6 December 2012

Leaky Greens put blow-in Sheikh up against Gazza

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times has inside word that former GetUp! extractor of funds from the trusting Simon Sheikh is going to be the Greens’ Senate candidate at the next Federal election.

The Australian Greens have pre-selected former GetUp! director Simon Sheikh as their ACT Senate candidate.

Greens leader Christine Milne was about to officially announce Mr Sheikh’s candidacy, but Fairfax Media understands the high-profile lobbyist won the three-way contest with an overwhelming majority.

The man who’s been here a few months but thinks he knows Canberra will be an interesting match against the rusted on Liberal Senator Gary Humphries.


UPDATE 06/12/12 11:59 The Greens have now put out their media release:

Former GetUp National Director Simon Sheikh has been selected to run for the Senate, promising to expand on his previous work by fighting hard for the issues affecting Canberra’s communities.

“As a former public servant and a campaigner for the community, I’ve spent my whole life standing up for communities against vested interests in big companies and big political parties,” said Sheikh.

“Despite hosting our nation’s politicians, the Canberra community isn’t heard loudly enough in federal Parliament but I believe that can change,” he said.

ACT Greens Convenor Clare Quinn stressed that Gary Humphries’ Senate seat was winnable for the Greens. “We live in the most marginal Senate seat in the country,” said Ms Quinn.

“If only 1500 people change their vote at the next election, we can stop the threat of Tony Abbott controlling both houses of Parliament and the devastating jobs cuts that would entail. Canberra voters are some of the most powerful in the country”, she continued.

Ms Quinn advised ACT Greens members about preselection results today. She congratulated Julie Melrose as the candidate for Canberra, Adam Verwey for Fraser and Indra Esguerra as the Greens’ support candidate for the Senate.


UPDATE 06/12/12 14:26: Senator Humphries appears to be relishing every opportunity to highlight Simon’s lack of ties to the Canberra Community.

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GardeningGirl said :

LSWCHP said :

Diggety said :

justin heywood said :

The Greens leadership needs a good clean-out. Get rid of all the anti-establishment social engineers and failed socialist dreamers. Replace them with people who are passionate about green (i.e. environmental) issues.

Spot on.

Yep. I’ve voted Green in the past, but they seem to have been taken over by ratbags pushing their assorted agendas under the cover of the “Green” label, so I don’t think I’ll be voting for them again.

Was a time I thought of joining the party, didn’t vote for them last time and it would take a big change (basically as described above) to encourage me to vote for them again.

It’s pretty sad. “The Environment” isn’t some amorphous concept subject only to discussion by philosophers. To me it means “the world I live in, and the world I will leave my children”. So this is important stuff for me and my family and Those Who Will Come After. As a disappointed Labor supporter I’d vote Green all day long if they’d focus on serious environmental isssues, and have some moderate centre left policies on non-Green matters such as Defence. But they’ve allowed themselves to be infiltrated and taken over by nutbags like Lee Rhiannon, so to hell with them.

And as for this Simon Sheikh bloke… mutter… parasite… cynical arseclowns… grumble… parachuted stranger… mumble.. can’t be serious…grizzle… what do they take us for…growl… f*&k!ng politicians all the same colour really…mutter…need more wine to dull the pain…

GardeningGirl5:54 pm 07 Dec 12

LSWCHP said :

Diggety said :

justin heywood said :

The Greens leadership needs a good clean-out. Get rid of all the anti-establishment social engineers and failed socialist dreamers. Replace them with people who are passionate about green (i.e. environmental) issues.

Spot on.

Yep. I’ve voted Green in the past, but they seem to have been taken over by ratbags pushing their assorted agendas under the cover of the “Green” label, so I don’t think I’ll be voting for them again.

Was a time I thought of joining the party, didn’t vote for them last time and it would take a big change (basically as described above) to encourage me to vote for them again.

The Greens are still listing 4 MLAs on their webshite: http://act.greens.org.au/mlas

They are obviously so caught up with Sheikh-mania (and the imminent electoral disaster it will result in) that they have forgotten to update their website as follows:

“The ACT Greens and our Marxist ideology where comprehensively rejected by the ACT people in October 2012, and now we only have Shane who got into bed with ACT Labor just to cling onto some power.”

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

You know, stuff like defence, education, health, foreign affairs, aged care, transport

You mean defence, education, health, foreign affairs, aged care, and transport?

The Defence statement made me laugh – with all the talk of avoiding conflict by talking and holding hands.

How many people died in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s while the UN pussy-footed around talking and feeling good about themselves while the Bosnian Serbs continued to butcher innocent people that the UN was supposed to be protecting?

The Greens are dead as far as I am concerned.

No chance, absolutely no chance. The Greens are in decline in the ACT, have had stagnant growth in party identification through federal two election cycles, and have profited votes from Labor rather than taking them off the right.

Even if he were a stronger candidate, the circumstances would be against him. Blowing in months before and calling himself a Canberran is just the final nail.

Shame is a lot of the Greens candidates are very nice, very smart, and very articulate people. Joining the Greens is their only error.

This is going to be a very good main event if/when we have a three-way debate. If you put Gaza and Lundy together, they both interrupt each other and talk over each other on ABC666. Imagine the three of them going at each other at the same time. Weasel word & spin central station starts now.
Gaza will be sifting through the dirt file on the Sheikh of Shaky Creek. He did make Sophie Mirabella look bad on Q & A as he collapsed and she had the priceless look of contempt for him. A professional politician, like Gaza, knows how to wield the knife on opponents. Steel-capped boots will also be helpful in dispatching the would-be usurper, as he aspires to be a minister in an Abbott Govt.

In 2010, Gaza got 1.0118 quotas and the Greens got 0.6953. This was 33% to 23%.

Mr Sheikh has a huge task ahead but Gaza’s vote has declined. He has been in elected office since 1989.

Holden Caulfield11:33 pm 06 Dec 12

“Sheikh” zomg they’re trying to put a terrorist into Parliament House!

Woody Mann-Caruso10:43 pm 06 Dec 12

You know, stuff like defence, education, health, foreign affairs, aged care, transport

You mean defence, education, health, foreign affairs, aged care, and transport?

Diggety said :

justin heywood said :

The Greens leadership needs a good clean-out. Get rid of all the anti-establishment social engineers and failed socialist dreamers. Replace them with people who are passionate about green (i.e. environmental) issues.

Spot on.

Yep. I’ve voted Green in the past, but they seem to have been taken over by ratbags pushing their assorted agendas under the cover of the “Green” label, so I don’t think I’ll be voting for them again.

justin heywood said :

The Greens leadership needs a good clean-out. Get rid of all the anti-establishment social engineers and failed socialist dreamers. Replace them with people who are passionate about green (i.e. environmental) issues.

Spot on.

justin heywood9:33 pm 06 Dec 12

How dumb does Sheikh and the Greens’ leadership think we are? Does Sheikh really believe his ‘GetUp!’ persona gives him any credibility outside the Greens existing support base? Does he think that parachuting in and mouthing a few platitudes about ‘caring for the community’ is all it takes to win a Senate seat?

Canberra is a progressive and intelligent electorate (relatively speaking), and have been willing to vote Green in substantial numbers. Yet even here the Greens got an absolute hiding in the last election. How do the Greens explain that away? Have their former supporters suddenly become stupid? Perhaps, but maybe they just rumbled to what the Greens are all about.

The Greens leadership needs a good clean-out. Get rid of all the anti-establishment social engineers and failed socialist dreamers. Replace them with people who are passionate about green (i.e. environmental) issues. Or face the same fate as the Democrats.

johnboy said :

For all of LHD’s flaws she also carried massive community engagement.

Simon has flaws without the fans.

Hangon, hangon, hangon….things are getting out of hand around here.

An LHD is a Landing Helicopter Dock and that’s that. This misuse of that acronym is only going to confuse a heap of people more than they already are, and the magnificent vessels themselves will be horribly insulted by being associated with a politician.

Besides which, I’ve got the ACT market cornered on idiotic and unpronouncable acronyms beginning with L, and I get all trembly inside when people try to move in on my turf.

johnboy said :

For all of LHD’s flaws she also carried massive community engagement.

Simon has flaws without the fans.

A+

chewy14 said :

Bosworth said :

What do people think of his chances of defeating the Libs for the second Senate seat?

Zero.

If Tucker and Hatfield-Dodds didn’t win, this bloke has got Buckley’s.

Er Hatfield Dodds is the one who spouted Greenspeak while driving an enormous four wheel drive, remember. Her hypocrisy may well have cost her a seat.

For all of LHD’s flaws she also carried massive community engagement.

Simon has flaws without the fans.

Tetranitrate4:59 pm 06 Dec 12

PantsMan said :

Simon “Blow-in Marxist” Sheikh must be destroyed.

If he was actually a marxist I might be tempted vote for him for sh*ts and giggles.
He’s a just a typical bourgeois career activist ever pursuing the latest trendy cause.

Getup adamantly refused to take up Prospers home buyers strike idea or run any other real campaign on housing affordability – it’s all about refugees, old growth forests, live animal exports and gay marriage: the typical rubbish that helps doctors wives and upper middle class 20-somethings feel better about themselves, with absolutely no action on the real, substantive social justice issues that affect millions of Australians.

Simon “Blow-in Marxist” Sheikh must be destroyed.

Prediction: 1) We won’t be able to escape Simon between now and election day. 2) He’ll lose. 3) He’ll be on the next flight out

Bosworth said :

What do people think of his chances of defeating the Libs for the second Senate seat?

Zero.

If Tucker and Hatfield-Dodds didn’t win, this bloke has got Buckley’s.

Tetranitrate said :

What an insult to the people of Canberra.

Then again he is qualified for a seat in the Senate – I mean last time he was on TV he went to sleep.
I agree it is an insult to us – he is only after a job. He has two chances, none and Buckley’s. Can’t understand The Greens not putting up Caroline Le Coutier – she was a great worker for Canberra even though a lot of her policies were well meaning but misguided. I have yet to hear anything “green” from the former union funded Shieke.

Bosworth said :

What do people think of his chances of defeating the Libs for the second Senate seat?

I can’t see Gary Humphries being threatened by this. Indeed, having such a left wing person running is more likely to fragment the non-Liberal vote, harm both Labor and The Greens and boost Gary.

Remember at the last election The Greens had a strong local conservative candidate, Lyn Hatfield-Dodds who had been involved in community affairs for a number of years. Simon Sheikh is a fly-by-night blow-in who carries all the GetUp! baggage and is a turn-off to an electorate which has shifted sharply to the right as evidenced by the recent ACT election.

neanderthalsis1:47 pm 06 Dec 12

Bosworth said :

What do people think of his chances of defeating the Libs for the second Senate seat?

He might give Kate Lundy a run for her money.

I don’t think there is too many swinging voters who voted Libs last time that will swing to the far left and vote for the Watermelons come next year.

What do people think of his chances of defeating the Libs for the second Senate seat?

Tetranitrate12:53 pm 06 Dec 12

What an insult to the people of Canberra.

There’s audio of the announcement for those so inclined.

get out!

Whenever someone says GetUp are impartial to either side of politics, I cringe a little.

Senators…like they represent an area.

Shame they couldn’t find someone who has been here a little longer.

Informative!

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