26 July 2008

ACT Democrats Candidate Announcement

| Darren Churchill
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KEEP THE BASTARDS HONEST!

The ACT Democrats have announced their first three candidates for the October ACT elections.

The candidates are:

Molonglo: Greg Tannahill, 28, whose interests include affordable housing, education, public transport and our videogame censorship laws.

Ginninderra: Marilyn Kay Dennis, 61, whose interests include public transport, low-income families and arts and culture.

Ginninderra: Darren Churchill, 43, the party President, whose interests include general transport, education, sustainability and governmental reform.

The federally registered party will contest the election in the Ungrouped column, as it is not registered in the ACT, and because the ACT’s electoral law will not allow it re-register in the same electoral cycle as when it lost registration.

The Democrats endorsed all three candidates last week and expect more to come on board as the election gets closer.

“We’ve got a good mix of candidates, a variety of ages, male and female, all with different backgrounds” Mr Churchill said.

The ACT Democrats first became active in Canberra politics in the ACT’s old House of Assembly, with Gordon Walsh and Ivor Vivian being strong advocates of ACT Self-Government from 1979 to 1985. The Democrats have contested every election since self-government, with Roslyn Dundas elected as member for Ginninderra from 2001 to 2004.

“The Democrats have 31 years of parliamentary experience to draw on. We are the natural party of the crossbenches, the negotiators. Four years of majority government in the ACT has been a disaster. Labor has been able to rush through any legislation it chooses. A Liberal majority government would be no better.”

“When there was a Democrat in the Assembly (Roslyn Dundas) from 2001 to 2004 things were different. We intend to make that difference again.”

“The only way to ensure fair legislation and make whoever governs accountable is by electing the ACT Democrats to Keep the Bastards Honest!” concluded Mr Churchill, emphasising the Democrats mission statement.

Darren Churchill
ACT Democrats President
darren.churchill@act.democrats.org.au
Tel: 0412 196 473

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mutley…again said :

So peterh – how are they going to slash food costs in local govt?

Also, we don’t need censorship, we need accurate and appropriate classification so people can make informed choices.

classification, if i am correct, is based on censorship?

or is classification different?

food costs couldn’t be lowered by local govt – I was being glib.

the point though, is valid. how is the ACT going to prevent censorship of materials when this is a federal jurisdiction?

more hot air, I feel.

Snahons_scv6_berlina11:26 am 28 Jul 08

Would someone define affordable housing for me ? Is it a fix price structure or is it a ratio of say X times the avg household income ? Is it looking at the statistical distribution of household income across a geographic region and then applying a normalised multiplicative factor against a couple of standard deviations across the highest number of member set values in some defined household income taxable income brackets ?

I am so sick of politicians saying affordable housing cause I am damn sure there are many who can afford more than me and more who can’t..

mutley...again10:52 am 28 Jul 08

So peterh – how are they going to slash food costs in local govt?

Also, we don’t need censorship, we need accurate and appropriate classification so people can make informed choices.

and another thought – the democrats didn’t win federal govt, how will a local government have any sway over censorship?

when will this stupidity end?

slash fuel and food costs in the ACT. Then we can afford games.

cbf Democrats

johnboy said :

Paul Chamberlain from Greg Tannahill’s campaign sent in the following clarification:

Hi guys, I work with Greg Tannahill’s campaign and I just like to clarify Greg Tannahill’s position on video games and censorship. Greg Tannahill wishes to end censorship and allow Australians to make their own decisions about which video games (and other media) they wish to see. For more information see Greg Tannahill’s gaming blog: http://amongthedust.blogspot.com/2008/07/q-on-game-classification-bad-questions.html

no way! we need some form of censorship!

video games that depict illegal acts in graphic detail as well as the basic instructions to perform them need to be rated accordingly. for full graphic sex acts, they gain the X rating. so should games.

other media needs to have some sort of control as well. I personally don’t want to see a person beheaded, some may, but it needs to be the control of society that labels this form of information.

perhaps helpful things like getting the GST off food of any description, removing the petrol excise would be of benefit to the community?

it appears that the info sent in was pandering to forum users – you subscribe to a forum, so you must play games, type of thing. wrong. I don’t have time, the riot act is my sanity break.

No, the font’s different!

Paul Chamberlain from Greg Tannahill’s campaign sent in the following clarification:

Paul Chamberlain12:38 pm 27 Jul 08

Hi guys, I work with Greg Tannahill’s campaign and I just like to clarify Greg Tannahill’s position on video games and censorship. Greg Tannahill wishes to end censorship and allow Australians to make their own decisions about which video games (and other media) they wish to see. For more information see Greg Tannahill’s gaming blog: http://amongthedust.blogspot.com/2008/07/q-on-game-classification-bad-questions.html

or alternatively his political blog: http://www.GregTannahill-For-Canberra.org

-Paul

blaringmike said :

Video game censorship???

We dont need more uptight, out of touch pollies trying to ban more things. WTF would you put that as your interest???

Arn’t the Democrats suppose to stand for civil rights and peoples own right to make free choices about how they spend their lives?

I think you might find that the reference to video game censorship laws is to make it more lenient but I could be wrong. (Personally I would rather they left these laws alone)

It was a shame to see the demise of the Democrats in the Federal Government arena. It was really downhill for them since Cheryl Kernot defected and we need a strong group of independents or minor parties to keep the B’s honest by scrutinising and ensuring consultation on legislation. This is the only reason that the archaic WorkChoices made it past the Senate – one Party holding the balance of power in both Houses.

I look forward to reading the policies of the Democrats in the ACT.

Probably right caf. The current censorship laws regarding video games are rather silly (according to the guy I got drunk with last night).

Didn’t the demo(n)crats have something to do with making diesel more expensive when GST was introduced?

blaringmike: maybe he’s agin’ it.

Video game censorship???

We dont need more uptight, out of touch pollies trying to ban more things. WTF would you put that as your interest???

Arn’t the Democrats suppose to stand for civil rights and peoples own right to make free choices about how they spend their lives?

Good to see that the Democrats still don’t stand for anything. When is a party going to represent the 80 percent of Canberrans who aren’t low income, unions or business? That party would get my vote.

Hi Darren good on you mob for giving it a go!

Wide Boy Jake12:31 pm 26 Jul 08

*What* Australian Democrats?

So not one of them offering up the usual “law and order” mantra as an interest? I’ll vote for anyone who can deliver tougher and consistent sentencing from the judiciary in this town.

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