Kristina Keneally: Bligh’s defeat will not taint ‘can do’ Gillard

Kristina Keneally, MP and former NSW Premier, writing in the Drum, takes a look at the Bligh governments campaign in Queensland, in comparison with the Keneally governments campaign in the 2011.

Both elections were fought on state issues entirely. Abbott fancifully tried to interpret federal issues in the results in NSW: no-one bought it then, no-one is buying it in Queensland now.
…
There will be lots of commentary about the Queensland result. Greater party democracy, increased party membership, and internal reform will be put forward as the way back to electoral relevance in Queensland, NSW and nationally. I’m not opposed to doing those things. But, as Julia Gillard is determinedly demonstrating, there’s no better way to raise the value of the Labor brand than to consistently deliver on Labor’s core promise: we are the party that delivers the policies and services to improve the lives of working people.

For the full article: Bligh’s defeat will not taint ‘can do’ Gillard (26 Mar 2012) by Kristina Keneally
The Drum Opinion

image used for illustrative purposes and is no way meant to suggest the copyright holder or Kristina Keneally in anyway endorse the contents of this post
by @redglitterx
quote by Kristina Keneally, writing for the Drum

QLD Election Blowback, this times it’s personal.

On March 24 2012 , the Word FUCK was heard around the world – QLD Election Blowback, this times it’s personal. by Delon de Circle en Rouge

One day you’re in power for 20 years dragging the state into the 21st Century and the next …Labor {is} falling short of official party status and relying on the incoming LNP government to grant it party offices, staff and resources* with only 6 seat won.

The blame lies with Anna Bligh and the Labor Party campaign. Anyone who had the sickening misfortune to watch the mawkish self-pity of Anna Bligh concede defeat before Saturday, can watch this and tell me would you vote, let alone volunteer to hand out How-To-Vote cards and campaign for our ALP cause, if you saw this video?

Campbell Newman didn’t win this election, nobody likes a smug millionaire with a chip on his shoulder. Although to be fair, a leader he is, much more so than Anna Bligh, and he managed to galvanise a talentless and listless bunch of LNP candidates from the reject shop. Whether they’ll be able to support his ‘vision’ remains to be seen.

ALP strategists should be immediately fired. They stuffed up our NSW campaign and completely fucked up our QLD one. Clearly a bold consistent message wasn’t in their planning. You can argue that Bligh broke plenty a promise; but you can argue that all politicians renege on promises when world reality collides with policy.

Time for a new strategy and strategists. Time for new leaders. Time for aggressive progressive policies. Time to Act. Time to bring in new and youthful ideas and enthusiasm. Time to destroy the left/right paradigm and deliver a more pertinent message one of which is the individual/community vs the Corporations as exemplified by the Occupy Movement. In this way the youth will come to think of ALP as a mainstream progressive political party that listens and not just a moderate Liberal Party that they’re fast becoming.

{edited to add: *source of this quote is behind a paywall – @redglitterx}

Special: Queensland Election Campaigning Wrap Up

Campbell Newman

What can be said about someone who acts like he was born to rule. Well, as the child of two federal ministers (son of Kevin Newman, former Member for Bass and Federal Minister, and Jocelyn Newman, former Senator and Federal Minister) he probably feels entitled to rule over the little people. After all, the only good thing about commoners is they pay tax. He claims to want to represent Ashgrove, yet he doesn’t even want to live there. Way to represent.

Bob Katter

Not actually in this election, though absent enough from Canberra that voters might think so. You can vote for his son, though, if you live in Mount Isa, his son, Rob Katter. It could be the beginning of a beautiful political dynasty, move over North Koreas Dear Leader.

the Straddie Mothers, who also happen to be large miners

Thousands of letters were sent to residents of Ashgrove, from a group that called itself Straddie Mothers warning of what would happen if Labor closed down the sandmining on North Stradbroke Island.
The letters were apparently the work of Sibelco Australia, without lodging its interest with the Queensland Electoral Commission

Anna Bligh

Are Liberal National politicians in Queensland really referring to Anna Bligh as Anna Bligh-ar. One track minds. And usually a form of misdirection, when the Conservatives and Neo-Cons accuse you of something, there is a very good chance that is what are they themselves are up to.

And a question many have wondered: how long before LNP completely fracks QLD?

Election night coverage:

Television – live nationally on ABC News 24 and on ABC1 in Queensland only, from 6pm (Qld time, 7pm AEDT)

Radio – ABC NewsRadio and 612 ABC Brisbane, from 6pm (Qld time), 7pm (AEDT) and audio streamed via 612 ABC Brisbane and NewsRadio websites

Online – streamed live at abc.net.au/news, the geo-block will be removed, for people overseas, , go to the ABC’s dedicated tumblr: queensland votes, on twitter, follow the tag #qldvotes and follow @antonygreenabc and @abcelections

text by @redglitterx

Tony ‘Soprano’ Abbott, taking a baseball bat to the Prime Minister

Not content to talk about Prime Minister Gillard and Anthony Albenese having targets on their head, and the Australian public wouldn’t miss, talk of baseball bats being used against the Prime Mininster takes the metaphor even further.

Are these really mis-speaks, or does Tony ‘Soprano’ Abbott really spend all day dreaming of ways in which the Prime Minister can come to physical harm?

Is enacting violence against women something that takes a lot of room in Tony Abbott’s thought processes?

Quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald in a piece about the carbon package (tax), Abbott sought to link Gillard to this weekend’s Queensland election ‘Their baseball bats aren’t there for Anna Bligh, they’re there for this Prime Minister, Abbott cried.’

image of The Sopranos, in no way suggests the owners of the rights to the Sopranos in anyway endorses the contents of this post
text by @redglitterx
digital mischief by @redglitterx
quote attributed to Abbott in this piece may actually be Christopher Pyne: SMH: Carbon tax looms, but soft rally hits the wool

 

Will Gender Equality Be A Factor In The Queensland Elections?

ALP proportion of women MPs: 49%. LNP women candidates: 17.9%

tweet via @EMILYsListAus

Emily’s Lists supports candidate that embody these principles: Equity, Childcare, Equal Pay, Diversity, Choice

Their website Emily’s List Australia features 10 candidate during this election, with more information available on the website.

Clicking on candidates name will take you directly to their information page at Emily’s List Australia.

• Angela Zyla: for Burdekin (Margin: – 3.15%)
• Jo Briskey: candidate for Cleveland (Margin: -0.3%)
• Premier Anna Bligh: candidate for South Brisbane (Margin: 15.0%)
• Karen Struthers MP: candidate for Algester (Margin: 9.2%)
• Christine Smith MP: QLD state candidate for Burleigh (Margin: 4.9%)
• Mary-Anne O’Neill MP: candidate for Kallangur (Margin: 4.6%)
• Barbara Stone MP: candidate for Springwood (Margin: 4.1%)
• Mandy Johnstone MP: candidate for Townsville (Margin: 4.0%)
• Desley Scott MP: candidate for Woodridge (Margin: 25.4%)
• Virginia Clarke: candidate for Nanango (Margin: -19.0%)

text by @redglitterx

Mixed Message Strategy of the LNP in Queensland Election

click for full size image: image from the Murdoch owned Courier Mail, 21-12-2012

Hajnal Black, the Conservative politician of this article, who stood for the Liberal Nationals in 2009, and has been supported by the Australian TEA party and the ADL (whose British counterpart EDL – English Defence League has been compared to a fascist organisation) gave “police the slip as arrest warrant remains active” against her.

And yet Campbell Newman’s party, I mean, the Liberal Nationals try to paint the ALP as being untrustworthy. Black is currently facing five criminal charges over whether she failed to declare a number of pecuniary interests while working in public office.

Yes, because apparently when conservatives run away from the police while facing five criminal counts, that, is considered trustworthy.

The other mixed message here is the bullet holes in the blue of the Australian flag. Considering the most visible member of the Queensland Labor party is Anna Bligh, the use of bullets continues a disturbing trend among conservatives that talk about assassination and killing female leaders and outspoken Australian women, hoping they will suffer or die.
See: Alan Jones talking about Clover Moore of Sydney put her in the same chaff bag as Julia Gillard and throw them both out to sea and in reference to Prime Minister Gillard again Jones said quite frankly they should shove her and Bob Brown in a chaff bag and take them as far out to sea as they can and tell them to swim home, as well as the recent death threats against television host Yumi Stynes, and also death threats against Julie Bishop.

But you say, no sane person would see that as an invitation to kill any politician. The ad is talking about a change and features bullet holes. When the USAmerican Fox-television host Sarah Palin used crosshairs on a map of congressional districts including that of the Democrat politician Gabrielle Giffords, someone took that seriously, and Giffords was subsequently shot in the head.

Why are bullet holes even necessary to make your point about a change in government?

Edited to add: it has been pointed out to me, Waste in The Sopranos-speak, has a very different connotation, where it is used as a euphemism for kill someone

text by @redglitterx

QLD Beautiful One Day, Redneck the Next

by: Delon de Circle en Rouge

When first was gainfully employed, there was a guy at the call centre I worked at called Campbell who irritated the shit out of me. There was nothing I liked about him. His hair & teeth were perfect, he came from a very wealthy family, he spoke as if he was sucking John Howards’ underused blue testicles; in short he was a condescending know-it-all asshat and although he was the classic rich family fuck-up, he was the sort of guy whose family’s wealth and connections will always to his aid in times of trouble.

Campbell Newman is that wealthy society fuck-up threatening Queenslanders with a Liberal National Party government. Although most likely to lose his chance of a seat in Ashgrove – if there’s a God, then she would know what to do – opinion polls suggest a Liberal National walkover; with perhaps a Bob Katter seat thrown in to appease those conservatives still in the gay closet. You know the ones, ask Christopher Pyne & Alexander Downer.

Campbell Newman tied in knots after corruption allegations surface..again

To be perfectly honest, Campbell Bjelke-Newman was an incompetent mayor with many anecdotal evidence of ‘dodgy’ deals that nobody really investigated; because that’s not how they do things in Queensland.

Recently CMC exonerated Campbell; I don’t why, considering every Queenslander knows of the Newman’s rich history of dodgy deals as mayor.

Here is a not-so independent website Campbell’s Web: What A Tangled Web He Weavesof all of Newman’s deals.

William Bligh

Anna Bligh (descendant of William Bligh) unfortunately will never put a foot right. She looks unprepared and stressed and perhaps in reality has a terrible team, those banana-benders are lackadaisical even in times of crisis; floods for example. In reality, the ALP have turned QLD around and dragged it kicking and screaming from Bjelke-Petersen’s corrupt Calvinists racist-fascist 17th century clap-trap into the 21st century of progressive values, equality of the sexes being one.

Unfortunately like their NSW brethren, the QLD ALP are probably on the nose. Twenty years is a long time in marriage, whilst twenty years in government is an eternity. In additions like their NSW colleagues, QLD ALP’s lurch towards neo-liberal policies such as privatisation will only benefit the true heirs of the ALP social democracy; the Greens.

So comes the election this week, which will be a big test for the conservatives who as hot favourites expect nothing more than a white-wash. The Liberal National Party have coerced John Howard from his local bowling club to come and assist Campbell Newman in handing out how-to-vote cards. A victory for the conservatives means they control the West and East coasts of Australia for the first time since 80s.

The ALP will leak votes to the Greens who are running a quiet campaign, whilst the rednecks from the right will all vote for the LNP. The winds of change unfortunately suggest a Reich-wing victory, if that’s the case, and I hear Campbell Newman has lost in Ashgrove, you’re more than welcome to party at my place like its 1799.

– edited by @redglitterx to add
Rob Borbidge (Nationals): 35th Premier of Qld
In office: 20 February 1996 – 26 June 1998
images supplied by Delon de Circle en Rouge