Election10 - Call for candidate questions

Will you move the gag any time Cheryl Kernot tries to speak, if she gets elected?

Do you believe that privatising Australian airports has been a successful policy, and what will you do to protect Canberra residents from overnight aircraft noise?

Captain RAAF said :

Will you ban the Burqa?

Will you pander to bigoted populism rather than addressing serious policy issues?

What do you see as the primary local concerns for your electorate and how do you plan to address these?

What would you do to address the regular “Canberra-bashing” by politicians of all sides?

I want a pony. Can you guarantee me a new pony?

Sorry, Mal, misspelled your name there!

Do you support the creation of infrastructure to control internet content?

Are you now, or have you ever been, Welsh?

Drugs in Canberra, where’s the best place to buy them?

Should driving in the right hand lane be made a capital offense?

Witches on Mt Ainsley, should their freedom of expression be protected from interference by fundy nutsacks?

Should a statue be erected to Canberra’s greatest and most respected political person, Mal Menga?

DJ’s down by the lake, notice any resemblance to Hendrix there?

John Stanhope, should he be stuffed, mounted, and stood in the lobby of the legislative assembly?

Should we wait until he dies first, or not?

The arboretum, what odds are you giving on it vanishing in the next 3 years, during a drought/lightening strike?

I’ll have $10 on it please.

Did you ever, as an MLA in the early 1990’s, say in a pre-recorded interview screened on the 7:30 report, that you thought a more appropriate name for abortion clincs was “slaughter houses”? If yes, do you now resile from that comment?

Will you ban the Burqa?

If you had to cast a vote for another candidate in this election, who, excluding any candidate from your party, would you vote for?

why are my downpipes sad?

When turtles pull in their heads do their spines buckle or contract?

1) Do you honestly believe that the interest on an investment loan is an operating expense?
2) Do you believe that there is some figure above 20M people at which Australia’s population can be maintained on an ecologically sustainable basis (ie: for a period of 500 years)?

How about:
1) Do you think it would be a good idea to drain Lake Burley Griffin in order to liberate more land that could then be used for residential dwellings? Why or why not?
2) What are your plans for ensuring people drive in the left lane by default, and only use the right for overtaking or turning?
3) Would you be willing to invent a garment called the ‘Burquoodie’, and then ban it?
4) What is your natural hair colour? Please elaborate.
5) Why can’t Civic be exactly the same as it was in 1993?
6) Please describe your strategy and timeline for converting all public servants into super administrative machines with no rights who work for below average income.
7) Why did the guys in the flouro polo shirts cut down the tree near my house?
8 ) You look like you really want to do a good job, work hard, and serve the country. Why don’t I agree with some of your personal views?
9) It’s the youth of today causing all the problems. How do you plan to fix this?
10) My Internet isn’t fast enough to download movies and TV shows as they go to air in other countries. Please fix it immediately.

justin heywood said :

3. If elected, will you undertake to stand by your beliefs even if they may be politically damaging to your party? If not, why not?

Haven’t you seen season 6 of West Wing and ethanol pledge?

Confusedwouldwe said :

2. I don’t have any babies. Are you willing to kiss my pet cat instead?

Your pussy?

Why do party/member election websites and now OUR CANBERRA GOVERNMENT web site only list the positive things achived by Governments – but no price on how much all these sites cost?

I find political and now many Government web sites funny because they show how ministers get to spew propaganda as history without a court case being held to declair the correct meaning of any words.

1) Canberra has a surfeit of alleged “public art”, will you stop adding to it? (Please!)

2) When asked “what is the capital of Australia”, even well educated people in first world countries will reply; “It’s Sydney, isn’t it?” What will you do to change this perception?

3) Canberra’s night life vs. watching paint dry is a very close contest, what will you do to redress this?

4) Canberra suffers from cyclists, do you have a cure?

What is one specific issue on which your opinion differs from the stated policy of your party? (i.e., do we actually need to look into you as a person, or can we just read the lib/lab/green website?)

justin heywood said :

1. Will you, before polling day, clearly and unequivocally answer any question about your personal views on this election’s major issues? If not, why not?

2. If elected, will you undertake to stand by your beliefs even if they may be politically damaging to you? If not, why not?

3. If elected, will you undertake to stand by your beliefs even if they may be politically damaging to your party? If not, why not?

Justin, when you find one of these people, I think they’d deserve Knighthood first.

1. What does ‘sustainable’ mean to you?
2. Do you support ‘sustainable population’ and/or ‘sustainable growth’ policies?
3. Aren’t these concepts oxymorons and we are on a path of ultimate environmental and economic annihilation?
4. What do you plan to do about it?

(1) Please explain the difference, if any, between “increasing housing affordability” and “reducing house prices”?
(2) Please explain negative gearing. Why do we have negative gearing?
(3) What effect do you think negative gearing has on house prices? Is it significant?
(4) How much money have Australians borrowed from overseas to fund housing? What is the yearly interest bill on that debt? How much is that interest as a percentage of GDP? Is this significant? Why?
(5) Why do you think house prices in Australia have been rising in the recent past?

Cake or death?

astrojax said :

if you’re elected, what actions will you take to ensure appropriate support is given to all sufferers of mental health disorders and their families, as well as to the health sector to address this under-funded and under-resourced problem?

What do you consider to be the maximum sustainable population for Australia and how do you intend to ensure that that this maximum is not breached whilst continuing to encourage immigrants as well as accepting genuine refugees?

arescarti42 said :

1) The RBA identified negative gearing and other tax concessions as the primary cause of housing unaffordability in Australia. Would you change the current system, and how would you change the current system?

2) What else would you do to improve housing affordability?

housebound said :

How will electing you prompt the Commonwealth Government into paying attention to Canberra/Fraser?

Pommy bastard said :

Pommy bastard said :

2) Cannabis and ecstasy have been shown to be less harmful to the user and society than tobacco and alcohol, should they not be decriminalised and taxed?

3) The ACT justice system is notorious for being soft on major crime, and hard on minor crime, should this not be reversed?

The above questions are all gold in my opinion.

+1 for all of them.

Why were you deemed the best candidate for your party in the seat you’re contesting? What are your actual skills and experiences (above and beyond the ability to vote the way your party tells you) that make you right for the job?

What are you, personally (as opposed to your party), going to do to improve life in your electorate if you are elected?

Basically to any Labor candidate:

Will we actually see you anytime between winning your seat and the next election, or will you be like all the current Labor members and live under a rock for 3 years, except for the odd pamphlet containing utter crap that we just relocate from the mail box to the recycling bin?

To any other candidates:
What are the top priorities or projects for Canberra that you will be lobbying the new Government for?

How will electing you prompt the Commonwealth Government into paying attention to Canberra/Fraser?

Will you abolish negative gearing?

Will you abolish the tax deduction for stamp duty on ACT investment properties?

What’s a tortoise?

Isn’t it a type of French cake?

1. Is it true that all MPs and Senators have a get together in Parliament House once a week during sitting time to laugh at how gullible the voting public are?

2. Going forward, do you think that working families should be concerned that they are no longer being catered for now that Rudd has gone, and that working Australians seem to be getting a better deal under Gillard?

3. Do you think voters respect people who pledge their full support to someone, then knife them in the back at the first opportunity?

4. Should Spin be banned from politics?

5. There’s a pothole in my street; why haven’t you fixed it yet?

6. Who will win the AFL Grand Final this year?

7. Which team does Julie Bishop bat for?

8. Does Senator Conroy actually have any idea what he’s talking about?

9. I was overcharged $5 for a pizza – who’s looking after my rights?

10. Are you guided by an imaginery friend who allegedly died for our sins? (No, I am not referring to Mully!)

1. Will you be kissing babies in public to win votes?

2. I don’t have any babies. Are you willing to kiss my pet cat instead?

3. Where’s my cake?

Do you know where my TV remote has gone?

1. Will you, before polling day, clearly and unequivocally answer any question about your personal views on this election’s major issues? If not, why not?

2. If elected, will you undertake to stand by your beliefs even if they may be politically damaging to you? If not, why not?

3. If elected, will you undertake to stand by your beliefs even if they may be politically damaging to your party? If not, why not?

1. Do you promise not to personally sponsor, or vote for, any legislation proscribing an activity that does not cause harm to other people?

2. Do you promise not to personally sponsor, or vote for, any legislation or spending proposal that is valid only by virtue of section 96 of the Constitution?

3. Do you agree that the purpose of taxation is to raise money for government expenditure and therefore promise not to personally sponsor or vote for any taxation proposal designed to encourage or discourage certain behaviour?

Aside from what their favourite colour is and whether they want a street named after them I’d be interested in the following:

a. When in office, will they form some type of inquiry into the spending of $8 billion (yes, $8 billion) on the school building projects – where it went, to who, was there any nepotism or corruption involved at any level, etc.

b. What proposed cuts do they intend for the APS? Liberal has suggested a financial cut of $1.2 billion (yes, billion again) to the APS. What does Labor have in mind?

c. How stable is the current taxation on average salaries – will there be increases, or cuts?

d. What limitations or sanctions do they propose on our major banks in relation to their increased interest rates far and above what the Reserve Bank determines? How do they plan to stop this – if they do at all?

e. What can we, the people do, if they don’t fulfil their promises during this election period? While we (the people_ have to wait for the next election to vote them out of office if we don’t like them, do either party have a suggestion as to how they must either deliver or, alternatively, give the public other options such as much earlier elections or some type of security? An example would be that if one promise isn’t delivered, does each minister of that party lose some of their entitlements for failing to perform? Can their superannuation, for example, be reduced or other restrictions placed on them for failing to meet their performance requirments? This would put some balance into what the average punter has to contend with in the general marketplace now – why can’t they agree to the same performance contracts?

By the way, great idea Johnboy – let’s hope that we get some replies!!!

Holden Caulfield said :

p1 said :

Do you think that the Commonwealth Government should be able to overturn laws passed by the ACT?

+1

That’s pretty much the key question for me.

+1 from me as well.

1) The RBA identified negative gearing and other tax concessions as the primary cause of housing unaffordability in Australia. Would you change the current system, and how would you change the current system?

2) What else would you do to improve housing affordability?

3) Peak oil is coming, what would you do to protect the Australian economy and negate the effect of rising fuel prices on Australian households?

How should Canberra’s greatest son be remembered?

1) The Mully Williams annual drag race?

2) The Mully Williams scholarship award, to the best candidate for the Hume Hilton?

3) The Mully Williams memorial toilet door award for disinfecting teh shallow end of the gene pool.

Do you ever confuse open faced “hoodie tops” with face covering Burkas?

Is the Commonwealth’s ban on the recognition of same-sex marriages discrimination?
Please include the words “yes” or “no” in your answer.

I’d heard (from what I thought was a reliable source) that Annette Ellis isn’t running for re-election, but her website says nothing of the sort, and I can’t find any indication of who is standing for Labor in Canberra, so I would like to ask the Labor candidate what his/her name is.

A simple question I know, but rather curious in a ‘safe’ Labor seat for it to be such a secret…

As tests of geekishness, creativity, recovery from confusion, and actual policy:

1) You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise. It’s crawling toward you. You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t. Not without your help. But you’re not helping.
Why is that?

2) What is one question you haven’t been asked in an interview before that you wish you would have been asked, and what is your answer to that question?

3) The situation is that when one really been far even as decided once to use even go want, it is then that he has really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like.
That much is just common sense.
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Can you really be far even as decided half as much to use go wish for that?

4) The price of having freedoms is being held accountable when breaching acceptable limits of those freedoms.
i) Do you support the current freedoms exercised by the majority of Australian adults, business, and media, in both accessing and publishing materials to the internet?
ii) Would\Do you support the limiting of these freedoms? Why\Why not?
iii) Would\Do you support limiting access by internet to material which is otherwise available Australia? Why\Why not?
iii) Would\Do you support limiting access to material deemed ‘objectionable’ by a either political organisation or Departmental bureaucracy, even though access to such information may still be by law available within Australia? Why\Why Not?

iv) If you answered yes to i-iii, how would you achieve your limitation of access?
v) What benefit do you believe justifies the potential present economic, and future technological, costs associated with slowing down internet access?
vi) Please describe for each of the following, the benefit which you believe justifies the potential social costs related to:
a) Total denial of content deemed ‘inappropriate’ and so ‘inaccessible’ by an organisation, specifially information resources that allow a population to educate themselves and create their own unbiased opinions (such as over issues such as abortion, euthanasia, anorexia, or any other ‘hot topic’ that may arise in the future)?
b) Restricting contact with online support groups (forums, newsgroups, Instant messaging, irc chatrooms) for sufferers or those curious about topics identified at (A)). These types of contact currently allow adults/teenagers to seek support from those that would ‘out of reach’ from within their everyday real life peer groups currently.
Bonus question: What addidtional social support mechanisms will you put in place to counter this ?
vii) The generational potential that many parents would become complacent and assume that “the Internet” is now a safe place for children to use without supervision which they would otherwise have maintained a careful vigilance over.

vi) The current Labor Party proposal of Mandatory Internet Filtering (Cleanfeed) is being justified on the grounds of ‘protecting children’, but avoids any mechanism for measuring benefit, by removing a comparison ‘control group’ from any form of academic study.
Please explain why current methods being taken by parents and government to address children accessing harmful material have failed, and how your proposal (if indeed you have one) would achieve measurable benefits above and beyond existing solutions such as:
a) placing a family’s computer in a visible family space such as the living room (a responsible parenting solution),
b) not leaving young children unattended alone at a computer browsing the Internet (a responsible parenting solution),
c) Opt-in solutions like the existing ISPs which have branded themselves “family-friendly” and are offering their own filtered feeds to help aid parents, or commercial Filtering Software (such as Net Nanny) which aid in protecting younger children from accessing unwanted content (a responsible parenting solution), or
d) legitimate law enforcement efforts against paedophiles and child groomers, or child protection activity (already Federal & State government responsibilities).

Where is my freaking huge magnet? No? okay.

p1 said :

Do you think that the Commonwealth Government should be able to overturn laws passed by the ACT?

+1

That’s pretty much the key question for me.

Labor candidates: Do you support the way Julia Gillard is adopting Pauline Hanson’s policies dating from the mid 1980s?

Pommy bastard said :

1) Motorcyclists and others are not allowed to wear helmets, balaclavas, face masks or other face covering garb when entering a bank, financial office, most government buildings, court houses, police stations, petrol stations and airports. Should this not also apply to the Burka? If not, why not?

Do you support a ban on hoodies?

Do you think that the Commonwealth Government should be able to overturn laws passed by the ACT?

Did you prepare this response to RiotACT questions yourself or was it done by your party office?

If a man says something, and the wife isn’t there to hear him, is he still wrong?

1) Motorcyclists and others are not allowed to wear helmets, balaclavas, face masks or other face covering garb when entering a bank, financial office, most government buildings, court houses, police stations, petrol stations and airports. Should this not also apply to the Burka? If not, why not?

2) Cannabis and ecstasy have been shown to be less harmful to the user and society than tobacco and alcohol, should they not be decriminalised and taxed?

3) The ACT justice system is notorious for being soft on major crime, and hard on minor crime, should this not be reversed?

When did you stop beating your wife?

54-11 said :

Comsuper and DFRDB pensions are indexed by the CPI rather than by a wage-based index. The former Government, with the full support of the then Labor Opposition, stopped using the CPI to index the Age Pension more than a decade ago because it was considered an unsuitable and unfair way to adjust pensions.

As a politician, your super is indexed to the increase in Parliamentary salaries and allowances, which is far more generous than for anyone else. Do you support, and will you actually do somnething about, fair and equitable indexation of all pensions?

nice promo for the Greens there…

1 Would you rather
a) lose your keys three days in a row, or
b) have your dog eat your birthday cake?

2 Would you rather
a) hit every red light for the rest of your life, or
b) always be wrong?

3 Would you rather
a) be mechanically induced to scream at the top of your lungs for an hour, or
b) have your eyes glued shut for a day?

4 Would you rather
a) be forced to preface everything you say with the phrase “Tuck it in” under threat of being slapped, or
b) have a magnetic head?

with apologies to Barry A. Warsaw

Comsuper and DFRDB pensions are indexed by the CPI rather than by a wage-based index. The former Government, with the full support of the then Labor Opposition, stopped using the CPI to index the Age Pension more than a decade ago because it was considered an unsuitable and unfair way to adjust pensions.

As a politician, your super is indexed to the increase in Parliamentary salaries and allowances, which is far more generous than for anyone else. Do you support, and will you actually do somnething about, fair and equitable indexation of all pensions?

if you’re elected, what actions will you take to ensure appropriate support is given to all sufferers of mental health disorders and their families, as well as to the health sector to address this under-funded and under-resourced problem?

also, if you’re elected, what commitment do you and your party give to provide every australian citizen with a daily massage?

and, if you’re elected, when will you introduce legislation into the house to implement a price on carbon?

1. Do you support the proposed internet mandatory ISP filter and Data Recording Directive that record the browsing history of all internet connections?

2. What, in your opinion is the optimum sustainable population range for Australia?

3. Will you support a Senate Inquiry into the Church of Scientology (Co$) as proposed by Senator Xenophon?

4. Do you support same sex marriages(regardless of whether both chicks are hot, inb4)?

Are you a creationist, and if so, do you believe the world is less than 10,000 years old?

Here’s my crack at the title;

Do you support the roll out of a ubiquitous high-speed broadband infrastructure for all Australian premises? What policies do you see are needed to ensure that the Australian public’s confidence will be met in regards to issues surrounding privacy, security and protection from cyber-crime and cyber-bullying should such infrastructure be implemented?

If elected, what plans or support are you willing to give and what policy structures do you see need to be implanted, so that if we came to a point in the future that we had to rapidly expand our food production then Australia would be able to do so in a sustainable fashion? (apologies to Dr Jago Dodson)