8 October 2008

ACT Election Candidates - How Low Will They Stoop?

| Jean Mc
Join the conversation
77

All’s not fair in politics.

Driving home today along Athllon Drive I see four campaign signs from Joy Burch (Labor candidate for Brindabella) strewn along the roadside. That made me pretty angry.

This senseless vandalism is getting ridiculous. I heard that one candidate last week had every single sign stolen from around the electorate. These signs are not cheap and if your campaign budget is small, like Joy’s, each one is very valuable.

It’s one thing to strategically place your sign to obscure that of an opponent at a shopping centre or ring the Rangers to complain about someone’s sign inappropriately placed – that’s strategy – taking advantage of the opponent’s poor choice.

Vandalism (like plagiarism) is the choice of the stupid, the lazy, and those incapable of waging a clever campaign based on sound policy, good marketing and solid community relationships.

But it’s not just that. Joy doesn’t have rich business backers or a wealthy husband backing her campaign. She doesn’t have a high profile from years in the public eye. She isn’t a sitting member with a nice salary to build an election nest egg.

Joy relies on meagre funds from generous supporters (many of whom can ill-afford it) and the support of friends and family to keep her campaign going. If Joy has any chance at all in the election it will be from sheer hard work on things like the campaign to save the Wanniassa Medical Centre.

She’s a good person and it’s a disgrace to treat her this way.

You’d think that elections would bring out the best that parties have to offer. What I’m seeing is the worst of some people and I don’t think it’s the last.

All I can say is that if people are so frightened of someone like Joy who’s just a nice, hardworking person that they have to stoop to this sort of activity – they deserve a resounding defeat on October 18.

PS: I’m a Labor Party member and NOT on Joy’s campaign team and don’t know her that well. Of course I’m a little biased but I’m a lot angry.

Join the conversation

77
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

please tell me if anyone knows a candidate that has not posted signs and I will vote for them.

I think it is very condecending that the candidates think that many voters minds will be changed by a road sign. Well to be honest, my my vote has be changed by the road signs I might just vote for a donkey!

I work near where the libs store there campain trailers, what a joke, 10 plus trailers in every car park and plastered with crappy signs. Morons. I also just copped a “Special message” phone call from ZED and a letter box full of labor recycle bin fillers.

Here’s and idea, see the google adds on the side of these pages, every click costs the candidates campaing money! (pay per click)

sorry, that was supposed to be in reference to the environmental impacts of the signs being left everywhere the day after election day…

stray said :

… but you can guarrantee he wouldnt be there the day after election day!

Well, duh!!

riding down northbourne the other day i was so busy trying to read and at the same time avoid the large orange (vogt is it?) signs all over the place i almost ran over the man himself…whoops!

not as noticeable as the signage but you can guarrantee he wouldnt be there the day after election day!

Young liberals… *shudders*

Free stakes for your tomatoes people…

go greens? the majority party, liberal or labor, shouldn`t need these dingbats permission to govern for the majority of voters.do the greens listen to the majority of people in the street?

I need a texta just to remind everyone why we don’t want Barr.

You want to hand school closures to him, let him be closed.

I wouldn’t suggest voting Liberal, I had a word with Zed, suggesting since Bill Stefarniak had left (amen, thank you lord) he should build extradition treaties with the golden triangle countries for all the heroin dealers, he wasn’t very interested, there was a nice young lady who was, but it was labor that pushed on the other issues not coming up in this election, the shortage of Womens crisis to mid term accommodation and services, that is not including the shortage in the one area of womens shelters ‘domestic violence’ that does exist.

Now I ask you Zed, if you not gonna be a right wing nazi, who will take up bills position?

Canberra, if the head of the opposition won’t listen to you in the street, why give him money a job and power.

Go Greens.

Also the sign doesn’t really make me want to vote for her.. Its just her face and name..

Something clever like:

Joy means ‘Joy’ for Brindabella’s future – (insert picture of joy with cheesy grin and thumbs up) – definitely got my vote then.

I sighted at least 20 of these on the Parkes Way.. I don’t wana look at her ugly mug on the way to work, someone should tear them down or move them to the other side of the road so i don’t give a crap cause all i wana do is get home.

joy’s signs were up the parkway this morning.

(there was a truck parked nearby – obviously guarding the signs…)

nathan said :

@Gobbo: Para 5 in the document you linked seems to require $10m public liability insurance. Am I reading that correctly?

Nathan – I believe so. At least that is how I interpret the section’s requirements.

For those who want to read it, it says ….

“5. Insurance requirements

(1) A person who places a movable sign in a public place must have a current
public liability insurance policy for at least $10,000,000 limit of liability,
which would include any liability to the public or the Territory arising out of
such a sign, its design, construction or placement.”

Deadmandrinking12:32 pm 09 Oct 08

jakez said :

Loose Brown said :

Very clever free advertising for your favoured candidate Jean. Very clever.

OH MY GOD I JUST SAW 1000 OF MATTHEW WATTS’ SIGNS RIPPED APART!!!!

IT’S JUST TERRIBLE.

THAT’S MATTHEW WATTS, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR GINNINDERRA! http://WWW.WATTSTHERIGHTCHOICE.COM

😉

That’s what you get for only putting them up in a pub 😛

It’s probably just kids, honestly. 16-17, armed with casks of goon, roaming the streets looking to dispense their good-intentioned but not yet fully-formed political ideals on any signs, shop-front windows or postboxes nearby. It’s a pretty amateur job anyway – why didn’t they steal the sign and burn it? Chicken?

the perpitrators are just as anonymous as the pollies whose signs they vandalise.

Elections are naught more than a public job application from people we never hear from during non-election time but for a few weeks they are our saviours and will change our lives for the better.

Who are these besuited beggars at my shopping centre and why can’t they shove their pamphlets somewhere else (I know a great location) ?!

@Gobbo: Para 5 in the document you linked seems to require $10m public liability insurance. Am I reading that correctly?

Thank Christ when the election is over and RA can get back to the usual suspects slandering each other instead of blow-in newbies slandering others for the political gain of (Insert candidates name here)..

A new low for climbing beetle. Absolutely no need for this type of dirty, personal slandering.

I for one look forward to the day where my life becomes so easy that the biggest complaints I have are that there are signs in my peripheral vision, and I have to pick a piece of paper out of my letterbox.

I demand equal rights for Socialists to have a good sense of humour. Everybody else gets to have one.

Passy said :

Sorry johnboy. It was a poor attempt at humour – a bit like John McCain sometimes. I actually was aiming to get something on the banner introducing topics (the comments there can be quite funny and/or insightful) and so was being overly contrary.

It was really a compliment of sorts gone wrong.

Oh, Passy, this is what happens when you atttempt to rewrite the playbook. Socialists aren’t meant to have senses of humour… only conservatives (who can then use the “I was only joking” thing when they say something racist, sexist or otherwise deeply offensive”)…

climbingbeetle11:27 pm 08 Oct 08

I find it amusing that one of Joy’s supporters complain about who low other candidates stoop.
Maybe she should first ask herself and her supporters about the role of parents in ensuring their teenage children know right from wrong, and what the morally correct thing to do is when they do something wrong.
For instance, if Joy’s son goes down to the Calwell Bottle Shop, and steals three bottles of Southern Comfort (appalling taste I know – it could have at least been Wild Turkey) gets caught and its a repeat offence, what would the appropriate response be?

* Send the boy back with the cash and apologise to the owner
* Go down with the cash and apologise
* Ignore the issue (maybe get Corbell to hush things up until after election)
It seems that so far, the latter is happening.

I asked Hargreaves about the issue today at Wanniassa. He told me that if any candidate was doing such a thing, he’d have them expelled from the Labor Party. He also told me that when he was minister, the cops would go and find the kids that were causing troubles, especially the bullies, and the cops would give them a bit of “Country Justice” (aka a right royal walloping) behind the swimming pool down at the lake.

So there you have it ladies and gents – a candidate who will hush her son’s crime (and taste in bad American whiskey) who according to Hargreaves should be expelled from Labor, and a minister who believes in vigilante policing. Awesome!

Sorry johnboy. It was a poor attempt at humour – a bit like John McCain sometimes. I actually was aiming to get something on the banner introducing topics (the comments there can be quite funny and/or insightful) and so was being overly contrary.

It was really a compliment of sorts gone wrong.

bubzie said :

For goodness sakes, it’s school holidays.

Kiddies get bored. They destroy signs.

I’m pretty sure you could build a bridge, out of those, and get over it!!

I was scrolling down the end past all the cries of political interference to write exactly that.

If you really want a place to go look at all the pretty signs take a drive along the parkway near it’s intersection with sulwood drive, they seem to be procreating. The people who stand there waving and with signs saying honk for gentleman should cease procreating. They weren’t getting many honks this morning.

tylersmayhem said :

Simple – STOP LITTERING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS WITH YOUR BILLBOARDS AND JUNK MAIL!!!

I totally agree. Its a waste of money and resources. I hope they will be recycled, sooner than later.

Hey — enough of the carping about Joy Burch already. It’s not her fault that:

a) someone has destroyed some of her signs. She didn’t go out there inviting the vandalism.

b) someone posted on RA to complain about said vandalism, and

c) politicking in Australia (and most other western democracies) is about name recognition, usually associated with the face of named person!

That said, Joy Burch is a first-time candidate from what I can tell. She’s a former nurse, educator and small businesswoman, and currently heads up a national rural health education organisation. She’s sinking a lot of time and energy into her campaign. So much so that I’ve received at least two brochures about her in my mailbox. I like the sound of her too — as if you could not tell.

Labor Party HQ or otherwise, I know Joy was out there campaigning for residents in my area when the Wanniassa Medical Centre was suddenly closed, and its doctors transferred tgo Phillip. She made the time to join the community in its outrage, and she has continued to lobby on our behalf for improved access to GPs and local medical centres.

Good luck Joy.

For goodness sakes, it’s school holidays.

Kiddies get bored. They destroy signs.

I’m pretty sure you could build a bridge, out of those, and get over it!!

Election time is always an annoying time. We cope flyers in our letterbox everyday, have to sit and watch political commercials on TV and have to see endless signs when we’re driving to work.

All I can see from all of this is ‘What a waste of money’.

Personally I think there should be a ban on public advertising. If someone hasn’t made up their mind then they can read about the parties on election day.

Imagine what we could spend all that extra money on???????

Maybe some new artwork for the Pialligo Drive Duplication!

Thanks Gobbo. Very helpful.

Translation: we politicians should have no restrictions placed on us whatsoever…

planeguy said :

Can someone post a link to the ACT legislation or regulation that covers roadside signs and election material?

I can’t do links, sorry.

But the document that covers this practice is the Roads and Public Places (Removable Signs) Code of Practice 2005.

The following links to the PDF version from the Legislation register.

I sent complaints about the mess on Erindale Drive to Steve Pratt and Mick Gentleman. The difference in the responses was interesting; a very gentle acknowledgment that the signs aren’t pretty and “please be patient” from Pratt’s office, while Mick Gentleman arrogantly says “Roadside signage is allowed under the Code of Practise for portable signs and permission may be obtained from the A.C.T. Rangers. The majority of commuters seem supportive of our presence as they wave and toot when passing.”

I would suggest that if they’re only holding up one finger, that’s not waving.

I did suggest that perhaps Mr. Pratt would be willing to look into changing the law to relieve us of this double-standard. Four days now, and no response…

johnboy said :

After all the free publicity I’ve given you for your events Passy I really find this a little hurtful.

Don’t go asking me for favours again.

Gold 🙂

After all the free publicity I’ve given you for your events Passy I really find this a little hurtful.

Don’t go asking me for favours again.

Well done Jean Mc. Now we know a little about Joy, and name recognition is so important when we get into the voting box, isn’t it?

Maybe Joy should release some policies to convince us to vote for her? Or does she just rabbit the ALP Head office line?

Do something like Hettinger pushing the green envelope too much and incurring the wrath of ALP headquarters.

I think all these miserable crappy self-indulgent narcissistic posters should be banned. And why would anyone vote for a candidate just because they had seen a poster of them on the side of the road?

Much better to advertise subtly through Riot ACT, hey Jean? However I suspect this site is so conservative – it makes the Liberals look like a Karl Marx appreciation society – that Jean is wasting her time here.

Can someone post a link to the ACT legislation or regulation that covers roadside signs and election material?

the same thing was done to a few of joy’s signs out near isabella plains the other night aswell, and that along with the fact that one of the stakes as been snapped (look closely at the bottom of the one on the left) makes me think they have been deliberately targeted,

that said i’d doubt this was done by another candidate or someone associated with them; simple reason for my thinking this; the stakes are still there.

the attitude of whoever did it and of some people here annoys me aswell; the signs are up for a month every couple of years; get over yourselves, they’re just signs. If they bug you that much then you need to eat a big tea spoon of concrete and harden the f*** up. The people who put them up and stand for election, even those from the big parties, put a lot of their own money and a heap of their and volunteers time into it because they want to make their community better. Shame on them for that.

Maybe we need to take a leaf out the Beijing Olympics Organising Committee books and set up campaigning zones, where they ask the populus via canberraconnect.crap.gov.au if they can erect signs in a given area, such as the middle lane of the city bound heading half of Benjamin Way for example, or the crematorium whilst it is on full blast doing the par boiling for KFC.

Maybe the wind blew them down.

I’ve always wondered the value of the signs. I’ve always found the signs very formulaic, with little to differentiate them from all the others out there.

On that note, I have no problem in believing that it was a liberal supporter (maybe associated with the young libs, maybe not) thinking they should do their part for the party.

meh stuffed the link – admins will be happy about that so I wont fix it

I just saw dozens of Danman posters ripped apart too…

What a co-winky-dink

I pinch these eyesores for building corflute radio control planes. Thanks for the free building material! Also, they are made of polypropylene and not easily recyclable, so I find it funny when the greens stick them everywhere…

Just two will do!!!

JakeZ – NEED PHOTOS!!!!

Loose Brown said :

Very clever free advertising for your favoured candidate Jean. Very clever.

OH MY GOD I JUST SAW 1000 OF MATTHEW WATTS’ SIGNS RIPPED APART!!!!

IT’S JUST TERRIBLE.

THAT’S MATTHEW WATTS, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR GINNINDERRA! http://WWW.WATTSTHERIGHTCHOICE.COM

😉

hairy nosed wombat3:17 pm 08 Oct 08

On October 19 you will be able to get free tomato stakes from along the sides of the roads. Just throw the sign attached to it into your bin.

But do not collect these free tomato stakes before October 19, as these poor people will feel hurt.

wooohooo! i have now voted!

won’t see the signs now at all…

flying doormat3:06 pm 08 Oct 08

Seems that all that is achieved by knocking down or stealing signs is extra media mileage for the “poor candidates”. Val Jeffries has got a nice amount of exposure out of his signs being pinched – gotta be happy with that old Val. Perhaps he never had any signs up in the first place! I wonder what the spy who got caught Pratt is up to – been very quiet so far which is odd.

Very clever free advertising for your favoured candidate Jean. Very clever.

Jean – have you failed to notice the irony in your statements? It is Joy’s campaign team who are the vandals.

Erecting signs on public property is the choice of the stupid, the lazy, and those incapable of waging a clever campaign based on sound policy, good marketing and solid community relationships. 😛

tylersmayhem2:08 pm 08 Oct 08

Simple – STOP LITTERING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS WITH YOUR BILLBOARDS AND JUNK MAIL!!!

Danman said :

Er… there’s this thing called wind, people. It sometimes has a deleterious affect on poorly put up posters.

Odd, I have never seen a wind that disciminates between political parties.

However if one person knows how to make a strong sign, and another does not, you will find the wind discriminates on that basis.

i’m interested to know who was running an organised group to pull down the Getup signs – lib head office??

Er… there’s this thing called wind, people. It sometimes has a deleterious affect on poorly put up posters.

Odd, I have never seen a wind that disciminates between political parties.

Appalling. Appalling that politicians are permitted to put these stupid signs up ANYWHERE in the first place, considering that nobody else can. The next time I get hassled for putting band posters up, I’ll just tell the cops that Joey & the rockers is in fact a political party.

Toughen up Joy (& supporters). Welcome to the world of politics. If this is the worst dirty trick she experiences (probably just the wind in any case) then she’ll be doing very well indeed.

Er… there’s this thing called wind, people. It sometimes has a deleterious affect on poorly put up posters.

Well, in that case just round up anyone down the street who owns a pitchfork or torch and send ’em on down …

(I have the flirting quotient of a six-year-old, Danman, so I’ll have to take your word for it).

; )

Mrshmellowman1:05 pm 08 Oct 08

Maybe the Young Greens Flying Squad can get out and start vandalising the posters on the sides of the road so that they read something like

DON’T VOTE FOR
insert name of candidate

insert picture
for Molongolo
BECAUSE THEY ARE AN
ENVIRONMENTAL VANDAL

Mrshmellowman said :

I agree that the signs are an eyesore and I have my doubts about their effectiveness.
Please tell me that nobody decides who to vote for based on the pictures on those sad little future landfillers

I’ve seen towns in Canada where nearly every house has a sign in the front yard proclaiming who everyone else (that is, people who generally have signs in their own yards) should vote for. Weird.

Will campaigning get to this stage in Canberra? I think it would be a slight on our collective intelligence if it did.

I saw that Barr had a whole bunch of signs ripped out in Campbell the other week.

Maybe Joy Burch should kick it Troy Williams-style and put stickers up around the place. At least stickers tend to last for a while.

I believe you are flirting with me Granny 🙂

I still have to do some work for Gunghalin Al, so my being there would be biased – unless other candidates wish to use my services.

what is the impact on the environment?

honestly, what are these things made out of?

wouldn’t it be better to have your details prominently displayed on your vehicle, on all sides?

I don’t look at the signs on the side of the road, I do look at the people waving and holding signs, but only briefly before avoiding the idiots who slow down – perhaps they can’t read?

Gosh, Danman, if you live this side of town you could come to our GCC election night and throw peanuts at the candidates.

One day riding to work – Election signs in scrubbery on side of Gunghalin Drive – heading south – cross road still heading south – fresh new election signs up for all to see. Heading home that afternoon – New signs in ditch on side of road, cross road, old signs still in scrubbery.

I dont know who wins these petty wars, but I can all but guarantee that these signs will still be there, lying in teh dirt or scrub long after the election.

So there is no winner, and the environment is the loser – just because some twats wanted to have a petty terrotorial pissing match.

If they remain after the election, I will ring teh candidates and see that they clean up their rubbish, regardless of who is responsible for dumping it off the side of the bike path.

Mrshmellowman12:39 pm 08 Oct 08

I agree that the signs are an eyesore and I have my doubts about their effectiveness.
Please tell me that nobody decides who to vote for based on the pictures on those sad little future landfillers

simple, remove all of the signs from everyone. Just an eyesore.

D-Man said :

OliverCromwell said :

Unfortunately the “Young Libs Flying Squad” doesn’t actually exist. There would be something along the lines of 10 actual young libs, and 30-40 stacks. Goodness knows they wouldn’t be helping out Smyth and Pratt in Brindabella.
(former lib chiming in for the sake of accuracy)

Unfortunately they do actually exit, and have

As a fellow traveller you may be interested in signing up. Registration form available here:

http://www.actyoungliberals.org.au/flyingsquad.html

So did you not actually read his post?

Despite Oliver Cromwell’s snooty (or should that be ‘sooty’) understating of the actual numbers, his charge is accurate.

It is one thing to put a membership form (from months ago) up on a website. It is another thing entirely to have a flying squad in operation.

Personally if I were to target another candidates corflutes, in this Hare-Clarke system I’d probably go after someone from my own Party. It’s not my style though (I even got out and fixed one of Mulcahy’s in Garran, despite not being the biggest fan).

Thanks for your thoughts.

I think I made it pretty clear that I don’t think Joy’s campaign would hinge on four signs. I don’t know if she’s as cranky as me.

You might be right that it may not be candidates doing this but I’ve seen enough mean tricks to believe that it is.

I haven’t pointed the finger at who I think it is. There are many possibilities from a number of groups.

yes appalling indeed… tsk tsk.

Four signs being knocked over is truly an outrage of immense proportions.

This outrage is truly a sign that society is crumbling into anarchy.

apologies for that gobbledygook post above

OliverCromwell said :

Unfortunately the “Young Libs Flying Squad” doesn’t actually exist. There would be something along the lines of 10 actual young libs, and 30-40 stacks. Goodness knows they wouldn’t be helping out Smyth and Pratt in Brindabella.
(former lib chiming in for the sake of accuracy)

Unfortunately they do actually exit, and have As a fellow traveller you may be interested in signing up. Registration form available here:

http://www.actyoungliberals.org.au/flyingsquad.html

maybe Joy didn’t use enough sticky tape?

OliverCromwell11:34 am 08 Oct 08

Actually, I don’t think it would be another candidate. Back when they had us running around grabbing “Getup” coreflutes they got us to *take* them entirely, with the stakes intact so we’d be able to use them and so they couldn’t just put them back up(since they were gone entirely, not just knocked over).
Leaving them sitting on the ground is silly.

Jean Mc, I understand your concern for your friend, but there is no evidence it was other candidates that did this whatsoever. The other story here today about points for corflutes would seem to indicate that perhaps the other candidates are the least likely perpetrators.

As for the comment, “All’s not fair in politics,” that just makes me want to laugh, I’m afraid. When did you realise this?

I suspect most of the candidates suffer from a similar lack of funds. I think Johnboy and Gungahlin Al have already mentioned on different threads that they don’t have the kind of money sitting around that it would take to stand for election. Most people wouldn’t.

This lady does sound very sweet and nice, but if she’s going to take this so hard how on earth will she survive in the assembly?

OliverCromwell11:31 am 08 Oct 08

Unfortunately the “Young Libs Flying Squad” doesn’t actually exist. There would be something along the lines of 10 actual young libs, and 30-40 stacks. Goodness knows they wouldn’t be helping out Smyth and Pratt in Brindabella.
(former lib chiming in for the sake of accuracy)

Val Jeffrey apparently got the number plate of the car which took all his – let’s hope the person is caught. Until there’s proof, accusing Young Libs or otherwise is just plain troublemaking.

Woody Mann-Caruso11:27 am 08 Oct 08

If her campaign’s success hinges on four signs, she’s got bigger problems.

Right now there’s a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner hanging at the Young Libs Flying Squad HQ.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.