17 October 2008

Election Wrap - 17 October

| johnboy
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Right to Life:

Yesterday RiotACT contacted Right to Life offering to run their ad in the Canberra Times for free in order to inform our readers as to which candidates have been judged to have the best anti-abortion credentials.

We still await a reply from them. However we found a copy of the ad in the pub last night so I can inform you that the Right to Life endorsed candidates are:

    James Sizer (CAP)
    Steve Doszpot (Liberal)
    Jane Tullis (CAP)
    Andrea Tokaji (Liberal)
    Richard Mulcahy (Canberra Party)
    Tony Farrell (Independent)
    Frank Pangallo (Pangallo Independents)
    Phil Thompson (Pangallo Independents)

Make of that what you will.

Polling:

The Canberra Times has polling showing Zed’s popularity has slid with the big Z preferred as Chief Minister by 36% (down 4) compared to Stanhope on 43% (up one).

It’s nearly over:

The ABC has a quick recap of the leader’s radio debate and some handy hints for voting.

Liberals:

A lot of you have the hump with Zed’s phone bank message to you last night. Listening to Zed on 666 this morning he thinks it’s great and the complainers need to harden up.

Reports from the field indicate Zed is now SMS spamming in a weird attempt to make friends. The spam directs voters to the somewhat misleadingly named http://www.canberravotes.mobi/. (Thanks to Skidbladnir for the tip)

Labor:

Katy Gallagher reckons there are missing millions in the Liberal health budget.

Simon Corbell is concerned that the Liberals appear to be promising to slash anti-terror resources.

Andrew Barr is lamenting the future of education should the public be foolish enough to vote Liberal.

Jon Stanhope is promising to “encourage” Fibre-to-Home broadband in new developments.

Katy Gallagher thinks micro-credit for ACT women is a good idea. Ten micro credit loans a year… wow.

The Canberra Times is very impressed by the leaderly way Jon Stanhope addressed the Press Club yesterday.

Jon Stanhope says he will realise the long cherished dream of turning Canberra into “the solar capital of Australia”.

The following snippet ran in Crikey today:

    “In a rare move, Federal MP Bob McMullan has personally intervened in the ACT election, writing to Ginninderra residents to ask them to give their first preference to Chris Bourke. Bourke, a dentist and successful small businessman from an indigenous background, is the sort of real-world candidate desperately needed by Labor, which is becoming so in-bred it’s in danger of developing a Hapsburg chin. But because he is factionally non-aligned, he faces an uphill task against hacks like Adina Cirson, whose background consists only of union and ministerial staffing work, but who have the resources of the factions behind them to generate publicity and exploit the resources of government. McMullan is also non-aligned, as is Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.”

Motorists Party:

One Nation on Wheels has promised the Canberra Times that they’ll be “taking a hard line” on Laura Norder with compulsory prison sentences for everything down to assault and any conviction for illict drug use.

Greens:

Shane Rattenbury has been complaining to the ABC that every party’s pretending to be green.

Shane’s also told the ABC that he’s still open to forming Government with the Liberals if they put the right package on the table.

The Green hive mind has issued a statement promising a brave new world if only we voters get behind them.

CAP:

James Sizer reckons CAP’s the alternative.

Owen Saddler has sent in some pictures of what he alleges are a sign thief, as well as what he claims is this election’s smallest flyer.

Field Notes:

Darren Churchill says:

    As the elected member for GINNINDERRA I will:
  • balance economic policy with social and environmental considerations. Good economic management is about getting the balance right. It’s a “triple bottom line;”
  • bring a “balance of responsibility” to the Assembly
  • vote with my conscience on all issues;
  • act to implement neighbourhood consultation groups;
  • maintain the traditional Democrats principle of supporting legislation that is fair and equitable and seek to amend and make fairer that which is not (sensible negotiation);
  • support social spending programmes for affordable housing and quality public transport
  • ensure that whichever party forms the government, they are held accountable for their actions;
  • support industries that create jobs and are kind to the environment,
  • encourage sensible use and management of urban water;
  • encourage and support environmentally sustainable practices in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
  • Keep the Bastards Honest!

Darren Churchill
President, ACT Democrats
Candidate for Ginninderra
www.act.democrats.org.au
darrenchurchill.wordpress.com
darren.churchill@act.democrats.org.au
0412 196 473

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Spectra said :

Listening to Zed on 666 this morning he thinks it’s great and the complainers need to harden up.

Wow – way to placate all the potential voters you cheesed off, Zeddy boy. For someone who can’t stop calling Stanhope arrogant (a claim I’m not necessarily disputing, by the way), this doesn’t exactly come off as humble…

I was paraphrasing, but that’s certainly what I took to be his message.

Apparently disturbing your evening and stealing 30 seconds of your time is his democractic right.

Listening to Zed on 666 this morning he thinks it’s great and the complainers need to harden up.

Wow – way to placate all the potential voters you cheesed off, Zeddy boy. For someone who can’t stop calling Stanhope arrogant (a claim I’m not necessarily disputing, by the way), this doesn’t exactly come off as humble…

We’re fairly new to Canberra.

I didn’t try Isabella plains – didn’t know they existed!

Yes – it is the Costello connection that deeply troubles me. I have this vision for Canberra where we lead the way regarding sustainability and put in place initiatives for the rest of Australia to follow. Make sustainability our focus and a key factor in all new development, government buildings, government vehicles etc. Setthe example and lead the way. Every single home having water tanks, solar panels and insulation would be an excellent, excellent start. Never gonna happen though.

PickedANickname2:55 pm 17 Oct 08

Isabella Plains will take children walk ins and they are bulk billed.

The Lanyon DR has done that for my son too.

Did you child have a fever? Or just miserable?

Deezagood – ActewAGL is a joint venture between Actew and AGL. AGL is a publicly listed company, but ACTEW is wholly owned by the ACT Government – the shareholders are the Chief Minister and Treasurer on behalf of all of us. As was demonstrated in the Rhodium scandal (another ACT company), neither of the shareholders actually bother exercising their roles or responsibilities. So yes, they are in bed together, but it shouldn’t stop them exercising their rights as owners to get ActewAGL to do the things they want – changing the board and the CEO would be an excellent start.

> Justbands – I need the name of your clinic! Southside? We were at Wanniasa … but of course that clinic is now closed and nowehere seems to be taking new patients

I go to Fisher Family Practice. I’m not fussy about which Doctor I see (they are all fine).

justbands said :

Fair enough. Sometimes I think I’m the only person in Canberra who’s only had good experiences with our health system. Once I couldn’t get a same day appointment with my GP, so booked in for the following morning…that’s as bad as it’s ever been for me.

Nope, same for me. The health crisis im always hearing about must duck out for a smoko every time i need a doctor. Last week I went to a doctor at woden without an appointment and walked out with my prescription less than 30 minutes later.

Justbands – I need the name of your clinic! Southside? We were at Wanniasa … but of course that clinic is now closed and nowehere seems to be taking new patients.

Fair enough. Sometimes I think I’m the only person in Canberra who’s only had good experiences with our health system. Once I couldn’t get a same day appointment with my GP, so booked in for the following morning…that’s as bad as it’s ever been for me.

D-man, I don’t feel that we are exactly spoiled for choice… but I know who I won’t be voting for!

Justbands – it wasn’t an ’emergency’. That I should have to use the already exhausted ER service is exactly what is wrong with Canberra’s healthcare.

That terrible, it really is. Next time though…small child with wheezing & a chest infection? Take her to Canberra Hospital, mention the word “asthma” & get immediate care.

deezagood said :

Stanhope is all powerful and has used this to his full advantage. He needs a lesson.

So who will you be voting for then?

My little girl woke up this morning with a shocking chest infection and wheezing. I tried to get her into a doctor and couldn’t – not a single appointment available anywhere on the southside (I tried numerous clinics). So – we had to wait for hours at the Phillip walk in clinic, with my very sick little person coughing and wheezing. That is unacceptable; how can people accept that this is good healthcare? Everywhere else that I have lived it was possible to make same-day appointments (especially with a sick child) at the clinic of your choosing. I can’t fathom that Canberrans accept this.

Stanhope has lied, blatantly, regarding the power station fiasco. His lies are well documented. He has run roughshod over communities and failed to engage them – early – in the decision-making process (a hallmark of good consultation) on a range of issues. That is what makes community groups so irrate – the sense of utter powerlessness.

Canberra will never have good environmental policies whilst ACTewAGL is in-bed with the Labor government. Any advances made in making the ACT more sustainable (solar panels for all, water tanks for all, insulation for all) will ultimately significantly reduce ACTew’s profits, so why on earth would the Labor government embrace these initiatives? They have had eight years to do the things they said they would – eight years.

Stanhope is all powerful and has used this to his full advantage. He needs a lesson.

For a christian he is a very nasty vindictive man.

for a christian, this would be about par for the course, no? but then, you just don’t expect the spanish inquisition, do you…

separation of state and church has a solid foundation.

You’ve got to take out school closures votes – all 65 of them (or so I was told). That would leave the Greens voting more with Labor once that single-issue is taken out.

Oddly enough, opposing school closures would usually have been on Labor’s side, but who said this was a Labor Party anymore? I’ll vote Labor when there is one.

Deadmandrinking1:50 pm 17 Oct 08

I think that was probably the liberals being in opposition factor…which means their going to automatically vote against labor a lot of the time. The numbers would probably be opposite if the liberals had been in government then.

Of course the greens are traditionally going to be closer to labor than liberal…but there’s still enough differences to keep labor in check.

Woody Mann-Caruso1:46 pm 17 Oct 08

Points out, even.

Woody Mann-Caruso1:46 pm 17 Oct 08

An interesting tidbit in the City News (yes, I’m bored):

Dianne Anderson asks voters not to vote for the Greens because they “have shown themselves to be more aligned to Labor than Liberal policies.” Immediately above is a letter from Deb Foskey who pointing out that over three years as the lone crossbench MLA she voted with Labor 101 times and with the Liberals 116 times, voting 13 times alone (whatever that means – a “you can all get stuffed” vote?)

School closures: P&C Council reported the statement before the last election. i believe they felt pretty let down pretty quickly.

So there’s another lie about school closures? That’s a surprise. Give me Ros Kelly and her whiteboard any day. At least she owned up to it.

Pratt and Dunne were on the tele last night – ABC I think. Haven’t seen Burke for ages.

Deadmandrinking1:03 pm 17 Oct 08

jakez said :

Deadman: They really aren’t a single issue party, and that’s the problem. All of their policies outside of motorist related issues are spectacularly frightening.

That’s why I said single-issue. Outside motorist related issues, it’s not really policy more than brain juice out the nose. Hence the single-issue name – which is about the only policy area where they know they’ll recieve any credibility.

I mean…mandatory sentencing. Gee, that worked. The Crime rate is so low in the NT now. And the ACT really is at the rate that the NT was before mandatory sentencing. The Crimes just must be very bad at reporting this stuff. And I believe in fairies. And Mike Crowther.

Ah, of course, semantics…

Nail on the head right there.
Stanhope in his arguments, relies heavily on an audience’s semantic (gist) memory of events, rather than episodic (specific) memory.
He’ll only make specific reference to an event when its useful, but will otherwise speak in broad terms or weasel words.

Zed has yet again fallen into a trap of attacking Stanhope on a broad front, instead of on specifics.
Stanhope didn’t use advantage to lead the ACT Liberal Party to where it is today by attacking everywhere well, just on the specific key issues that the electorate felt strongly about.
If anyone were going to replace him, its been shown to be a valid tactic periously, so has a fair chance of working within the same political ecosystem again.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me from my (irregular) viewing of WIN news, as well as the occasional perusal of the Crimes that the neither Dunne, Pratt and Burke have had a single run in the media the entire campaign. Could this be true?

Deadman: They really aren’t a single issue party, and that’s the problem. All of their policies outside of motorist related issues are spectacularly frightening.

Deadmandrinking12:25 pm 17 Oct 08

Motorists Party – really a single issue party. I won’t be letting these idiots anywhere behind the wheels of government if I can help it.

johnboy said :

My understanding is he said that stuff Katy might have promised wasn’t binding on him.

I just realised – is he accusing Katy of a broken promise?

Andrew Barr has posted in response to my look at live music policies…

http://littlesmoke.com/newjb/?p=148

You’re playing Chinese whispers, people.
Find a copy, decide for yourselves.

“You are kidding, aren’t you?”

There isn’t a transcript yet (if one will be produced at all), but I hope others who listened to it can back me up.

Stanhope was basically telling Zed to prove he had made such a promise. Zed referred to both a party spokeperson and Katy Gallagher being quoted in the Crimes and Stanhope said that wasn’t him. That’s more or less how it went; happy for it to be elaborated upon.

My understanding is he said that stuff Katy might have promised wasn’t binding on him.

amarooresident12:02 pm 17 Oct 08

don’t think he did – just didn’t say they might close schools.

I think he said something like how it was part of an advertising package presented to
Labor. Presumably the package would have also included traditional advertising.

“he has an amazing history of not getting called out on equivocations”

True! This morning he was also saying that he didn’t promise no school closures prior to the last election (even though his government said it).

PM said :

the stick-on ad the other day, stating it was the Crimes’ idea…

I would be _very_ insterested to read his phrasing of that one, as its an on-the-record statement from their Party Leader, and he has an amazing history of not getting called out on equivocations.

Perhaps the focus on Labor, Liberal and Greens policies is because those parties managed to get candidates elected at the previous election?

amarooresident said :

I’m not one to defend the CT, as I think it has gone down hill in recent years

Not suprisingly, Stanhope was on 666 this morning claiming it was the best newspaper in the country! This was in the same breath as not claiming responsibility for the stick-on ad the other day, stating it was the Crimes’ idea…

amarooresident11:31 am 17 Oct 08

I’m not one to defend the CT, as I think it has gone down hill in recent years but they do have limited space in the print addition and have to make a judgement call about what they cover and the main game is obviously the major parties and the greens.

What has disappointed me is that this election was an ideal opportunity for the CT to ramp up their online election coverage which they could have used to cover all the parties running as well as build their online presence. That their site continues to be so shitty in such an IT literate town astounds me.

It is good to highlight this issue. I’m astounded by the numbers of figures in public life who hold “pro-life” (forced birth) views, but don’t have teh courage to admit to them unless pushed. If they know that their views are unpopular with so many, why do they seek to sneak into public office and apply them in law-making? it is very dishonest. It’s also slightly weird.

amarooresident11:21 am 17 Oct 08

Hey jakez,

Make sure you keep us all informed on your supposed termination with extreme prejudice from the Libs. Would love to see it played live on these pages.

Fight the Power man!

Just Bands has had a quick look at candidates policies as they relate to live music…

http://littlesmoke.com/newjb/?p=148

I’m glad someone’s liked them Miz.

BarryF said :

Hey Jakez – can you feel that hot breath on the back of your neck, it’s going to be Steven Doyle (Zed’s Chief of Staff) about to punch your lights out. He was apparantly overheard in campaign head quarters saying, when this election is over I’ll crack open jakez head.

Nothing to worry about, cause you probably won’t see it coming.

So are you going to post this in every thread I post in?

Stalked and threatened and it’s not even 11am. Today is going to be a good day.

Interesting that the CT has pretty well ignored the smaller parties like CAP, Pangallo independents, Motorists, and has mainly focused on the Greens as the only existing alternative to the major parties. NO wonder the Greens appear to be the beneficiaries of a huge swing.

The CT perhaps should review their coverage. The other minor parties have been releasing policy but it appears to have been largely ignored, which is a pity – in this election more than ever, people want to know about the alternatives.

Luckily, RiotACT has been very even handed and got the info out there. Thank you for your excellent daily election wrap postings JB and co.

So if that is a sign thief in Owen’s photo – he’s a bit stupid to get photographed doing it.

utah said :

Yesterday RiotACT contacted Right to Life offering to run their ad in the Canberra Times for free…
That’s an odd thing to do. Is the Riot-Act pro-life?

We just think the endorsement is a matter of great interest to voters on both sides of the argument.

Yesterday RiotACT contacted Right to Life offering to run their ad in the Canberra Times for free…
That’s an odd thing to do. Is the Riot-Act pro-life?

Hey Jakez – can you feel that hot breath on the back of your neck, it’s going to be Steven Doyle (Zed’s Chief of Staff) about to punch your lights out. He was apparantly overheard in campaign head quarters saying, when this election is over I’ll crack open jakez head.

Nothing to worry about, cause you probably won’t see it coming.

Sammy said :

Mulcahy is only happy if people are allowed to be born, and are then subsequently killed by tobacco.

He should at least vote for Euthanasia so those people who smoke can die peacefully.
For a christian he is a very nasty vindictive man.

I see Giulia is in the poo over a print scandal. About time this stuff came out as weel as her affiliation to the anti abortion feminist organisation Womens Forum Australia.
WFA does not represent women’s interests, they represent their own interests.

Thank you for the link election08 http:/unbelief.org/articles/melinda-tankard-reist/

This explains alot about Giulia. Right wing nutters.

Mulcahy is only happy if people are allowed to be born, and are then subsequently killed by tobacco.

amarooresident said :

That Right to Life list is a bit odd. I would have thought Zed, Vicki Dunne and the burke would have made it.

Zed and Vicki not being on the list is definitely a surprise. And Giulia Jones for that matter….

They are mentioned in the ad as having voted the right way in the past. I imagine they probably didn’t fill out the questionnaire.

I want to thank Right to Life. That ad gave me a great wealth of information on who not to vote for.

amarooresident10:06 am 17 Oct 08

That Right to Life list is a bit odd. I would have thought Zed, Vicki Dunne and the burke would have made it.

PM said :

“We’d ask you to vote for us, but we’re not convinced government should exist” 🙂

HAHAHAHA I love it.

“We’d ask you to vote for us, but we’re not convinced government should exist” 🙂

I think the Liberal Democratic Party should steal that line.

I’m not sure if it would be exactly true most of the time, but they should still steal it.

I like a party that has a sense of humour: “If you knew we existed you’d want to vote for us”!

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