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Australia Fair - email your candidates!
Election 2007 Australia Fair
Last month, a big coalition of social justice organisations, under the banner "Australia Fair" had widespread media coverage and about 70,000 hits on its website, following the release of a report comparing Australia and OECD countries on dimensions of fairness, including recently commissioned research on poverty in Australia.
During the election campaign, we are asking people to enter the Australia Fair site and email their local candidates (this will be automated) calling for action to improve fairness in Australia. [Text of the letter at the bottom of this piece - you can also have the opportunity to vary or add to the text as the email is being prepared]. We are also asking candidates to prepare statements for posting on the website.
Posters and cards are available for distribution. These feature the ‘symbol’ for Australia Fair, pairs of thongs (symbolising equality in Australia, and the lack of it).
Other activities during the campaign include local forums and BBQs, and media events (to be notified).
I’d appreciate it if you could get the word out to encourage people to visit the website and participate in the activities.
Regards
Peter Davidson
Australian Council of Social Service
SEARCH Foundation
Level 3, Suite 3B, 110 Kippax St,
SURRY HILLS NSW 2010
Australia
Ph: 02 9211 4164; Fax: 02 9211 1407
Text of the standard email
Dear candidate,
I am writing to you as
a member of Australia fair, a national non-partisan initiative which
encourages every Australians to discuss solutions to ensure a fair go
for all.
I am concerned that that despite large budget surpluses
and good economic times, that 1 in 10 Australians are struggling to
make ends meet.
Before casting my vote I would be interested to hear your responses to the following questions?
1. What steps you will take in the Federal Parliament to ensure a fair go for all?
2. What you will do to advance the 10 essentials, as identified by the public, to make Australia Fair?
As
a major step toward fairness I ask you to add your support to the
introduction of a national action plan to tackle entrenched problems of
disadvantage and poverty in Australia.
Yours sincerely
[Your name and address]
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Exclusivity Is OK
But hypocrisy is something else. After perusing the Climate Change Coalition's website I see the alarming statistic that "Australia is one of the biggest per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters in the world".
Probably true and I can see why. Without naming the owner of the house where they held their Wentworth campaign launch I would venture that by the glorious lighting I spotted with its three floors and two wings it would certainly qualify as contributing to our share of greenhouse gases, not to mention the gas guzzling mode of transport favoured by many supporters.
They go on: " Because our coalition contains people from all parties - with many of our founding members previously prominent members of the 'majors' as well as the 'minors'." But apparently they don't want anyone to know who those people are. Why ?
I'd certainly welcome the opportunity to see Malcolm B. Duncan debate other Wentworth candidates in a park or anywhere else but I reckon the chances of getting the others there are fairly remote.
Well Forget This Party
Off to the depths of Rose Bay early this evening and the launch of ex-Deputy Lord Mayor Dixie Coulton's campaign launch in her bid for the seat of Wentworth as a candidate for the wacky Climate Change Coalition - a party founded by the delightful Patrice Newell and some like-minded folk.
I'm a stickler for punctuality and always arrive early, parking in what I thought was a reasonably close spot near the location. A much coveted (by me) Jaguar XJ6 pulls up beside me, window winds down and a blond haired matron literally bellows at me:"that's my parking spot - I was just turning around to park there !". Ever the gentleman, I move on in my humble Toyota to a spot further up the road and sit for a while.
Within 20 minutes four, 4 wheel drives arrive and disgorge passengers who enter what, as my eyes become accustomed to the dark, looks like the most imposing mansion I've seen for some time. I watch as colourful Dr Karl Kruszelnicki ( another candidate) arrives in a gaudy shirt.
I decide it's time to make an entrance but as I near the gate, a photographer and journalist emerge. "we were thrown out despite Dixie inviting us" one said , "Patrice Newell doesn't want the media there".
So here is a campaign launch for the Climate Coalition Change candidate for Wentworth who doesn't want media scrutiny, but wants my vote, to be paid by me if successful and wants my campaign donation but doesn't apparently, want anyone to know who their supporters are. It's a good enough reason for me: I flee.
This is a unique approach to political campaigning but not one yet adopted by Dixie's rivals - Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal), George Newhouse ( Labor), Susan Jarnason ( Greens) ,Danielle Ecuyer (Women for Change Alliance ) and as far as I can gather, Malcolm B. Duncan (Taxation Reform Party (NSW) Inc.). I did say they were eccentric.
Fiona: Hmm, why am I suddenly getting the feeling that a meeting - at least of minds but preferably over something liquid - should be arranged? Malcolm B Duncan, Alan Curran, Michael de Angelos, Peter Hindrup ... any other willing Wentworthian Webdiarists out there?
Well, let's have a real debate
The reality is that I don't have a venue big enough to get the public in. Let me propose this: we do it in the park - Watson's Bay is nice and the Party isn't liable to public liability claims beyond a certain amount and ALL the electors of Wentworth can come and so can all the declared candidates and Doyles will make a fortune. BYO kiddie pod. Cats should be caged.
You do not do, you do not do, anymore black shoe
I find the visuals strangely seductive. At first I thought: thongs, credibility issues, God help me. Then I realised, no, only in Australia would this level of unselfconscious lameness be permissible. Makes me feel patriotic, like those lawn-mowers and clotheslines at the Olympics. Nowhere else is culture dominated by banal material objects, where the aesthetic universe contains no beauty, no pattern or skill and where the sacred is built out of the mundane. Even foreign shoes are prettier, better - think of Japanese sandals, moccasins, anything.
Fiona: ... or my very best Charles Jourdains, with the 12 cm heels....
Essentials
Waste of time
David Roffey, I have sent about 20 emails to Newhouse (Wentworth) asking him about the Pulp Mill, but have heard nothing. He has gone to ground on the issue, but I will corner him on Thursday in public. Cannot wait to see the look on the face of this twit.
Newhouse
And you won't get a reply Alan Curran because the Labor [sic] candidates (particularly Newhouse) are in lockdown - apart from that extraordinary girlie in South Austrtalia - what's the SP Mr Tonkin?
All Newhouse will say is that the Shadow Minister has a policy and he'll be glad to send it to you. Come to the Meet the Candidates functions and beard the beast in its den.
Although, to be fair, unlike TOM ("The Other Malcolm") he does show up and he appears personable until some unspeakable bastard like me outdebates him. He and Bob McMullen can be quite snaky. It was HEAPS of fun.
Fiona: The way you tell it, Malcolm, it sounds as though you would like to have an election at least every other week.
Newhouse or s**thouse
Malcolm B Duncan, in the 2004 election King picked up 13,236 votes. Where do you think those votes will go this time? I don't think they they will go to Labor. They will certainly not go to the Greens: they had a poor candidate in 2004 (a silly little girl) and an even worse one in 2007. Maybe you will pick them up.
Fiona: Alan, maybe you should help the puir wee laddie get his deposit back. After all, he is a conservative.
No point in being coy
Not that anyone would ever think I were coy in the first place. The first lesson of politics is keeping your cards close to your chest but as that particular part of the anatomy keeps expanding anyway…
Actually you'll all have to wait for the candidate's diary for the full coverage but I can’t see the point of posting that before nominations close.
Let this suffice for the moment: as I have said, I am the only conservative candidate other than Malcolm Turnbull. It is likely that people who have voted for me before will vote for me again and that gives me a solid (if small) base. Many Peter King voters (and I handed out for Peter at the last election because I thought it was in the public interest that he not return to the Bar) will vote for me rather than TOM. They will do so for a number of reasons: they have seen me, they know me, I was born here, I was schooled here, I float here. They will come to know that, whatever my personal feelings in favour of an Australian republic are - I do have Scottish and Irish ancestry after all - I do not think it is possible under our Constitution. The elderly tend to like me and Clover is not running so I get the Independent vote (increasingly so because I am not running against my ex-partner or my current one).
Many journalists describe me as eccentric and that may be so but there is one thing about democracy: unless you participate, you don't have a chance.
I'm giving you the chance and journos are welcome.
Now, volunteers would be nice.
Acronyms
Apart from TOM being a name for an unaltered male feline, are you aware of one of its other meanings, Dr Duncan? I trust so, otherwise I shall be concerned about the state of your id. For Webdiarists who are unaware, TOM is computer-language from the 1960s standing for Totally Obedient Moron.
Outed again
Rats.
And again
Or was it cats?
Fiona: I hope it was cats. My predilection for rats is well-known on Webdiary. (I like cats too, but not with rats...)
Fair go
Dear voter,
how the hell am I supposed to answer q 2?
Education is not a Federal responsibility but I am considering a special purpose grant to educate Mr Roffey.