THE DONKEY VOTE

Sorry everyone, it seems we’re getting a little slack here. I think the campaign is wearing us down to some extent. There’s not too much longer to go, we’re counting down. Reminds me that I should find where my polling booth is sometime before the election. Might make a day of it… if you don’t vote more than three times than you’re not getting your money’s worth.

Labor is still leading in the latest AC Neilsen poll, 54-46 which is pretty much what all the polls have been saying all through the campaign.

There’s been accusations that the government’s regional grants program is being manipulated with ministers going against public servant’s advice to give grants to Coalition seats while rejecting ones for Labor electorates. The article I’m linking to gives a good run down of the issues involved. Of course this kind of thing occurs regardless of which party is in power and while it doesn’t excuse it, I think perhaps there’s been an overreaction. Then again, I would probably say that considering my bias, wouldn’t I? The moral of the story: don’t trust anything written on the internet…

I should talk about Labor’s launch on Wednesday (a whole two days later) but hey, that’s not my job.. I’m not helping Labor out any more than I need to. I’m bitter, I know.

Tony Abbott is not having a great campaign. He’s not been filmed saying that if you don’t like your job, you should quit. He went on to say:

“That is the best protection. Not going off to some judge, or industrial commission, that might order your employer, who you don’t like, and he doesn’t like you, to keep you in an unhappy partnership forever”

He also said that the powers of the Industrial Commission have been reduced since WorkChoices. Now this is another one of those times where even if you think what he’s saying is common sense, you shouldn’t be saying it. Has he done a Garrett? It’s probably not on the same level as Garrett’s mistakes but it’s still something you’d think he’d reassess doing if he had the time over again.

The Democrats are in a rebuilding phase like a football club, according to a Democrats’ candidate. The candidate is sister of Mark Williams, Port Adelaide coach. That certainly cheered up my morning. The Democrats will certainly be in line for some priority draft picks after this appalling “season”.

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Just wanted to wish a happy birthday to my colleague and adversary, Brad. Hope he’s out enjoying himself today and not working too hard.

See, I do care…

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I’m back after taking a well earned rest over the weekend. Even us highly paid and respected Internet journalists need time to themselves. Brad’s pretending that he’s got assessment that he had to catch up on the weekend. Want to know the real reason?

Strip clubs.

There, I said it.

Anyway back to the important stuff.  Another Newspoll has come out with Labor ahead 55-45. I don’t think anything that the polls are saying at the moment is surprising anyone. I can’t imagine anyone is left that thinks the Coalition will win this election. I certainly don’t. As Brad was saying, it would have to be something way out of left field to save the government now.

Of course this doesn’t mean that our interest here in the election will wane at all.  We are nothing if not professionals. In any case we shouldn’t forget about the marginal seats and there will definitely be some interesting battles to focus on, especially the big one… Bennelong.

The Coalition had its campaign launch today in Brisbane. I’m impressed at the fact that a “launch” can be announced nowhere near the beginning of a campaign.. it’s very post-modern. To be honest I don’t think they’ve gone far enough, next election I want to see the launches as close as possible to polling day, a game of “chicken” with the party with the latest launch winning a set of steak knives or something.

Of course to be serious for a second, the reason that the parties hold their launches so late in the campaign is the fact that before the launches the tax payer is footing the bill for campaign expenses, after the launch it’s the parties that have to pay the costs. It’s a rort, isn’t it?

Anyway, the main points of the Coalition’s campaign launch was that the childcare rebate would now be paid up front by the government, more money would be spent on the building of childcare facilities, the creation of tax free home saving accounts for Australians who were yet to buy a house and the introduction of a new tax rebate for education expenses. Mark Vaile, who is the Deputy Prime Minister *not John Anderson*, released some policies to improve health care for rural areas and provide financial support for students from rural areas.

Nothing too hard hitting or surprising in the launch, I found and I’m not sure how much it will help the Coalition. Rudd attacked the launch, saying “I can’t see any new ideas for the future”. I think Rudd likes the term “ideas for the future” because he says it five times just in that one article. It’s abit rich Rudd having a go at the policies being announced by the Coalition because they are basically the same as Labor’s policies only the government isn’t hammering terms like “ideas for the future”or “plan for the future”. Or at least not getting the same level of press-love about it.

Rudd also declared that the launch policies of the Coalition have no real substance as Howard will be gone sometime during the next term and Costello will probably have his own view on the direction of government policy. A nice attack by Rudd there especially considering he could have pulled the trigger on it much earlier in the campaign.

Oh and the Australian Democrats released…..*yawn* their… human rights……………..

Sorry fell asleep there from the total lack of interest.  I really should stop making fun of the Democrats. But it’s just too much fun!

To paraphrase the Simpsons, if you want a taste of banality why don’t you read this interview of Janette and John Howard by the Age? You can read Janette make hard hitting statements such as “People are nice”. I’m being unfair, the interview itself isn’t too bad for what it is but I don’t know why anyone would care what Janette Howard would say about anything. Maybe if she was hotter, showed a bit more skin…

Brrr… there’s a mental image you don’t want to have.

Is that better than someone telling Rudd, “I want to have your babies”?

I don’t know but it’s taking me to a strange place I don’t want to go. I’m going to have nightmares now.

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Just a quick post before I start my weekend plans of deep political contemplation and thought. Aided by a couple of beers.

Latham has found his voice, attacking this current election campaign as a “Seinfeld election, a show about nothing”. I’m actually abit surprised that Latham has taken this long to get stuck into somebody. Maybe he’s gone off his medication again. In any case his central point is that this campaign is all about greed and materialism and that Labor should be introducing more progressive policies.

But isn’t every election campaign about that? It’s an unfortunate side effect of the democratic system that the political parties competing for power have to bribe the electorate and introduce policies that are less about the state of the country than about getting themselves elected. This also means that if you live in a safe seat you’re less likely to get economic inducements than you would in a very marginal seat.

Wow, that’s a little heavy for a Friday.

Anyway Howard has jumped all over this comments by Latham as proof that Labor will change it all up and become more progressive if they get in while Vaile has come in and said that this just shows that Rudd is just poll driven and doesn’t have policies of his own.

I follow the golden rule on this issue… if a former politician is making a negative comment about the current state of politics, it’s sore grapes. Every time.

Hopefully Brad can pick up some slack here while I have a well earned rest tonight.

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Do I even need to mention that interest rates went up? If you don’t know by this point then you’ve probably been living on Mars. Of course Rudd and Labor are going on the attack since this has basically been the Coalition’s major strength in their polling, their economic management.

Also apparently is a Garrettesque moment, Costello told an ABC presenter a few months back that rates would not rise in November. While this was perhaps a silly thing to say, I don’t think it’s a massive gaffe especially when it happened months back. I basically just wanted to use the word “Garrettesque” in a sentence. Costello also claimed that a rise in interest rates was a sign of good economic management which is true in a way because of the way inflation and low unemployment work (I’m not going into details because I’m not a economist and no doubt I’ll have three hundred people comment and correct it) but it’s realistically just an attempt at making the rate rise look good for the public.

The (former) Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson of that other party claims that the Nationals are being overshadowed in this campaign. Um, so? How’s that news? Aren’t the Nationals used to being overshadowed yet?

Hockey released the government’s Industrial Relations policy yesterday with such new initiatives as grandparents being able to take up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave to help the parents look after the child. It’s a nice idea I have to say although I wonder how many grandparents would take up the offer. Labor and the unions have out and said what you might expect them to say… too little, too late and doesn’t fix the general unfairness of the system. This policy will at least have the effect of shoring up the elderly vote for the Coalition.

Democrats say something about something and I don’t care. The ABC election news website gives them way too much time considering their total lack of influence these days.

Here’s a hard hitting news flash: the Climate Institute says that recent polling done by themselves, the Climate Institute, show that climate change, something that the Climate Institute consider very important, is likely to sway voters. Mmm that sounds convincing to me. A tip from me? Never believe any polling done by anyone that doesn’t even have some semblance of a neutral name.

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Today is D-Day for interest rates and possibly the government. Unless something extremely strange happens it looks pretty likely that interest rates will be going up. Economists are tipping that interest rates will be raised to a eleven year high of 6.75%. Whether this will any more effect on the polls is anyone’s guess since I think most people have been expecting the raise in interest rates after the release of the inflation figures. Also according to a Galaxy Poll voters don’t blame Howard for the interest rate rise. Of course much to do with economy has to do with global factors and other issues that governments have no control over but then again, if you’re going to take credit for good economic management you have to be prepared for some blowback when you have some less favourable economic news.

Another Newspoll has come out with the government clawing back a point in the two party preferred to be trailing 53-47. The Coalition would want to be seeing a little more movement in this stage of the game if they want to have any chance of re-election. I suppose at least it’s going in a positive direction. I won’t make my usual glib cliche of how things could turn out to be closer than most people expect or that maybe this is a sign that the Coalition is turning it around because the last Liberal Party check bounced. Sorry fellas, I only do the job when the money is in my bank account.

Rudd suffers a hand injury due to too much hand shaking. I wonder if this is similar to the injury Brad gets when he’s home alone for an extended period of time? Don’t worry Brad, your secret is safe with me.

Hockey has put his money where his mouth is, claiming that he’ll quit whatever ministry he’s in if there’s any attempts to strength WorkChoices. It’s an interesting strategy but at this point he realises that the chances for election victory is probably not great so he doesn’t have much to lose in any case. Poor Hockey, he’ll have no more chances to sign load-bearing pillars in Centrelink centres and acknowledging the good work of the people there as he did for some reason in the newish Nundah Centrelink. Does he do that everywhere by the way? I just think it’s tacky really… but I digress.

In Senate preference news Family First will preference Pauline Hanson after the Coalition in Queensland. The Democrats are up in arms, ostensibly due to moral and ethic reasons but it probably has more to do with the fact that they are facing a wipeout this time around and this deal makes it even less likely they’ll win a seat in Queensland. You have to feel sorry for Andrew Bartlett, one of those unlucky political losers of life.

Another journalist has come out and supported what Steve Price has said about Garrett’s backflip. Apparently Charles Wooley was talking to Garrett in September before the election and, to quote from the article:

“I certainly believe that Australians should be patriotic about our special landscape and its biota, its plants and its animals and that what is happening in Tasmania and to some extent in the forests of Gippsland is appalling,” said Mr Wooley.

“Peter Garrett agreed, he intimated that ‘What we say in Opposition might not be what happens in government.”’

Garrett has denied it and I’d normally be disinclined to believe it but Garrett’s such a political dope that I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually said it. I just hope Labor doesn’t give him a ministry, he’d be a disaster.

Hope everyone has fun with their Melbourne Cup related events today, I know I’ll be enjoying myself. And if you win some money, maybe you should donate it to the Liberal Party… they could use your help right now, they’re having a rough trot.

Think of someone other than yourself and help those in need.

God bless.

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More attacks from the Coalition about the copying tendencies of Rudd. And then Rudd hit back saying that he’s offering a plan for the future unlike Howard. The honest truth is that both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party are Centre-Right parties these days so fundamentally there isn’t alot of difference between the two. Leadership is probably the key element in political parties these days whereas in the past, especially in the Labor Party, the party had more influence on the goals, aims and policy of the party. Some say this has meant that political parties are now more focused on winning elections than on sticking to their basic principles. There is probably a element of thatoccurring in this campaign, whether it’s a good thing or not is up for debate.

Oh in reference to Rudd better controlling his candidates in Brad’s post I just have to mention that Maxine McKew has to be banned from dancing at any public events ever again. That was just shocking. I don’t quite understand why political candidates are forced to embarrass themselves for votes. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see why anyone would be more likely to vote for someone because they help make food with the common man or purchase a rail ticket or wander around in a stack hat. It doesn’t really show that they’re an average person because it only happens in an election campaign. The whole thing just seems a little sad. I’d prefer if they showing competence in policy rather than being able to do basic tasks.

This reminds of something I read about Howard on a walk-and-talk in Melbourne. It’s something I thought I would never read ever. It’s from an article in the Age:

Another woman later scored a first for this campaign, telling Howard she was so excited about meeting him she’d forgotten to wear underwear.

Well yes…. Howard’s reaction would have been interesting in any case.

I agree with Brad in that we should cover our electorates more than we have been. I was just thinking of releasing the ratio of candidates signs in people’s front yards on my next walk home from the bus stop. Very scientific indicator of support I reckon. I mean the walk is at least 15 minutes and it’s a main road. Can’t get much better than that.

Kevin07, Labor’s propaganda website, is more popular than Howard’s official website according to figures released from Hitwise. I really don’t care about this story particularly but I thought it was a good excuse to talk about Brad signing me up for the Kevin07 mailing list and since this was in the early days of the list, you didn’t need to confirm your email address before they start sending you Labor Party information all the time. Brad now has a new tactic of forwarding Kevin07 emails to me with unrelated subject headings to tempt me to read it.

Just for your information Brad, it hasn’t been working. I’m not as interested in increasing my penis size as you seem to be.

Newspoll has released a survey that Howard is fighting back in key marginal seats in NSW and Victoria, while Rudd is polling well in Queensland and South Australia. Survey suggests that the Coalition will lose between 8 and 22 seats. I would recommend having a read through of the article, some interesting polling there. It seems things are closer in the marginal seats than they would seem in national polling.

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Let’s catch up on the news before the weekend properly begins so you can use all my interesting facts and tidbits as ice breakers when you’re at a party and you don’t know anybody. It’s what I do. There’s nothing like talking politics to make friends and influence people. Just make sure you tell them where you got info and send them our way.

As a fanatical Lions supporter I have to mention that ex-Lions player Shaun Hart is running for a Queensland Senate seat for Family First. A very devout Christian is Shaun Hart and a great player he was for the club. I wish him well.

They’ve also released the Senate ballot draw and Pauline Hanson has managed to secure a group ticket which might help her chances of winning a Queensland Senate seat. She’ll probably still struggle to gain enough preferences from other parties to pick up a seat as she has previously but things may closer this time around. People are just too lazy to fill out the entire Senate ballot although I always make sure that I do… feel like I’m getting my money’s worth out of the exercise.

Garrett as a politician makes a good singer. Although he’s still a better politician than he is a dancer. He apparently said to Steve Price at Melbourne Airport that a Rudd government would “just change it all” if they were elected as against the copying tendency of Labor’s policy announcements so far but later clarified things to say it was a “jocular conversation” (which is ABC News Online’s words) and he just meant that things would be better off under a Labor Government. Regardless of whether this is just a media beatup, you’d still have to say that Garrett’s not having a great campaign… you’d like to hope his luck will turn around soon for his sake. You don’t want people thinking that you’re saying one thing and doing another.

Rudd’s earwax eating episode has turned up on Leno. That’s all I’m going to say. I’m more of a Letterman fan myself. Oh and a NSW Senate candidate held a press conference with Ricki Lake in Sydney. I don’t know how to follow that up to be honest…

In a similar vein - Rudd can’t use a train ticket machine. A Queensland Rail one as well. He eventually got it working but really, can we have a Prime Minister that can’t work a ticket machine when under no time pressure?

Galaxy Poll shows McKew leading Howard in the primary vote 47-46. I tend to think that’s probably close enough for Howard to hold on, personally, because I expect Howard to poll better than the figures are currently showing. But then again, if it’s landslide time then Howard will be trouble. Continues to be an interesting to look at.

Ben Jacobsen, a Family First candidate for Leichhardt in Queensland apologised for his earlier comments wanting his Liberal opponent Charlie McKillop to come out as a lesbian to the electorate if she is in fact one. Family First in this election are reminding me of the barrels of laughs that One Nation provided in Queensland after winning 11 seats in the 1998 state election. I expect at least one more amateur move by a Family First candidate by the end of the campaign. I guess they should at least be happy that they’re getting PR.

An odd collection of news in there, eh?

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