"Canberra News, Views and Opinion"
OK, so yesterday Howard called the long expected election date for the Federal Election being November 24.
With a date now set Riot is reinstituting a long neglected feature being the email interview. We are going to send a set of 10 questions to each Senate and House of Reps candidate in Canberra’s electorates with questions coming from the best that are submitted from our readership. So submit your questions below and remember these are questions that will be sent to all candidates so don’t make them party specific and we wont be selecting any that are rude or childish – controversial and inflammatory is fine though 
For those interested the ABC’s Election coverage can be found here.
This post will be bumped to the top of the page each morning this week and the final 10 questions will be chosen over the weekend and emailed to all the candidates next Monday, October 22.
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Email interview… cool!
Ok, how about:
“Are you in favour of fixed election terms? Why or why not and if so what length of term are you in favour of and why.”
Do you consider that making observations about the structure and makeup of the other major political party as beneficial to your own party’s role in the election ?
Can you give us a PRACTICAL example of what WILL benefit CANBERRA if you are elected to Parliament as opposed to your opponents?
I am a big fan of the responses we’ve had from this one in previous election campaigns.
Suppose that you and I (the candidate) are stuck in an elevator for 5 minutes. You know nothing about me other than i’m in your electorate. What do you say to convince me to vote for you.
Sorry… I have to ask these:
(a) If you win government (or hold a balance of power on the cross-bench) will you actively support and commit to the relocation of a major Government Department or Agency to Gungahlin in your term.
(b) If you win government (or hold a balance of power on the cross-bench) will you actively support (via funding) the construction of a comprehensive, fully integrated public transport system incorporating Light Rail for the Capital Region.
What is your experience or qualifications in economics?
Do you think that it is important for the Prime Minister and their family to live in Canberra?
What is your current stance on the state of Broadband in Canberra and what do you plan to do to improve this service?
I would like to see a regular employment application style Resume (CV) for each person, just as you would expect from any other potential employee.
1. What would you like to see as the first piece of legislative change brought about by your Government?
2. What are your personal goals for your first year representing the ACT?
3. On which issues do you disagree with your Party’s stated position?
How about: “gimmicks and lame rhetoric aside – what are you actually going to do for Canberra?”
Or to McMuppet, ‘when are you going to do something?’
+1 to Thumper’s question.
“As a ‘safe’ candidate, what have you done during the last 3 years to deserve the benefits of a safe seat?”
Just noticed the Troy Williams ad on the site. that was quick!
LG – it’s been on here for a few months now. He was probably one of the first paid advertisers.
Will your Party in Government NOT use advertising to self promote your own policies at a massive cost to the taxpayer?
MrMagoo – the answer to that question will only ever be YES when the party answering the question is in opposition.
What will you do for the large student population of Canberra? What do you think about HECS fees, full fee paying uni courses, increasing Austudy payments, cost of living etc.
My question has already been asked but anyway:
What private opinions do you hold which are different to those of your party?
What work have you done apart from being a politician or political staffer or party/union/lobby employee?
On what issues are you prepared to promise you would cross the floor, even if it threatened your preselection?
The ALP started it, and the Libs have blown it bigger than Ben-Hur but what will you do to stop obscene sums of public money being poured down the toilet of advertising?
What is the single most pressing social issue in Australia today? And the single most pressing environmental, economic and foreign relations issues?
Do you support disclosure of the ultimate source of all political donations and support activities? If not, why not?
“What is your biggest flaw?” ** if you say “I work too hard.” (or any other such pat crap) you don’t get the gig)
Do you personally support having Australian troops in Iraq?
Will you lobby to convert Admiralty House in Sydney as a museum, as has been done with NSW Government House? Alternatively will you build equivalent Houses in each state capital and the PM can have a holiday in each whereby he can get in touch with real people?
What can your party do to alleviate the water shortage that occurs in, the ACT, and the country as a whole?
We can assume that your party is committed to keeping interest rates low – so will you also commit to other immediate action on other issues that you have the same amount of control over like, for instance guaranteeing an immediate end to the drought whilst at the same time ensuring that weekend remain sunny?
“…..so will you also commit to other immediate action on other issues that you have the same amount of control over like, for instance guaranteeing an immediate end to the drought whilst at the same time ensuring that weekend remain sunny?”
And stopping Magpies from swooping in Spring!
Hehehe, yep. I demand that it only rains at night when I am not out, and that the weekends are sunny and warm with only a light cooling breeze…
Now, who can promise that? The Greens, nah, maybe the Democrats as they believe in fairies…
Govt funding per capita for public health & education facilities seems to be on the slide, and the current govt appears to be pushing more people towards private health care & private education. What are your thoughts on this? If elected, in what direction would you be attempting to drive our health & education systems? What initiatives would you pursue in these areas?
On the topic of los federales, the Canberra Times is less than prudent with their headline today: “Govt rolls out $34b tax cuts”
For starters, nothing has been rolled out by a government. An election promise has been made – whether it’s core or non-core is not known.
For seconds, they are – as of tomorrow – not the government. They are election candidates just like all the other ones.
I think CT needs to be a bit more careful with their sub-editing than this effort.
Will you sign the Kyoto Treaty?
Will you apologize to the indigenous population of Australia for the stolen generations on behalf of the government you will represent?
Will you refute the current immigration minister’s baseless claims that Sudanese immigrants have difficulties integrating and increase immigration from troubled, war-torn Sudan?
Will you stop locking children up in barbed-wire compounds in the middle of the desert and find a more humane way to process refugees?
Will you show some independence and responsibility for our armed forces by not engaging in ‘pre-emptive’ military action on evidence already proven insufficient?
Will you give me my tolerant, livable country back, you bastards?
As you can see, I’m grudging voting labor come Nov. 24. Only in the house of reps though. Bob Brown for PM!
“Will you give me my tolerant, livable country back, you bastards?”
When was Australia tolerant?
Oh hang on, that was probably when Keating was calling the Malaysian PM a recalcitrant and Evans was making jokes about eating the Chinese Premier’s missing dog!
Mind you, Whitlam was pretty tolerant: he really tolerated everything Indonesia did while ‘jackbooting’ its way over the top of the East Timorese in 1975!