What we learned, 18 August 2024
This is where we’ll close the blog for this evening, but first a summary of the main events:
The acting New South Wales electoral commissioner, Dr Matthew Phillips, has rejected the Liberal party’s second request for an extension to lodge their missing council candidate nominations;
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, earlier said the electoral commission made the “correct decision” to reject the Liberals’ first request for an extension;
David Littleproud says the Coalition would send “market signals” to favour gas and nuclear investment over renewables;
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has doubled down on his demand Australia refuse Gaza refugees entry in an editorial;
The industry minister, Ed Husic, says Dutton has “turned his back” on Palestinians;
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has thanked Turkish firefighters for their efforts to protect Anzac graves at Gallipoli.
We’ll pick things up again tomorrow.
Updated
NSW electoral commission reject Liberal Party extension call
The acting New South Wales electoral commissioner, Dr Matthew Phillips, has rejected the Liberal party’s second request for an extension to lodge their missing council candidate nominations.
The Liberals released a statement earlier this afternoon threatening legal action unless Phillips reconsidered their plea for a one-week extension in which to lodge the paperwork for more than 130 of their candidates.
The electoral commission has now released its own statement, which says:
On the basis of the available information, the commissioner was not satisfied that it is possible to lawfully extend the nomination period in line with the request and, even if it were, it would not be appropriate to do so given the very significant ramifications it would have for the conduct of the elections.
Additional correspondence from the Liberal Party of Australia, New South Wales Division was received by the commissioner today.He has reviewed the information and communicated to the party his decision remains unchanged.
The Liberal party also accused the commission of having breached election regulations by only providing five days of official notice before the close of nominations, instead of the necessary seven.
But the electoral commission has said:
The commissioner does not consider there could have been a realistic possibility that officials of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party of Australia, or persons proposing to run as candidates endorsed by that party, could have been unaware of the nomination day or of the processes by which nominations could be made.
Updated
