Posts by Paul Williams
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God if this is the direction it takes it'll end up being like the contest between Maccas and Burger King. Worse, the Republican and Democrats brands pushed back even further in preference for Big Mac and the Whopper (I'm unequivocal in my preference for the Whopper).
I've thought that the reason for the relatively colourless pollies is that we don't actually want them too much in our lives anymore? I think Rudd and others understand this well enough to limit their claims or influence on our lives.
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Come on Craig - it can actually be ok for a little levity to breach the otherwise sanctified chambers of politics. I don't know what the coverage was like in NZ, but there was reasonable coverage here albeit of a largely boring event. You know they actually do fuck-all at these gab-fests - the big tucket item (naff joke I know) was an agreement that wasn't Kyoto... guess that's pretty irrelevant after the weekend huh!
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When Helen was last in Sydney for APEC the Chaser showed up at her press conference to ask her all manner of questions that required an answer of six - she was onto it very quickly and played along well. The Pollies that cope best are the ones that acknowledge the humour, many do not and typically look foolish or churlish or both. The Chaser is available to podcast at the ABC site if anyone's interested.
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The Greens did preference Labor in Bennelong.
Here's a simple explanation of the STV system as it applies to HoR seats:
http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/How_to_vote/Voting_HOR.htm.
The Senate is the same, however because of the number of candidates and parties, you can vote "above the line" which means your preferences are distributed according to whatever formal arrangements have been agreed by the parties themselves. This Green Party link is good summary:
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Russell, Rudd's no old-style shit-kicker but the ALP campaign was his - he drove and directed it and he ensured it stayed on message (or got errant spokespeople back on message). He'll probably get the Cabinet he wants and will hopefully not give into the states. I think he could prove to be a very effective if not all that engaging PM. I don't know his attitude to NZ - Howard was a horrible little man but he was generally thought to be well disposed to NZ.
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__Of course, once the federal government goes Labor, it's likely that the state governments will turn Liberal over the next few years.__
Don't know about that... the NSW Liberals seemed determined to hand an unpopular and incompetent Labour Government another term by... well, running a campaign so piss-poor I wouldn't trust the people responsible to run a cake stall. Politics is a funny thing - though its often hard to tell whether you talking about funny ha-ha, funny peculiar or some kinky hybrid of the two.
I agree with Craig's take on the status of the States - can't recall when/which is next (SA, Tassie or WA I think) but unless something dramatic occurs I'd be bloody surprised to see the Libs in charge - they're increasingly dysfunctional and increasingly full of fundamentalist Christians.
I actually don't want to see Labor get the Senate, I'd far rather the Greens hold the balance of power (sure as hell won't be the Dems)
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Yeah, what a shame the Aussie media can't be voted out of office - or at least required to undergo remedial journalism training. I can only imagine what the coverage would have been like if a fraction of the resources and energy spent on polls, and poll-driven punditry had been expended on... say, some actual skeptical analysis of the 60 billion plus in new spending promises from Labour and the Coalition, coupled with a deficit of actual policy.
This is fair comment Craig. The stories have tended to focus primarily on polls in lieu of issues - the lack of scrutiny applies across the political divide however.
Living here, I've been able to read a little more than has been available online and also listen/watch to ABC (apparently hopelessly compromised by being full of raving leftwingers in much the way NatRad is in NZ :>) and some of the commentary has been pretty insightful - certainly the AFR's been doing a bit more analysis as have the Bulletin.
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I'm kinda hoping it's not all over before it begins like last election - the ABC have an analyst, Anthony Green, who has a habit of calling elections early and being right.
I think this one should be pretty clear cut however - all the polling is consistent and has been for months. That said, assuming it is a pretty comprehensive victory for Labor, there'll still be lots of interesting battles for particular seats including Bennelong, the PM's seat, which, if he does lose it, will very close.
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I've not desire to thread-jack but am still utterly obsessed by the prospect that we will soon be a Howard-less-land over here in the West Island. I can't vote sadly but am doing my bit such as it is.
I thought PA readers might want to follow the election, if so can I recommend the ABC site which is here:
http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/
And includes this whizzy interactive google-map
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interestingly, i was in oz when this thing kicked off.
and it was just a bunch of dicks growing mo's. all very fhm if i remember right.
I can understand that characterisation given some of the blokes I've seen around the city, however I've participated in MoVember the last three or four years with a group of friends and raised about $2k in total (all years and all blokes) and we're assured by our better halves we're not dicks...