election 2013 – Page 2

The rictus is cactus …

Mr Rudd announced Mr Beattie would stand in the first week of the campaign, pushing aside Labor’s preselected candidate Des Hardman.

Billed as a coup by Labor, it was hoped in the ALP that Mr Beattie would not only win Forde but drive up Labor’s vote across Queensland, where it needs to pick up at least six seats from the Coalition to have any chance of a victory on September 7.

But the eleventh-hour substitution may achieve the opposite.

A poll by JWS Research suggests the coalition will win the seat with a landslide.

Sex appeal …

I gave at the office.

But leaving that aside …

“If any male employer stood up in the workplace anywhere in Australia and pointed out a female staff member and said this person is a good staff member because they’ve got sex appeal, I think people would scratch their heads at least and the employer would find themselves in serious strife,” Kevin Rudd 2013.

Kevin Rudd has admitted visiting a New York strip club during a drunken night while representing Australia at the United Nations.

Mr Rudd issued a statement yesterday to News Limited papers, confirming he went to the club but could not recall the events of the evening because he “had too much to drink”. Sydney Morning Herald, August 19, 2007.

Admittedly, New York is not in Australia, but there is one question I would ask Mr Rudd and that question is this (you will have noticed how I put that in Rudd speech) …

If there were strip clubs in Australia would it be reasonable for the employer to point out a female employee and say this is a good staff member because they’ve got sex appeal?

Now she does have sex appeal, tits of the nation, just ask Mr Yat-sen Li, ALP candidate for the marginal seat of Bennelong.

Post it …

If you are intending to vote by post in the impending election it would be as well to apply very soon.

Beware of this scam. The best way to apply is online via the Australian Electoral Commission web page where you will learn that …

You can apply for a postal vote if you:

are outside the electorate where you are enrolled to vote

are more than 8km from a polling place

are travelling

can’t leave your workplace to vote

are seriously ill, infirm or due to give birth shortly (or caring for someone who is)

are a patient in hospital and can’t vote at the hospital

have religious beliefs that prevent you from attending a polling place

are in prison serving a sentence of less than three years or otherwise detained

are a silent elector

have reasonable fear for your safety.

Click the button and fill in the form.

Recycling …

Peter Beattie on Kevni …

No one should ever forget the damage that he has done.

Sources close to the prime minister tell me that other celebrity candidates are under consideration.

Following the outstanding success of Bob Carr and the shot in the arm that Peter Beattie has given the campaign in Queensland, former state labor politicians are considered very marketable properties. Even as we speak Eddy Obeid and Ian MacDonald are being recruited to run in marginal seats. Eddy is particularly attractive because the campaign is somewhat strapped for cash and rumour has it that Eddy has a quid or two stashed away.

Trust me …

We are at the end of a boom.

The money has been rolling in. Things get tougher from here. We should be cashed up and ready to respond to tighter times. We’re not.

Why not? Well, two terms of Labor government have a lot to do with that, and Mr Rudd reduces the issue to the question “Who do you trust?”. He does seem to be making it very easy.

Even the Fin Review, a Fairfax rag can tell you the answer. It does its best to soften the blow for Labor, the Telegraph puts it more bluntly …

More lies …

Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald, a Fairfax paper, starts …

I guess you’ve heard the news: the Gillard government has obtained new analysis of data from the Bureau of Statistics showing that Tony Abbott’s election commitments inflict brutal damage on working families, particularly those in western Sydney, increasing taxes and cutting support to families.

Then he does the maths …

Terrible, eh? There’s just one small problem. This stuff is so misleading as to be quite dishonest.

For a start, this is just politically inspired figuring, which doesn’t deserve the aura of authority the government has sought to give it by having it released by the Treasurer with a reference to ”new analysis of Bureau of Statistics data” and allowing the media to refer to it as ”modelling”.

He reveals the Fairfax pro-labor bias here by suggesting that a statement from the treasurer has an aura of authority, but let’s not dwell on that …

The headline … Lies, damned lies and Labor claims.

At our expense …

According to today’s Australian the Labor Party will continue to advertise itself at the taxpayers expense until the writs for the election are issued. It seems they do not subscribe to the view that the election period has started.

The first clause of Schedule 2 of the Broadcasting Services Act seems clear enough ..

“election period” means:

(a) in relation to an election to the Legislative Council of Tasmania, or an ordinary election to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory–the period that starts 33 days before the polling day for the election and ends at the close of the poll on that day; and

(b) in relation to any other election to a Parliament–the period that starts on:

(i) the day on which the proposed polling day for the election is publicly announced; or

(ii) the day on which the writs for the election are issued;

whichever happens first…

… whichever happens first. There can be no doubt that Jules has made the announcement …

So, today I announce that I will advise the Governor-General to dissolve the House of Representatives and to issue writs on Monday the 12th of August, for an election for the House and half the Senate to be held on Saturday, the 14th of September.

Government advertising last year last year cost us $139.7 million. That’s more than the Mining Resource Rent Tax raised!

Can’t govern, can’t even read, can spin and it sure can spend.

Election observations …

From our Gippsland correspondent …