25 September 2008

Election Wrap - 25 September

| johnboy
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Zed Bartlett-gate:

Walter really kicked something off when he wrote in about listening to Zed Seselja cribbing West Wing scripts.

First Crikey picked it up, then JJJ breakfast gave it a run, neglecting to mention us (perhaps as part of our on-going blood feud with Marieke Hardy, but as the CT had it first we shan’t complain).

Now the SMH has picked it up for our first print mention in that august broadsheet.

So thanks Zed! It’s much appreciated. I for one would like to see more West Wing cribbed because well, the local standard of speechwriting is frankly diabolical. I offer as an example Jon Stanhope at the CMC launch.

Signage:

PeterH sent in the following observation:

    On my way to work this morning, I noticed that there were several signs for Mick Gentleman on the side of the road. what was surprising was the truck with Mick Gentleman’s details emblazoned all over it. It was parked behind the signs, perhaps to guard them from being taken by the ACT Govt?

    Getting pretty bad when they have to avoid reclaiming the signs after they are confiscated by having someone watching them closely. would have taken a photo (sorry) but the copper beside me wouldn’t have been impressed, I am sure….

I saw Jacqui Meyers big truck camped by her signs on Belconnen Way this morning, although it could just have been maintenance.

Spending:

The Canberra Times reports that so far Labor has promised $318 million in extra spending compared with Liberal pledges of $224 million.

How they’re going to pay for it when the revenue flow on from a nose-diving real estate sector comes through is a question best not asked.

The Draw:

The ABC reports that there are 86 candidates running at this election. (Still no word on who they are.)

Apparently the Libs can be found on the extreme edges of the ballot paper this time around.

Labor:

The ALP is committed to a new code of conduct for retirement villages. It seems the grey vote is the new Gungahlin.

Mary Porter is up in arms that the youthful Zed Seselja is not more respectful to his elders and betters. Apparently he sent Vicki Dunne to an aged care forum that was expecting him.

Katy Gallagher is promising $21.9 million for chronic disease and early prevention.

Simon Corbell says he will launch a legislative crusade against the scourge of sex-slavery in our otherwise fair city.

The ALP has released a lengthy document laying out why they think a Liberal Government would be an economic disaster.

Simon Corbell has found another $1.5 million for linking private CCTV networks and “forge new alliances with business to improve community safety”.

CAP:

Roger Nicoll is suggesting that our health woes can be solved by “a community-driven health approach”.

Norvan Vogt explains why he and the CAP can’t be bothered messing about with how to vote cards. It’s all to do with their respect for you the voter apparently, and nothing to do with it being hard work while ineffective.

James Sizer has sketched some broad brush strokes on carers, the aged, and “people with a disability”.

Liberals:

The ABC notes that Zed thinks Labor’s promised centre of cancer excellence is too far off in the future.

Greens:

Shane Rattenbury promises free water efficiency measures for households if the Greens get enough members to make a difference in the next Assembly.

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I was quoting the numbers in the paper, don’t whine to me about it.

Yep – people who can’t distinguish between capital costs and recurrent costs really shouldn’t be holding political office or making policy … unfortunately people have a tendency to conflate the two all over the place (hence “why are they our spending on that (lowish value one off expense like public artwork, buidling, etc), how many (recurrent high value expenses like doctors and nurses and police) could that pay for?”)

agree with guruJ about the above; tonights abc news had a lot of detail about these figures (they come from treasury)… the gist of it was labor had small surpluses and libs big deficiets; zed disagreed with this analysis but either didn’t put up his own costings or the journo elected not to inform the audience of him doing it. (oh how i wish we had media which didn’t leave me wondering about these things)

johnboy, you’re reporting the wrong figures for “Spending”.

The true figures according to that ABC article are:

Labor
Recurrent … $166m
Capital … $318m
TOTAL … $484m

Liberals
Recurrent … $224m
Capital … $171m
TOTAL … $395m

That extra $58m of recurrent spending by the Liberals is a lot more significant than the capital expenditure, by the way. That indicates an ongoing drag on the ACT’s financial position year-in, year-out, whereas capital spending is a once-off.

And since recurrent spending tends to grow over time (particularly for things like stamp duty cuts which will exponentially increase revenue foregone as house prices continue to rise), pledges in this area need to be monitored much more closely.

Mary Porter’s been fostering the grey vote, retirement village thing for a while. And at a recent meeting told us all that having Vicki Dunne show up to functions when Zed’s expected is actually quite good for her (Mary) because the way Vicki comes across in meetings is very good for the Labor vote.

Gungahlin Al3:07 pm 25 Sep 08

“It seems the grey vote is the new Gungahlin.”

Well that just aint good enough is it?? Gonna have to get me a can of whoop-ass…

Actually issue 109 of Gungahlin Smokesignals should be getting delivered next week, so let’s see if that reminds them all we’re out there. 😉

PS: Zed, you’ve been saying a lot about your opponents’ position on our aquatic complex, but haven’t offered anything up yourself that we’ve seen as yet. You can trump them by simply saying:

“Yes construction will commence within the 2009-10 fiscal year. Yes it will have a 50m, 25m, and toddlers pools, plus gym, as per the current master plans. No we won’t give the whole joint over to private interests on a long-term lease thereby locking us into potentially crappy service with nothing that can be done about it. Plus we will not compromise the development of the whole college precinct by letting the LDA sell off a chunk of the land for a commercial development. We realise that the site is already extremely constrained for what is planned to fit on it, so we’ll ensure the whole site is maintained for community facilities not private developments.”

Cut that out, paste it onto your letterhead, instant policy.

imarty said :

Anybody else see Norvan sitting on Adelaide Ave (near the windmill art installation thingy) yesterday just before 5pm in a deck chair surrounded by his signs?

nope. too busy being hypnotised by the windmill art installation thingy.

Anybody else see Norvan sitting on Adelaide Ave (near the windmill art installation thingy) yesterday just before 5pm in a deck chair surrounded by his signs?

CAP:

Roger Nicoll is suggesting that our health woes can be solved by “a community-driven health approach”.

what like “bring out your dead!”??

Despite leading the way in election promises, Liberal shadow treasurer Brendan Smyth said his party remained committed to promising less than Labor, ”and we will deliver stronger surpluses”.

This is a perfect illustration of the ideological retardation of the Liberal Party. Their platform commitment to ‘small Government’ extends only to being ‘a little bit smaller than the ALP….hopefully’.

Spending:

The Canberra Times reports that so far Labor has promised $318 million in extra spending compared with Liberal pledges of $224 million.

How they’re going to pay for it when the revenue flow on from a nose-diving real estate sector comes through is a question best not asked.

Well that’s a very excited vote for the Libs from me….

Although the CT notes that part of the Libs tally comes from cuts to revenue (the stamp duty policy is all I can think of).

That Mick gentleman has some one guarding his sign probably has more to do with the fact some ones been vandalizing them (I’ve driven past at least 4 of his somebodies ripped apart)

Alternatively he could have just been putting them out for peak hour and taking them down straight after

Finally the city rangers can’t take signs that are up leagally, as has been the case with all the m.g. Ones I’ve seen so far.

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