26 September 2008

Candidate Questionaires for 26 September

| johnboy
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1. Bonus points go to Dr Alvin Hopper, CAP for Molonglo, the first candidate to answer your questions and return a completed RiotACT candidate questionaire.

Many thanks to him for leading the way.

2. RiotACT regular Mike Crowther, CAP for Ginninderra, is the second cab off the rank.

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Respect to both respondents so far for penning their own responses. I personally don’t care if there is ‘apple pie’ there – could simply be that they are genuine community members who feel the same way about Canberra as most.

UNlike the Stanhopians. I don’t know why Labor say they are ‘committed to building a better city’ – do they live in the same city as me? It’s become so drab and neglected with crap developments like the horrid tower in Woden, the Kingston Foreshore and the fossil fuel power station in Tuggers, all on their watch.

We really need the ‘Independent’ Parties this election, at least they are in touch with the community and not out to build wacky legacies.

Yeah, apple pie is pretty hard to argue against, although Cromwell gave it a bit of a go!

*chuckle*

I would think, though, that it could be difficult to know some stuff like that before one has access to the various departmental advice and resources. So maybe it’s all a bit Catch-22 … ?

However, I am happy to admit complete ignorance of the subject!

Interesting how Dr Hopper would like the speed cameras removed, particularly with how long they took to go in, and they undoubtedly weren’t cheap.

Granny, that’s how apple pie works. Noone’s against it. So candidates trot it out, say they’re in favour of it. And voters think “I agree with this bloke, I should vote for him”.
But for example, if they think the current mob have screwed things up, how *specifically* will they change it? The closest thing to a policy in amongst the responses thus far is the thing about lower payroll tax. But, if they want to lower it, how much will it cost, and what will be cut to cope with that loss of revenue? Specifics might sound like pedantic questions now, but they’re what RiotACT will be arguing about from now until 2012 (or do we have 3 year terms? I can never remember)

Yeah, that’s what happened to me! I read it and thought, “I agree with that!”

*chuckle*

It could maybe just be common sense though. Although if Jon Stanhope said he was against public artworks I don’t think he’d come across as believable somehow ….

; )

But yes, cudos to another response that appears to have been written by the candidate itself.

I read somewhere (probably here), that CAP came across as a group of independents running under the one banner. I think the two responses so far indicate this might be the case. I wonder if this will cause issues down the line with infighting if more than one member gets in?

Didn’t like Mike’s response as much as Alvins. Too much focus on what’s wrong with the current mob (I already know it!) and not enough about how they’ll do thing. He does come across as a straight talker, which is good.

There’s not enough specifics. They support stuff that’s popular. They’re opposed to speed cameras where used for revenue, and too much money spent on dumb artworks by the side of roads. Anyone could say that. There’s not enough that shows what would make them different to any of the 80-odd other candidates. Even Mike Crowther, whose personal bio on the CAP site says he was so saddened by the closure of Cook school says nothing about what he thinks should happen to any of the closed schools.
That’s what I mean Granny. They’re written to make votes read them and think “Oh yeah, I agree with that” without putting their neck on the line about anything.
Having said that, I expected worse. But as voters, we deserve better.
(And as an ALP member, I’ll be putting the same apple pie test to any responses any of my own team decide to submit)

I get the feeling Mike wrote his own reply as well – nice to see some plain speaking from a candidate.

How so, Aurelius?

Less apple pie than expected. But still too much for my liking.

I agree. I thought it was well-written and very sensible.

Not a bad response really. Not that much detail provided (but I guess the responses need to be short) I’m not going to nitpick but generally, it seems more thought out than what we had response wise for the Fed election last year.

One issue with “is committed to ensuring that payroll tax is more equitable and less of a disincentive to present and prospective employers.”

If I recall correctly, the payroll tax exempt threshold in the ACT is quite high and as such, very few SMALL businesses (which CAP wants to encourage) actually pay it.

Well done Alvin. I feel confident you actually wrote that yourself (unlike what I’m expecting from other candidates)!

guys give me a break, we’ve already got too much politics on the front page and you want 86 extra questionaires in the next ~20 days?

Its a compromise, it won’t be perfect, I’m sure you can cope.

Gosh! I’m pretty sure I’ve actually met Alvin.

> I’d prefer to keep the comments on the daily alert page (ie this one) for the purposes of managing them all.

But we have to visit the other post to get the answers in order to comment. Can you put the answers in here?

I’d prefer to keep the comments on the daily alert page (ie this one) for the purposes of managing them all.

No scope for commenting on the submitted answers?

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