Brendon Grylls shows the way

August 23, 2008, 5:13pm, 118 views,  Leave a Comment

Brendon GryllsThe Western Australian election will be much closer than it should have been thanks to the Liberal Party installing Colin Barnett as leader. Read more

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Boring campaign

November 8, 2007, 8:42pm, 185 views,  Leave a Comment

Can the election campaign get any more boring? The party machines and media seem more interested in gaffes than policies. The candidates want to avoid them and the media want to record them.

The ministerial stoushes at the National Press Club have been reported on the basis of who made what stumble, rather than what they said.

Is this the media’s fault, or is it a deliberate tactic by the parties? A bit of both, I think. The parties want to control the message that’s delivered and therefore contrive to avoid impromptu opportunities.

The media knows spin from substance and tries to avoid being ensnared in the game, with limited success.

Labor, in particular, is trying to avoid making any stupid mistakes. The longer the campaign lacks spark though, the more I suspect it favors the government.

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Democrats wither

November 5, 2007, 4:49pm, 207 views,  Leave a Comment

The Australian Democrats are facing a wipe-out at the November 24, 2007 election. Maybe they’ll save a seat in South Australia, but it’s looking grim.

Politics has changed since Don Chipp founded the party in 1977. The Labor and Liberal parties have moved more towards the centre for starters.

The Democrats found a niche in the loony left, withstood a challenge from the Nuclear Disarmament Party, but haven’t survived the emergence of the Greens.

Maybe that’s why battling Senator Andrew Bartlett attacked Family First for daring to favor Pauline Hanson over him in a preference deal.

Preference swaps are part pragmatism and part principle. It’s hard to fault Family First on either count in relation to that decision.

Parties that criticise others over preferences are either jilted lovers or hypocrites.

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This weekend’s promises

November 4, 2007, 1:52pm, 206 views,  Leave a Comment

The parties have had a break from cloning each other to make some feel-good announcements this week. There was nothing stunning about them and they are unlikely to sway many votes.

Labor revealed a plan to create tax breaks for first home buyers. The $500 million pledge is designed to address the problem of housing affordability.

It’s little more than a symbolic gesture really, and will only help at the margins of what is a growing malaise. As I mentioned previously, major surgery is needed if the government is to intervene constructively.

The Coalition’s announcement was a $10 billion “transport plan”. This is focused on road and rail improvements in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Although welcome “news” it isn’t really news in the sense that $23 billion for the Auslink program was announced in the May budget. Both parties are just in the process of saying how they will spend that money.

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What happened to brand Liberal?

November 2, 2007, 5:57pm, 181 views,  Leave a Comment

There are suggestions the Liberal Party brand is on the nose across Australia. Candidate marketing is unusually focused on the candidates themselves in electorates held by sitting members.

I received a letter from my Liberal MHR this week which made no mention of his party affiliation. The letter came on generic letterhead bearing the Australian Coat of Arms with an attractive ochre-colored sidebar and a picture of the MP.

That’s probably a smart move in Western Australia where the state party has tarnished the Liberals’ reputation, not to mention the poor poll results federally.

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Eden-Monaro poll shock

October 27, 2007, 6:53pm, 216 views,  Leave a Comment

The Canberra Times has reported poll results which suggest a comfortable Labor victory in the south-eastern NSW seat of Eden-Monaro. The two-party preferred vote is recorded as 56-44 in Labor’s favor.

Eden-Monaro is regarded as a litmus test for any election. The seat is generally won by the governing party.

I was working as editor of the Eden Magnet (an attractive paper) in 1996 when Liberal Gary Nairn won the seat from Labor maverick Jim Snow.

Jim was a lovely bloke who suffered the loss of timber worker support because of Paul Keating’s opposition to woodchipping. I spoke to Jim before the election and he seriously thought about becoming an independent like his mate Graeme Campbell, from Kalgoorlie.  Read more

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A look at O’Connor

October 21, 2007, 12:38pm, 172 views,  Leave a Comment

There are many people who believe maverick Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey will have to be carried out of parliament in a pine box. He has been one of the government’s biggest critics on wheat policy and hasn’t been shy in attacking colleagues in the past.

At the age of 72, Tuckey was born six weeks before my father but shows no sign of wanting to retire.

He has withstood several strong challenges from the National Party over the years and is facing one again on November 24. Nationals candidate Philip Gardiner has made it no secret that he wants Wilson out.

For too long O’Connor has been poorly represented by a member that now focuses on fringe issues with little concern or regard for the major issues that are impacting on you and your family …

Pundits again expect Tuckey to win. Centrebet has Tuckey at $1.005 (hardly worth the bet), the Labor candidate at $17 and Gardiner at $26.

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Road funding

October 19, 2007, 7:49pm, 178 views,  Leave a Comment

As someone who has lived in both Traralgon and Sale (32 miles apart or 50km), I was pleased to read this announcement today:

A re-elected Coalition Government will provide $250 million, with more to follow, for the duplication of Traralgon to Sale section of the Princes Highway, the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of The Nationals, Mark Vaile, announced today. This announcement is part of the Coalition’s 2020 plan for Australia’s Transport Future, an integrated vision tackling local roads and national highways. “The Liberal/Nationals $250 million commitment, with more to follow, will deliver real benefits to the people of Gippsland as a result of the completion of the duplication from Melbourne to Sale,” Mr Vaile said.

Full credit to Peter McGauran for winning that commitment.

Now that I live in Kalgoorlie, WA, I’m wondering why Wilson Tuckey and Barry Haase can’t get some significant money spent on the highway between Kalgoorlie and Perth.

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Poll gain for Coalition

October 19, 2007, 5:13pm, 171 views,  Leave a Comment

The latest Galaxy poll shows that Labor’s lead in the two-party preferred stakes has fallen from 12 percent to six percent in just under four weeks.

I think it reflects a positive reaction to the government’s promise of tax cuts and a growing concern about change for change’s sake.

Make no mistake, John Howard has plenty of petrol left in the the tank and plenty of pork in the barrel.

My guess at this stage is that the polls will continue to show a narrowing of Labor’s lead before some erratic results start to show.

As for the final outcome, I’m predicting a cliffhanger. I won’t be surprised if Howard pulls off a surprise victory like Paul Keating in 1993.

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Union influence and poverty

October 18, 2007, 7:17pm, 189 views,  Leave a Comment

The Prime Minister has stepped up his attack on union influence within the ALP. In the only published news item today on the Liberal Party web site, Howard comments on Gavan O’Connor’s loss of pre-selection in Corio and his decision to stand as an independent.

This is the latest example of how former trade union officials have muscled aside long-serving Labor Party members. Gavan O’Connor to my understanding, I could be wrong on this, was the only person in the Labor Party that actually had a farming background. And for his pains he’s been kicked out and replaced by somebody who holds a senior position in the ACTU. So, when we say that 70 per cent of the ministry in a Rudd Labor government would be former trade union officials we are not joking.

It was otherwise a quiet day on the campaign trail, with Labor’s web site posting bland media releases on costing promises, beating poverty and criticising the National Farmers Federation on broadband rollout.

Although laudable, Labor’s track record on banishing poverty isn’t all that great, as Bob Hawke would recall.

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