Curtin, WA’s safest Lib seat now ultra-marginal
Chaney, once deputy PM and minister under Fraser says Liberal Party has “lost its way”, backs teal niece, Kate Chaney, to take ultra-safe WA seat of Curtin
Today in the Nine-Newspapers Fred Chaney says why he can no longer support the Liberals“
[T]he party I served has lost its way. Members are no longer able to successfully execute what the electorate demands and it is now in the sad position of being held hostage by its extremes and those of its Coalition partner.
Fred Chaney, ex Liberal Deputy PM under Andrew Peacock and Minister in several portfolios under Malcolm Fraser
Fred Chaney is actively supporting his Niece, Kate Chaney, a teal independent who seems to have a good chance to convince thinking Liberal voters in WA’s ‘safest’ Liberal seat that action to deal with the global climate emergency, social responsibility and ethics are much more important than keeping the LNP COALition puppets representing the interests of fossil fuel special interests in power in Canberra.
Like many other ‘teals’ Kate is a self-motivated thinker and doer concerned about the harsh and scary reality we face today rather than a believer in party political dogma about an endless future of business as usual (especially for the parties’ patrons in the fossil fuel industry). Seeing the dangers ahead being ignored by the party faithful, she has given up her normal occupations to run for Parliament. Her declaration of independence from the established parties seems to stand for all the teals I have studied to now:
We can do much better on climate action and integrity in Federal politics. Decarbonisation will offer significant opportunities in renewables and failure to act now will cost us. We need strong targets, certainty and aligned incentives to ensure that we are well-placed to catch that wave. This isn’t ideology. It is sound economic management. [my emphasis]
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Over the years, I have voted for a range of parties but no party represents me. I grew up handing out how-to-vote cards for the Liberal party. I believe in the Liberal party my grandfather and uncle served in – one of opportunity, foresight, freedom and community. I don’t see that party any more.
I thought change could be effected through the Labor Party but when I attended a party event, I was turned off by the tribalism and focus on politics over policy. Until very recently, it was unthinkable that community independent candidates had a real chance of election – a real chance to make a difference, to change the way we do politics.
The rise of grassroots community independent organisations around the country, including here in Curtin, demonstrates that there is now a real opportunity to drive this change. The complex issues we face no longer fall into left and right. Running as an Independent in the current climate allows me to represent the views of the Curtin electorate and stay true to my conscience.
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The wave of economically sensible, socially progressive independents who believe in stronger climate action sends a strong message to the major parties that they can’t take moderates for granted. There are Independent candidates like this with a real chance of success across the country, and we may just hold the balance of power. [my emphasis]
About Kate – from her campaign web site.
Curtin is no longer a safe Liberal seat!
The Age/Story Mirror article summarizes the field in Curtain and explains why it should be considered ultra-marginal:
by Richard, 27/04/2022 in Story Mirror
Why WA’s safest Liberal seat feels like an ultra-marginal tussle
The presence of local weather and transparency-focused unbiased Kate Chaney might see first-term Liberal member Celia Hammond unseated, which has sparked an election marketing campaign resembling one thing extra akin to ultra-marginal seat tussles and has thrown a spanner within the works for the Liberals’ broader West Australian marketing campaign.
It’s no surprise, with latest polls suggesting a neck-and-neck race between the 2 ladies. Dropping Curtin would place a large boulder within the Liberals’ path again to authorities, in line with Notre Dame Politics and Worldwide Relations professor Martin Drum.
“I feel each type of unbiased race is a bit completely different, however each seat [the Liberals] lose makes it more durable for them to type a majority authorities, ”he says.
Curtin has at all times been a Liberal seat – apart from a hiccup in 1996 when incumbent Liberal Allan Rocher fell out along with his occasion and ran efficiently as an unbiased. Underneath former overseas affairs minister and one-time prime minister hopeful Julie Bishop’s rein from 1998 to 2019, she step by step elevated the margin to 20.7 per cent on the 2016 election.
Read the complete article….
For a community of mostly self-made and thoughtful people that built Western Australia, Kate Chaney is the kind of thoughtful, motivated and powerful independent person to represent your interests in Parliament. Personally, I think there are more of these kinds of people in Curtin than there of the ‘rusted on’ sleepwalkers blinded by clouds of COALition bulldust who would vote to keep our current fossil fuel industry puppet government in power.
Even though the WA economy is built on and around the extractive industries. There is no economy if society collapses under the growing weight of climate disasters and catastrophes as the world continues to warm. Action on climate change can save the economy – especially if it encourages the development of ‘renewable’ industries. On the other hand, social collapse will destroy whatever economy there is.
The climate emergency is very definitely a major issue on the ballot in Curtin, and it is likely that no party will achieve a majority in its own right.
If voters consider the evidence and THINK before they vote, I have little doubt that the green light candidates will gain the majority of first preferences amongst themselves. Whether one of them will win the seat in the end depends on how voters manage their remaining preferences. How the different players will guide preferences may be critical in deciding the election. Most importantly, the Greens have already recommended that Greens voters give their second preference to Kate Chaney rather than any of the established parties. Although the Labor candidate, Yannick Spencer is much less well know, he has also stressed the importance of climate, and may well preference Kate.
Vote Climate One’s Traffic Light Voting System and its voting guides are designed to help people rank their preferences in such a way that if a green light candidate is given the first preference, and doesn’t win, the vote will still go to another green light climate friendly candidate as long as any remain in the running. Only if there are no more green or orange light candidates alive can the vote be given to a red light candidate.
Vote Climate One is also providing downloadable blank ballot formats so preferences can be decided at home, so the choices can easily be transferred to the formal ballot paper in the voting booth. Check the bottom of the your electorate’s page in the voting guide. (If you don’t find it now, check again in a couple of days as they are being progressively loaded into our system.)
See Climate Sentinel News‘s Corrupt leaders, casual media, gullible believers for a different and sometimes humorous take on how use preferential voting to make the kind of humongous political transition we need to make to cleanse the Parliamentary stable of its many years accumulation of bulldust.
In any event, the IPCC tells us that this election is probably our last chance to change our current puppet government to one that will act in our behalf to resolve or at least mitigate the accelerating climate crisis.
We need to turn away from the the Apocalypse on the road to hothouse hell, and we won’t do this by continuing with business as usual!
It seems to have taken the clear thinking of Greta Thunberg, a 16 year-old girl who concluded school was pointless as long as humans continued their blind ‘business as usual’ rush towards extinction.
In other words, wake up! smell the smoke! see the grimly frightful reality, and fight the fire that is burning up our only planet so we can give our offspring a hopeful future. This is the only issue that matters. Even the IPCC’s hyperconservative Sixth Assessment Report that looks at climate change’s global and regional impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities makes it clear we are headed for an existential climate catastrophe if we don’t stop the warming process.
Scott Morrison and his troop of wooden-headed puppets are doing essentially nothing to organize effective action against the warming. In fact all they doing is rearranging the furniture in the burning house to be incinerated along with anything and everyone we may care about.
In Greta’s words, “even a small child can understand [this]”. Like Georgia Steele, people hope for their children’s futures. Greta doesn’t want your hopium. She wants you to rationally panic enough to wake up, pay attention to reality, and fight the fire…. so our offspring can have some hope for their future.
Featured Image Boundaries of the Curtin Electorate from Vote Climate One’s Curtin Electorate page. Click candidate names for more details.