Believe it or not, the battle for the blue ribbon in Goldstein is still going on. Yesterday, the AEC announced the result of their recount, falling down in favour of Tim Wilson.
The full distribution of preferences in Goldstein (VIC) finalised today. The margin is 260 in favour of the Liberal Party candidate. A recount request is being considered and an announcement regarding that decision will be made when able.
Teal Zoe Daniel has asked for a recount. She posted the following message on Facebook:
In light of the very tight margin and several errors being picked up in the portion of the count that was included in the distribution of preferences, leading to unusual fluctuations and large numbers of votes moving to and fro in the final stages of the count, I have taken expert advice and asked the AEC to consider whether a full recount is appropriate.
There are also several outstanding questions regarding the broader count which would be resolved by a recount.
As always, I will respect the process and await the Commission’s decision.
Tim Wilson, who is widely held to have won the seat – ages ago – seemed to be exhausted by Zoe Daniel’s reluctance to concede defeat.
He wrote on X:
I am concerned about the increasing escalation of commentary from the former Member for Goldstein that is trending toward bringing the AEC’s count into question and needlessly seeding questions about the AEC’s processes.
The AEC has been very thorough. The count has gone on for three weeks, Liberal and Teal scrutineers observed the process, votes were counted multiple times, our margin hasn’t dropped below 100 once in majority. Our 260 margin nearly doubles an imaginary 140 auto recount threshold.
But what is being missed in the former Member’s public commentary is that the AEC has automatic integrity systems to identify and reconcile discrepancies in vote counts across booths, and when votes are transmitted. We both know this.
The many claims the former MP is now making were identified and addressed yesterday AM by the AEC automatically. When they were identified the AEC called both Liberal and Teal scrutineers in and fixed them. This process did not favour me and identified miscounts in my opponent’s favour.
I respected the AEC’s decision, even when it was not in my favour. Those votes were counted again. The discrepancies were identified and reconciled. That is why we have so much faith in the AEC’s thoroughness. The margin settled at 260 in my favour.
Integrity is more than a slogan. When we don’t respect the result we eat into the equity of trust in our electoral system. We see this overseas, and it is not healthy in breeding faith in our fragile and cherished democracy.
I have lived political grief. I have empathy for how hard it is. But one of the best things I did after the 2022 election was get to ‘acceptance’ quickly in the interests of the voters, my volunteers, and myself.
Thank you to the AEC staff, Liberal and Teal scrutineers, all the volunteers who have helped on this campaign, and the people of Goldstein. I wish Zoe Daniel, her family and staff well in their next chapter.
It’s difficult to read that without imagining a slight wry curl at the edge of Tim Wilson’s mouth.
I have lived political grief. I have empathy for how hard it is.
Possibly a call-back to Zoe Daniel’s comments upon her original victory in which she promised to inject empathy, honesty, and sincerity into politics.
He also gave her a bit of a lecture about respecting the system and not repeating the suspicion seen overseas. We may guess that this is a reference to Donald Trump’s dispute of Joe Biden’s infamous victory. Anyone who dared to question the voting system was accused, almost exclusively by the Left, of undermining democracy or sparking insurrection. Wild times.
It is my view that being able to challenge the integrity of an election is how we keep democracy honest. A functioning electoral system will withstand any and all investigation regardless of how genuine, petty, or tiresome it seems.
Besides, the AEC doesn’t seem to mind endlessly counting the same pile of paper.
Ordinarily, a candidate in Zoe Daniel’s situation would call it a day and move on, but the Liberal defeat of a Teal is an ideological problem as much as it is a personal loss.
This is an angle Tim Wilson has been talking up, calling it historic. Goldstein brings hope to the Liberals that their favourite rich seats are recoverable – with or without denouncing Net Zero.
For his part, Tim Wilson is acting on the assumption that he won and has come out in loud opposition to Labor’s insane tax on unrealised capital gains.
This is pretty smart for a guy sitting in a seat full of rich people with healthy super balances that are probably bewildered that the kind, tolerant, and equitable socialists in government have decided to steal all their money. Shocking, I know.
While it doesn’t take much soul-searching for the Liberals to oppose taxes on imaginary earnings, at least it gives the party a desperately needed platform from which to oppose Albanese and his Treasurer.
Writing on Facebook and in The Herald Sun, Tim Wilson said:
Failure is not an option. Elected one day. Defeating Labor’s plan to apply a family saving tax on unsold assets the next. [Editor’s note: a reference to that Queensland ad? Beautiful one day, perfect the next.]
This is a moment that will redefine our nation. The choice is: inspiration and aspiration versus deflation and dependence.
I’m on the side of hope, opportunity, and reward. Always.
On this tax, he also wrote:
If it passes, wealth will be something private citizens temporarily borrow from government, they will no longer own it.
Tim Wilson also criticises the Liberal Party, under the former leadership of Peter Dutton, for failing to alert the electorate to what may be one of the biggest economic disasters in Australian history.
The failure to campaign against unrealised capital gains was not the greatest failure of the Coalition’s last election campaign; it was the greatest failure of their last three years.
The Coalition is not solely to blame, During the campaign I was asked by voters why the Coalition was not doing more on the tax. The answer is simple: the electorates that are disproportionately impacted by it sent Teal and Labor MPs to Canberra.
Were the Liberals at large happy to punish the rich Teal, Labor, and Green seats by letting this awful policy slip through? Or was this simply another installment of incompetence that plagued the campaign?
As a long-term political (not moral) strategy, allowing Labor to steal tens of billions of dollars from the rich and powerful is an effective way to make sure those wealthy individuals back a Liberal election victory in the future.
Tim Wilson said that he is setting up a fund to ‘finance the campaign to stop this tax’. He adds, ‘The self-managed superannuants of this country face a choice: finance the fund to support this campaign, or pay the tax today and as it expands tomorrow.’
The flaw in this sort of thing reveals itself in demographics. The young vote is growing, and the bulk of the population is getting poorer. While it remains legal for the government to pay off people’s private debt (university fees) as a campaign promise, or toss around handouts, Jim Chalmers may not only succeed in legalising theft of fictional profit, he might also get away with it politically.
What the Liberals should have done when they enjoyed over a decade of power, is to forbid the use of public money to forgive private debt. In the same way a Prime Minister should not be able to pay off people’s mortgages to win votes, they should not be able to wipe away university fees. That didn’t happen because politicians of every colour like to leave the door open when it comes to sweetening the deal at the polls. There is very little consideration about what should and should not be allowed for the good of the country (rather than the re-election prospects of the party).
Things have deteriorated to the point where we may see the Liberals claw back all the Teal seats as rich residents freak out about their money draining away toward Canberra, but lose more seats dominated by Labor’s suffocatingly high migrant intake, ‘eat the rich’ university graduates, and the broke-arse middle class who have slipped into peasantry.
At this point, only the complete collapse of the economic model, and expansion of taxes into these protected groups, will turn the country against the Red Wall.
When we are huddled around wheelbarrows full of $100 notes, burning money for warmth in the depth of a renewable energy blackout, we will reject socialism.
And only then, if the Liberals find their moral grounding now and hold the line for common sense.
If they think their future lies ‘to the moderate, soggy, lefty centre’, they won’t win anything again … just like Zoe Daniel.
Flat White is written by Alexandra Marshall. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.
