More Political Posting
Oct. 17th, 2004 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringI mentioned John Howard last week, and how he'd won a historic victory. With further counting, it looks like he has control of the Senate in his own right, and the Labor party will have to have a massive swing next time to win - even with a 5% swing, only six seats would change hands. Awesome.
Last night saw another astonishing election victory, this time for Labor in the Australian Capital Territory. For the first time since self-government a single party will govern in its own right. Labor looks set to hold 9 or possibly 10 of the 17 seats, the Liberals get 6 or 7, and the Greens just one. No Independents for the first time ever, and the Democrats were wiped out entirely.
Not much of a surprise, really. Jon Stanhope as Chief Minister has done a good job and though his Liberal opponent Brendan Smyth is a decent chap, he wasn't really in the hunt. It really just underscores the old rule that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them.
I remember six years ago when Rosemary Follett, the Labor Chief Minister was dumped for Liberal Kate Carnell. Rosemary couldn't understand why she had been kicked out so savagely - she'd done everything right by holding off on all sorts of programs until just before the election, and she'd been on radio predicting that she'd get government in her own right. The trouble was that she and her government were well out of touch with the people. To them it was a numbers exercise. Spend this much here and here, press these buttons, do this, do that - results guaranteed.
God but she was out of touch. She was a smoker and when smoking in public buildings was banned, she used to slip out of her office onto a tiny balcony to have a fag. She wanted a screen built over it so that she couldn't be observed from the street. In comparison, Kate Carnell was out and about, literally embracing the voters and having a ball with the media by never turning down a photo opportunity, no matter how outrageous. She was photographed in the doorway of a brothel when the sex industry had an open day - that's not in the book of political campaigning, but the media and the voters lapped it up.
I was in the Tally Room the night she won and she was radiant - she's only a tiny woman, but she was radiating 1000 watts. The Labor Party heavies were glowering - they just didn't know what had hit them.
Democracy, that's what.
I'm in trouble with my book. It's an absolute shambles and time is running out. I need to write at least a couple ofthousand words per day, as well as sort out what I've already got and format the pictures. At least I've got a good idea of what to write and I don't need to do a real lot of research.
Booked my accomodation for November. I'll go early, attend a Microsoft breakfast briefing and pick up a freebie wireless mouse. Should be a lot of fun and I can research my novel in my spare time. The convention should be an absolute blast!
Last night saw another astonishing election victory, this time for Labor in the Australian Capital Territory. For the first time since self-government a single party will govern in its own right. Labor looks set to hold 9 or possibly 10 of the 17 seats, the Liberals get 6 or 7, and the Greens just one. No Independents for the first time ever, and the Democrats were wiped out entirely.
Not much of a surprise, really. Jon Stanhope as Chief Minister has done a good job and though his Liberal opponent Brendan Smyth is a decent chap, he wasn't really in the hunt. It really just underscores the old rule that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them.
I remember six years ago when Rosemary Follett, the Labor Chief Minister was dumped for Liberal Kate Carnell. Rosemary couldn't understand why she had been kicked out so savagely - she'd done everything right by holding off on all sorts of programs until just before the election, and she'd been on radio predicting that she'd get government in her own right. The trouble was that she and her government were well out of touch with the people. To them it was a numbers exercise. Spend this much here and here, press these buttons, do this, do that - results guaranteed.
God but she was out of touch. She was a smoker and when smoking in public buildings was banned, she used to slip out of her office onto a tiny balcony to have a fag. She wanted a screen built over it so that she couldn't be observed from the street. In comparison, Kate Carnell was out and about, literally embracing the voters and having a ball with the media by never turning down a photo opportunity, no matter how outrageous. She was photographed in the doorway of a brothel when the sex industry had an open day - that's not in the book of political campaigning, but the media and the voters lapped it up.
I was in the Tally Room the night she won and she was radiant - she's only a tiny woman, but she was radiating 1000 watts. The Labor Party heavies were glowering - they just didn't know what had hit them.
Democracy, that's what.
I'm in trouble with my book. It's an absolute shambles and time is running out. I need to write at least a couple ofthousand words per day, as well as sort out what I've already got and format the pictures. At least I've got a good idea of what to write and I don't need to do a real lot of research.
Booked my accomodation for November. I'll go early, attend a Microsoft breakfast briefing and pick up a freebie wireless mouse. Should be a lot of fun and I can research my novel in my spare time. The convention should be an absolute blast!
