Not sure if anyone has noticed that Santos is getting cold feet about Shaw River Power Station. The deal is literally at the printers — apparently Santos cannot find someone to sign off on the thing. Economics of the idea are all whacked — the suspicion is that they were banking on the CPRS to make its gas-fired CCGT power station economic in the Victorian market.

Last Friday the ALP national executive announced a “rank-and-file” preselection for the seat of Macquarie. That same day, before the actual meeting itself, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph announced the outcome — that the Left’s Susan Templeman would be the candidate.

Many local ALP branch members are furious that the result has been claimed by Templeman, as they wanted a fair rank-and-file ballot even though “fairness” cannot come into the picture due to the rampant branch stacking from the Left over the past two years.

Local mayor Adam Searle seems to be locked out, with Left heavyweights saying it’s all over bar the shouting. However, the battle continues in both the local papers, The Blue Mountains Gazette and the Hawkesbury Gazette, and in the local ALP branches. Both newspapers have run anti-Templeman stories for weeks, with locals from  the Left and Right coming out in support of Searle.

Claims of rigging of Templeman’s actual nomination form have surfaced with some Katoomba Branch members saying they had signed it not knowing it was her nomination form but being told it was a petition to go to ALP head office in support of rank-and-file pre-selections.

The anti-Templeman pro-Searle campaign, spearheaded by Searle mate Mark Ptolemy, has hit the Left hard with a humiliating defeat of the Left at the recent AGM of one of the largest ALP branches in Macquarie. The Left tried to take the branch presidency off Searle by running local state MP Phil Koperberg staffer Trish Doyle. Doyle was out voted 2 to 1 and to rub salt in to the wounds the non-Left ticket, headed by Ptolemy, took all the delegates positions to the Macquarie Federal Electorate Committee and Blue Mountains State Electorate Council.

So, Templeman may become candidate but will have to deal with a hostile FEC in her own patch. Phil Koperberg may be dragged into the fracas now because of the actions of his staffer in challenging Searle’s branch position.

Ptolemy, whom the Left have labelled uncontrollable and a renegade and who is said to be working without the go-ahead of the NUW (Ptolemy’s employer), has sent out a clear message that he is willing to call off hostilities if Searle and he are “looked after” on a state level.

With the prospects of the ALP being wiped out west of Blacktown come the next election it looks like the feud will continue.

ASU Queensland Central and Southern branch secretary Julie Bignall’s foray into the media on Tuesday over the axing of access to common law claims in the state’s WorkCover system has all the elements of an elaborate smokescreen to disguise her selling out her union comrades on the sale of Queensland Government public assets.

While unions have started meetings with the Queensland Attorney-General to try to resolve the issue sensibly, Julie has jumped into the media this week without discussion with others, including the peak council the Queensland Council of Unions. Tongues started wagging immediately given this was the same union that has been steadfastly refusing to back her comrades in arms in their push to save Queensland Rail and other workers jobs, including her own members in Queensland Motorways to be sold off later this year.

Phone calls have already started that she has forgotten the public asset sales issue affects  blue- and white-collar workers including members of her “sister ASU union branches” who are outraged at her undermining tactics at a state and national level (Julie was notably absent at last Friday’s ALP national executive meeting where Queensland unions were castigated for their campaign in a federal election year).

Big turn up for Malcolm Fraser’s conversation with George Megalogenis and Margaret Simons at the Baptist Church in Collins Street, Melbourne, last night. Sadly, the acoustics were pretty ordinary and quite a few people bailed well before the 80-minute session was finished.  As a former politician, it was Fraser who was easiest to hear. Simons, despite being co-author of the Fraser memoirs, did the least amount of talking and it was Megalogenis who cut-off the rather impertinent questioner who brought up the question of those missing pants in Memphis.

Cheeky…

$ whois myhospital.com.au
Domain Name: myhospital.com.au
Registrar ID: Melbourne IT
Registrar Name: Melbourne IT
Status: ok
Registrant: THE LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA – FEDERAL SECRETARIAT
Registrant ID: ABN 15217882958
Eligibility Type: Other

While marketers and the Government tussle over the future of the Do Not Call Register, actually getting someone to NOT CALL YOU is proving nigh on impossible. One might think the ACMA might know how to get this done. I went online to register my mobile number — after a flood of unsolicited calls from solar power companies and others in the past few weeks.

After completing the online registration you need to confirm by following a link — which in my case did not work. My alternative was to call the Do Not Call Register number — 1300 792 598 — which, yes, is disconnected. A message on the ACMA-operated line says: “Please be aware that this number is no longer connected. Thank you.”