16 October 2008

Election Wrap - 16 October

| johnboy
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Masthead for sale?

Today’s Canberra Times masthead is adorned by a luvverly ALP campaign sticker.

“Authorised by” gumpf on the reverse?

So who looks more desperate?

And is this going a bit far for an ad sale in a vehicle which aspires to be the paper of record?

The ABC has a bit in which editor Peter Fray defends his decision.

The Canberra Times has now added an attempt to explain themselves to their website.

Conservation:

The conservation council have released their environmental scorecard.

Your say on crumpet:

IMHO the most attractive candidate standing for the 2008 election is:

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Labor:

The Canberra Times carries Labor denials that they’ll bring in pay parking in Mawson. (You think you’re across the issues and something else comes up)

The Chief Minister’s office has pushed out a release listing all the beloved things the cruel Liberals would cut.

The ABC bears Labor promises of more environmental motherhood statements.

In case you didn’t get the message Jon Stanhope is again asking how spending can be slashed without job cuts.

John Hargreaves is also horrified by the thought of cuts to his beloved Municipal services.

But the clincher of this argument is probably: LIBERALS TARGET CONSTABLE KENNY KOALA

Greens:

In the CT the Greens are being coy about what they’d do with a balance of power. Wait and see what gets offered would be my advice too.

Liberals:

The CPSU has been bleating to the ABC about the potential apocalypse of Liberal spending cuts on the ACT Public Service.

Zed’s been telling the CT that he can slash spending without reducing jobs. By having public servants sitting around idle perhaps? Brilliant! Slash the jobs you wimp.

CAP:

CAP is trumpeting a “Community Contract wherein they promise to deliver what they think you want.

Norvan Vogt is promising to abolish stamp duty for first home buyers. Have you heard that song before?

Field Notes:

Az writes:

    After Labor’s federal victory I waited for a legal inquiry into the Iraq invasion. Legal boffins around the country had publicly expressed grave concerns and I thought a change of government might shine some light onto all that muckiness. But nothing happened. They didn’t want the findings I guess.

    Now I see some ex-US military officer running as a local candidate and I can’t help feeling like the SS just came to town and are asking for my vote.

    I loath the Americans and wish they’d just implode. I don’t like Australia being a lickspittle 🙁 I wish it was a proud, self-believing country that didn’t need an imperial overlord. Go away Mike Hettinger. Your accent makes me angry.

Dante opined:

    I’ve just seen a TV ad claiming that the Australian Motorists Party will provide ‘a cleaner environment’ as a result of their policies that would improve Canberra’s roads and reduce congestion… this was spoken and written on screen.

    All I can find on their website relating to ‘green’ policies:

    * The AMP will eliminate registration fees (not 3rd party insurance) for any non fossil fuel powered vehicle

    * The AMP will reduce the current registration fee by 50% for any hybrid vehicle

    * The AMP will implement programs to encourage more extensive use of LPG and Natural Gas in motor vehicles

    * The AMP will encourage the wider use of ethanol based fuels at these are more friendly to the environment

    As of yet, there is no such thing as a mass produced commercially available vehicle that doesn’t run on fossil fuels. Nice idea for 10 years time perhaps. All other policies still relate to emission-causing combustion..

    Is it just my mind that tries to jump out of my head and strangle myself at this ridiculous juxtaposition?

Hippo suggested:

    I know the election is nearly done and gone (hallelujah to no more campaign adds)… but I just have to throw in my two cents worth….Amongst the 20 different Labor ads (how much did all these cost?) bombarding my precious TV time there is one that says it all for me when it comes to how I’ll vote this weekend. A beautiful, well polished, obviously expensive add, showing our illustrious leader, Mr Stanhope, and his faithful second in command, Katy. This add flashes through the pair, firstly with some teachers and students at some kind of school event. Then with medical professionals – possibly hard working nurses and a well cared for patient. Next we have the duo consulting with someone in a hard hat and reflective vest on some kind of building site (possibly a new home)… and so this add goes on. But where it really hits home is that in SEVEN years in office, Jon and Katy were not able to source a single file photo to portray these actions, and had to stage every single one of them for this slick bit of media folly. Katy and Jon are in the same clothes in each shot, and low and behold, it’s the same clothes they’re wearing in the final shot of the ‘Labor team’ backed by the lake.

    Sorry Jon, you’ve lost credibility. Even the ‘serious Katy’ adds reflecting on the Liberal’s campaign aren’t going to win me back.

    Cheers to the Community Alliance Party – a voice of reason above the babble of chaos.

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Overheard said :

Primal said :

Oh, and thank you to the Right to Lifers who advertised in today’s CT for providing their list of preferred candidates. It’s like a handy little How NOT To Vote card for me!

+1 (Didn’t see the list but will now check to see if it aligns with my preferences already made).

From the list and memory they had only one I voted for who came in at about #16.

Funny how the CT has Labor spending more than the Libs but no talk of cuts there. I would tend to believe the CT more than the Chief Minister’s Department.. we know whose interests that Department is designed to represent.

I got a call from Zed tonight. I told him to p*ss off and leave me alone, but he wouldn’t listen and just kept on talking. I reckon he could talk under water.

“The Chief Minister’s office has pushed out a release listing all the beloved things the cruel Liberals would cut.”

If even half the stuff on that list is true, then scratch what i said in the other thread about not voting. That’s a bloody scandal.

johnboy said :

I’ve asked right to life for a copy of their ad… still waiting.

I’d be interested to see this. (Call me a snob if you like, but I don’t read the Canberra Times.) I wonder how they decide whether someone is pro-life?

If you look at the electoral returns for Right to Life in the last election, they gave $3000 each to ten candidates – I think all Liberal. The names I recognise as being contenders for this election are: Zed Seselja, Jacqui Burke, Vicki Dunne, Steve Doszpot, Richard Mulcahy, and Steve Pratt.

I’ve asked right to life for a copy of their ad… still waiting.

Primal said :

Oh, and thank you to the Right to Lifers who advertised in today’s CT for providing their list of preferred candidates. It’s like a handy little How NOT To Vote card for me!

+1 (Didn’t see the list but will now check to see if it aligns with my preferences already made).

Disclaimer: I’ve come straight here (as the arch-bishop said to the acolyte) without reading the previous 24 posts as I have a full buffer. Ctrl+V. Ah! That feel’s better. What I’m about to say may have been said by others elsewhere.

(Last para is way off topic but I wanted to spare it from the t-shirt slogan thread.)

Had an interesting lunch two hours in which I:

* knocked back a pamphlet from an election ‘How to Vote-r’ in Garema Place before she very helpfully directed me to Pilgrim House where I pre-poll-voted (many thanks, Elena, if you’re a lurker/reader);
* zipped over to Pilgrim House and passed an unusally high number of polling people;
* got to Pilgrim House and wondered where the gaggle of ‘How to Vote’ people were, and then it slowly dawned on me that I’d met them all going to St Ives (including Dean from the Libs who I said (with a big smile) ‘Never, ever, ever, ever, ever!!’ and we had a pleasant chat on the run (me run, he stand) about that;
* chuckled manically at the numpties like me who were standing in line without the ‘how to vote’ instructions of their chosen band of merry party/ies to guide them, but unlike me, they were a bit dumb-struck at the thought of having to think for themselves — me, I was prepared to do that anyway — I was just vaguely interested in what the party thought;
* reeled back when the booth person was one of six or seven friendly, helpful people sitting there, not with a telephone-book-like election roll of paper but a (wait for it) palm pilot! — and I’m here to tell you, this was no spring chicken — she was on the other side of 50 (not that there’s anything wrong with that);
* took my barcode happily and made my way to the booth to vote electronically and had much fun doing so, working out who to pick, who to pan, and who to flatly ignore (vroom, vroom!);
* made my way back to Civic on what’s normally a lunch half hour but today since the company had gotten its pound and a half and then some, was my lunch two hours, including a longer chat with Dean from the Libs (he stand, me stand) in which I cheerfully told him and he cheerfully accepted that the highest number I could give one of his colleagues was a ’26’, and that was because the name works with me in one of the more interesting and fun areas of my life — at one time I called him ‘Mentor’ or ‘Sensai’.

So I sat in Garema Place — is the Groovin’ all gawn for now? — and mused on what a weired and wonderful place the world can be and how much I do love this time of year and how it transforms the city centre.

As to the t-shirt thread (here comes the Ctrl+V bit):

Best. Thread. Ever! (I have tears streaming down my cheeks and I’ve been laughing like Mutley for the last five minutes.) Off topic, I thought sepi’s suggestion sounded like a slogan, not a whinge, JB. But speaking of whingers, I looked up the word ‘realityskin’ in online doctionary and it came back with a video snippet of…. well, let’s just say there was a fraction too much friction, and it had a happy ending for the master baiter. So glad this person doesn’t get out much.

It is absurd that the govts of Australia aren’t massively shifting our transport fleet to LPG/LNG given that it produces less greenhouse gases/km than petrol and almost no particulates (importantr in the big cities).

My factory LPG Falcon gets 13L/100km around town (down to 11 on the open road), and each litre produces 1.5kg of CO2, compared with a similar falcon on petrol which might get 11L/100km around town, each litre producing 2.5kg of CO2. That’s 19.5kg CO2/100kms on LPG, 27.5 on petrol, a 29% saving! And I’m talking about a 4L engine – why not build (small) 1.5L engine LPG/LNG cars in Australia, specifically for commuting? LPG/LNG are very good transition technologies, and we have heaps of the stuff! If we had a freakin clue we’d be able to largely pull out of the world oil market.

As for “fossil fuel free” cars, how exactly does that work? Even electric cars run on fossil fuels when the electricity comes from a grid based on coal burning… and worse, the coal is only burned at about 35% thermal efficiency, so for every kWh you charge your car with you are actually consuming 3x that in total energy terms. Anyone know the thermal efficiency of the average internal combustion engine?

Re Canberra Times: I don’t care whether it is ALP, Lib, Green, Myers, McDonald’s, Australian Taxpayers’ Union, Canberra Centre…

I think it is terribly tacky to have it over their name. I as a good little capitalist of course support their right to do it. As a good little capitalist I also support my right not to buy their paper anymore.

maryhow said :

Labor:

The Canberra Times carries Labor denials that they’ll bring in pay parking in Mawson. (You think you’re across the issues and something else comes up)

Yes another stuff up from Jeremy Hanson, maybe he should go back to the Military and shoot stuff. Too smarmie for my liking.

Yes, I was handed one of Hanson’s bullshit flyers. They actually refer to a specific page in the budget papers, which I’ve looked at and it says nothing about pay parking. Pathetic.

Labor:

The Canberra Times carries Labor denials that they’ll bring in pay parking in Mawson. (You think you’re across the issues and something else comes up)

Yes another stuff up from Jeremy Hanson, maybe he should go back to the Military and shoot stuff. Too smarmie for my liking.

deezagood said :

On 666 this morning, Ross was teasing Andrew barr about his new nickname … ‘Crumpet’!

Each to their own – appears more like subtle campaigning than anything lust-inspired.

caf said :

Oh, and I think Az’s spray is pretty disgusting. Tarring someone because of the country they’re from is akin to racism in my book (and I am certainly no supporter of the Iraq war, or US foreign policy in general).

Not akin to racism, it IS racism. Very poor, Az.

Az’s attitude to Americans is completely ridiculous. I disagreed with the Iraq War and I have a great deal of concern over US foreign policy. However I love America and I love Americans. I’m not going to treat them all like nazis simply because of their Government.

DAMN YOU COLLECTIVISM!

politikos said :

johnboy said :

The Liberals will find it easier to offer deputy CM to the Greens than Labor will.

I think you’re right, but what an unholy alliance! Bizarre.

The Greens have joined forces with both Labor and Liberal in Tasmania – worked poorly both times.

Oh, and thank you to the Right to Lifers who advertised in today’s CT for providing their list of preferred candidates. It’s like a handy little How NOT To Vote card for me!

johnboy said :

The Liberals will find it easier to offer deputy CM to the Greens than Labor will.

I think you’re right, but what an unholy alliance! Bizarre.

No Az, you go away. Your post makes me want to chunder.

I imagine that the good folk of a ‘self-believing country’ could actually deal with people who spoke with different accents.

It’s not going to go down that way. The Greens appear to be able to count on at least 3 seats (one in each electorate). The remaining 4 seats in each of Brindabella and Ginninderra should split 2 ALP / 2 Liberal, and they can each be sure of at least 2 seats in Molonglo too. That adds up to 6 ALP / 6 Liberal / 3 Green with 2 seats remaining (both in Molonglo) which could go 1 each to any of Green, CAP, ALP or Liberal (in descending order of likelihood).

The polling hasn’t shown CAP being a force anywhere, if anyone not from the big 3 it looked more like Pangello or Mulcahy.

Quote jb: “The Liberals will find it easier to offer deputy CM to the Greens than Labor will.”

Good point, thanks for that timely reminder… those pieces in the local rags about Katy being gifted the Chief Minister’s role in the future were enough to make me formulate a plan of escape from Canberra once the handoff took place.

If her performance with Canberra’s health system is anything to go by, there’s no way I want to give her the reins.

The difference is U!

(Drive N TXT U B Next)

Yeah, that sucks.

Oh, and I think Az’s spray is pretty disgusting. Tarring someone because of the country they’re from is akin to racism in my book (and I am certainly no supporter of the Iraq war, or US foreign policy in general).

It’s not going to go down that way. The Greens appear to be able to count on at least 3 seats (one in each electorate). The remaining 4 seats in each of Brindabella and Ginninderra should split 2 ALP / 2 Liberal, and they can each be sure of at least 2 seats in Molonglo too. That adds up to 6 ALP / 6 Liberal / 3 Green with 2 seats remaining (both in Molonglo) which could go 1 each to any of Green, CAP, ALP or Liberal (in descending order of likelihood).

On 666 this morning, Ross was teasing Andrew barr about his new nickname … ‘Crumpet’!

It’s a bit friggin’ rich Labor complaining about job cuts – weren’t they the ones that cut 700 jobs a couple years ago – around the same time they were shutting schools IIRC. And all to save a budget that wasn’t in bad shape once everyone had taken a deep breath.

At least the Libs are kinda upfront – cutting programs means cutting jobs.
I also think there has been a smell of desperation in Labor advertising, but while the Libs might offer DCM to the Greens, I don’t think they’d take it.

Still if it turned out 8 Lib, 7 Labor and two greens I think the Libs would have a strong argument for forming government.

Gungahlin Al11:09 am 16 Oct 08

“Despite Katy’s TV advert complaining about a Liberal attach ad, I’m finding the Labor advertising is far more negative.”

Said my significant other last night after an uninterrupted string of election ads on the tube last night: “If I see that bloody Katy ad one more time, she’s going to the absolute last place on my ballot!”

Three more ads later and you guessed it – Katy reading from her teleprompter.

Meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder how much damage the Libs’ possible bargaining position with the Greens (and their potential preference flow) is suffering at the hands of Gary Humphries’ insufferable newspaper ads and chat radio opining trying to demonise the Greens. Thanks Gary – think you’ve helped gain the Greens a new member.

The Liberals will find it easier to offer deputy CM to the Greens than Labor will.

How much did labor spend getting a sticker put on the front of todays Canberra Times? Maybe it is Labor that is looking a little desperate.

Despite Katy’s TV advert complaining about a Liberal attach ad, I’m finding the Labor advertising is far more negative.

And as if we don’t know who the Greens would vote for if they had the balance of power.

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