, saying it "It's just power and money, [for Pauline.] She wants to be the watchdog of Australia politics, but it's all for money, no consideration for people. She threw us away like a dirty rag. It's a scam. The public are getting smashed."

Where is the sophistication, Mr Sinodinos? Where is the single well-thought-out policy that is more than a brain-fart of empty sloganeering?

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/is-this-the-sophisticated-one-nation-we-se...

The tight election race in Queensland has constricted further with the decision by the LNP to preference One Nation ahead of Labor in 50 seats across the state.

As One Nation’s controversial domestic violence policy and accusations about the safe schools program continued to dominate headlines, the LNP moved to safeguard its vote by preferencing the Pauline Hanson-led party.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/11/queensland-electi...

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