The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

dadpad wrote:

Ok I need some help State election is just around the corner

Who should I vote for?

I have the choice of:

Labour (never heard of him)
Liberal (never heard of him either)
National "we're from the bush but we have no push" (sitting member)
Family First (right wing?)
Green (local woman married to a solicitor but a scatterbrain).

vote now!

I'd go with Labor from that lot.

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hingehead wrote:

... It's weird thinking that these near 70-year olds have more leftist, small L liberal leanings than many Gen Ys & Xs (but that's another harangue).

I have a bit of a soft spot for 'Diamond' Don - he was VC when I was at UCan, under Donald Horne's Chancellorship. I hope he's enjoying his retirement. I'm enjoying it but I don't know if you would. Borrow it from a library and see what you think of the first chapter or so - that's what I did.

Like George Santayana said 'Those who forget history....'

Yep. (To the bit about not forgetting history.) I certainly hope we don't ever forget this current bit of history in the making! We will be living with the repurcussions for many years to come.

I've always had a very soft spot for the olds who believed so completely & utterly in "the light on the hill". It really saddens me when yet another one dies. They have so much to teach us about commitment, fighting on in the face of incredible adversity ... just the depth of their commitment. Very inspirational.

I'll ask my local library to buy the book, hinge. They're good like that.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Shouldn't that be the United States Studies Center? :wink:

No, we spell it the correct way, Walter! :wink:

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dadpad wrote:

Ok I need some help State election is just around the corner

Who should I vote for?

Looking at that lot makes me wonder if there's a decent independent you could vote for, dadpad. One you haven't discovered yet. Keep looking!:wink:

Hey, what did you think of the bushies taking over Melbourne streets today? Very impressive looking demo.

Who will I vote for?:

Greens.

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It's all happening here! Violent G20 protesters on Saturday & angry farmers protesting today. Never a dull moment!:

http://blogs.smh.com.au/business/g20protest.jpg

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/20/PROTEST01_wideweb__470x369,0.jpg

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/country-comes-to-spring-st/2006/11/20/1163871309795.html

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msolga wrote:

It's all happening here! Violent G20 protesters on Saturday & angry farmers protesting today. Never a dull moment!:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/country-comes-to-spring-st/2006/11/20/1163871309795.html

The horsemen/women in the foreground o that photo are all from my town! The bloke with his hand in the air is Lib MP Graham Stoney (retiring upper house member). Various Mc Cormacks, Lovicks and family among them.

G20-
That bloke they arrested with the bushy beard was refused bail as he has a history of not showing up in court. How can he be a full time student and on a disability pension?

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Shouldn't that be the United States Studies Center? :wink:

Nice pick up Walter Laughing

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dadpad wrote:

The horsemen/women in the foreground o that photo are all from my town! The bloke with his hand in the air is Lib MP Graham Stoney (retiring upper house member). Various Mc Cormacks, Lovicks and family among them.

Now I'm confused, dadpad.

I thought this was some sort of Nats show of strength in the big smoke - as much to show the Libs a thing or 2 (in response to some suspected strange preferential wheeling & dealing by the Libs), as Labor .... But there's a Lib politician amongst your neighbours. I must have got my wires crossed, then?
Anyway, looks like everyone had a good time.

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Just to sidetrack back to something we've talked about before.

John Howard's push for nuclear power. Will it be the thing that brings down this government? Or are my feelings unrepresentative of the general population.

Even if you were pro-nuclear you just know it's going to be like a dam - everyone thinks they're a great idea until it's your town being drowned.

Also I did a little research because I thought that nuclear power plants use a lot of water - and given our 1000 year drought situation I was wondering if any pundits had mentioned this:

From a letter to the South Asian

Freshwater requirements of a nuclear power plant:

Domestic use: 414 m3/day
Service Water: 480 m3/day
Fire Water Make-Up: 500 m3/day
Chemical Water Treatment
(Process Water for proposed 4 units): 19200 m3/day"

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Good grief, that's a helluva lot of fresh water!

Some solution!

But whether the push for nuclear power will the thing that brings down JH & co, it's hard to say. I suspect it will be caused by an accumulated reaction to a many issues, built up over time. Then, amazingly (to JH), one day he won't be able to get away with something that he thought would be dead-easy to sell to the gullible masses. And that will become the focus for all that built-up resentment, anger & loathing.

One thing's for certain: The Libs can expect an almighty backlash in which ever spot is the chosen one for the first nuclear power plant! :wink:

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... but perhaps we can forget about the nuclear option, hinge. I think Leunig might be onto something here! Laughing

:

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/23/knCARTOON_gallery__470x332,0.jpg

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An interesting insight into the JH mind-set. And he said this (about Australian involvement) in Vietnam. Good grief! This man never admits a mistake, never acknowledges changed circumstances, never wavers from his first utterances .... This is downright depressing & explains many things!.:

...."I supported our involvement at the time and I don't intend to recant that," he said. "I believe that in public life you are accountable for the decisions that you take. I mean, I didn't hold any position of authority then but I supported the reasons for Australia's involvement and nothing has altered my view that, at the time, on the assessments that were made then, I took that view and I took that view properly."

Unprovoked, he went on to expand this view into a whole philosophy of political positioning: "And I don't intend to indulge this preoccupation that many have in recanting everything that they supported when they were in positions of authority. I think in public life you take a position and I think particularly of the positions I've taken in the time I've been Prime Minister. I have to live with the consequences of those both now and into the future."

And then he took his position beyond political resolve into a realm of almost superhuman recalcitrance: "And if I ever develop reservations, well, I hope I would have the grace to keep them to myself because I think you take a position and you've got to live by that and be judged by it, and that's my position."

He delivered this with enough force and feeling to suggest he had someone in mind. Fraser, perhaps? Or could it be another leader on another war. He was speaking only shortly after Tony Blair had let slip that the invasion of Iraq had been "a disaster". .....

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/a-diversion-into-matters-of-his-heart/2006/11/23/1163871545252.html

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Voting day today in Victoria. "The most boring campaign ever", as media commentators have called it, has suddenly gotten a wee bit interesting! The Libs appear to be making up a bit of ground, which will make it a bit more of a competition. But the most interesting thing is one aspect, where both parties (AND the Exclusive Brethren!) are in complete agreement about: those Greens have got to be kept out, no matter what! It's very interesting to watch, the Greens are seen as a real threat for the first time ever. They could even win a few seats in the house of reps., say nothing of the Legislative Council. And it's got a lot of people very, very worried. Yesterday the Exclusive Brethren placed a full page, ant-Greens ad. in the papers. And the Labor Party had to bring in Peter Garrett to do a bit of street campaigning & baby kissing in the streets of Bronwyn Pyke's (Health minister) electorate. It's that close! The Greens' candidate is looking very good there & in other inner-city electorates.

I would have posted Tanberg's cartoon, showing this unity of (anti-Greens) purpose by the Libs & Labor, but sadly it hasn't appeared in today's online edition of the AGE. (A Fairfax conspiracy, perhaps? :wink: Laughing

)

Anyway, this election is suddenly looking interesting! Surprised

Go, Greens! Give em a run for their money!

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... meanwhile, the Cole Commission ends, leaving egg on the faces of many AWA folk & an Oz federal government which apparently "knew nothing" about the rorting of UN funds. Rolling Eyes

:

........the Opposition's accountability spokesman, Kelvin Thomson, says the Government has already made sure it does not get the blame for the $300 million in kickbacks paid to deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

"There is one reason and one reason only why Commissioner Cole is unlikely to bring down a finding of guilty in relation to the conduct of Howard Government ministers, and that is the rorted terms of reference he has been given by the Howard Government," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1796932.htm

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http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5315019,00.jpg

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... & in case you don't feel depressed enough already, check this out...:

War on terror costs us $20 billion
Brendan Nicholson
November 25, 2006/the AGE

FIGHTING the war on terror has cost Australian taxpayers more than $20 billion since September 2001.

The Federal Government alone has spent or committed more than $11.5 billion on domestic and international counter-terrorism measures, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The rest of the figure covers spending by states, territories and the private sector.

The money is being spent on everything from training special forces to deal with weapons of mass destruction to a $74 million system enabling police and ASIO to tap phone calls.

The Age has pieced together the cost of the anti-terror campaign useing calculations from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which has examined federal government spending, the Homeland Security Research Centre and annual reports.

The figure comes as the city of Baghdad was yesterday in lockdown, after the worst day of violence there since 2003. ... <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/war-on-terror-costs-us-20-billion/2006/11/24/1164341396598.html

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Bracks and Labour in Victoria.

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Yep. What a fizzer!

I'm waiting to see the results in the legislative Council.

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http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5316392,00.jpg

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Well, the Cole Enquiry findings have just been released. Already JH is claiming that his government has been vindicated, has nothing to answer for, is as innocent & pure as anything!
If the Enquiry's terms of reference weren't to investigate the government's role in the oil-for-food fiasco, then how come the government can be declared squeaky clean in the findings? I don't get it.

Now, if government incompetence & negligence were under investigation .... :wink: :

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/26/cartoon271106_gallery__470x270,0.jpg

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