7 August 2016

Bailey testicle safe: Parton to run for Libs

| Charlotte
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Mark Parton

Steven Bailey, your left testicle is safe. As you predicted in December, ex-2CC breakfast presenter Mark Parton was endorsed last night as one of the Liberals’ five candidates for the Tuggeranong seat of Brindabella.

Mr Bailey, a RiotACT regular and the Sex Party’s candidate for the same seat, bet the aforementioned portion of his anatomy in December last year that Mr Parton would run for public office again having come close to winning a seat as an independent in 2008.

“I bet my left testicle that Parton does run for public office again and I think he will win. The question isn’t if. The question is in what electorate and when?” Mr Bailey wrote in a RiotACT article.

The Sex Party candidate noted that Mr Parton came 5th in a 5-seat electorate in 2008, “but was brutally out-preferenced”. He also pointed out that Mr Parton had recently met with Liberal Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson.

“What they spoke about can only be left to the imagination,” he said.

“Mark has consistently denied that he would run in the 2016 ACT elections but has recently softened his approach when he said that his chances of running again next year were between zero and 2 per cent – the very same odds that Turnbull gave himself for taking the leadership from Abbott.

“Creating speculation and building interest before running for public office is a textbook technique for the genesis of any political campaign.”

If that last statement is right, then Mr Parton has nailed it. Speculation was rife that he would run right up until the Canberra Liberals announced their original line-up in April. It dissipated when it emerged that Mr Parton would work as a contractor advising the Canberra Liberals on social media, then began in earnest again when veteran Liberal MLA Brendan Smyth announced he would leave the Assembly next week to take up the new ACT Government role of Commissioner for International Engagement.

By joining the team now, Mr Parton receives far more publicity for his campaign personally than would have been the case had he signed up earlier in the year.

Working with the Liberals on their social media provided him with an opportunity to assess whether he would be happy if elected to work with the sitting Liberal MLAs and those candidates for the party who are in with a chance in October.

The former radio host is a strong candidate to help the Liberals fill the chasm left by Brendan Smyth given that like the man he replaces, he has a high public profile, is a popular and respected figure, and is well connected around town. While the RiotACT understands there were other candidates for the Brindabella slot and a vote was held during the Liberals’ meeting last night, let’s face it, they never had a chance.

It seems unlikely that Mr Parton will struggle to grab a seat in the Assembly given his profile, but he’s not taking anything for granted. Responding to a Facebook post that suggested he had it in the bag, he said:

“There’s a lot of work to be done … Many conversations to be had, doors to be knocked on and kilometres to be walked.”

Still, when even the competition are endorsing you, as Mr Bailey did last December (without the knowledge that Mr Parton would run for the Libs, mind you), you’d have to be feeling reasonably positive.

“Mark Parton is a fair-minded, intelligent, and utterly electable public figure,” Mr Bailey said at the time.

“Obviously, I will be voting for myself and other Australian Sex Party candidates before anyone else, but Mark Parton has my admiration and I believe that he would make an excellent independent MLA.”

Jessica Adelan-Langford, a lawyer who campaigned energetically for the seat of Canberra for the Liberals in the recent Federal election despite having no chance of success, was preselected last night for the Liberals’ other vacant slot, in Murrumbidgee.

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Wannabe politicians who play a cat and mouse game about whether they will run or not, are being dishonest just to win more publicity. So if they are dishonest in their campaign phase, will that change when and if they win? Unlikely. People operate in public life through established modes of behaviour built up by a lifetime of family and professional influences. If you tell a porky or deliberately try and deceive the public in the run up to an election, you’ll probably operate like that in the Assembly. Politics doesn’t have to be this way. Its only played out like this because that’s the way its been. Good luck to Steven and the Sex Party. They seem to do it in a different way.

Alexandra Craig10:17 am 27 Jul 16

gooterz said :

Does Mark Parton come from or live in Tuggeranong? I don’t think he does and that concerns me.

He lives in Tuggeranong. I think he lived in Belco when he ran in 2008.

lol, the guy loves the sound of his own voice and for someone who was so critical of the assembly and the way the government is constructed in the ACT he jumps at the chance for a safe seat.
Zed was all for tuggeranong as well and what has he done, moved his office to the new capital of canberra, gungahlin.
Mark is not political material and if he’s minister material than it just shows what a mess the political process has become

LOL! This is why we need an updated comments system, I need to be able to post a rolling on the floor laughing out loud emoticon in response to this hilarious piece! Great writing Charlotte.

John Moulis said :

Thank god. Some intelligence and common sense in the Legislative Assembly at last. And representing Tuggeranong too – except Kambah which for ACT electoral boundary purposes, been excised from the Brindabella electorate.

I wonder if Mr Parton standing for the ACT Libs in Brindabella will attract increased 1st preference votes to the Libs with the flow on preferences to other Liberal candidates removing a Labor member ? I live in hope anyway.

Oh please, Parton would be useless. Like most of the ACT MLAs.

Fancy him running as a conservative, the last thing Canberra needs!

Does Mark Parton come from or live in Tuggeranong? I don’t think he does and that concerns me.

However, I will give him the same chance as every other Tuggeranong Labor, Liberal, Green or Independent candidate to win my vote. For the first time ever, I won’t be automatically ticking the same voting box as I have for the last 20 years. This time I will vote for someone who does something to help the area, not someone who keeps making promises but never delivering.

Here are my pet issues for Brindabella candidates to investigate and make a promise to resolve.

EDUCATION – ACT Labor closed 3 primary Schools and 2 pre schools in Kambah. This was done in concert with the Greens (who sold out Tuggers and Belco and only fought to save schools in their own inner north areas where they lived not the areas where they were elected) . Labor changed the High School into the Superschool and it has been a dismal failure. According to Better Education and Your Schools NAPLAN Analysis, Tuggeranong has 6 of the worst 8 Canberra Primary schools and all 5 Tuggeranong High Schools sit in the worst 6 places for High School performance. This is outrageous that Tuggeranong Schools have gone so far backwards since ACT Labor cut School funding to the Tuggers area and saved money by closing schools. The impacts of these closures flow right through the Community and stop young families moving to the area, thereby causing further problems for education and schools in the area. It’s called flow on effects and lots of experts warned ACT Labor this would happen.

MORTGAGE STRESS – Kambah & Wanniassa were named the highest Mortgaged Stressed suburbs in all of Australia. Increased Centrelink numbers, lost jobs and under employment have really effected the areas higher proportion of Blue Collar, Pink Collar and other working poor families. ACT Labor’s higher proportional Annual Rates increases in comparison to Asset and Income values has really hurt Tuggers residents and they have suffered high bank foreclosures and it’s actually harder to get a home loan if your come from Kambah no matter what your income (crazy banking IT systems with Postcode weightings). The well to do pockets of Gleneagles, Wanniassa Hills and Kambah heights mask the Unemployment issues of the poorer zones. http://tinyurl.com/j9m2bnt

YOUTH ENTERTAINMENT – People might have seen the Canberra Times on the weekend where the Tuggeranong two indoor sporting facilities Kambah ISC and M Powerdome has shut down. Ovals that used to be open for kids to use are now fenced off and places for kids to entertain themselves have long disappeared. ACT Labor has let these places whither and die whilst funding all sorts of other places across key their targeted Electorates for re-election in Inner North & Gunghalin.

PARKS & The LAKE – Boring and uninspiring parks have been the mainstay of Tuggers since inception and Lake Tuggeranong has been an issue for years. I know the Federal government has recently kicked in Millions to fix it. However, last time they did this Andrew Barr personally redirected the money to his own Inner North Electorate and a lovely waterway near his house. See proof of his funds re-direction at page 3 of this report. http://tinyurl.com/z9dblzp

Plenty of other complaints as well about the Kambah Village, Erindale Parking, Southern Tuggeranong Roads and reduction in Action Bus routes, but I have to prioritise my issues…..

justin heywood said :

John Moulis said :

Thank god. Some intelligence and common sense in the Legislative Assembly at last. And representing Tuggeranong too – except Kambah which for ACT electoral boundary purposes, been excised from the Brindabella electorate.

I wonder if Mr Parton standing for the ACT Libs in Brindabella will attract increased 1st preference votes to the Libs with the flow on preferences to other Liberal candidates removing a Labor member ? I live in hope anyway.

Are you asking if Parton will enable the Libs to get 4 seats to Labor’s 1? The Libs would need to get 67% of the vote. Their vote last time was in the high 40’s. Mark Parton and the tram will not convince an additional 20% of Tuggeranong voters to switch to them.

In your opinion are the sitting Liberal MLA’s in Brindabella lacking in intelligence and common sense? If so I’d be interested as to why that was the case.

I was just dreamin’ about Labor loosing a seat in Brindabella – I know it probably wont happen.

All sitting MLAs lack the display of any real intelligence & common sense – Liberal, Labor and Greens. And the wannabees who post on here are the same. Its the party line that is scripted and mouthed, nothing more. You could train a monkey to say that and pay them peanuts – literally.

Will have to see if the Liberal Party line dominates Parton’s speak or will Partons influence dominate the Liberal party speak and poilicies. Just my view.

Well, I know who I am not voting for.

There’s enough local politicians who like the sound of their own voices without adding a radio presenter to the mix. I wonder what made him change from independent to aligning with one of the major parties?

John Moulis said :

Thank god. Some intelligence and common sense in the Legislative Assembly at last. And representing Tuggeranong too – except Kambah which for ACT electoral boundary purposes, been excised from the Brindabella electorate.

I wonder if Mr Parton standing for the ACT Libs in Brindabella will attract increased 1st preference votes to the Libs with the flow on preferences to other Liberal candidates removing a Labor member ? I live in hope anyway.

Are you asking if Parton will enable the Libs to get 4 seats to Labor’s 1? The Libs would need to get 67% of the vote. Their vote last time was in the high 40’s. Mark Parton and the tram will not convince an additional 20% of Tuggeranong voters to switch to them.

In your opinion are the sitting Liberal MLA’s in Brindabella lacking in intelligence and common sense? If so I’d be interested as to why that was the case.

Thank god. Some intelligence and common sense in the Legislative Assembly at last. And representing Tuggeranong too – except Kambah which for ACT electoral boundary purposes, been excised from the Brindabella electorate.

I wonder if Mr Parton standing for the ACT Libs in Brindabella will attract increased 1st preference votes to the Libs with the flow on preferences to other Liberal candidates removing a Labor member ? I live in hope anyway.

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