Bennelong candidates for 2010, so far, in no particular order, are:
- Maxine McKew - ALP (Labor)
- John Alexander - Liberal
- Lindsay Peters - Greens
- Terje Petersen - Liberty and Democracy Party (Libertarians)
- ??? - Australian Sex Party
- Julie Worsley - Christion Democratic Party
- Victor Waterson - One Nation
Apologies to all, however I have had to deal with some matters that have meant I do not have time to do the candidate profiles for the council elections this weekend. Please check out the candidate information sheets for the candidates on www.elections.nsw.gov.au. Note that a lot of the candidates (I dare say most of them) who are listed as independent are actually members of the Liberal Party.
Rudd's binge drinking crusade seems to be heading into seriously prudish territory with Government guidelines to be released soon proposing to define four middies of beer as a binge. Now I make home brewed beer, and generally serve my beer in pint glasses. By those standards, and with my beer usually having an alcohol content of around 6%, if somebody has just two glasses of beer at my home they are on a binge.
I was amused by Ray Levick's contribution to this week's letters page in the Northern District Times regarding the 1999 referendum on the republic. He commenced by saying that the referendum was defeated by a two thirds majority. It seems either his memory or his mathematics are deficient.
What is it that the Federal Government is trying to do? I would suggest that "OLD" party leaders are trying to change Australia into the "Bannana Republic" that Keating said.
If so why don't they put their constitution on the table?
Why do we have to be called a "Republic"?
The so called 10 year plan is a worry as the political tenure is only 3 years...am I wrong
The summit in Canberra for the elite, cannot "Critise Government Policy"
Come on and talk to us don't lie low and cheat because you fools will be beat, maybe not by me, but another country!
I suppose you know that!
The Bennelong result is now certain after 3826 postal votes have been counted. There may still be a few postals to come in up until next Friday, but with the postals only favouring the Prime Minister by 474 votes so far, and his overall shortfall currently at 2,184, there is not even the slightest shadow of a doubt - Howard is now only the second Prime Minister to lose his own seat, a fitting end to a career that, despite delivering strong economic performance, was marred by regressive, oppressive and discriminatory social policies, loss of individual freedoms, serious neglect of urgent environmental issues, and massive foreign policy failures that more than wiped out the economic successes, leaving his effect on the nation and the world far in the negative territory.
Late last night the Bennelong result was looking like it would end up dependant on the large number of postal votes usually lodged in the electorate, with these needing to favour the Prime Minister by between one and two thousand votes to swing the electorate back. On past performance in postal votes this would not have been out of the question, and this explains McKew's cautious assessment last night.
And so we come to the pointy end of the election and time to rank the candidates. My rankings are based on four factors:
- Candidate's policy positions;
- Job skills - ability to present an argument;
- Job skills - understanding of the law; and
- Job skills - policy analysis.
Job skills - ability to present an argument
Conservative party
The unofficial and official election campaign has almost run it’s course and some things confuse me. The major one is how can the coalition calls it’s self a Conservative party how did they get that badge and why does no one question their right to that title.
The Industrial Relations law changes threw out 80 years of work place agreements that would have been negotiated by thousands of people over those 80 years. How is it conservative action to wipe that out by one pen stroke? I would call this RADICAL action.
A number of people are coming here looking for information on Yusuf Tahir. He should be ignored. I visited the AEC office for Bennelong (the Chatswood office) on Friday and discovered this unendorsed candidate is not local to Bennelong. In fact he is registered to vote in the northern New South Wales seat of New England - a long way from the electorate he nominated for. At least one of the other candidates has managed to find out more, though - it seems Tahir nominated solely because he wanted to use the election to promote his web site, then thought better of it and decided to lie low.
