21 April 2008

Liberals Preselection

| The_Phantom
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Good to see the Liberals have at long last got a team up and running to challenge Stanhope at the October election.

There was very little opposition for the positions – reflective of the Party leadership and direction at present – but it was good to see some sitting Liberal member’s outpolled.

In Molonglo, the hopeless Jacquie Burke only received seven votes. While the candidate that Zed Seselja was supporting, a guy called Hanson, only received two votes. The guy that Brendan Smyth and Burke have been trying to undermine, Gary Kent, finished a close second behind Seselja in the Molonglo vote. Belinda Barnier, a twice failed Federal candidate, only received 11 votes.

Even more amusing was out in Brindabella where soccer heavy Steven Doszpot outpolled both sitting members – Smyth and Pratt. Smyth and Pratt are both way past their due-by-date and even Liberal members are starting to get sick and tired off their appalling antics. A friend of mine who attended the meeting said that Smyth and Jacquie Burke had orchestrated a campaign to undermine Doszpot – but members rallied around Doszpot.

With the pre-selection of new blood perhaps the Liberals can start to challenge Stanhope.

We can only hope that the voters will now kick the likes of Smyth and Burke out of the Assembly now.

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BlahBlahBlah7:42 am 25 Apr 08

Hey election08

Guilia is one of ours, so what if she ran in Tasmania it just shows she is passionate about heping govern somewhere.

Crikey you are right Burke is hopeless and Gary Kent would be a great replacement for her.

And Steve Doszpot or David Morgan would be fabulous replacements for that idiot Pratt.

Canberra was definitely a much better place before self-government.

The only reason they brought it in was the Federal MInisters were sick of doing any work for Canberra. Eg – back then the Federal Roads minister had to fix our roads. The Education minister was responsible for Canberra schools etc.

It meant there was loads of money for roads etc, as the Federal minister was used to signing off on national amounts of billions, so another 1/5 million for Canberra roads seemed like nothing.

But Canberrans all worked in the PS and were very good at writing letters to ministers and complaining about stuff, and the ministers got sick of worrying about Canberra and cut us loose.

but we are in a very odd situation, of having a ministry that is large by the population of Canberra, but small by their responsibilities – eg – surely Health would be enough for one person, but here they have Health and about 3 other potfolios to worry about.

I wonder what other capital cities do – like Berlin is a state of it’s own I think?

I wonder how Pratt’s legal case is going? The spy who wasn’t. LOL.

Weren’t his CARE colleagues in Kosovo sueing him?

Pratt makes Agent 86 look smart.

Well, thank god the Libs have got Steve Pratt to hold it altogether for them. 🙂

CanberraGreen11:59 am 23 Apr 08

Cool down ArseBandit22. Burke is probably ok, just run her course.

Mulcahy looks to have behaved like a little kid that when it was clear the leadership wasn’t to be his, took his bat and ball and went home. Kent is always on TV supporting Mulchahy which says a lot about the man’s judgement.

Interesting words, Vicepope, I think I agree. But I’m darned if I know how it is to be done, unless some group is vigorous enough to put together a Canberra Party and campaign loudly enough that all teh lazy dyed-in-teh-wool Labor/Liberal party voters are roused to vote for this more effective, sensible group.

I think a lot of people are aware that ACT gov’t is used as a training ground for the parties (even teh Greens do it), and these are NOT suitable people to be running this city.

I like some Liberals and some Labor members/candidates.

But it is tru that I despise Jacquie Burke. It could just be her hideous looking face or her annoying nature.

Perhaps it’s her happy-clappy actions at some public events where she becomes all evangelistic or it may have been the time when her Mum phoned up a radio station and abused the broadcaster for having a dig at her daughter, Jacquie.

It may be because she has been caught out a few times telling fibs,,,,,,,I just think she is the most useless piece of crap in the Assembly.

I don’t care if it is another Liberal or a Labor or Green candidate I just hope Burke is rolled at the next election.

arsebandit2210:53 pm 22 Apr 08

Hey CanberraGreen

Are you serious Troy Williams (I suppose the labour party has Andrew Barr), I don’t think the Libs would piss on him at the moment after the leaked email affair when he shot down thier Director.

What has Burke done to you and Crikey (so much hate), you are both obviously Richard Mulcahy stooges, still smarting that he got booted. Lets not give him too much air or people might actually vote for him, notice hes been a bit quiet recently, hasn’t threatened to sue anyone.

Guess who’s joined at the hip K_nt & M_lc_hy & D_szp_t you go figure.

Guilia who? They tell me she wears the pants in her family. Election08 you are right she is a bit mixed up, like her voice – she sounds like a bloke. Shes kidding herself if she thinks she takes out Burke at the election.

CanberraGreen4:02 pm 22 Apr 08

We are stuck with self government, may as well make it work.

The libs should replace Jacqui Burke with Troy Williams if it’s not too late to convince him to run (can they change their team or has the moment passed?). Some new faces would be a good thing.

Imhotep – what we have doesn’t work terribly well, and there’s no reason it should. By having a toy-sized legislature, all we have done is brought party politics in. Either we have to make the jobs more attractive to get better candidates (more money etc) or we have to recognise that most of the current and former bunch would have difficulty doing anything responsible and reduce them to influence without power.

I’m inclined to agree that the current major parties would oppose any change to what is, after all, a way for them to get elected office and support jobs for their hacks and insiders. We cannot rely on the Commonwealth to take an interest and do anything useful – there’s no votes for improved ACT governance in the wider televisionland. We have to elect people who will bring change, and that means those people have to stand.

(I have ranted before about the need for an old codgers’ party of former public sector, professional, community and academic heavies who could fearlessly make this place run well. Maybe it won’t happen, and it certainly won’t until someone with the will to do so has a go. I’d happily hand out how to votes).

We need that warm tomato bloke back again. He had the right idea.

VicePope said :

We need something like a board of 13 or 17 meeting for a couple of hours every week or fortnight to provide general direction to three or so indirectly elected fulltimers who run the place).

Not a bad idea VicePope, but could it be done? It’s pretty hard to get politicians to give up power.

However, I haven’t met too many people happy with the current political set up. If another party offered to review our system, could it win enough support?

Is this really the best the Libs can do? They are shot bunnies while ever Stanhope or another adult runs the ALP. Stanhope’s support team is mostly tripe as well so it will all go to cactus when he chucks it in.

The Libs have nominated their current bunch of tried and failed no-hopers. Plus some new no-hopers. And maybe a couple who would be ok, but probably won’t get in.

(I’m with those who think we need to redesign our ACT electoral system. 17 full time pollies plus crews of hangers on is a joke, and a guarantee that most of those who seek election will be those least suited to it. We need something like a board of 13 or 17 meeting for a couple of hours every week or fortnight to provide general direction to three or so indirectly elected fulltimers who run the place).

What ticks me off is people like Giulia Jones who get preselected and only than start to visit sites like RiotACT. After the election we’ll never hear from Giulia again.

Giulia Jones said :

How about…

I think you have your politics mixed up sweetie, the federal election was last year where you failed liberal senate preselection in tasmania. This election isnt about KRudd its about the ACT.

You dont even have the support of your own party. Same preselection vote as Jackie Burke! The only reason that you got preselected is that the liberals couldn’t find more than 7 people to stand in a 7 member seat. Any chimp could have been a Liberal candidate this time round. Go on deny it.

Giulia Jones12:29 am 22 Apr 08

How about more affordable housing being available, decent public transport, Standing up for Canberra against Rudd’s Razor Gang… a government interested in delivering excellent basic services instead of the grand standing and legacy building we are seeing now?

BlahBlahBlah11:37 pm 21 Apr 08

Good on you arsebandit,

Try and learn to speak correctly before you have a go at me.

I don’t know who you are but you obviously never made it through high school, and couldn’t hold an arguement together.

At least Gary & Steve are articulate

arsebandit229:36 pm 21 Apr 08

Hey Crikey

You missed my point. I wouldn’t work for Smyth or Burke in a pink fit or the rest that you have a go at in these forums.
I was making the point that Branch stacking by Doszpot & Kent obviously worked. And no the elderly and the short people have a great role to play, just not those two. I was replying to Blahblah who is obviously a Kent & Doszpot worshiper, about time they woke up.

Zed promised us generational change & fresh faces and look who got preselected.

If we got rid of self-government, wouldn’t we end up with something like the NCA running the place and someone like Wilson Tuckey as our minister in Federal Parliament? Yetch (though still probably better than the ACT Libs)

did Reynolds even stand for preselection?

Reynolds waz not preselected

It’s interesting that you mention the legitimacy of the ACT Legislative Assembly. During the federal election I read that Democrats guy’s blog. I mean he choose a loosing team and that he wasn’t really all that polished. But there is a lot of interesting ideas on his Blog.

Here are a few good ones

Canberra the City Sate http://oliebol.tigblog.org/post/352261
Dirty washing in the barr http://oliebol.tigblog.org/post/352271
Which Committees http://oliebol.tigblog.org/post/354875

Merging with NSW probably wouldn’t help. Many of the newly-merged councils are going broke, or fleecing the ratepayers to finance things that don’t benefit them. Our council made rates for residents nearer Canberra more expensive, and cheaper for those further east, claiming that people living in the Canberra end of the shire were “richer”.

So Arsebandit22 believes that older and/or short people can’t or shouldn’t contribute to public life.

Arse by name – arse by nature.

He/she/it probably works for Brendan Smyth….who has left the Liberals in such good shape.

yes Mr Evil, please don’t say that again!!!!

Have to say that I like many others don’t know any better than self Government. However I do agree that it could be done better. There are too many ‘individuals’ on both sides of the political fence in the ACT Assembly.

Since it would seem that we aren’t going to get rid of the ACT legilsative Assembly, the only thing we can do is try and inhabit it with people who want to see Canberra become a better place to live, study and raise a family. At the moment I believe you could them on one hand.

arsebandit2212:43 pm 21 Apr 08

hey Blahblah

You are kidding right, one is vertically challenged and the other is a geriatric and both are mates of Richard (we don’t want to talk about him) Mulchay.

You need to wake up from that drug induced state you have been living in.

I bet you are a young liberal stooge. Gary Kent doesn’t have any other friends.

Maybe we should merge with NSW? 🙂

Happily corrected on the correct etymology of ‘suffrage’ – however none of the respondents have dealt with the moral argument. Living in a democracy requires individual responsibility – the old system of “low-impact governance that took care of the essentials and didn’t bother with the frills” was undemocratic and didn’t allow individual responsibility (which without wanting to go all Robert A Heinlein, is the cornerstone of citizenship).
I moved here after self government – so I can’t say whether or not things were better in the old days…I suspect they weren’t (cue Monty Python “when I were a lad sketch”).
As for “Why can’t we have a Mayor and Council look after the important things – roads, water, footpaths, sewage etc and the Commonwealth look after health, schools, law and order etc” partly because the Commonwealth doesn’t look after those things – they are state end territory responsibilities. And mostly because it’s our responsibilty as citizens to look after these things ourselves, through our parliament. DO you really want to give responsibility for our courts to the Feds? Do you really think that they will produce results in keeping with community expectations? Of course not.
In a democracy you get the government you deserve – we’re responsible for the poor quality of our Assembly – no-one else is. It’s our responsibility to fix it too.

BlahBlahBlah12:15 pm 21 Apr 08

At least the liberals have started to build themselves up again and forgiven Gary Kent and Steve Doszpot for all the past problems. These two seem like excellent candidates Gary is a Board Secretary and Steve was our man at the Olympics. Excellent credentials for helping run our beautiful city.

Hargreaves is looking for staff that don’t mind having a drink with him 🙂

jimbocool said :

Secondly – the right to vote is called ‘suffrage’ for a reason – you suffer the choices you make when you vote.

Suffrage doesn’t mean anything to do with suffering, but while we’re on the point of voting, we voted AGAINST self government, and had it thrust upon us anyway. Canberra worked under the old system, it was low-impact governance that took care of the essentials and didn’t bother with the frills. No one is happy under this under-skilled lot who are in thrall to cowboy developers and shadowy lobbyists.

Anyone notice all the ads in the CT lately for staff for the various ACT “ministers”? Hargreaves seems to have the most staff vancancies.

jimbocool please stop whinging about the whingers!

Why can’t we have a Mayor and Council look after the important things – roads, water, footpaths, sewage etc and the Commonwealth look after health, schools, law and order etc.

Canberra has become a shithole under self-government – and the Assembly attracts mainly shithole politicians like Brendan Smyth, Jackquie Burke, Karen MacDonald, John Hargreaves, Katie Gallagher, Deb Foskey, Steve Pratt.

jimbocool. As one of the ‘whingers’, let me say this.

You’re right. The ACT government does have a lot of responsibilities.

MY point is that our leaders spend more time trying to dance on the national stage and not enough on the hospitals, legal systems, education systems etc, which it is their responsibilitiy to manage.

I don’t want to know what Stanhope’s view is on security issues, gay marriage, or battery hens. I want to know why you can wait up to 6 hours in the emergency dpartment of our hospital. I want to know what the ACT government is doing to secure water for our city.

(Oh and I hate to be pedantic, but suffrage is from Latin, meaning to express support, although in the ACT’s case, your definition, to suffer, is more accurate.)

Here we go again – the tired old “self-government was the worst thing to ever happen” and “we only need a council” tripe served up on the Riot. First up I’d like the whingers above to tell me of any other city council that has:
a) a pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education system
b) a three tiered court system – magistrates, supreme and appeals court (along with a children’s court)
c) a remand centre, weekend detention centre, and soon a prison (as well as a community corrections system)and a youth detention facility.
d)a national park
e)a primary, secondary and tertiary health system
f)the whole gamut of transport regulation – licences, roads, public transport, infrastructure
g) public and community housing
h) disability services
i) a whole heap of other stuff that you lot would no doubt be first to complain about if it didn’t meet your expectations

Now that’s a fair bit of stuff to look after, which requires departments, and departments need to report to someone that is accountable to the people – a minister, and a minister should be appointed by a parliament. And in the ACT we have the most accessible parliament in the land.

Secondly – the right to vote is called ‘suffrage’ for a reason – you suffer the choices you make when you vote. Living in an undemocatic community – the “let’s return to the NCDC days” argument is not only a rubbish viewpoint, it’s a moral cop out as well.

If you don’t like the government or the members of the Assembly, do something about it – vote ’em out or run for the Assembly yourself.

I agree ant. There is not enough talent in this town to run a conventional parliament, particularly one with the grand city-state aspirations of the present incumbents. (Our ‘Attorney-General’ has an arts degree from UC, for cryin’ out loud).

It is a vicious circle. If you were a talented, successful and idealistic individual, would you want to stand behind the likes of Stanhope or Zed Seselja?

How do we get out of this?

The worst thing that ever happended to the ACT was self-government. Thanks to Federal Labor. All we need is a Mayor and a local part-time Council.

I agree that people like Smyth, Burke, MacDonald, Hargreaves, Gallagher, Foskey are a waste of public money.

It’s good that the Liberals have started to work out that the likes of Smyth and Burke are bad news for their party.

I think the way our gov’t is structured like a little Parliament puts off the kinds of people we need, and instead attracts people who are hopeful of a Federal parlimant career.

Why on earth does a city administration need an opposition? What a waste of money. All those elected people should have a real job, not being an “opposition”.

Doszpot *giggle*

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