The senator for South Australia said that his demands "would be a fine balance between doing the right thing for your electorate and doing the right thing for the country".

"I think it's a case of whatever I do would drag both parties to the centre – that would be the outcome."

Both major parties have become increasingly hostile towards the Xenophon party in the past week as its electoral prospects have improved.

Saturday's Fairfax Ipsos poll shows each of the Labor and Liberal parties losing 3 percentage points of support in a fortnight even as they remain deadlocked. The "others" category including the Xenophon party has gained 4.

"This rise in the share of the primary vote going to minor parties is likely to be decisive in the outcome," says the Fairfax pollster, Jess Elgood of Ipsos.

First on Senator Xenophon's list is a demand to change the basis for government purchasing decisions. He has long advocated a preference for local procurement.

 

 

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-nick-xenophon-intends-to-drag-both-parties-to-the-centre-20160617-gpln4g.html

 

Xenophon is a fringe right-winger who sees himself as the soft centre for retailing the recycled political vacuum cleaners of the "Australian Democrats".

Any move that could be interpreted as throwing a lifeline to the Greens would make the Liberal Party’s conservative base extremely unhappy in the leader’s home state and elsewhere – and that, in turn, posed a clear, present and future danger to Turnbull.

On Sunday, standing in Sydney’s sunny Centennial Park, Turnbull confirmed that on its how-to-vote cards in every seat across the country the Liberal Party would put the Greens below Labor.

“This is a call that I have made in the national interests,” Turnbull said at a news conference. “Let us be quite clear about this. The big risk at this election is that we would end up with an unstable, chaotic, minority Labor-Greens-independent government as we had before.”

 

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2016/06/18/inside-the-greens-federal-election-preference-deal/14661720003386

 

THE SCANDALOUS STUART ROBERT

The incident reveals wounds that still haven’t healed in the Liberal Party or Stuart Robert after Tony Abbott’s brief and inglorious stint as Prime Minister. Stuart Robert famously received a humiliating public dressing down by Abbott’s controversial former adviser during the 2013 Federal election campaign, reportedly over “fundraising issues".

Stuart Robert’s "fundraising issues" sit at the heart of community concern about his conduct and ethics. This has been the case since it emerged in February this year that, in 2013, a Chinese businessman gave him and several other Coalition ministers, including then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, expensive Rolex watches, none of which any of them subsequently declared.

Ever wondered what was happening in that tense exchange b/w Peta Credlin and Stuart Robert? http://t.co/K4VopMuEC3 pic.twitter.com/u13xYGYrfm

— Anna Henderson (@annajhenderson) September 23, 2015

Robert lost his ministerial post soon after, when it was revealed he had privately travelled to China in 2014 to assist a friend and business partner secure a lucrative deal with a Chinese business while purporting to act in an official capacity. Robert had also claimed official expenses for the trip.

Last month, it was revealed that Stuart Robert has used his fundraising body, the Fadden Forum, to secretly bankroll supposedly “independent” candidates at the Gold Coast City Council election to the tune of $60,000. It was also revealed that this same fundraising body had received over $100,000 from the lead lobbyist for a Gold Coast development company that was seeking approval to build a controversial high-rise development on the Gold Coast Spit. 

Despite all this, Robert is still standing for re-election at next month’s Federal election for the northern Gold Coast seat of Fadden. He has held this seat since 2007 and his margin currently sits at more than 14 per cent.

ROBERT EVADES CONFLICT QUESTIONS BY ATTACKING LABOR

A noticeably hoarse and visibly petulant Stuart Robert spent much of the meeting attacking Labor identities as they moved to ask him questions about his probity and potential conflicts of interest.

Former State Labor and Gold Coast mayoral candidate (and IA contributor) Penny Toland, a constituent of Robert’s, asked the embattled MP about his links to developer Sunland and its controversial Mariner’s Cove development. Robert responded by scornfully attacking Toland over alleged Labor and union links. He then flatly denied any conflict, saying the question was “irrelevant” because the Federal Government have “nothing to do with planning” matters.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/stuart-robert-attacks-peta-credlin-and-evades-constituents-conflict-of-interest-concerns,9120

 

See also:  private medals...

By shutting out disendorsed MP Dennis Jensen from the Liberal's Feedback software, the Party has helped expose to the world its systematic rorting of taxpayer allowances. Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones reports.

POLITICAL DATA MINING has enjoyed a dark place, snug in a privacy netherworld.

But with an impressive own goal the idiots of the Liberal Party just blew it for everybody.

Parakeelia had been happily operating under the radar until the irascible Dr Dennis Jensen, Liberal member for the WA Federal seat of Tangney, was disendorsed in April by pre-selectors of the blue-ribbon seat and its cloud-like safety of 64.67% on preferences.

Understandably annoyed, Dennis laid the blame on the Australian newspaper for digging up a novel he’d submitted in 2007 about people rooting and fighting Indonesians, neither of which is apparently de rigeur in Tangney.

Pre-selectors were offended and Dennis was out. 57 votes to 7.

Jensen had been a Turnbull supporter in the great Abbott war of 2015, so he was well miffed when head office did not step in to save his bacon as it had when he’d previously lost pre-selection in 2007 and 2010.

Rightly suspecting Dennis might go feral, Liberal HQ took the stupid option of isolating him.

A few days after his disendorsement, Jensen’s access to Parakeelia’s Feedback software was cut. Incorrect username and password was all it said.

Jensen, still the sitting member for Tangney, had just been denied access to his constituent data base. Feedback doesn’t do talking. No phone numbers, no street address. 

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/liberal-party-shut-dennis-jensen-out-of-the-parakeelia-data-goldmine,9125

 

Turnbull: Stick with Coalition during Brexit 'uncertainty'

We have just heard from the Prime Minister, who described the decision as "momentous and historic".
 Mr Turnbull said he recognised people will be concerned about "uncertainty and instability" in global markets, and he reminded people the Australian economy is resilient. He also used the opportunity to suggest voters in the Australian election should stick with his government given the result.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-24/brexit-live-uk-set-to-leave-eu-local-media-forecasts/7538440

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TO THE CONTRARY... It's time to say good bye to Malcolm and his ultra-rightwingers... In times of uncertainty, Labor performs BETTER... Throw Malcolm and his second rate NBN OUT. Get rid of Malcolm before he sells Medicare by stealth.