28 March 2013

Zeddites triumphant

| johnboy
Join the conversation
36

The ABC reports that despite all the sound and fury of the Pogos* Zed Seselja still had the numbers the second time around for the winnable Senate seat in the ACT.

The Canberra Liberals, in the wake of this shambles are really going to have to extract their digits to hold out the Greens’ Simon Sheikh who can’t be believing his luck right now.

Once again, when it mattered, Gary Kent was all hat and no cattle.

*Beard fanciers


UPDATE 28/03/12: Simon Seikh has wasted no time in twisting the knife:

The ACT Greens Senate Candidate, Simon Sheikh, says that he doesn’t expect that the Liberal party will stop fighting, despite last night’s win by the extreme right wing of the Liberal Party. He has reissued his request to debate the winner of the Liberal Party preselection on the issue of the impacts of Tony Abbott’s job cuts on Canberra’s families.

“Given the events of the last three months, Canberrans can rightfully conclude that the Liberal party care more about fighting for their own jobs then the jobs of Canberra’s families,” Mr Sheikh said.

“Canberrans now have a real choice at this year’s election, between voting for someone who supports Tony Abbott’s plan to cut 20,000 jobs in the ACT, which will devastate our small business and house prices — or someone who will fight these jobs cuts” said Mr Sheikh.

Mr Sheikh says he’s surprised Zed Seselja has so quickly abandoned the people of Tuggeranong who he is supposed to represent in the Assembly. “The people of Tuggeranong have every right to be annoyed that Mr Seselja is abandoning his electorate, seemingly to gain more power for himself”.

The ACT Greens are receiving an influx of donations and volunteers just as the Liberals show signs of struggling to get organised at this election. Last Sunday over 150 people turned out for the first volunteer ‘Meet Up’ event of the campaign.

It will be interesting to see how many of the Liberal party faithful are willing to put the hard yards in for candidate Seselja

Join the conversation

36
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

NoImRight said :

#33 Couldnt just have posted a link for those that wanted to read it?

Why revive a thread about your boss and his wafer thin loyalty to Canberra anyway?

Sorry, I didn’t realise, reading online, just how many paragraphs about Sheikh there were – not referring once to Canberra. Another interesting snippet about Sheikh that has surfaced, is that where we all thought part of his “four years in Canberra” was working for the (assumed federal) Treasury. In fact he was working for the New South Wales Treasury. That begs the question – out of his 26 years on the planet, as he worked post graduation for the New South Wales Government, how much time has he actually spent in Canberra pre October last year? Simon? How do those “four years in Canberra” fit into your timeline?
And re the “Zed boss” red herring – I would vote for the locally-credentialled Kerrie Tucker to this day if she stood for the Senate, and I have no connection with the Libs.

Masquara = Zed Seselja?

#33 Couldnt just have posted a link for those that wanted to read it?

Why revive a thread about your boss and his wafer thin loyalty to Canberra anyway?

In the light of current media reports outing Simon Sheikh as having been a paid up Labor Party member for four years until 2008, it’s interesting that this puff piece from mid last year sure appears to describe them (largely in their own words) as 100 per cent Sydney people (Sheikh claims he has lived in Canberra for “much of the last four years” ). Could Simon Sheikh please fess up to being a simple opportunist?

Time Out Sydney July 2012:

They’re not even thirty, and yet Simon Sheikh and Anna Rose are two of Sydney’s most influential movers and shakers. And they’re married

First published on 13 May 2012. Updated on 4 Jul 2012.
They met as idealistic young things at the founding summit of her Australian Youth Climate Coalition five years ago. Now Anna Rose and Simon Sheikh are two of Sydney’s most influential twentysomethings – and they’re hitched. Sheikh, just 26, heads GetUp!, the country’s leading lobbying voice on progressive issues from marriage equality to mental health reform and an affront to any Australian government stifling change. Rose, who founded the AYCC and last month tangled with climate sceptic Nick Minchin on the ABC documentary I Can Change Your Mind on Climate Change, is fast becoming the face of her important movement. And the extra-ordinary – and extraordinarily young – Sydney power couple say they’re just getting started.

Congratulations on the wedding. The first and most obvious question is: how sustainable was it?
Anna Rose: I got back from filming the documentary [I Can Change Your Mind on Climate Change] about three weeks before the wedding and we hadn’t really organised much except the venue. We wanted to make it as green as possible, so I got a second-hand wedding dress from Gumtree; we had it in a national park on the harbour; we had local vegetarian food; we organised a bus so that people didn’t have to drive; we didn’t buy a lot of new stuff… We encouraged a lot of people to donate to AYCC and Oxfam. It was beautiful, it was simple; it was definitely the best day of my life.

I hear you spent your honeymoon writing the book, Madlands, about your time with Minchin. Doesn’t seem very romantic…
AR: We postponed the honeymoon actually, because three days after our wedding the carbon price passed. So we drove down to Canberra in the Prius and we were together in the gallery as the carbon price passed. We took a couple of weeks to wrap things up before we went on our honeymoon; we just drove up to Byron through the national parks and it was so nice. But yeah, I did have to write every day – not ideal.
Simon Sheikh: It was a wonderful honeymoon actually, because now we’ve got something to show for it. Not just the photos but an actual book! I think I was sucked up in some of the research on various occasions as well…
AR: I was like, ‘Google this!’

That’s dedication on both your parts. Anna, what triggered this drive in you to save the planet?
AR: I grew up in Newcastle and I used to surf before school – there were usually between 20 and 30 coal ships on the horizon. But I spent all my summer holidays on my uncle’s farm and my grandparents’ farm in Moree and Gunnedah. The drought was really severe back then and I started connecting the dots between the drought that was affecting my family’s farm, the coal that my hometown was exporting and this greenhouse effect thing that I was learning about in school.

Simon. Did you have similar triggers growing up?
SS It’s a different story to Anna and yet it’s one embedded in the same value set. I grew up on the border of Newtown and Enmore – a great part of the world, and a part of the world that’s changed a lot in the last 20 years. I was in public housing at the time. But what I kept seeing were people around me who were in even more challenging circumstances. One of my earliest memories is of my primary school principal having to use her own money to fund basic clothing and footwear for some of the other students. That embedded in me the same sense of social justice that drove Anna.

One formative experience outside of school you’ve spoken about was caring for your mum, who has chronic mental illness.
SS: It was from a fairly early age that my father got sick – he had a severe heart attack – and wasn’t able to play the caring role for mum. It meant that from about ten, I took a more full-time role in that capacity. Simple things like making sure my mother was going to the doctors’ appointments and the dentists, buying the train tickets and going with her. And then you take on a further role in coordinating healthcare efforts, because the mental health system is very disaggregated – lots of parties all over the place. A lot of work’s being done now through the Mental Health reform package [which GetUp! has campaigned for strongly under Sheikh] to bring together aggregated care, but in those days that didn’t exist.

You’ve also got to have all the medication shots; you’ve gotta make hard decisions about whether or not to try new medications. One of the things that my mother was unfortunate enough to have to go through was to be a guinea pig for every second mental health drug there was over the last 30 years. And that doesn’t leave one in a good position to be able to function.

It’s a cliché to ask: but did it make you grow up more quickly?
SS: Well, I think we all respond to the contexts we find ourselves in, and the context where I found myself was one where I had to respond to an ever-increasing set of complex moments. I think that’s been useful to be able to understand the complexities of various systems. I use that in my work to understand what we should be doing to campaign in various areas.

[A man walks past the café we’re sitting outside and yells, ‘Keep up the good work, stick it to them.’ Simon says the couple get that all the time.]

Anna, a lot of climate change activists wouldn’t have done the doco you did with the ABC because it’s so “fair and balance” where climate science really isn’t.
AR: I was hesitant at first because climate science is very clear and the science of climate change – the science of human-induced climate change – is actually more certain than the science of linking HIV to AIDS and smoking to lung cancer. But many Australians still have questions about the science – a result of the campaign that mining billionaires have been waging over the last decade really. I thought: if many still have questions about it then it’s important to answer them. And yeah, I’m definitely open to engaging with people who don’t agree with me. Travelling with Nick Minchin for a month was a good example of that!

How was that?
Just to have a conversation with him is quite pleasant – if it doesn’t involve politics.

Much of the debate you guys have been involved with isn’t very pleasant. Simon, GetUp!’s been compared to the “Hitler Youth wing of the Greens”. Others say you guys don’t change anything, just tilt the agenda.
SS:The best thing to do is to look at the examples of what our members have been able to make an impact on. We raised the mental health example earlier. That’s a scenario where you’ve got the mental health minister saying very clearly: GetUp! members put this issue on the agenda and then helped get it across the line. And those who suggest that we’re somehow Hitler Youth are surely doing so because we’re being effective. Not because the Hitler Youth were effective, but because the first person to bring up Hitler loses the debate. If you’re driven to that extreme, then you must be very frustrated because the world you’re seeking to protect is changing.

Do critics ever dismiss you because of your age?
AR: For me it hasn’t been so much my age but my gender. When you look at the people who are opposing action on climate change – people like Clive Palmer, Tony Abbott and Nick Minchin – it is a bit of a boys’ club. To come up against that not only as a young person but also as a young woman, it sometimes makes it easier for them to try to dismiss you.

You don’t seem to ever stop Anna – I’ve seen you talk taxi drivers around from climate scepticism. Is there a part of you that wants to occasionally switch off and veg out?
AR: I’ve had the last two weeks where I was supposed to be resting and taking it easy [Anna had her tonsils taken out days before we spoke], but I find that hard to do. The International Panel on Climate Change has said we need to have global emissions peaking and then declining by 2015; the International Energy Agency has said the deadline is 2017. Either way it’s very, very soon. So no, I don’t really find it enjoyable with those deadlines in my head to not actually be working on climate.
SS: Although… I think that we’ve also done better in the last year to take time for each other and for ourselves as well, recognising that this is a long fight. It’s gonna be a long many years ahead of us!

Will those years see either of you running for parliament? A husband-wife Green leadership perhaps…
AR: I think that at the moment what needs to happen to solve climate change is for hearts and minds to change in the community. And most people don’t trust politicians. Therefore, the work that needs to be done has to come from outside of politics.

SS: Yeah. And I think both of us share an outside theory of change that drives the work we do, and it’s pretty hard to move past that. When you get to see the power of movements versus the power of political parties, you know where you want to work.

Six ways Simon and Anna are changing:
I Can Change your Mind About Climate Change
In early 2012, whilst in the middle of planning a wedding, Anna embarked on the production of a documentary for the ABC in which she attempted to change Liberal pundit Nick Minchin’s views on the climate change debate. The doco aired over two nights in April, followed by a special edition of Q&A, and once more put clean energy at the forefront of public debate. She released a book about the journey the same month. Oh, and she kicked Minchin’s ass.

Power Shift
2009 saw Anna organising the country’s first youth summit on climate change. With conferences, workshops and one particularly moving flash-mob, Anna and her organization (the coalition of progressive young groups called the Australian Youth Climate Coalition) created a dialogue amongst the next generation of environmentalists and activists. The couple are together on this front with Simon and GetUp! also being major players in the climate reform debate – Simon was a founding member of the AYCC when at the United Nations Youth Association.

GetUp!’s marriage equality campaign
Only the heartless remained unmoved after watching GetUp’s marriage equality advert, showing a POV gay relationship in fast-forward, which proceeded to go internationally viral and moisten the tear ducts of more than six million people. But that was just the tip of the work the group was doing: Simon and GetUp! have worked tirelessly to bring this issue to the fore in Australian political debate through rallies, petitions and lobbying, having a huge hand in the changing political tide on the issue.

GetUp’s Electoral Act Challenge
Who could forget the 2010 electoral enrolment fiasco – Australians left, right and centre being unable to enrol after 8pm the day the election was called. Simon and GetUp! were hot on the heels of the case and took it straight to the top, the High Court, to challenge any semblance it had of legitimacy. Their winning appeal allowed many thousands of Australians to vote who otherwise would have been left without a voice.

Save the Tarkine!
One of Australia’s most significant natural landscapes and the largest tract of temperate rainforest in the world is under threat and GetUp! is charging to the rescue. With ten new mines proposed in the Tarkine over the next 10 years, some of them highly damaging strip mines, Simon and his team are pursuing every avenue possible to put a stop to the potential destruction of a natural wonder – including a taking Federal Environment Minitser Tony Burke on a three day trip to the Tarkine to see what Australia might lose.

Poker Machine Reform
With gambling addiction still ripping lives apart across the country, GetUp! are involved in lobbying pokie producers (Woolworths and Coles to name but two) to cap bets and minimise losses and halt addictive spending cycles. As well as direct contact with poker machine manufacturers, GetUp! are petitioning Governmental bodies to tighten legislation around the whole nasty business.

dpm said :

Masquara said :

Anna Key said :

dpm said :

Didn’t Gary Kent just want a fair process, no matter the outcome? If so, he should be happy now I guess?

That’s also what I thought Gary K was getting at – not the outcome itself but the dodgy first process. And now Jeremy and Alithtair can sit comfrotably in the knowledge that Zed won’t be back to reclaim his stated commitment to the ACT assembly and the voters of Tuggeranong

Really weird comment by Zed on the radio this afternoon – committing to keep working for the voters for some considerable time to come! As if! Shouldn’t he have resigned by now?

Zed’s version of ‘work’ may differ from yours. Hahaha!
I think what he meant to say was: ‘I’m going to keep sponging off the MLA pay as long as possible before switching to the even higher, cushier salary!

Oh come on, as an invisible Senate backbencher in the forthcoming liberal govt he’ll be busy trying to stay awake on Committees, ask a couple of dorothy dixers and maybe take part in some fact finding missions to Europe or the US during the harsh Canberra winter.

Masquara said :

Anna Key said :

dpm said :

Didn’t Gary Kent just want a fair process, no matter the outcome? If so, he should be happy now I guess?

That’s also what I thought Gary K was getting at – not the outcome itself but the dodgy first process. And now Jeremy and Alithtair can sit comfrotably in the knowledge that Zed won’t be back to reclaim his stated commitment to the ACT assembly and the voters of Tuggeranong

Really weird comment by Zed on the radio this afternoon – committing to keep working for the voters for some considerable time to come! As if! Shouldn’t he have resigned by now?

Zed’s version of ‘work’ may differ from yours. Hahaha!
I think what he meant to say was: ‘I’m going to keep sponging off the MLA pay as long as possible before switching to the even higher, cushier salary!

Anna Key said :

dpm said :

Didn’t Gary Kent just want a fair process, no matter the outcome? If so, he should be happy now I guess?

That’s also what I thought Gary K was getting at – not the outcome itself but the dodgy first process. And now Jeremy and Alithtair can sit comfrotably in the knowledge that Zed won’t be back to reclaim his stated commitment to the ACT assembly and the voters of Tuggeranong

Really weird comment by Zed on the radio this afternoon – committing to keep working for the voters for some considerable time to come! As if! Shouldn’t he have resigned by now?

dpm said :

Didn’t Gary Kent just want a fair process, no matter the outcome? If so, he should be happy now I guess?

That’s also what I thought Gary K was getting at – not the outcome itself but the dodgy first process. And now Jeremy and Alithtair can sit comfrotably in the knowledge that Zed won’t be back to reclaim his stated commitment to the ACT assembly and the voters of Tuggeranong

Masquara said :

Roundhead89 said :

Simon Sheikh said:

“As a former Treasury public servant myself, one of the issues I’m passionate about is good government. Good government requires a strong public sector workforce, which is why I’m passionate about stopping Tony Abbott’s job cuts”.

When was Sheikh in Treasury? Was he a decision-maker? Given his age, I doubt it. So he could adopt a “passionate position about government” just as effectively from anywhere. He sounds as though he is scrabbling around for attributes to shore up his campaign, when he’s just an ornery brat with entitlement issues!

Nice work on the pre-selection Zed. Good luck in the election.

Masquara said :

Roundhead89 said :

Simon Sheikh said:

“As a former Treasury public servant myself, one of the issues I’m passionate about is good government. Good government requires a strong public sector workforce, which is why I’m passionate about stopping Tony Abbott’s job cuts”.

When was Sheikh in Treasury? Was he a decision-maker? Given his age, I doubt it. So he could adopt a “passionate position about government” just as effectively from anywhere. He sounds as though he is scrabbling around for attributes to shore up his campaign, when he’s just an ornery brat with entitlement issues!

Please goto #23. Do not pass go, do not collect $200…..

Roundhead89 said :

Simon Sheikh said:

“As a former Treasury public servant myself, one of the issues I’m passionate about is good government. Good government requires a strong public sector workforce, which is why I’m passionate about stopping Tony Abbott’s job cuts”.

When was Sheikh in Treasury? Was he a decision-maker? Given his age, I doubt it. So he could adopt a “passionate position about government” just as effectively from anywhere. He sounds as though he is scrabbling around for attributes to shore up his campaign, when he’s just an ornery brat with entitlement issues!

Jim Jones said :

Masquara said :

More Liberal party talking points

Oh FFS. Shut up already.

Wrong quote. I didn’t say that.

Simon Sheikh said:

“As a former Treasury public servant myself, one of the issues I’m passionate about is good government. Good government requires a strong public sector workforce, which is why I’m passionate about stopping Tony Abbott’s job cuts”.

Ah yes Treasury. The department which in the early 1980s blew thousands of dollars on U-Bix photocopiers which constantly broke down and blew even more money taking legal action against the company. Also the department which had twice as many people “working” in their Registry section than Dept of Finance despite Finance having twice as many employees than Treasury.

As a former officer at Finance during that period I can tell you many more stories about the department we used to refer to as “the opposition”.

How about the apologists and sphincter sniffers from all parties take Jim’s advice onboard; it would certainly make my election long haul much happier…

Jim Jones said :

Oh FFS. Shut up already.

Masquara said :

More Liberal party talking points

Oh FFS. Shut up already.

Mysteryman said :

Liberal party talking points

Yawn … this again?

pepmeup said :

further I think Simon moved to Canberra due to his poartners employment at the ANU, I hope he didnt move just to run a race its mathmatically impossible for him to win.

Well well, thanks, so Simon Sheikh moved to Canberra because of his partner’s employment – nothing to do with any connection with Canberra of his own. Git orf the ticket, Shonky Simon!

Mysteryman said :

Jim Jones said :

Mysteryman said :

johnboy said :

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

Tones doesn’t play well in Canberra and neither does anti-PS rhetoric.

The trick is to tell everyone that the other candidate is going to cut jobs, while doing it yourself on the quiet. It’s been working for the Gillard government so far.

Lol.

You don’t think there’s a difference in the amount of jobs to be cut by the Libs as opposed to Labor?

You’ve always been a Liberal stooge, but surely no-one could be *that* willfully blind.

I should also point out that the important distinction is not in the number of jobs cut, but in the fact that the opposition has made clear their intentions to cut some 12,000 or so jobs, while the government has tried to hide/ignore some 4,000-5,000 cuts that they’ve made already, all while drumming up the scare campaign about the opposition’s plans.

And people like you lap it up and regurgitate it, without so much as a moment of critical thought.

Yes we all know the libs don’t run scare campaigns. I can think of a few like the triple your rates for the last ACT election. Stop the boats is another, which i think personally is going to be fun to see how Abbott actually achieves this. Its a naive person who thinks decisions made in parliament in Australia affects refugees desires to flee their country.

further I think Simon moved to Canberra due to his poartners employment at the ANU, I hope he didnt move just to run a race its mathmatically impossible for him to win.

A few notes on some of the above comments I will add I am no Greeny and have never voted Green,

Simon Sheikh lives in my suburb, I see him at the shops on a regular basis, I see him at the Farmers markets on a regular basis. I thought he was a real knob after just seeing him on TV, as leader of Get Up, but after a few chats,I can tell you he is not a bad bloke at all.

I have herd one major policy difference between Zed and Gary is Zed take a much harder Christian line on things like: abortion and marrige equality. I personally would like to think most Canberrans are fairly moderate and socially progressive, I can tell you Zed isnt and either are the Young Libs who voted him in.

In closing I will add that is is nearly impossible for the Libs to lose their one senate seat in Canberra, they only need 33.34% of the vote to secure a quota. The only way for this not to happen is for them to be outflaked on the right to a party that preferences a party to thier left. Like Bob (big Hat) Katter Party running in ACT Senate but preferencing the Greens. I find this highly unlikley.

So I would say we are stuck with Zed and Kate Lundy as our senators, so we should get used to them.

Jim Jones said :

Mysteryman said :

johnboy said :

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

Tones doesn’t play well in Canberra and neither does anti-PS rhetoric.

The trick is to tell everyone that the other candidate is going to cut jobs, while doing it yourself on the quiet. It’s been working for the Gillard government so far.

Lol.

You don’t think there’s a difference in the amount of jobs to be cut by the Libs as opposed to Labor?

You’ve always been a Liberal stooge, but surely no-one could be *that* willfully blind.

I should also point out that the important distinction is not in the number of jobs cut, but in the fact that the opposition has made clear their intentions to cut some 12,000 or so jobs, while the government has tried to hide/ignore some 4,000-5,000 cuts that they’ve made already, all while drumming up the scare campaign about the opposition’s plans.

And people like you lap it up and regurgitate it, without so much as a moment of critical thought.

Mysteryman said :

Jim Jones said :

Mysteryman said :

johnboy said :

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

Tones doesn’t play well in Canberra and neither does anti-PS rhetoric.

The trick is to tell everyone that the other candidate is going to cut jobs, while doing it yourself on the quiet. It’s been working for the Gillard government so far.

Lol.

You don’t think there’s a difference in the amount of jobs to be cut by the Libs as opposed to Labor?

You’ve always been a Liberal stooge, but surely no-one could be *that* willfully blind.

I’ve seen enough of your comments to know that there is no limit to how willfully blind one can be.

Said the individual comparing PS job cuts under Labor to that proposed by the Libs.

ROFLMAO

Here is Simon Sheik’s December 2012 manifesto on why he is running for the Senate – it its entirety. Note the complete lack of any reference to Canberrans other than ACT Greens. Also note Sheikh’s criticisms are directed solely at the LIberals, and no criticism whatsoever of Labor – “responsible bipartisan voice” much? What you’d expect, of course, from Mr “Union Patsy of GetUp”. Also note the fudging of his actual time in Canberra: “about a third” of four years. That is to say, he has NEVER lived here and spent a total in dribs and drabs of a few days at time lobbying for Getup and the unions in Canberra, and there is no mention of just how recently he decided to “move to Canberra” – was that decision to move to Canberra made purely because of the decision to run for the Senate? Nothing in his manifesto indicates otherwise!

Why I’m Running for Senate Preselection
Posted by Simon Sheikh on December 01, 2012 ·

“After several months exploring Australia’s remote national parks with my wife Anna, I’m back in Canberra and have decided to seek preselection for the ACT Senate with the Greens.

“Seeing Australia’s beauty and biodiversity on my honeymoon made me even more determined to do everything I can to protect our precious natural environment and help Australia address the threat of climate change.

“Anna and I have spent a lot of time in Canberra and have grown to love and become part of this community. After spending about a third of my time here over the past four years, we recently made a permanent move to begin the next phase of our life here. I’m excited about deepening our Canberra ties even further through the Greens’ preselection process.

“As a young child growing up in public housing, I was surrounded by the kind of poverty and inequality you wouldn’t expect to see in a country like Australia.

“These early experiences taught me that we don’t always live in the land of the fair go, and I decided early on that I wanted to do my part to make things better.

“As I got older, I saw that the political process could deliver wins for real people, but too many politicians were putting short-term interests before the long-term issues for Australia’s future.

“I’ve decided to run for Senate preselection with the Greens because I share their values of environmental sustainability, grassroots democracy, social justice and peace and nonviolence. I am particularly concerned about the impacts that climate change is having on Australia. I believe we have the opportunity to do much more to reduce our carbon pollution and move to a clean energy future.

“Canberra’s Senate seat sits on a knife’s edge. It will be a tough campaign, but it’s winnable. If less than 1500 people who voted Liberal last election switch their vote to the Greens, we will change the course of the country by stopping Tony Abbott seizing one-party control of both houses of Parliament. Last time this happened, the Liberals introduced Workchoices and had a blank slate to impose their agenda on Canberra and the nation without checks and balances.

“As a former Treasury public servant myself, one of the issues I’m passionate about is good government. Good government requires a strong public sector workforce, which is why I’m passionate about stopping Tony Abbott’s job cuts.

“Last time the Liberals came in, John Howard slashed the public service by tens of thousands of jobs. Now, Queensland’s Liberal Premier Campbell Newman has set a target of cutting 14,000 jobs. When you also consider Barry O’Farrell and Ted Baillieu’s job cuts, the Liberals’ agenda is clear.

“Next election, Canberrans have the opportunity to stop Tony Abbott seizing control of both houses of Parliament.

“This is an important campaign and that’s why I’m putting my hat in the ring. I’ve enjoyed the process of meeting with ACT Greens members so far and look forward to continuing it over the next few weeks.”

Jim Jones said :

Mysteryman said :

johnboy said :

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

Tones doesn’t play well in Canberra and neither does anti-PS rhetoric.

The trick is to tell everyone that the other candidate is going to cut jobs, while doing it yourself on the quiet. It’s been working for the Gillard government so far.

Lol.

You don’t think there’s a difference in the amount of jobs to be cut by the Libs as opposed to Labor?

You’ve always been a Liberal stooge, but surely no-one could be *that* willfully blind.

I’ve seen enough of your comments to know that there is no limit to how willfully blind one can be.

“Canberrans now have a real choice at this year’s election, between voting for someone who supports Tony Abbott’s plan to cut 20,000 jobs in the ACT, which will devastate our small business and house prices — or someone who will fight these jobs cuts” said Mr Sheikh.

Are the Greens pro-housing bubble?

Mysteryman said :

johnboy said :

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

Tones doesn’t play well in Canberra and neither does anti-PS rhetoric.

The trick is to tell everyone that the other candidate is going to cut jobs, while doing it yourself on the quiet. It’s been working for the Gillard government so far.

Lol.

You don’t think there’s a difference in the amount of jobs to be cut by the Libs as opposed to Labor?

You’ve always been a Liberal stooge, but surely no-one could be *that* willfully blind.

HiddenDragon11:20 am 28 Mar 13

Amidst all of this carry on, I have not seen or heard anything about policy differences between Humphries and Sesselja. It looks to me like another instance of the phenomenon embodied in this eye-catchingly entitled tome: http://www.plutoaustralia.com/p1/default.asp?pageId=352 – which is, to a considerable degree, a whinge about the oldies hogging the best real estate. In this case, the coveted real estate being a patch of puce leather (and the juicy emoluments going with it) in the Senate chamber.

To recover from this shambles, I think Zed might need to do something radical – going to China didn’t hurt Nixon in ’72, so perhaps Zed, from the safety of his white picket fence bastion, could follow Kelly O’Dwyer’s recent lead and proclaim that he is “comfortable with the idea of same-sex marriage”. That would certainly liven things up, and might cut some of the ground from underneath Simon Sheikh

As to the Pogos, better, I suppose, to have gone out with a bang, of sorts, rather than a whimper – so we’ll (po)go no more a roving……

johnboy said :

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

Tones doesn’t play well in Canberra and neither does anti-PS rhetoric.

The trick is to tell everyone that the other candidate is going to cut jobs, while doing it yourself on the quiet. It’s been working for the Gillard government so far.

I suspect that regardless of this infighting, Mr Sheikh still has a considerable uphill battle on his hands. It’d be a different matter if this was an election where the Liberal tide was going out rather than coming in.

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

Tones doesn’t play well in Canberra and neither does anti-PS rhetoric.

Does Simon Sheikh even know where Tuggeranong is? I hope the people of the ACT have more sense than to elect him.

In response to Shiekh’s contribution:

* From where did he get the impression that he is one of us? Has he climbed out of the parachute harness already.

* I’d be pretty confident that the 20 000 jobs, if that is the number to be cut from the PS, are not all Canberra jobs. Someone should tell Simon the PS is sprinkled around the country.

* 150 people was less than the number the Libs got their meeting last night. Moreover, I think he’ll find it’s less than the number they got first time around.

* Is the power that Zed seemingly wishes to gain for himself any different to the power you seemingly wish to gain for yourself?

Sheikh is as much a political opportunist as Seselja. A curse on both their houses.

Madam Cholet10:09 am 28 Mar 13

It worked out how I thought it would. Zed now has to actually throw himself on the pyre and see if he survives. There’s no way his little schoolboy cronies can help him with this one. I’m hoping he gets soundly beaten, and yes, probably by a Green. Can’t be any worse than what we’ve had. And the fact remains that Simon Sheikh knows the ways of the world – he’s not a dirndl wearing, henna dyed greeny that fell out of their tree house yesterday or as unrealistic and uninspiring as Christine Milne. So that doesn’t bother me.

One would hope that everyone has learned a lesson from this debacle. I hope Zed has to go into the real world and compete for a job with many others who are much more qualified, suitable and likeable.

Jeremy must be dying for him to go, and Tuggers is probably counting the days until they can put their number against whomever runs number two on the ticket or Simon Sheikh. Do we know who that might be? A young lib having a tilt?

Nothing like sacrificing the public perception of the organisation on the alter of your own selfish ambition.

I’d be looking over your shoulder at young Mr Coe, Zed. What goes around comes around.

Unlike Gary, whose now washed up in his mid 50’s, you’ll be washed up in your mid 40’s.

We’ve now got Simon Sheikh’s response.

Didn’t Gary Kent just want a fair process, no matter the outcome? If so, he should be happy now I guess?

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.