..

Mr Abbott’s electorate of Warringah in Sydney’s northern beaches, also known as the “insular peninsula”, is a world away from the treacherous corridors of Canberra.

While Mr Abbott’s fondness for donning a pair of budgie smugglers sees him mocked around the country, locally he is respected for his community service, in particular his volunteering at the surf club and with the rural fire service.

It’s this rusted on, local support that enables Mr Abbott to stay in parliament, even after losing the prime ministership to Malcolm Turnbull.

But after being implicated in this month’s ugly leadership spill, there are signs this could be changing.

Some locals who have voted for Mr Abbott in the past could barely hide their anger at their MP’s involvement in last week’s chaotic events and told news.com.au they didn’t want to vote for him again.

“His name is mud at the moment … I voted for him but never again,” one Manly woman told news.com.au yesterday.

“I felt Malcolm was doing the best he could and the impact on (former foreign minister) Julie Bishop too, was unbelievable. I’m almost embarrassed to be Australian at the moment.”

The woman, who has lived in the northern beaches for about 30 years, said Mr Abbott was “totally out of touch”.

“He’s just pure ego. He’s supposed to be governing the country but it’s just appalling behaviour and vengeance.

“I’ve got no respect for Tony Abbott at all.”

Read more:

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/how-warringah-voters-feel-about-tony-abbott/news-story

They live mostly on the North Shore....:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/24007

Scott Morrison and the ‘strongman’ capitulations 

Tony Abbott’s face as he emerged from the party room is the image I can’t get out of my head from the chaos of the past weeks. Defeat had done its work. He was pared back to the bone. His skin looked a mess and his eyes barely focused as he mouthed platitudes about saving the government he’d done his best to wreck.

Read more of David Marr at the Saturday Paper...

But the final warning by David Marr is clear: We, Australians, could be set to have to suffer this fool, this A B Santamaria mentored rubbish, this spiritual abortion from J W Howard, this glorious excrement supported by Alan Jones, until about 2047.

Can we live that long? Could the Warringah voters get him out of the political landscape? Could the fire brigades reject his application of "volunteering" for having set the world on fire? Could someone steal his budgies? Could he do us the favour of a Harold Holt at Palm Beach?

Read from top.

Less than a week after confirming she was running for Liberal pre-selection in the Wentworth by-election, Christine Forster has pulled out.

• Other potential Liberal candidates include former diplomat Dave Sharma and former acting federal director of the Liberal Party Andrew Bragg
• The seat is considered safe Liberal territory but is a prized electorate
• The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull

Ms Forster — the sister of former prime minister Tony Abbott — made the announcement on social media, saying her candidature had become a "proxy for division" in the party.

The seat had been held by Malcolm Turnbull, who resigned from Federal Parliament on Friday, one week after being ousted as prime minister.

Ms Forster said she had wanted to "represent and advocate for the people of my local community".

"The commentary about my candidacy since then, however, has focused on the suggestion that it was a proxy for division within the Liberal party," her Facebook post read.

"That is not the case, but to avoid any such perception, I will be standing aside and giving my full support to the successful candidate."

The seat is considered safe Liberal territory, but analysts said it would attract interest amongst potential candidates because it was a prized electorate.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-03/christine-forster-pulls-out-of-wen...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-02/leadership-troubles-can-be-tough:huw-parkinson/10192660

The Prime Minister's hand-picked Indigenous advisory council has written to Scott Morrison demanding a meeting and an explanation on the appointment of Tony Abbott as special envoy for Aboriginal affairs.

• Andrea Mason says she heard of Tony Abbott's appointment through media
• She raises concerns about Mr Abbott's lack of expertise in Indigenous education
• Scott Morrison asked Tony Abbott to take on Indigenous envoy role last week

The co-chair of the Prime Minister's advisory council, NPY Women's Council chief executive Andrea Mason, said the first she had heard of the appointment was through the media and she had still not received a briefing from the Government on the appointment.

Ms Mason said she had sent a letter to Scott Morrison on Friday last week raising questions and concerns about the "crowded" field in Indigenous affairs.

"Absolutely, we as a Council have written to the Prime Minister and really outlined to him the work that we've been doing since 2017, when we as a council were established by the previous prime minister," she told RN Drive.

"[We] feel that we've done a lot of substantive work and we're keen not to derail that process.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-04/indigenous-advisory-body-wants-explanation-on-abbott-appointment/

Throw Tony Abbott out of parliament. He's done enough (! — far too much!) damage to this country well-being.

A meeting to endorse Tony Abbott's re-election to Parliament descended into an angry shouting match after the former prime minister was hit by a rare and substantial protest vote.

More than 30 per cent of grassroots members voted on Friday night to oppose Mr Abbott's nomination as the Liberal Party candidate for the Sydney seat of Warringah, which the former leader has held since 1994.

Mr Abbott ran unopposed, which makes the size of the protest vote "highly unusual", according to members who now believe the former prime minister's grip on the blue-ribbon northern beaches seat is not guaranteed.

"Everybody with any degree of commitment to the party and its long-term future wants to see this guy go, he's just useless," said one local member on Saturday.

Moderate Liberal Party members are deeply unhappy with Mr Abbott's failure to honour his "no wrecking, no sniping, no undermining" pledge after being ousted by Malcolm Turnbull in 2015.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/liberal-party-meeting-erupts-after-tony-abbott-hit-by-rare-and-substantial-protest-vote

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The NSW Liberal Party says Tony Abbott secured 68 per cent support in his controversial preselection, in a move designed to head off damaging speculation and internal disunity over the former prime minister's future.

A party spokesman told Fairfax Media on Monday afternoon that Mr Abbott received 68 votes during an endorsement meeting on Friday night, while 30 members voted against him and two lodged informal votes.

The actual number was kept secret from the meeting, triggering angry scenes and two days of  division. Some members believe Mr Abbott received only 46 votes compared to 38 against, and are expected to dispute the results released by the party.

"Whilst it has been the party’s practice to declare the number of votes for or against a particular candidate, a recent review of the party’s constitution has determined that the returning officer is obliged to declare the result of the ballot, not the number of votes cast for or against," the spokesman said.

"Nevertheless, given inaccurate information being reported regarding the recent Warringah endorsement meeting, and at the request of the candidate, we advise that Tony Abbott was endorsed with 68 votes for, 30 votes against and two informal votes."

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/liberal-party-releases-tony-abbott-preselection-result-to-head-off-damaging-internal-conflict-

Read from top.

Read also: 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/24007

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A group of Tony Abbott’s constituents have formed Voices of Warringah – based on the successful Voices for Indi, the community group that tipped out former Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella.

The Vow president, Louise Hislop, told Guardian Australia the group was created after Abbott’s refusal to engage on issues considered important to constituents, including climate change, plastics pollution, traffic issues, same-sex marriage and mental health services.

“I asked a question at forum about climate change and he said if you don’t agree with me don’t vote for me,” Hislop said. “He has a record of sticking [to] what he wants to do and not what the electorate wants.”

Voices for Indi was the community group that worked to engage Indi voters to give policy priorities to that electorate’s former member Mirabella. When those priorities were rebuffed, Independent Cathy McGowan beat the Liberal MP in the 2013 election.

Four out of five of the Vow executive are women and Hislop attended a recent Voices for Indi forum on getting elected to parliament, though the two groups are not connected in any way.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/06/tony-abbott-faces...

Good luck to WoW...

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The Liberal Party is racing to contain another internal row over its leadership after members on Sydney’s north shore voted for a motion to expel former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull from their party.

The Roseville Branch of the party backed the motion in a vote on Tuesday night to call on the Liberal Party's state headquarters to go ahead with expulsion, sparking a debate that could deepen the hostilities between conservatives and moderates.

Branch president George Szabo has taken calls from senior party officials to establish what happened in the meeting, while other party members refused to comment about the vote and why members wanted Mr Turnbull removed.

The vote came hours after reports emerged on Tuesday that Mr Turnbull and other members of his family, including wife Lucy and son Alex,  were following an instagram account that called for Tony Abbott to be replaced in his federal electorate of Warringah.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/liberals-fall-silent-after-rosev...

Read from top... The one to take out is Turdy Abbott...

Over the past few days a taut and angry social media screed about Tony Abbott’s performance as a local member spread virally through the prosperous suburbs that make up the seat of Warringah, traditionally a Liberal Party safe space.

“We are not political. We have never been involved in a movement or a political party. We are just trying to get on with life. But enough is enough. We feel compelled to speak up,” the post begins.

“Wake up Warringah! Let’s get out of the habit of just voting for whomever the Liberal Party throws at us. Please, don’t vote for Tony Abbott, the man who denies the reality that our world is changing.”

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/grassroots-tony-abbott-warringah...

Is Gus's campaign hitting the mark?  Read from top.

Read also: 

Moylan-Coombs, a member of the stolen generations, says she would like to be special envoy on Indigenous affairs if she wins

A member of the stolen generations will run for Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah at the upcoming federal election, with the independent vowing to put the environment and Indigenous affairs at the centre of her campaign.

Susan Moylan-Coombs, a broadcaster, mental health educator and the founding director of the Indigenous organisation the Gaimaragal Group, announced on Sunday her plans to contest the seat held by Abbott for almost 25 years.

The granddaughter of the high-profile public servant and prime ministerial advisor H.C. Coombs, and the daughter of former NSW Bar Association president John Coombs, Moylan-Coombs said she was no stranger to public service.

“Politics has been in and around my family, in and around myself,” she said. “I am a First Nations woman, whatever I do people think I’m being political.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/24/susan-moylan-coom...

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“Each Australia Day is like pressing on a bruise for Indigenous people – and the bruise gets darker,” said Susan Moylan-Coombs, as she launched her campaign to take the federal seat of Warringah from the former prime minister Tony Abbott.

“My message is this: come on Australia we can do better than this. We need to have a discusion with calm and reason,” she said.

An Indigenous woman, the grandchild of Labor legend HC “Nugget” Coombs, a resident of Warringah for 50 years, Moylan-Coombs is not shy about wading in on one of the contentious issues de jour: the date for Australia Day.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/21/susan-moylan-coom...

Time to put Turdy Abbott to pasture... And who else to do it but a first Australian, also with the blood of a most venerable but underpraised Aussie — HC “Nugget” Coombs.

North Shore, this is your chance to make amend for the crap you have fostered on Australia for a bit too long.

Read from top

Read also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35506

Australia's most successful alpine skier, Zali Steggall, has formally announced she will stand as an independent in former prime minister Tony Abbott's Sydney seat of Warringah in the next federal election.

• Zali Steggall, a four-time Winter Olympian, says she will be a "voice for the sensible centre"
• Tony Abbott has held the seat of Warringah since 1994
• Education Minister Dan Tehan warned people not to underestimate Mr Abbott

At a media conference in Sydney today, the barrister and four-time Winter Olympian accused the former prime minister of being "set in his ways" and unwilling to change, particularly when it came to climate change policy.

She told supporters she wanted to be "a voice for the sensible centre" in Australian politics and to address their concerns about climate change.

"The science is in. It's time to act. What are we waiting for?" she said.

"We do not want to be remembered as the generation that had all the facts but failed to act." 

She said she was concerned about the Government's lack of leadership on the issue.

"Climate change is not a political football," she said.

"Warringah has for too long had someone who is set in his ways, unwilling and unable to change.

Ms Steggall said she was also determined to bring down the cost of power by using more renewable energy and hydro storage.

She said she would push for long-term economic stability with policies to encourage growth and investment and boosting healthcare services, particularly for mental health.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-27/zali-steggall-to-contest-tony-abb...

Read from top...Read also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/24007

Let’s try to keep a sense of proportion about the recent performances of a few of our most adorable contenders.  

First, The Mad Monk, sportsman and all-round fitness freak, who is raring to have another crack at winning Warringah for the Nasty Party, was in the Palm Beach to Whale Beach 2.8-kilometre swim last Sunday, where he finished 1013th out of 1050. 

This is not the result of the champ for which electors in Warringah are pining. It only draws attention to the real champion, the Monk’s political competitor, Zali Steggall, who was second to none when skiing downhill between flagpoles in 1999 at a world championship event at Vail. 

The Monk is 61 and there were a lot of much younger men and women competing in the Big Swim. Yet even if we bend over backwards to be fair, the outcome looks no better. In the range of male competitors aged between 60 and 69, Abbott came 100th out of 104. Some of Gadfly’s insiders are unkind enough to say that four competitors from the Nasty Party must have been held back so the MP didn’t come last in his category. 

When it comes to gender, things were no better. We know the former PM thinks women should be at home doing the ironing, so it must be horrible for him to know that of the 357 women of all ages who finished the race, 334 beat him.

Read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2019/02/02/gadfly-leading-behind/154...

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in an article on the ABC website news, there is this bit:

"I've always had vigorous opponents, so that's not new," Mr Abbott said.

"Tony's been vigorously stupid, that' s why..." Gus can answer this, with confidence.

As well Tony's mob thinks that 'Independents are basically Labor candidates in disguise'

To which we can say with confidence: Rubbish!.

Remember Palmer — Clive Palmer? He was an "independent", but he was basically a Tony Stooge to get rid of the "carbon tax"... We followed this sorry episode very closely on this site. See: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28643

Go Zali Steggall. Go Zali!

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Some are aware that there is a "strong Indigenous female candidate" (Susan Moylan-Coombs) [read from top and see: http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35506] and while her name is not top of mind for them, "she looks interesting". 

The Labor candidate did not rate a mention across all four groups. Minor parties such as the Greens and the Liberal Democrats, as well as potential other independent candidates, are also under consideration by some.

Older voters are more aware of Ms Steggall, her legal career and her father's local legal practice. The fact she's been an Olympian is a plus for some, indicating discipline; they see her legal qualification as indicating intelligence. A couple of the participants have received direct marketing information from her, making them feel more positive towards her. 

A 40-year old male from Freshwater who's been getting "a lot" of Steggall material says: 

"She's an independent, she's moderate. Perfect."

The assessment from a male business development manager from Balgowlah reflects the ambivalence in some voters' minds: "There is something exciting about her, and she's different, but you can't have that trust in her because there's no track record there, so you're really just taking a leap of faith".

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-01/zali-steggall-and-tony-abbott-cam...

Here, we (Gus) don't recommend that Zali turns up on Manly Beach in Lycra Speedos or burns her underwear on a barbecue... This could give the wrong impression. But we'd recommend that the independents start to share their preferences and stick to the message: Abbott has been a disaster for Australia, despite having been a "good guy for Warringah". It's time to release him to the fire fighters and to the surfologists...

Read from top.

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11304#comment-14390

On Tango Avenue, a quiet street in the hills between Dee Why’s main drag and the coast, Australia’s former prime minister and current advocate for beachside toilets has been door-knocking – and he has discovered something wonderful.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he says to camera in a video he has posted online.

It’s a flourishing suburban movement. An exercise in self-help and building social capital, he says. A literary revolution, right there in Dee Why, which is surprising, perhaps, for anyone familiar with the surfing town on Sydney’s northern beaches, but let’s go with it.

It’s a street library.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/21/ive-never-seen-an...

Obviously, the dorky daggy turdy toilet promoter Abbott should get out more. Help him discover the real world out there. Throw him out of the Kanbra bubble. Don't vote for him.

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The shock jocks are jokes...

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The Warringah independent Zali Steggall has called on the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the Liberal MP for Warringah, Tony Abbott, to distance themselves from a sexualised video created by conservative group Advance Australia.

The video featured “Captain GetUp”, a character created by Advance Australia, rubbing up against Steggall’s face on a poster created by Advance Australia, which shows Steggall photoshopped next to Shorten.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/15/zali-steggall-cal...

So, what is Advance Australia? It says on its excellent ultra-right-wing manifesto:

We Advance Australia when mainstream values are at the core of our way of life. Australia has always been about a fair go. Sadly, our governments aren’t listening and powerful elites and left-wing activists currently dictate our future. In today’s politically correct world, if you and I stay silent we will continue to be ignored.

Join our movement today and be part of a strong, organised voice for mainstream Aussies.

Let’s Advance Australia together.

https://www.advanceaustralia.org.au

Of course, as unfair and as hypocritical as all get out in its beliefs... So, who has created this rubbish?

The quest for a right-wing opponent to GetUp has been going on for almost as long as the quest for a right-wing Phillip Adams at the ABC – and with about as much success.

The latest wizard wheeze come from a stratospherically elite clique of rich, bored men looking for a hobby. It includes men like Maurice Newman, who preaches that climate science is a fraudulent conspiracy ensuring the establishment of a totalitarian socialist dictatorship under the United Nations, and James Power, currently fighting to prevent women from becoming members of Brisbane’s Tattersall’s Club.

After diligent market research, they have settled on the unoriginal name of Advance Australia, which is not only plagiarism but deeply misleading – the only way they want Australia to advance is either jogging on the spot, or, preferably, stumbling backwards.

They claim to be protecting mainstream Australian values, but just about the only ones they have come up with thus far are maintaining superannuation tax lurks for the rich, keeping tax deductions for those who have not paid tax in the first place, and not moving Australia Day from January 26. To date, mainstream Australia has resisted the urge to storm the barricades on their behalf.

The organisation’s oligarchs are predicting that they will have a million members in time for the federal election, but are coy about how they plan to recruit these hordes. Perhaps they are assuming that sheer weight of money, of which they have plenty, will suffice, much in the way that Malcolm Turnbull bought his Wentworth preselection and, before then, Kerry Packer bought Australian cricket.

But mass campaigning does not work that way; buying up a rent-a-crowd is hardly likely to move swinging voters. You need a grassroots movement of enthusiasts and idealists, and for that you need not a top-heavy pyramid, but a bottom-up structure based on volunteers – like GetUp.

GetUp has some serious financial sponsors, but not many; it relies on widespread rank and file support, which it attracts because it has policies that inspire and excite people to action. Climate change, Nauru and Manus, gender equality, economic fairness – important issues that conservatives tend to avoid, but which are the lifeblood of progressives.

There is nothing comparable coming from the right: its obsessives (like Newman, indefatigable columnist for The Australian) are constantly bogged down in ideological confrontation over the culture wars. The idea that they can suddenly re-emerge as a kind of an antithetical Jim Cairns, leading passionate throngs through the streets to be delivered at the polling booths, is too silly to contemplate.

Advance Australia really has only two things going for it, and both are of dubious value. The first is the Murdoch press and its hangers-on, but history shows that while the Dirty Digger can scare politicians, he has not had all that much success with the voters. The second is the religious right, but the God botherers have their own battles to fight, and while they will welcome any support they can get, they are unlikely to reciprocate in a meaningful way.

Read more:

https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/mungo-maccallum/2018/26/2018/15431917...

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Residents in the federal seat of Warringah are complaining about telephone push polling, unwanted copies of the Daily Telegraph arriving on their lawns and election posters being defaced.

The most mysterious event in the Sydney seat, where the former prime minister Tony Abbott is fighting a challenge from the independent Zali Steggall, is the arrival of unsolicited copies of the Telegraph, which began in late March.

Residents in Manly, Queenscliff, Curl Curl and Fairlight said they had begun intermittently receiving copies of the News Corp tabloid newspaper, despite not being subscribers. The Telegraph has run a number of stories that would not have delighted Steggall’s campaign.

They included reporting on alleged ties between Steggall’s campaign and GetUp, and a front-page story about the outrage Steggall’s former husband and his second wife felt about Steggall’s posts on social media.

Northern beaches folk are not big readers of the Tele, many preferring another News Corp publication, the Manly Daily, or the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Greens candidate, Kristyn Glanville, said she had received multiple reports of Telegraphs arriving unsolicited.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/19/warringah-voters-...

The Daily Telegrumphhhh is a right wing Murdoch paper for the "workers"... 

Read from top (note date of posting).

tony

'Pravda had better fact checking': Alex Turnbull takes aim at News Corp.

Alex Turnbull has demanded an apology from the Australian after the newspaper published an “exclusive” story which claimed he had donated to the campaigns of independent candidates Zali Steggall and Kerryn Phelps.

The story, headlined Alex Turnbull continues to wage war on the Coalition, contained no evidence that Turnbull had donated and relied on the non-denials from the two candidates in the NSW seats of Warringah and Wentworth: “Ms Steggall and Ms Phelps’s camps yesterday would not deny they had received donations from Mr Turnbull.”

Turnbull “appears to have donated to both Zali Steggall and Kerryn Phelps’s campaigns as he continues to wage war on the Morrison government after his father was deposed from the prime ministership,” NSW political editor Andrew Clennell wrote.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/03/pravda-had-better-fact-che...

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Note that Pravda does rarely have the warming that "these views of the author are not necessarily those of the publishers, blah blah blah..." because most of what it publishes IS CORRECT.

Australians are not big on advertising their political allegiances. So the proliferation of Zali Steggall posters around the Sydney northern beaches seat of Warringah must be causing the incumbent, former prime minster Tony Abbott, some serious heartburn.

There are literally hundreds around the electorate: on mansions, in windows of apartments, in storefronts and on building sites.

In the streets of Manly and at pre-poll centres, the turquoise T-shirts of the independent Steggall often outnumber the Liberal-blue supporters two to one or more. And then there are the orange shirts of the activist group GetUp, who are out in force door-knocking thousands of homes with their mainly grey-haired army of supporters.

The only public seat poll during the campaign in Warringah, by Lonergan for GetUp two weeks ago, points to an ignominious end for Abbott.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/16/genteel-warringah...

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Former prime minister. Conservative warrior. Proud budgie smuggler wearer.

The man who once described himself as the "ideological love child" of John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop has been a polarising political player for 25 years.

Now Tony Abbott is farewelling Federal Parliament and the seat of Warringah after independent Zali Steggall comprehensively ended his hold on the electorate in Sydney's north.

Ms Steggall swept to victory, taking 58 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, with Mr Abbott suffering a swing against him of almost 20 per cent.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-19/election-results-tony-abbott-live...

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