27 March 2011

Steve Whan spits the dummy as Barilaro claims victory in Monaro

| johnboy
Join the conversation
19

The Canberra Times brings news from across the border of a petulant Steve Whan blaming the Greens for not giving him preferences he “deserved”.

Meanwhile the Greens’ Paul Cockram remarked to the CT that they’re not required to support the ALP.

While the result is not final yet it is perhaps telling that the Nationals’ John Barilaro is not blaming outsiders for the outcome of his campaign.

Join the conversation

19
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Whan’s father (Bob) actually represented the Federal seat of Eden Monaro not the State seat of Monaro.

Whan also used to work for Ros Kelly and played a leading role in her infamous whiteboard scandal.

Whan also ran unsuccessfully for an ACT Assembly seat and was twice unsuccessful in his bid to unseat Gary Nairn, the Liberal Member for Eden Monaro.

So his scorecard is six elections two wins and four losses – not so grand.

Barilaro’s swing was over 8% and in any other election that would be remarkable.

I don’t believe that Frank Pangallo’s (former Queanbeyan Mayor and unsuccessful ACT Assembly candidate) support for Whan helped him and if anything probably cost him votes as the ageing bitter Pangallo is as popular as a Green in a Synagogue in Queanbeyan now days.

Labor’s campaign in Monaro was appalling and unprofessional and attracted little local support.

georgesgenitals6:16 pm 29 Mar 11

BerraBoy68 said :

Waiting For Godot said :

People have had a gutful of the climate change/environmentalism cargo cult and are wising up to this whole scam and the very powerful people in the media and politics who have been pushing it relentlessly down our throats and brainwashing our children with their poison propaganda.

Good grief. ‘People’ have also had a gut-full of ‘people’ who exaggerate and generalise. Why not just say you’ve had a gut-full of it rather than try to make yourself sound like some kid of majority? You sure as hell don’t speak for the people I know.

You can only be told the sky is falling so many times before becoming desensitised to the message.

Waiting For Godot said :

People have had a gutful of the climate change/environmentalism cargo cult and are wising up to this whole scam and the very powerful people in the media and politics who have been pushing it relentlessly down our throats and brainwashing our children with their poison propaganda.

Good grief. ‘People’ have also had a gut-full of ‘people’ who exaggerate and generalise. Why not just say you’ve had a gut-full of it rather than try to make yourself sound like some kid of majority? You sure as hell don’t speak for the people I know.

Waiting For Godot4:34 pm 29 Mar 11

My memory of Steve Whan will be of him criticising the Nationals for promising more money to promote Snowy Mountains tourism because “with climate change there will soon be no more snow”, and that the coalition “had their heads in the sand on the issue”. This was on WIN News the same day as the No Carbon Tax rally.

I am overjoyed that Whan lost, the NSW government was booted out and The Greens went backward.

People have had a gutful of the climate change/environmentalism cargo cult and are wising up to this whole scam and the very powerful people in the media and politics who have been pushing it relentlessly down our throats and brainwashing our children with their poison propaganda.

EvanJames said :

Good heavans, did he really say this?!
“Steve Whan came to me a couple of weeks ago and blinked those doggy-do eyes saying that if we didn’t direct preference him he’d lose the seat,” Mr Cockram said.
(from the CT article linked in the story above).

I hope he meant doggy-DOE eyes, not what they printed above! I’m sure his eyes don’t look anything like dog pooh.

He actually said “puppy dog eyes”. The shoddy old Green Left Daily gets it wrong again.

colourful sydney racing identity2:35 pm 29 Mar 11

Holditz said :

Didn’t his father represent Labor for the same electorate?

Indeed he did – another member of the Comcar aristocracy

Good heavans, did he really say this?!
“Steve Whan came to me a couple of weeks ago and blinked those doggy-do eyes saying that if we didn’t direct preference him he’d lose the seat,” Mr Cockram said.
(from the CT article linked in the story above).

I hope he meant doggy-DOE eyes, not what they printed above! I’m sure his eyes don’t look anything like dog pooh.

Tetranitrate said :

We’re talking about greens voters anyway, they’re notorious for filling in every box and/or voting bellow the line.

Got a chuckle from that one, I vote Green and yes, I carefully number every box and gosh I do so hate those enourmous senate voting papers (scrolls).

Whan was a very good local member. he’s actually from Canberra (grew up here, was McMullan’s chief helper for many years), but the toxicity of the government he was in did for him. Although I haven’t seen the final results yet and it was still running very close.

He worked hard and he’s smart so you can understand his frustration at being kicked. That he was well-regarded is shown by the tight result, Monaro has usually been held by the Nationals, so he’s done double-well.

It’s a shame the Greens didn’t do better, Cockram is a Braidwood councillor and a fine upstanding fellow, I hope to see more of him in politics.

Whan was a senior member of the NSW Cabinet. He was a key member of the corrupt and incompentent NSW Government.

It’s all fine and dandy to say ‘oh he’s a great bloke’ or that ‘oh he delivered some local achievements’ – but at the same time he allowed the rest of NSW to burn.

Even before he was a NSW Cabinet Minister, he was a senior factional player in NSW Labor. It was his support that allowed Obied and co to survive and to wreck NSW.

Every decision the NSW Government took, Whan was a key player – Cabinet Minister, Junior Minister, Parliamentary Secretary, Factional Supporter, Backbencher, Staffer. He allowed the incompetence and corruption. He has paid for his failure to speak out against his NSW Labor colleagues or do anything about it.

Goodbye Whan, Goodbye NSW Labor – you won’t be missed.

In fairness, if you read the article, the “deserved” statement was attributed to a staffer (probably, by that time of the night, a drunk staffer), not to Whan. But don’t let that stop you all from treating it like he said it himself.

thatsnotme said :

Was this the guy who, in his TV election ads, managed to not mention the Labor party once at all? Not even in the ‘written and authorised by blah blah’ bit at the end – it was just a name and and address.

This was the same campaign run through all the electorates, so you can’t blame Whan for that.

It is sad though, I’m an old school friend of his, and I felt that he did OK by Monaro. He did honest work for his electorate.

Didn’t his father represent Labor for the same electorate?

It was great to see the NSW ALP get the smashing it deserved.

Was this the guy who, in his TV election ads, managed to not mention the Labor party once at all? Not even in the ‘written and authorised by blah blah’ bit at the end – it was just a name and and address.

The guy who’s entire campaign seemed to be based on something like ‘whatever happens in Sydney, I hope you’ll think I’m a good guy, and vote me in anyway’.

Just a thought…but maybe he needs to be blaming his own party, before anyone else.

georgesgenitals7:15 pm 27 Mar 11

I’m absolutely amazed. I thought these days a vote for the Greens was simply a vote for Labor.

And so did Steve Whan, apparently.

Good on Barilaro for getting up.

creative_canberran6:09 pm 27 Mar 11

He’s done some good work, would be a shame to be remembered for this rather than that. Should take a page from John Howard and learn how to take defeat gracefully.

Steve Whaaaaaa!?

Last time I looked, voters were abe to number their votes in any manner they saw fit. ‘Preferences’ are a guide from the party you support as to where they would prefer you to send your preferences. Of course I havent seen the NSW voting slips, so they may force their voters to simply tick one box and allocate as per teh partys deals. I find that scenario unlikely though.

Wow.
He -deserved- another party to vouch for him, based on what exactly?
The seat was his to lose, nobody believed his claims that he was in it for anybody’s benefit except his own, his party routinely broke promises to their electorate and got caught in lies, and the Greens didn’t trust him enough for a preference deal, and so clearly he got exactly what he deserved .

(but Greens voters tend to be the kind of people who, when offered a voting paper, know the difference between voting above and below the line, and use up -all- of their numbers, so would a how-to-vote card or preference deal really have made any difference?)

Tetranitrate11:39 am 27 Mar 11

What a ridiculous tantrum, it isn’t as though we’re talking about a senate group ticket either: where the greens ‘direct’ their preferences is barely relevant as it’s only those who get given a how to vote card and follow it to the letter that it really applies to.

We’re talking about greens voters anyway, they’re notorious for filling in every box and/or voting bellow the line. I doubt the decision by the greens made much of a difference.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.