22 January 2010

And now Annette Ellis falls

| johnboy
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Chief Minister Stanhope today pays tribute to the Member for Tuggeranong Canberra Annette Ellis who is also heading off into the sunset.

“Ms Ellis has always had a great passion for and enthusiasm for her city and its people, and has served ably and conscientiously in public life, first as a Member of the Legislative Assembly and later as the federal Member for Canberra,” Mr Stanhope said today.

“The hallmark of her political style has always been her approachability. She once said that when planning a trip grocery shopping she would always allow two hours. She understood implicitly that being available to her constituents – even when filling a shopping trolley – was part and parcel of being a genuine and successful local member.

I’m not entirely sure that I’d want to end public life with my most noteworthy contribution having been leaving enough time for a chinwag while shopping.

The political landscape in Canberra is starting to look eerily unfamiliar.

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Ellis is a nice enough person but has been coasting along. We need someone much more active who will push for a better deal for ACT constituents rather than toeing the Party line. A good Independent with a chance of being part of a balance-of-power play would be the best outcome.

amelie said :

A noisy noise annoys an oyster

What?

A noisy noise annoys an oyster, you just pasted your comment straight out of the crimes editorial, no?

Clown Killer11:00 am 27 Jan 10

Got any facts to back up that inarguably biased opinion?

It’s called caucus. The simple fact that all Labor MPs are required to espouse the views and opinions of the party machine – without exception – means that what’s good for Canberra voters is never going to be the same as what’s good for advancing the socialst ideaology of the Labor Party.

In your rush to apologise for the Labour party, you shouldn’t confuse the absence of quality oposition candidates with support for the Labor party.

MessyMonster10:54 am 27 Jan 10

Clown Killer – exactly! no party hacks for me!! this vote could be tricky….where is an independent??? – an independent who is a Canberra rate-payer who thinks we get screwed with roads etc because of the debacle over the NCA versus ACTPLA, and as a consequence all the dead trees don’t get removed, and we have dead kangaroos on the sides of the roads that don’t get cleared…I think our parliamentary zone is embarrassing…anyone else agree?? An independent vote would certainly shift the power nicely in terms of some much needed pork barelling!

MessyMonster it won’t hep us be a marginal seat if everyone just votes for random people based on personal reasoning. It needs people to vote en masse for the most likely non-labor candidate. At least this election might be a bit more interesting for us than the last few anyway.

Labor must have a bit of depth in the ranks if they are getting rid of solid performers. By the end the Libs had run out of remotely serious contenders for portfolios, let alone seats.

Clown Killer said :

By definition that’s going to rule out an ALP candidate who’s views and opinions are given to them by backroom party hacks and based on policical expediency rather than any desire to serve the community that elected and pay for them.

Got any facts to back up that inarguably biased opinion?

Clown Killer8:41 am 27 Jan 10

Areaman, I think the crucial part of what messy said was:

… they need to understand our public schools, and the shamble that is the Canberra hospital, otherwise they have no idea of the realities!

By definition that’s going to rule out an ALP candidate who’s views and opinions are given to them by backroom party hacks and based on policical expediency rather than any desire to serve the community that elected and pay for them.

Even if that’s the ALP candidate MessyMonster?

MessyMonster4:24 pm 26 Jan 10

OK, I signed up to RiotAct just so I could comment on this! Seriously all – can’t we see what is going on here! Senior ALP must have given Annette and Bob the cold shoulder, knowing that this election would be another shoe-in for them, and then we could be foisted with two new faces who would be solidly entrenched before anyone else could come along about the time a swing might have a chance! I’m with everyone who says let’s make it marginal -!! go marginal…..but to me after the whole ACT election – that doesn’t mean Greens, wasn’t it just the Greens preferences in the last election that elected Annette anyway?? I’m going to vote for whicheven candidate has actually lived here the longest, to me, they need to understand our public schools, and the shamble that is the Canberra hospital, otherwise they have no idea of the realities!

ALP bashing aside …

The CT news today was that the national machine decided last year that Bob and Annette would go.

The chosen replacements could well be some well-connected local blokes/gals, who are staying very quiet right now, and the kerfuffle about parachuting in candidates is just a scripted tiff. Only those wanna-be candidates who don’t know the answer are still trying. Like it would make any difference to Canberra anyway.

Thumper’s guinea pig proposal also has some merit, but it would have to be an 18+ year old Australian guinea pig.

Clown killer, you will never convince people that rudd is a goose, as they are generally so uneducated in any area if policy that the odd favourable head line for rudd is all that sinks in. I agree Rudd is a major dud, what happened to health reform. A friend of a friend waited 14 hours in emergancy in Canberra last week. Wasn’t rudd going to fix that up within the first 18 months of government? The schools funding is a huge bungle, I can see why Canberra Grammar school needs a new library or what ever they built. I mean they only earn more than most banana republics.

But Rudd is great at getting a good headline or news grab and unfortunatly that is as far as most people look into any issue that does not effect them very directly

Clown Killer said :

Sure there’s a handful of dyed-in-the-wool labor bum-sniffers who still think Rudds sh!t smells like roses, but in the real world even the rusted on MPs are starting to smell the stence

Unsurprisingly every single opinion poll strongly disagrees.

Clown Killer6:19 pm 24 Jan 10

How about some examples? The fact that we survived the GFC way better than any other developed country shows how wrong you are.

That you actually think that the Labor government had anything to do with the fact that Australia managed to get this far without going in recession show’s how wrong you are areaman. The Rudd governments involvement in saving our bacon was token at best. He may as well have promised to change the weather (… come to think of it he did – and failed … but we’ll get back to that …)

Examples? Botching economic stimulus so badly that at the micro level schools with a gymnasium and no library were forced to build another gymnasium and at the macro level the Reserve Bank was forced to pump up interest rates to try and reign in inflation.

Climate change – wasn’t that tha single biggest issue facing Australia in the 21st century? Fcuk! Rudd couldn’t even convince the Coalitiuon to support it’s own emmissions trading scheme it spend a decade developing and refining … and that was all before making a complete goose of himself at Copenhagen … FAIL.

Health reform … FAILURE. Water reform and improving the management of the Murray Darling basin … FAILURE. Education … Hell, even the Unions are calling for blood! lets write than one down as a … FAILURE.

Sure there’s a handful of dyed-in-the-wool labor bum-sniffers who still think Rudds sh!t smells like roses, but in the real world even the rusted on MPs are starting to smell the stench … I guess McMullan and Ellis are just a little smarter than the rest of them.

GardeningGirl5:15 pm 24 Jan 10

I rang her office and spoke to a staffer once, got no interest and no suggestions on anyone else to try regarding the issue I wanted to raise.

I never thought about Kalamity Kate – yep, she would still have enough mojo to give the ALP a good run.

dudelookslikealady6:28 pm 23 Jan 10

i’ll probably vote for kerrie again but i wish ALP would just bite the bullet and get rid of lundy ….

she talks and talks and talks but never actually does anything to help canberra … i want a politician who will actually do things … no hope i know but i can dream cant i??

Kate Carnell could stir a bit of interest too.

“Further, she is a breast cancer survivor – and she did not retire when she had it, which shows serious commitment to Canberrans.”

I’ll find you a dozen cancer survivors at my work who are still there. The point is moot. There are thoudands of people with cancer who are gainfully employed and entirely committed to their work.

She did nothing and was as quiet as a mouse. Yes, she went to a lot of functions……and catering staff quivered at the mention of her name

Yep, agree that Kerrie Tucker would be a good chance of making one of these seats marginal at least, and with an outside chance of getting up. Not too many other potential non-ALP candidates fit that bill.

sepi said :

I hope Kerrie Tucker stands.

+1

Noone has said they would blindly vote for Any woman.

I hope Kerrie Tucker stands. I thought she didnt’ run in the local election cos she was saving herself for Federal?

She has a good following, and did really well in the ACT govt.

I hope Labor don’t just coast in. I will put my hand up as a labor voter who isn’t going to vote for them next time.

I thought Annette was a good member – she went to a lot of community functions and mixed with the people. She was genuinely likable and friendly. And she achieved way more than Senator Margaret Reid (who was in for years and did Buckleys).

She also advocated strongly to retain Medicare when Howard was still PM and trying to shaft it.

Further, she is a breast cancer survivor – and she did not retire when she had it, which shows serious commitment to Canberrans.

She was also good at helping constituents negotiate the bureaucracy about their issues (eg I have several friends and acquaintances who state she helped them with Centrelink/childcare rebate/family payment issues – it can be really hard to fight a crappy government department decision alone).

She has served the people in the Opposition for many years – which must have been a trial – and has now been able to enjoy being a Government Member for a bit. I reckon she has earned her retirement.

Seems to me that both local Senators (Humphreys -Lib and Lundy – Lab) are very active on behalf of Canberrans and I would hate to see either of them lose their parliamentary pozzies.

On the flipside, I dislike most of the current local ACT Govt due to their sheer ineptitude. If they can’t get roads rates and rubbish right, I hate to think what they would do with far more responsibility (and moolah) at Cth level.

A Noisy Noise Annoys An Oyster1:22 pm 23 Jan 10

squashee said :

Are you serious Clown Killer?? “Too old to work for re-election”…

You are talking about two seats which are enormously SAFE. They do not have to work for re-election at all. It is like getting the number one spot on the senate ticket – guaranteed to get in. The Canberra public-servent based community will never elect a Coalition member.

It’s not unheard of for a Coalition member to be elected to a lower house seat here. Remember Brendan Smyth was elected in a by-election in March 1995 with a record swing. John Haslem was elected in the Fraser landslide of 1975 following the dismissal of Gough. He was re-elected in 1977. In the case of Brendan Smyth he lost his seat in the general election of 1996 when the Keating government gerrymandered the territory by creating an extra seat called Namadgi. The inner south and Lib leaning suburbs in Woden(Red Hill, Forrest, Duntroon, Farrer etc) were hived off and Smyth had to compete against Ellis in a Tuggeranong based seat (a dog-leg was created so the Lib-leaning area of Pearce was included in Namadgi). Despite the national swing to the Libs (which saw Howard elected) Ellis won by a handful of votes. The new seat was abolished before the 1998 election and the old boundaries were put back into place by which time Ellis was able to gain a following and win reelection.

If we were facing a by-election in Canberra the Libs might have a chance, but since both McMullan and Ellis are retiring at the next fed poll it looks like the status quo of two safe Labor seats will be retained.

Jean Mc said :

The ALP is too stupid to replace a popular local WOMAN candidate with another woman.

How is blindly voting for someone because she is a woman any different than blindly voting for someone because they have been foisted upon us by a party? What if they parachute Belinda Neal in?

A party hack is a party hack. I’ve had a gutful of these Pavlovian robots whose chief skill is to say and do nothing without orders and whose only virtue is loyalty to the machine that put them there.

Lundy at least has a bit of a think and modified her views on the great Conroy Firewall to something a bit saner, whether that puts her in jeopardy or not remains to be seen. She does seem to know her stuff in the IT sphere better than most other politicians & not being in her sixties should be a plus.

If the Cbr Times is accurate and Cooney gets preselection for Canberra, I know many ALP women who would happily campaign against him, he has more than Latham baggage, he has very special (read Abbott like) views on women and their place, frankly Canberra deserves better.

Given the ACT’s chronic under-representation in the Australian parliament someone or two capable of being a minister might not be a bad thing

Astrojax said

‘actually, with the complete disaster that is the coalition there seems little hope of odds shorter than several kazillion to one on the labour [barely-]gov’t ‘

You mean we have a LABOR government? Holy crap I thought John has just retired and handed the baton of Liberal-ism (Coalition-ism) to Kevvie. Damn.

I think making the two canberra seats marginal is a great idea, Look at what they get over the boarder in Eden Monaro, the bell weather seat. If Fraser and canberra were more marginal we might get pollies that actually care. The two seats are so safe that a “drovers dog” could win them at the next election, so it is lilky the NSW Right Faction will place two people in the seats, thi sis the faction that gave rudd the leadership, so I would think that they will want all the numbers they can get.

Rudd is not overly Popular within Labor so i guess he will place people in seats that he thinks will lokk after him.

Labor will win the next election with rudd at the top but if during the next term his personal opion polls show people starting to dislike him the Big red will have a real tilt at the top job and she will probably get a lot of support.

I think she represented Canberra people well. Took a f%#kload of taxpayers’ money to do nothing. She would not have got reelected if she started advocating for a more efficient public service and lower taxes.

The ALP is too stupid to replace a popular local WOMAN candidate with another woman. You only have to watch Annette Ellis in a shopping centre to see how the electorate (especially the women) loves her.

Here’s my prediction (safe seat or not).

The ALP puts up some male staffer or union official who the heavy blokes agree has done his time. They all slap each other on the back at what a good job they’ve done – serving their cause.

The Greens see what’s happened and find a good local woman who’s well connected in the Canberra electorate and run a shoestring grass roots campaign – focusing on the women of Canberra.

The women of Canberra (who like to vote for women) vote in the Green woman and Labor loses its ‘Safe’ seat.

I say – bring it on boys!

squashee said :

What all Australians need is to stop voting for the one party all their life and vote for the best person and party at the specific time.

Nice idea, but we don’t tend to do that, do we. Look at the NSW Government. Fabulously inept, almost openly corrupt, yet they still scored 52% in the last election.

We get what we deserve.

Gungahlin Al9:41 pm 22 Jan 10

Grail said :

Can anyone who has actually had some interaction with Annette comment on this thread?

I saw her on TV News once. Only once.

They showed footage of her on WIN tonight saying she’s not standing at the next election. I thought that was a comment on her girth, as she’s that big she’d have to sit or roll at the next election.

Just worked out who ate all the pies anyway

“Can anyone who has actually had some interaction with Annette comment on this thread?”

This made me laugh.

When Bob announced his retirement the other day a girl I work with asked who he was – kind of speaks for itself.

Heard someone on the radio the other day saying ‘he was interested in the seat’ – as if its something to be given, not something to be earned or worked for.

It’s about time we got local members who are visible in the community.

maybe krudd will be next? or will julia blink first??

actually, with the complete disaster that is the coalition there seems little hope of odds shorter than several kazillion to one on the labour [barely-]gov’t not being re-elected this year, but really, surely a small constituency like the act could have a whisper in one of either bob or annette’s shell-like and ensure there isn’t complete chaos in a whole territory on the run into an election… someone’s faarked up and there will be blood spilt (albeit, doubtless, quietly).

We can only hope that the next one doesn’t feel the same overwhelming need to produce newsletters…

Tap tap tap……

Ha ha ha ha. Another one bites the dust. Me thinks the PM wants new blood…..

What do we want? A marginal seat! When do we want it? ummmm… maybe next election….

One can only hope…. It’s the only way to get your local representative to actually do something. Keep them in fear of loosing their job always works wonders…. certainly does for the average employee. Good enough for the common person, good enough for these idiot politicians.

Felix the Cat6:51 pm 22 Jan 10

Meh…out with the old crooks and in with the new.

moneypenny26126:49 pm 22 Jan 10

FWIW there was a rumour published in today’s Crikey email, to wit:

“Overheard in a civic restaurant, ALP heavies from national executives have been ordered by Kevin Rudd to fill all ACT positions, including Annette Ellis, Kate Lundy …”

On the money re: Ellis.

I’d be disappointed though if Lundy was shafted (although I do wish she’d cross the floor when the ACT’s interests are at stake)

Are you serious Clown Killer?? “Too old to work for re-election”…

You are talking about two seats which are enormously SAFE. They do not have to work for re-election at all. It is like getting the number one spot on the senate ticket – guaranteed to get in. The Canberra public-servent based community will never elect a Coalition member. As a result we are going to get another career politician put in each of the seats, with no experience of real life. They will not be high priorities for Cabinet positions because they will not need to show any special talents or hard work to keep their seats.

What all Australians need is to stop voting for the one party all their life and vote for the best person and party at the specific time. That way no seat would be safe and politicians would have to actually work for their money. Too many are very complacent.

To answer Grails question…was she approachable or represent the seat of Canberra well in Parliament – I would have to answer no. My husband and I approached her a few years ago now regarding an issue that we had with the Child Support Agency and sought her assistance in getting some action. After chasing her and her advisor up a number of times we gave up and got in to see the Minister at the time, (Joe Hockey). Regardless of whether they were busy at the time or not, they failed to listen, respond or act in any way, not even a “I don’t think we can help”. In fact I recall that they were rather off hand when we asked if they were going to actually try and do anything. It certainly seemed to me that she had an easy ride in that seat. Not sorry to see her go.

And in Parliament…I can’t recall ever hearing or seeing Annette Ellis stand up and give a speech. Maybe someone should check the records.

Clown Killer said :

Ruddland would appear to be coming apart at the seams. A cavalcade of abysmal policy failures, ineptitude and inaction, economic mismanagement and even the most hardened, longest serving Labour MPs can see the writing on the wall.

How about some examples? The fact that we survived the GFC way better than any other developed country shows how wrong you are.

Bob and Annette have been in parliament for a long time so them saying they aren’t going to re-contest isn’t really much of a shock. That being said, it looks a bit like a factional deal having them both announce it so close to each other.

Cleansing complete. Hopefully now we can put the brush through and make them marginal seats instead of people blindly voting for the incumbent who does nothing.

Clown Killer3:49 pm 22 Jan 10

No long bow at all.

Ruddland would appear to be coming apart at the seams. A cavalcade of abysmal policy failures, ineptitude and inaction, economic mismanagement and even the most hardened, longest serving Labour MPs can see the writing on the wall.

Ellis and McMullan have simply lifted their snouts from the trough, had a look around and realised that they’re probably getting too old to actually have to work for re-election – hence they’re choosing the coward’s way out.

Clown Killer said :

Don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out Annette …

It’s starting to get pretty obvious that things are not at all going well in Ruddland.

You are drawing an exceptionally long bow there. Two long standing parliamentarians retire and suddenly you think its to do with leadership etc. I think its more to do with both people seeing that they have done all they can do in public life and its time to move on.

ghughes said :

It would be good to see John Hargreaves make the move up the hill.

I hope that was I interpreted it, tongue firmly planted in cheek.

ghughes said :

It would be good to see John Hargreaves make the move up the hill.

In order to get rid of him?

ahappychappy3:03 pm 22 Jan 10

Clown Killer said :

It’s starting to get pretty obvious that things are not at all going well in Ruddland.

I don’t see your connection. This stuff happens all the time, no need to throw a hopeful opinion in.

It would be good to see John Hargreaves make the move up the hill.

I’m not sure I understand why allowing time for people on the street to have a chinwag with their local Federal Member is a bad thing.

Can anyone who has actually had some interaction with Annette comment on this thread? Was she actually approachable? Did she actually represent the seat Canberra to parliament?

I wouldn’t be so happy to see her go, knowing full well that she’s just going to be replaced with another politician.

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Clown Killer said :

It’s starting to get pretty obvious that things are not at all going well in Ruddland.

I don’t see the connection, apart from perhaps wishful thinking.

McMullan and now Ellis gone – things are looking up!

I just read Stanhope’s drivel – who writes that crap? Does this even make sense – “Ms Ellis’s great policy passions in public life involving helping the most vulnerable in our community – those with disabilities, and older Canberrans in need of support and care.”

Clown Killer1:05 pm 22 Jan 10

Don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out Annette …

It’s starting to get pretty obvious that things are not at all going well in Ruddland.

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