PODCAST: Bird’s eye view of #MackellarVotes for #transitzone

As the next federal election looms, there’s much more focus now on centre-right candidates running against Liberal incumbents in blue-ribbon seats across Australia, especially inner-urban seats in Sydney and Melbourne, but also more generally. In this latest edition of @transitzonepod we continue our side-bar series on grassroots democracy and the growing independents’ movement, modelled by […]

Annastacia Palaszczuk Responds to ‘Extortion’ Accusation – @qldaah #qldpol #auspol

On Sunday ABC Insiders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s accusation was re-aired that the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was engaging in holding the federal government to ‘ransom’, ‘extortion’ and ‘shakedown politics’ by asking the Commonwealth for more support for the national hospital system as the country neared its covid-19 vaccination targets. David Crowe supported the government […]

The Celebrity Journalist Narrative of Queensland’s Border – @Qldaah #qldpol #auspol

As former federal member for New England Tony Windsor well put it recently, celebrity journalists dislike Twitter because they can’t control the narrative. The Queensland Pfizer and vaccine hesitancy conspiracy theory One such example is the perpetual story that Queenslanders and Western Australians are laggers in the covid-19 vaccination rollout and that they have now […]

PMO Backgrounds Against Political Opponents – @Qldaah #qldpol #auspol

Backgrounding against the Palaszczuk Government prior to the state election A hot microphone at a press conference in Queensland on Friday, September 4, 2020 exposed just how the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) attempts to influence journalists against their political enemies. Nine News Queensland journalist, Lane Calcutt, confirmed he was not relaying the PMO questions they […]

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young Granted Extraordinary Powers – @Qldaah #qldpol

Misunderstood by many media commentators & some politicians is the declaration of a public health emergency such as for covid-19. In Queensland this grants extraordinary powers to the Chief Health Officer (CHO), Dr Jeannette Young. “During a public health emergency, the Chief Health Officer can issue Public Health Directions to assist in containing, or to […]

Igniting an independent backburn: Margo Kingston finds hope in the grassroots for #AusVotes

AS I CONSIDER how to contribute at the next federal election, I thought I’d republish, with permission, a chapter I wrote for the Fremantle Press anthology Women of a Certain Rage, in January 2020 after the failed 2019 ‘Climate Election’, amid the worst bushfires Australia had ever seen, before COVID changed everything.  #AustraliaBurns: Rage, A Climate […]

Queensland Criticised For Doing Well – @Qldaah #qldpol #auspol

What Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk actually said about the covid-19 national plan this week. The Australian has accused the Queensland premier of ruining holiday plans reporting that she had said, “lifting border restrictions even after vaccine coverage reaches 80 per cent would be a “backward” step.” However, Thursday’s press conference didn’t exactly pan out like […]

Steggall says ‘no alternative’: indies must stand up for sensible centre

Women are at the forefront of the ‘Voices for’ movement in safe Liberal seats because the Liberal Party’s pre-selection process is “absolutely patriarchal in nature” according to the independent MP for Warringah, Zali Steggall. A closed-door preselection policy designed to maintain the status quo to keep women out, is how Steggall described the process in […]

Transcript of #TransitZone podcast interview with Zali Steggall on THURSDAY, 2 September 2021 lightly edited for clarity.

PETER CLARKE: As we record another #transitzone podcast our two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, are still in lockdown, with rapidly rising locally acquired COVID Delta cases. Victorian new cases today are up sharply, and, in New South Wales, still well over 1000 cases each day. The intensely infectious Delta variant has pitched us, and […]

The Man Who Walked into Parliament with a Lump of Coal: Zali Steggall in conversation with #transitzone

Another podcast in the continuing #transitzone side-bar series on grassroots democracy in Australia and the emerging and evolving “Voices for” independents movements gearing up for the looming federal election. Margo Kingston and Peter Clarke in conversation with Zali Steggall, the federal independent member for Warringah in Sydney, a “safe” Liberal seat until Steggall ousted the […]