We've been receiving the odd bit of political junk mail here over the past few weeks, but not a single piece from Labor. The LNP snapped up the big billboard on Brisbane/Benson/Coronation/Wish-they'd-make-up-their-mind-and-just-give-it-one-name Street weeks and weeks ago, while Ronan Lee has been making his presence felt for a while, just not necessarily as Green a presence as he could have been. He's dropping the word 'green' at least three times in every sentence he utters now, but has yet to say a word on Queensland's backward social policies, including the fact that abortion is still illegal here, that gay couples have no right to civil unions or adoption (in the last fortnight or so Anna Bligh finally got around to changing the law so that unmarried couples could adopt- previously they were not allowed to do so), that our surrogacy laws are 20 years or so behind the rest of the country etc. etc. etc... Lee hasn't had much to say about health or education either, which is a shame, because the Greens' strong stance on improving the public health and education systems is one of the reasons I vote for the party in the first place. At least he has now stuck little 'Greens' stickers to the bottom of those dodgy signs...
It's not just that it's hard for the Greens to get a soundbyte out there- I only have to look at the almost non-existent coverage of the Greens' 2007 federal campaign launch to know that- but even on his own electoral advertising material Ronan Lee does himself no favours (even ignoring the missing comma, grrr):
Delivering better local public transport and tackling traffic congestion are high on his list of priorities.
Well, that's a really good start...
Ronan is a regular public transport user and passionate advocate for more train and bus services, better commuter parking and extending the NightLink bus service schedule to include Thursday nights.
Um, that's good too, I guess. I'm in favour of politicians and government bureaucrats in charge of transport being forced to use the public transport infrastructure they oversee and claim to care about... I'm also a regular public transport user and passionate advocate for more train and bus services (as is anyone who has to use the bloody things)... the way this is sounding I'm starting to think that maybe I could be the Greens' candidate... I could be Ronan Lee!
Working hard for his local community Ronan has delivered record funds for local schools, sports clubs and seniors groups...
Whoa, hold it right there- did anyone actually proof read this thing? Bloody hell...
Ronan is also a keen cyclist, bushwalker and enjoys canoeing.
That's it? I enjoy canoeing and bushwalking- even cycling when I don't have to ride on a 'bike path' with cars parked in it. That doesn't in any way make me qualified to help govern Queensland. Ronan Lee is coming off as an incredibly one-dimensional candidate.
Now, god knows about the Labor candidate, as we haven't seen hide nor hair of her. It's my belief that Anna Bligh has actually written off the seat of Indooroopilly; Ronan Lee holds it with a 2.5% margin, apparently, and I'm guessing that margin is the one between him and the LNP candidate. The LNP smells blood.
Scott Emerson, the LNP candidate, is someone we seem to see just about every day lately, and not just on the billboards or electioneering. A couple of days ago he was returning a DVD at the Gailey Five-Ways video rental place at the same time we were there, and we saw him at Gailey Five-Ways again this afternoon. He drives a 4WD with some wanky sticker attached to the bumper going on about how it's carbon neutral (presumably because he paid some dodgy company to plant some trees for him). We're pretty sure we know where he lives, too- and if we're right he is one loaded sonofabitch. Definitely more Liberal than National. Nevertheless, this is what Scott Emerson had to say about the policies that the LNP is taking into the next election:
- Fight for more upgrades around Walter Taylor Bridge to help traffic flow.
- Work for more regular and safer rail services on the Ipswich line to encourage greater use of public transport- better for traffic flow and better for the environment.
- Seek greater balance in urban planning and protecting our valued green space in St Lucia.
You've got to love that personal touch- he really cares about St Lucia... obviously the LNP has forked out for some election advertising that not only refers to the electorate Emerson is standing in but they've gone with suburb-specific mailouts to make it seem like the guy is really in touch with local issues. What's with pretending to be Green? I wonder if they did this only for St Lucia, meaning, perhaps, that they think the 'riche' residents of this suburb are the ones who are going to hand them the 2.5% swing they need, or if they did it for Indooroopilly, Taringa, Chelmer and Graceville too? Hmmm...
But where are the policies? The state government runs our hospital system and the public education system, among other things, and oversees a massive budget. Not a word about any of those things. Traffic traffic traffic, sure, but half of that is the Brisbane City Council's problem- and that's run by the Liberal Party and their chimp-in-chief Campbell Newman. Development in our area is a problem too- a massive new shopping centre and residential high-rise is being built along Moggill Road in Taringa, right near the train station. Traffic along Moggill Road is already in near-constant gridlock, even on weekends, and the council has made no provisions for traffic management (it's already in need of serious improvement even before the stupid shopping centre has been built!). It's all within cycling distance of our house, but it would be suicide to ride along there, so .
All of this, to the best of my knowledge, is council's responsibility, not the responsibility of the Queensland government. As is the steady depletion of green space in the suburbs in the Indooroopilly electorate thanks to council approval of projects belonging to developers and McMansion-building rich people. Scott Emerson has insinuated that if elected he will be able to exert some kind of control over these things. What utter rubbish.
- Campaign for a park and ride facility for Indooroopilly station [...]
I'm pretty sure that one has been directly stolen from Ronan Lee, actually.
- Campaign to relieve traffic congestion by reducing rat-running by people from outlying suburbs looking for shortcuts on our local streets.
WTF? First and most obvious question: HOW? Oh wait, he said 'campaign'- that just means jumping up and down and yelling without actually doing anything; a method isn't necessary when he has no intention of actually acting on anything. Second- how do you determine who has a right to be on 'our local streets' and who doesn't? Is Emerson seriously claiming that if some vital traffic artery is blocked up because of an accident he would happily force people to sit there for hours until traffic was flowing rather than accept that people still need to get home and will find another, quicker route?
5 comments:
Anyone who thinks they can stop rat running is a fool.
Roads are there to be driven on - I don't have ownership over the road in front of my house and I certainly don't have any right to stop people driving on it!
Maybe he will legislate to prevent shortcuts!
When I was with the Council, rat running or "people speeding in my street" was one of the top issues we got complaints about. You put traffic calming in and you just move the problem to another street, or in most circumstances, you get the sound of 1000 cars a day braking for the speed humps/curves/ripple strips. It generally makes things worse.
I think everyone should just get over it and jump on a bus.
I like Anna Bligh! I hope she makes the jump to federal and has cat fights with Gillard for the leadership
Hey Sarah
I know Scott Emerson. If you've lived in St Lucia for more than a few years it's kinda hard not to...he goes to the uni gym, hangs out at Crema, catches the bus to the city blah blah blah. He's really friendly. He was down on the river planting trees the other day so he is everywhere. I know where he lives too don't think that's hard, it sure isn't proof he's 'loaded' unless living in an old brick house (it is pretty funny tho, like something out of OLd England) is the stuff of your dreams. You're kinda off the mark here. Did you do pol sci at uni? I did; Candidates don't issue policies, just the party, so that's where you check that out. I got tagged on the train by the Liberal National - um sorry lnp people with stuff about free trains the other day. that's probably the 'get cars off the road' thing, so that works. There is stuff the state can do but you're right on the roads, most of them are councils.
Met SArah WArner too. Don't know where you are that you're missing these guys, they're on every street corner. She's cool but anyone know where she lives or what she does? Can't find anyone who knows her.
Ronan. I vote Green but lots of my friends who are green are pretty unhappy about him, think I'll take a uturn this year.
Scott Emerson hangs out at Crema? We haven't been there since back in the days when it was still called 'Gossip' or something like that- they made really shit coffee and we've stuck with Bean Scene ever since!
I could be wrong about where Scott Emerson lives, but if you were aware of the property market at all you'd know you *need* to be loaded to own anything other than a unit in St Lucia! And to have a membership at the uni-gym post-VSU, come to think of it... hmmm VSU...
As for candidates not releasing policies- sure, I'm not a political science graduate but I pay enough attention to be aware of that fact. However, if they stand to be part of a government then they are the local representative of that government and thus responsible for the policies implemented, so what he should be doing in his political advertising is announcing how the LNP policies will affect voters in his electorate. I've checked out the LNP website in an attempt to discover whether they actually *have* any policies, to no avail... apart from the recently announced policy not to close down the Royal Children's Hospital. In addition, if Scott Emerson is elected our local member and wants anything to be implemented locally he will most likely need the backing of his government, assuming the LNP gets in, to achieve it. Anyone can get up and say what they *want*, but as an elected representative/community leader, Emerson should be prepared to say how he's going to *achieve* what he wants.
As for Sarah Warner- still no mailbox drop, and still haven't seen her out and about in public... and believe me, unless she's been sticking to Indooroopilly, Graceville and Chelmer only then she has been making herself a lot more scarce than she should... we're out and about in St Lucia and Taringa pretty much every day! Last state election, Labor/Ronan Lee was sending out advertising material *weeks* before the election was called... this time, nothing at all. I'm quite convinced that Labor have written off their chances entirely in this seat and Scott Emerson will most likely be our new MP.
Sarah
Gotta love the bean scene but crema won best coffee in Brisbane a year or two ago, so give it a go, at least on Monday when bean scene is shut. Yeah, houses in st lucia are expensive, not sure it's so much different from most of the electorate though. I heard this is one of the richest electorates in Australia.
The stuff about policies that affect the local area were what they were handing out at the train station. There's pages of it in the courier every day anyway. What about trains, education, that Mary valley dam?
I met Sarah at Coles (next to the bean scene) so she's been around. The courier mail said she was at a meeting at long pocket on the weekend. Surely the labor party hasn't given up on indro - they won it last time!
Ronans problem is that lots of people who loyally voted for him as a labor candidate aren't going to even give him preferences this time, no matter what they're told to do, cos they're so p'ed off that he's jumped ship. An interesting political play though, moving to the greens.
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