Monday, 26 November

SQUIZ SAYINGS

“It’s unreal - it hasn’t sunk in just yet.”

Said teenage spin bowler Georgia Wareham who played a blinder to help our Southern Stars win the Women’s T20 World Cup against the Poms yesterday. How sweet it is.

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LABOR’S DECISIVE VICTORY IN VICTORIA

THE SQUIZ
A thumping. A trouncing. A Dan-slide. There were more superlatives than you could swing an electoral baseball bat at to describe Labor’s win in Saturday’s Victorian election. And with a federal election due before May next year, attention quickly turned to the national implications.

GIVE ME THE SNAPSHOT
• Labor Premier Daniel Andrews led his party to win an increased majority. They're expected to take 55 seats in the 88-seat Legislative Assembly, up from 45.

• Meanwhile, the Coalition’s representation is expected to be reduced to 28 members, down from 37. It was their worst result in 16 years.

• The Greens went backwards (by how much is yet to be determined). And independent candidates could win a couple of Coalition seats in regional areas.

• Andrews said Victorians rewarded Labor for delivering on its promises during the last term and its progressive agenda. "They want big, broad, bold politics. Not this narrow, nasty stuff that was on offer, and it was rejected comprehensively yesterday," he said.

• Federal and Victorian Liberals said voters were focused on local factors, and their campaign on law and order issues didn’t go as well as they’d hoped. And then there’s the instability that has plagued the Liberals nationally with former PM Malcolm Turnbull’s dumping not playing well with voters.

SO WHERE IS THIS GOING?
Coalition politicians all over the country could feel the shockwaves from Saturday night. Internal Liberal Party polling leaked to Nine News last night showed a big fall in support for the Coalition after Turnbull’s knifing. And today’s Newspoll with a one point slip in the Coalition’s primary vote to 34% against Labor’s 40% (and the two-party preferred vote stable on 45:55 to Labor) won’t help soothe frazzled nerves. With the loss of Wentworth in Sydney last month and now a sizable swing towards Labor, even in traditional Liberal areas of suburban Melbourne, there’s a trend against the Coalition that will be hard for Morrison and his team to turn around.

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SQUIZ THE REST

BREXIT LIMPS FORWARD
European Union leaders have endorsed a Withdrawal Agreement for the UK to Brexit. It's taken 20 months to negotiate and has almost ended UK PM Theresa May's leadership many times over. The divorce bill will cost the UK nearly $70 billion in payments to Europe for programs it's already committed to. EU leaders said it was a sad day (so some French bubbles probably weren’t on offer…). Next stop: the UK Parliament is set to vote on the agreement in mid-December where its successful passage is not guaranteed.

QUICK WORLD NEWS WRAP
GAS ATTACK IN SYRIA – More than 100 people, including children, have been sent to hospital after a toxic gas attack in Aleppo. Syrian forces blame terrorist groups for the attack.

YELLOW JACKETS TURN VIOLENT – What was meant to be a peaceful protest against French President Emmanuel Macron and his government over hiked up taxes on fuel turned violent on Paris’ Champs Élysées. Far-right extremists reportedly crashed the protest to take on police.

TAIWAN ELECTIONS REJECT CHANGE – And their president, Tsai Ing-wen, has resigned as head of her party. Long story short, voters have rejected a harder line against China. Questions were also put to voters on marriage equality, which were also not supported.

INDIAN POLICE UNABLE TO RECOVER SLAIN MISSIONARY - They parked a boat 400m off North Sentinel island and observed the tribesmen on the beach armed with bows and arrows before deciding to withdraw. Some experts believe the recovery of John Chau's body may not be possible.

BLACK FRIDAY BLITZ
Did you get online to check out some of the sales going around over the weekend? You’re not the only one… US shoppers helped the biggest retailers secure an almost 25% increase in sales from last year with Black Friday pulling in more than US$6.22 billion. Adobe says more than $2 billion of that was transacted over smartphones, which means a lot of shoppers had their items in the cart ready to press ‘buy’ once the sale went live.

ON THE MOVE
SNAKES – Canberra is snake heaven at the moment. And no, this isn’t to do with Parliament returning today…

CROCS – Experts think the buggers are swimming 600km from the NT to East Timor, and that’s behind a recent surge in attacks.

THE WINDSORS – Harry and Meghan won’t be able to duck next door to William and Kate’s place for a drink anymore. They’re moving out of Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage (with its 10 bedrooms…) on the Windsor Estate.

POLICE DOGS’ IFFY SNIFFY
When you think about jobs that will become redundant in the coming years, sniffer dog isn’t one that immediately comes to mind. But in the US, with changing laws on marijuana use, many dogs that have been trained to sniff out the wacky tobaccy, along with other substances, are now a liability in police searches. That means many are heading towards early retirement, hopefully not to a farm…

SQUIZ THE DAY

Federal Parliament resumes sittings

Anniversary of the premiere of Casablanca (1942)

Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui, Hawaii (1778)