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Why NSW Libs believe in Zimmerman
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When the Joe Hockey-for-Premier story broke last weekend, the federal Liberal MP for North Sydney’s spokesman Trent Zimmerman was thrust into the spotlight. Zimmerman’s response to the inspired leak by News Ltd’s Glenn Milne was so ambiguous that it didn’t kill the speculation but inflamed it. Thus The Sydney Morning Herald’s state political editor Andrew Clennell wrote:
Who is Zimmerman? Hockey’s fulltime staffer also doubles as a councillor on North Sydney Council. Since 1996 he has represented the Wollstonecraft ward, home of the political vagrant John Howard, a former prime minister. He is also a former vice president of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Business Association and has spent his career in a series of jobs for the Liberal political apparatus. He was president of the NSW Young Liberals in 1991-92 when he worked on the staff of Max Willis, president of the Legislative Council and brother of the late Sir Eric Willis, a former premier. In his valedictory speech on December 3, 1998, Willis told MPs:
The “Madam President” referred to in his speech was Virginia Chadwick, a former education minister in the Greiner Government. She replaced Willis after he appeared tired and emotional in the chair and the offending television footage was played across all networks creating much merriment among NSW voters. Upon her retirement in 1999, Chadwick was given a plum job by her factional ally in Canberra, federal Environment Minister Senator Robert Hill. He made her chair of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority based in Townsville. The annual report of Environment Australia 2001-2002 records that Trent Zimmerman received $10,770 to conduct a review of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975. By this time, Zimmerman was developing his Canberra career. He joined the staff of Senator Hill and later became an electorate officer for Peter King, the MP for Wentworth. When King controversially lost pre-selection to merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull in 2002 and decided to stand as an independent, Zimmerman was parachuted out of King’s Double Bay office and into Joe Hockey’s team on the other side of the Harbour Bridge. In more recent times the ambitious Zimmerman has been developing his North Sydney local government profile in the hope of moving to a safe seat in state parliament. But with North Shore MP Jillian Skinner committing herself to standing at the 2011 state election, his chances of a Macquarie Street sinecure are fast evaporating. Keep watching the “Glimmerman’s” role in the NSW Libs. |
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12 Comments
I am struggling to recall a time when a wimpy, left leaning Liberal Party won government. It seems Libs win elections as unapologetic mainstream conservatives in their views & policies. Losing sequence reflects era when Libs are trying to please enemy.
Fortunately most Australians are not anti-gay and they also respect women’s right to choose re abortion. It’s only been in recent times that the Liberal Party has been distorted by the influence of the Religious Right. Hopefully that era will soon be over
Thank you for enlightening us on why Hockey comes across as a wimpy excuse for a Liberal and why so many NSW Liberals act, sound and think more like Labor than Liberals. It ads to Howard’s stature as he had to fight lefties from within & outside the Party
Tony P, ‘left-leaning’ Libs have done better in my state, SA, than tories. A big part of having nationwide confidence in either major party is the sense that they represent a broad church yet have sound processes for resolving differences between camps.
Yes Tony, but the rot set in for the SA libs after Olsen (right) took over from Brown. In NSW, ‘the Taliban’ have scared voters into re-electing a hopeless mob rather than risk the divided Libs. Voters are centrists, and want governments to be centre too.
Dave, consider: 1. Neither Labor or the Libs have ever won an election presenting themselves as lefties & Green socialists get small left minority. 2. Labor’s left army hidden last year - greens, gays, femmos, multicults, left students, Aboriginal indsty.
Tony Greiner in NSW Hamer in Victoria.
A Labor government in SA, isn’t it? The lefty Libs doing really well. Even when they won government on the back of Labor corruption and gross mismanagement, they managed to embarrass themselves out of office pretty quickly & no achievement to look upon.
Last night Trent Zimmerman lost badly in the North Sydney Council elections. Not only did he get trounced by the sitting Mayor, but he got done by a relative unknown, Zoe Baker, in the Ward where he again stood as councillor. Zoe Bakers group which was backed by Genia McCaffery, the incumbent Mayor, all but equalled Cr Zimmermans vote (38%, 40%), notwithstanding the fact that the Greens candidate got almost a full quote as well and will probably get the 3rd, remaining, spot after prepolls and postals are counted.
This will leave the Trentster with only 4 others from his Council wide tickets and one of those is a community person who will probably not brook his blatently political bahaviour in Council.
Where he could previously count on 6 or seven (a majority), he’s now down to about 4 others and not enough for the wedge politics he so enjoys and is quite good at.
His was the only ward in which the Greens also fielded a group (their first foray into North Sydney Council politics). Their impressive result (22%) may spell doom for the Hocky desire of ever controlling North Sydney Council, something I’m sure Joe lusted after. After all certain developers are champing at the bit to remake North Sydney.
This is the second North Sydney Council campaign for the Trenster with virtually unlimited resources of Hockey’s office. Includuding (Hockey) staffers who reportedly manned the prepoll.
That countless people asked for the ” Liberal ” How To Votes on the day, left little doubt that Trent had mobilized the Hockey database.
His mailout to the ward, as well as stuffing the letterboxes full of expensive, glossy leaflets and cards, plus the phone contacts, billboards and rented utes plastered with 4 colour coreflutes didn’t work for him on the day.
There’s much more to tell but that can wait for now except to say that tricky politics don’t work in an informed and connected community no matter how much money and high powered resources you throw at it.
An apologist for homosexuality working for a pro abortion federal MP has about as much chance as a snow flake in hell of getting a safe state liberal seat in NSW. A candidate who grasps neither the nature of marriage nor the rights of the unborn is awful
(Further to previous) In fact, Tony, Howard was elected in 1996 by NOT promising to reverse a bunch of Keating social policy. Howard’s policies (Big government. Dog whistle. Tax and bribe. Repeat.) were opportunist, not conservative reform.
The usual suspects here. Gents, the LIBERAL party actually isn’t only for rabid Tories, not that they’ve been too liberal lately. Still, as a Labor supporter I shouldn’t complain. They can’t win while they think like you guys do.