Truly, the unions were worse!

Denis Shanahan has authored a bitchy little article about how Liberal Party executive director Brian Loughnane has been whining that unions were the 'third party' in the last federal election campaign because they spent $14 million over the last 12 months on anti-WorkChoices advertising.

I have one thing to say to Brian:

At least we weren't bloody well forced to pay for it!

The Howard government spent over $100 million of taxpayers' money advertising WorkChoices. I suppose it's arguable that we held them accountable for that flagrant waste of money at the election, but 3 years is a long time to wait while someone spends $100 million trying to force a change of public opinion on what was one of the most unpalatable pieces of legislation ever foisted on the Australian public.

The unions in spending money on advertising were just doing what the people they represented wanted them to do- protect their rights. The Howard government weren't doing what their constituents wanted because what they were doing was screwing them over and taking away their rights at work, then spending their tax dollars on ads designed to convince them to like being screwed. There is no comparison.

Brian Loughnane should just go home and cry into his expensive pillows- the Howard government were rightly routed at the last election, and trying to spin the loss as somehow being due to 'teh evil unions' advertising to expose WorkChoices for what it was is a bit rich.

Is Brian whinging because he's out of a job or being forced to take a pay cut? Oh how ironic that would be...

Loughnane: Not poor, just humiliated.

Chris Pyne, new minister for head in the sand

That odious creep Christopher Pyne was on Lateline tonight insisting that we've had "eleven and a half years of great government" or something to that effect.

Wrong, fuckwit. Australia obviously disagrees or they wouldn't have voted you out.

God I hope he loses his seat next time around.

A note for the Greens

One thing I noticed yesterday when handing out how-to-vote cards was that quite a few people asked me where the Greens' preferences went in the senate. The problem was that the Greens' voting advice was something along the lines of 'just put 1' in the Greens' box at the top. A small corner of the HTV paper was dedicated to the senate voting advice- so small that many of the people I handed out HTVs to thought it covered only the Lower House and that there must be either a separate senate advice pamphlet or something printed on the back. The Greens' senate vote is the more important of the two when it comes to determining the party's place in the Australian political landscape, so I think a little more effort should go into making its senate voting advice more obvious.

Also, there was no indication of where Green preferences went in the Senate. From memory I thought that their 2nd preference went to the Democrats in the senate, but I could have been wrong on that as I was also under the impression that the Greens had arranged to preference Labor in the House of Representatives- an impression that turned out to be wrong when I looked at the Greens' how-to-vote card and saw the ALP candidate in 4th behind the Democrats and the independent candidate Charles Worrington (or whatever his name is). That still meant the preferences went to Labor, as neither James Page for the Dems or Worrington were likely to pose any threat to Labor, but in the Senate I was essentially flying by the seat of my pants when it came to giving advice to anyone who asked.

Personally, I voted below the line. But I can understand why no-one wants to: filling out that blasted 'tablecloth' of a ballot paper takes forever.

Greens voters, I would say, tend to be less mindless about where their vote is going and where their preferences are going. They are less trustful in politicians and behave accordingly- and for a good many of them that means finding out where the party they are voting for has directed preferences.

If I ever hand out HTVs for the Greens again I will be making sure to take along information on how the Greens are directing their preferences right down the line- I sure as hell couldn't remember all the parties and preferences off the top of my head. This is something that's important and something that Green voters seem to care about. Definitely worth the party's while to look into the issue and provide the people who want to vote for them with the information they desire.

Oh and one final piece of advice for the Greens: those happy-clappy ads with the 'take action [strum... strum...] green action' song really sucked. I know the Greens might prefer positive advertising but a more succinct message would have done the trick a lot better. Also, the Greens have a great policy for putting more money into the public health system, yet none of that was mentioned on their how-to-vote cards or on those dopey ads. The Greens stand for more than just lame songs and 'green' issues! Healthcare was one of the key election issues in the mind of the public this election, and while the Greens had a great policy they did a poor job of getting it out there.

Dump WorkChoices

Here's a photo we snapped the other day in St Lucia. Nice to see the deed has finally been done!

Good riddance to WorkChoices.

Living in Hicksville does your head in

Empty streets and empty heads:
Welcome to Kempsey, NSW

Yesterday after I got home from handing out how-to-vote cards for the Greens at the polling booths, I had a phone conversation with my brother, Richard.

He is in the electorate of Cowper, in NSW, and voted for the sitting National Party member, Luke Hartsuyker.

What got me was why he voted for Luke Hartsuyker:

"I wanted to vote for some funny party but there was none"

"I didn't vote Labor because I don't want Kevin Rudd to get in"

"All my mates were voting for the Nationals"

"What? The Greens are shit!" [asked why] "They're just shit... and if you vote Green it helps Kevin Rudd to get in".


This sort of mindset reminds me a bit of what I had to say about the young male Howard-voters in our polling day post. Needless to say, I verbally slapped him :)

Labor's Paul Sekfy lost to the National Party's Luke Hartsuyker by a margin of less than 1000 votes. On the bright side, that means that Cowper is now a marginal seat. On the not so bright side, all the people like my (university-educated) brother who have the capacity for rational thought and yet choose not to inform themselves about the issues that affect the country are stupider than the dumb bogans who make up the bulk of their neighbours in places like Kempsey. Wilful stupidity is the worst kind of all.


On catching up with the various scandals and gossip, of which there seem to have been quite a lot lately, Richard told me that one of his best friends has told him he's gay. He also made me promise not to tell Mum and Dad, which seems kind of obvious, as Dad in particular is massively bigoted against gay people- something that has informed Richard's own attitudes towards gay people over the years, and something I've had many, many arguments with them about, including the last time we were home.

Richard used to think being gay was a 'choice'. Now, after his friend told him that he hates himself for being gay and that it's not a choice at all, he has changed his mind. That's a good thing. But I still find it mind-boggling that it takes something that close to home to give him pause for thought about the way society's attitudes affect some people. There's no reason for his friend to hate himself for being gay- it's growing up surrounded by homophobic pseudo-macho attitudes and anti-gay bigotry that has done it.

This friend of Richard's has always been my favourite- always polite and respectful, extremely hard-working and despite growing up in Kempsey, not a yob. Just a normal, nice guy. I think that's what surprised Richard the most- that his friend is gay and always has been yet is a perfectly normal person. He shouldn't be surprised, but he is. Being gay in a place like Kempsey must be pretty hellish for his friend, but in a way I'm glad something like that has happened to open my brother's eyes to reality.

I just hope his friend is ok.

Costello out.

Last night, as Peter Costello gave a speech prior to John Howard's concession, he looked as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Today we found out why- not only has John Howard been soundly thrashed, which must have been somewhat satisfying even for Costello, Costello has decided not to be part of the inevitable leadership bloodbath that is bound to take place. Instead, he is serving out the next term and then retiring.

Interesting times ahead for the Liberal Party. I suppose Costello was sick of being knifed in the back. I believe him when he says he's not leaving out of fear of a term in opposition. There are plenty of ambitious, nasty types in the Liberal party who are willing to fight it out for the top job, but I think in terms of providing an acceptable face to the public, Malcolm Turnbull will be all they've got. I wonder if they'll learn that lesson straight up or have to face a humiliating defeat next election with Downer, Abbott or Nelson as leader in order for Turnbull to get the top job?

Mind you, I've seen a lot written about how Turnbull winning in Wentworth means he is well positioned to lay claim to the leadership. Turnbull didn't win in Wentworth- Newhouse lost it by running such a crappy campaign and hiding from the media whenever anything got tough. I think Labor have lost the best opportunity they'll have in a long time to win Wentworth.

While I'm on the topic of crap Labor candidates, I'd just like to say how glad I am that Nicole Cornes didn't win. What a bimbo. Fancy being preselected for a party and having absolutely no idea what their policies were. And having voted for John Howard. What were the Labor Party thinking? Choosing Cornes means they effectively threw away the seat of Boothby. Cornes didn't deserve to get up, and the voters decided accordingly. Last night on the ABC she was very keen to blame her treatment in the media for her loss, while she emphasised that she and her team had helped Kevin Rudd win. News to Nicole: no you didn't- you only help Kevin Rudd win if you actually win your seat. I'm glad the Labor Party weren't vindicated in their choice of such a useless candidate.

Our polling day

Gam and I were sent to the Indooroopilly East polling place at St Andrew's Anglican Church. We snapped a picture of one of the houses typical of those in our area to have a 'Michael Johnson' sign out the front, thinking it would be a nice contrast if we could get some pictures of houses with a Greens/Larissa Waters sign out the front- all the ones we have seen have clearly been povvo student houses! I shot the picture rather badly, but you can see the Michael Johnson sign in the bottom left corner of the photo.

We arrived a good half hour earlier than we needed to, partly because we hadn't done this whole how-to-vote thing before and wanted tips from the Greens person there before us. 'Rosie', a girl probably in her early 20s, told us she was a fashion designer. She had a really bubbly personality and seemed to be really chatty with all the other HTV people. Apart from her, one guy who looked like he was in his mid-late 20s and one 20-ish Liberal HTV-er who I think was the daughter of one of the middle aged Liberal HTV-ers, we were the only young people there. By the time we'd been there for 4 hours we were the only young people there.

We were next to the Democrats HTV guy- a lovely, chatty old guy who works as a researched in the education department at UQ. One of those people who always have a story to tell- he was great company. Jim Page, the local Democrats candidate, showed up for a while. He seemed pretty nice too, although he gave us the title of an online essay he had written called 'the problem of the pro-war Greens' which we asked him about, and it turned out that only two of 12 conflicts he referred to in the essay were supported by the Australian Greens. He tried to associate the Greens with support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon last year because the German Greens supported it- he claimed there was a worldwide green movement and implied that somehow the Greens in Australia bore some responsibility (even though they stridently opposed Israel's invasion). So on that matter it really wound up with us having to agree to disagree. Nevertheless he seemed like a nice guy.

Want some Green?

The Liberal Party HTV-ers seemed decent enough too, taking the time to introduce themselves. Around lunchtime, one of the old Liberal HTV guys who said he'd already had lunch gave Gam a sausage roll! We didn't have much to do with the Kevin07 HTV people, because they were cannily positioned away from the rest of us at both ends of the footpath leading to the main path up to the church hall (we were on the main path along with the Dems, Libs and a lone Family First guy).

Observations:

Family First wore white t-shirts with blue and red print, and handed out HTV cards that were very similar-looking to the ALP HTV. Not cool.

You could pick the people who were going to get only a Liberal HTV card a mile off- the middle-aged ones were invariably more expensively dressed, and the women wore more makeup and high heeled shoes. Lots of young guys got only the Liberal HTV card- I could pick them a mile off too, and was only wrong on two occasions- the first being a well-dressed and sweet-looking little old lady who refused all other HTVs and when I offered her a Greens one said "oh good, the Greens!" and toddled off to vote, clutching her Green HTV! The second time was when a young guy I had pegged as a straight Lib actually came straight to me for a Green pamphlet and didn't get one from the Libs. Usually it was the other way around- very few young guys even took Greens HTV, and when young guys came in groups they often looked reluctant to stand out from their friends by taking any HTV cards that their friends hadn't picked up.

Unfortunately I could also pick the people who were going to get only a Green HTV card- most of them were 'alternative'-looking and not at all expensively dressed! I took it as a good sign that I couldn't really pick a stereotypical 'Kevin07' voter, because that meant they were getting a broader selection of the community.



There was one funny moment when a yellow Humvee pulled up. Gam and I have seen this monstrosity around town- it stands out like a sore thumb with its large size, blocky shape and wanky 'HUM 08' plates. We had the late-20s to early 30s guy inside pegged as a Liberal voter even before he got out of the car. Sure enough, he strode straight up to the Liberal HTV people and took their card when he must have overheard one of the ALP HTV ladies say something about his car and the environment (I didn't overhear the comment), because he stopped, turned around and went off his head at her before going in to vote. The Liberal HTV people looked suitably embarrassed at being even vaguely associated with this guy. On the way out he offered a parting shot about being off to destroy the environment with his car, but by this stage everyone was looking at him and laughing and he looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die... Gam and I even felt a bit sorry for him- he kept looking back at us like he expected us to say something rude to him because we were wearing Greens badges. I have a feeling, from his extremely defensive attitude, that the guy has copped a lot of shit for buying such a wanky car and is really beginning to regret it. Still, I couldn't stifle a giggle, especially when someone noticed that he had kept his car running for the entire time he was inside voting, after defending its environmental credentials.

At the end of the afternoon the Family First guy came around and offered everyone some jellybeans... Gam didn't want to take one, but he gave me two, so Gam wound up eating a FF-tainted Jellybelly. I hadn't had anything all day except for two coffees but I felt surprisingly fine, just a little bit sore from standing up for so long- the voter 'traffic' had slowed to a trickle by 3.30pm, so I was able to sit down for a bit.

Before we left we had permission to snap a picture of this family- Matthew, Marianne and the adorable baby Laura with her Kevin07 sticker. Unfortunately there was only a 7% swing against Michael Johnson in Ryan, not enough to oust him from his cushy 10% margin, but that was still a pretty good result for a blue ribbon Liberal seat and I'm sure they had a great night celebrating Kevin Rudd's victory :)



On the way home we again passed the house that we photographed on our way to the polling place... the owner was out the front washing his Mercedes. Heh.

Hail to the Chief!

Australia, I present to you the highest ranking elected Liberal official in the country: The Retarded Monkey, aka Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman.

Incredible, isn't it?

Moments

Good Stuff

0) Rudd mentioning Bernie Banton in his speech. I clapped.

1) The cheer from the counting room crowd when they first heard Howard was behind in his seat.

2) "Julia! Julia!" making it hard for Kerry to hear himself speak. It was brilliant.

3) Peter Costello looking like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

4) Peter Costello thinking he's going to be the leader of the opposition because Howard said it would be a smooth transition to him.

5) Howard saying that the next leader would be decided by the party, taking responsibility for the loss and failing to retire then and there, screwing Costello one last time and confirming he lies simply because it's in his nature.

6) The atmosphere at Howard's concession. It was like he was Jim Jones. This guy kept screaming about how much he loved Howard. I was expecting them to break out cups of poisoned kool aid any minute.

7) Wilson Tuckey getting the fright of his life.

8) Greens polling so well, though it was largely skewed to certain seats. Went as high as +20% in some of them.

9) Downer claiming that 'bad timing' caused their election loss.

10) Learning that the libs are much easier to listen to... in opposition.

11) Joe Hockey talking about how devastating it is for his lib friends sacked for operational reasons, while the world's smallest violin plays for him.

Sad stuff:

1) Bartlett losing. Totally undeserved.

2) Ditto Kerry Nettle, she'll be missed.

3) Brough losing. He was way, way down on the list of govt. members deserving the chop.

4) The reptillian Pyne making it back. He announced he wants to slither into the deputy lib position, so it's not all bad news.

5) The hopeless Ron Boswell in the senate.

6) Steven Fielding not being struck by lighting. I'd had my hopes but on the balance, I'll take it.

Goodbye and good riddance, John Howard.

And good luck to Australia!

Today was the end of an era, and one I'm not sorry to see the back of.

Tonight, I feel like Australia has been given a clean slate. A better result would have seen the Liberal-National coalition banished to the political wilderness with only a few members fighting each other for survival. A better result would have seen not just Mal Brough lose his seat but some worthier victim's of Australia's ire: Kevin Andrews, Tony Abbott, Philip Ruddock, Alexander Downer.

Ultimately, however, we have achieved something wonderful- not only ridding ourselves of John Howard's government, but thanks to Maxine McKew and the people of Bennelong it looks likely that John Howard has become only the second Prime Minister in Australia's history to lose his seat as well.

Even tonight, before any changes have been made and any policies enacted there has been a real change in that we now have a female Deputy Prime Minister in the form of the fabulous Julia Gillard, and we now have a PM with a wife who isn't a simpering automaton who's spent her life as a professional housewife- welcome Therese Rein!

I don't expect a Rudd government to be perfect by any means, and I already have a lot of criticisms to make of their stated policies. Indeed I hope that they do make changes to a lot of those policies when they officially form government. But this change of government is without doubt a change for the better for Australia, and I cannot even begin to express the happiness and the hopefulness I feel at the opportunity Australia has presented itself with by delivering victory to Kevin Rudd.

VICTORY!!!

We've won. Go out and celebrate the repudiation of Howardism. No party will ever, ever again dare to threaten the rights of working Australians. Howard appears set to reinforce the lesson of Stanley Bruce. Push the Aussie worker and they'll bloody well push you back!



This lesson is still valid, Kevin Rudd. Never forget what your mandate is, or become as slack and complacent as Howard.

Also Howard loses with a lower primary than Mark Latham LOL!!!

The deranged Ms Overington

Above: artist's impression of the spat.

Oh my god. We just got home from handing out Green how-to-vote cards all day, and I received email notification of a comment by a user called 'votin'belowtheline', who directed us to this story.

When she called us up on Wednesday and threatened us with defamation action, we wondered why she would bother harassing the writers of such a small blog. The following reveals the answer all too clearly: Caroline Overington appears to be utterly deranged.

Award-winning journalist Caroline Overington hurled abuse at Labor candidate for Wentworth George Newhouse before slapping him across the face at a polling station in Sydney's east, witnesses say.

Ms Overington, a Walkley winning reporter who works for The Australian newspaper, has been embroiled in a dispute involving a series of emails to independent candidate Dani Ecuyer urging her to preference Wentworth Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull.

Ms Ecuyer is the ex-girlfriend of Mr Newhouse.

Ms Overington also sent a series of flirtatious emails to Mr Newhouse, which were then published in rival papers.

Polling booth attendants and voters were shocked to see Ms Overington stride up to Mr Newhouse, strike him across the face and then walk away, those who saw the incident told AAP.

Despite witnesses saying that Overington slapped Newhouse, she has apparently denied it but "admitted pushing him away with an open hand when he approached her", according to the report on news.com.au (biased because it's her employer, mind).


Election day gold.

If I were Caroline Overington I wouldn't be too worried about my job, though. That partisan dickhead Glenn Milne acted even worse and is still sitting pretty.

UPDATE: The SMH is reporting more eyewitness accounts plus what Newhouse had to say about Overington's actions:

Witnesses saw Overington, an award-winning writer for News Ltd's The Australian, punch Mr Newhouse in the head at an eastern suburbs polling station after the two had a heated exchange.

Mr Newhouse said: "I was standing there and it was a completely unprovoked attack. I suddenly got whacked.

"It was more than a slap. It felt like a closed whack."

Surprised witnesses said Overington and Mr Newhouse engaged in a "vigorous heated debate" inside the gate of the polling station about lunchtime yesterday.

"Then she punched him around the ear. George was visibly shocked," a witness, who did not want to be named, said.

"Newhouse then shouted, 'I'm going to report this.'

"George was not a happy camper and nor should he be. He was the aggrieved party."

Help! What's Happening?

Need to know what's going on? Try:

The ABC

Pollbludger

If anyone has more suggestions, please post them in the comments!

Election nightmare?

Wasting time this morning, fraught with nerves over the outcome of today's election...


Last night I dreamt that I was so busy helping out at the polling booth I forgot to vote. It was awful... such a relief when I woke up!

While there's hope:

Spotted this in a comment on the Facebook group 'I wish I lived in Bennelong so I could vote for Maxine':

In Crikey today...

Form a queue! I am told there are more than 900 people who have volunteered to man the polling booths for Maxine McKew and there is a waiting list if you want to help! Is this unprecedented? They may not be waiting for the PM with baseball bats but there is certainly a rush on to meet him at the frontline!

Enough. Dear god, enough.

The difference between this election and the other two federal elections I've voted in is that this time there seems to be a real hope of getting rid of John Howard.

I can't even tell you how much I looked forward to voting on my 18th birthday in 2001 after John Howard stole all Pauline Hanson's policies and then added his own little extras- the election won on a wave of vitriol and hatred that Labor was afraid to stand up to. I looked forward to having my say again in 2004 where Mark Latham put forward some really good policies and yet I still couldn't bring myself to vote anything but Green because I could see that Latham's own party had undermined him in trying to soften his image. The failure of the ALP to counter the Howard government's attacks on Latham was so glaring that that it seemed to be a deliberate strategy by people in the party- almost as if they saw another term of John Howard as being more in their interests than Latham continuing to wield power as leader.

This time, there appears to be a mood for change. Not so much change of policies as change of leader, which is why Kevin Rudd has been so careful of the areas in which he differentiates himself from the government. I want Kevin Rudd to be Prime Minister only because it means we're rid of Howard. It's the first step on the road to making Australia a better country.

Now the polls are showing that Labor's lead over the coalition is narrowing: the ALP could win 52% of the two-party preferred vote and still not win government. Even if the polls were predicting a landslide I could scarcely bring myself to believe that the day is almost here where we can oust John Howard. With the polls that close, I know I'm going to have a sleepless night.

I've had enough of John Howard. I can remember being 14 and wishing I could vote so I could do something to get rid of him. Tomorrow will have been two weeks since I turned 24. Next year Gam and I will get married. Within the next decade we'll have children. I want to raise our kids in a country that has reached a stage where it has repudiated John Howard and all he stands for. I want to teach our kids about the John Howard era as a thing of the past, not something continued under Peter Costello, or Tony Abbott, or Alexander Downer that they will learn to rail against as they reach the stage of life where they start to think about the future they will build.

I can't think of a country I'd rather live in than Australia- not permanently. We've got a lot of good things. We have also allowed John Howard to take the credit for the great things we have- we allow him to spout pseudo-patriotic statements about mateship and being Australian while he continues to believe that we should have a foreign monarch as our head of state. While he continues to fawn at the feet of the imperialist US administration, smiling wetly as he receives the infrequent pat on the head from his US masters. The man who undermines our identity as a country simultaneously tries to take credit for creating it.

I can't believe what we have allowed John Howard to get away with.

I can say in all honesty that tomorrow I will feel devastated if we allow it to happen again. Australia- I'll never forgive you!



Note: as a sign that I can scrape together an ounce of optimism that John Howard will tomorrow be consigned to the dustbin of history I am creating a John Howard tag. This will aid those fortunate enough in the future to not remember his time in government to spend time researching the man as the relic he is.

Help the Greens on polling day!

Last night I got an email from Elizabeth Guthrie asking if Gam and I could help out at a polling booth on Saturday:

We have a space for the morning 8am to 1pm at our New Market South booth (Parker Street, New Market - off Kelvin Grove Road) which we would dearly love to fill with some enthusiastic Greens supporters.

Gam and I have already arranged to help out at a booth in Ryan, but if anyone is able to help Elizabeth and the Greens at the New Market booth or any other, please consider donating a couple of hours of your time. Every election up until now all I've done is vote, and I'm always left with the feeling that I wasn't doing quite as much as I could be to get rid of John Howard, so if you've felt that way too, assuage your guilt at your previous election-day apathy by handing out some HTVs.

Here's a final message from Elizabeth:

If you want to help the Greens on Saturday, vote for them in both the upper and lower house. But you can also help out on election day. If you turn up at a polling booth and it looks like they need a hand ask them for a badge and a pile of how to votes and start handing out. This is how small actions turn into big changes.

Howard's team: desperation and dirty tricks

Gary Clark with wife and retiring Howard government member Jackie Kelly. Kid's head has been erased from the shot because it's not their fault their father is a slimebag involved in promoting racial hatred as a vote-winner.

From the SMH:

The Australian Electoral Commission has been asked to investigate whether Liberal Party members acted illegally by handing out leaflets designed to appeal to anti-Muslim sentiments.

Labor has alleged the husband of retiring Liberal MP Jackie Kelly, Gary Clark, was involved in the scandal, along with a member of the Liberal Party's NSW executive Jeff Egan.

Important people, eh? Not just a couple of nobodies or 'rogue individuals'. Nothing new from the Libs, just more dogwhistle foghorn racism. Pricks.

The ABC had more detail:

The flyer purports to be from the Islamic Federation of Australia, a group which does not exist, and thanks the Labor Party for supporting Muslim terrorists.

The fake pamphlet says: "we gratefully acknowledge Labor's support to forgive our Muslim brothers who have been unjustly sentenced to death for the Bali bombings".

It called for more mosques to built and also says: "Labor was the only political party to support the entry to this country of our grand mufti reverend Sheikh al Hilali and we thank Hon. Paul Keating for over-turning the objections of ASIO to allow our grand mufti to enter this country."

The Australian's item on the story provides 'balance' by mentioning all the individual acts of vandalism of Liberal party campaign posters etc. that have occurred recently, because we all know that vandalising campaign posters is as bad as stirring up racism in the community.

Further acts of vandalism have actually included peoples' personal property- something I would not condone at all (the posters are another matter), but I'd argue is still less harmful than the vicious effects of racism:

Meantime, a resident of the seat of North Sydney said a campaign poster for Liberal candidate Joe Hockey that was displayed in her front yard has been destroyed, and a car window smashed.

"Joe Hockey's picture had been destroyed and a bottle had been thrown through the back of my husband's car," said the woman, who did not wish to be identified.

"I find it very offensive that because of the poster, that is why they've done it."

She said the vandals did about $1000 damage and the incident has made her think twice about displaying election material on her property again.

Federal Liberal candidate for the seat of Macarthur, Pat Farmer, said he has had more than 2000 campaign posters destroyed in the past two weeks, while his home and office have also been vandalised with graffiti.

And John Howard says he can't detect any real animosity towards him and his WorkChoices policy in the community. Really?

WA, the backward state?

If this WA poll is true, can they please please please secede and take John Howard with them?

The only thing that gives me heart is the fact that Morgan were also responsible for the 62-38 'face to face' poll in favour of Labor a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping that the WA poll is as unreliable as their face-to-face poll appears.

Caroline Overington Rings VTAY

About a week ago I wrote a post about L'Affaire Overington in which, entirely as ridicule, I said:

That was written after Overington scrawled a column saying Ecuyer planned to direct preferences away from Newhouse, who it seems she's been sharpening an axe for. Apparently the two of them [Newhouse and Ecuyer] went out for a few weeks, it didn't work out, and now she's back to boil his pets and derail his political career, er, run as an independent. Anyway, here's the money email.

"Too early! My girl, you've got four weeks!!
Please preference Malcolm. It would be such a good front page
story. Also, he'd be a loss to the parliament and George - forgive
me - would be no gain. ;)
— Email from Caroline Overington to Danielle Ecuyer"

How did she manage to type that with the Member for Wentworth's member in her mouth?

I thought it was pretty funny, because clearly I am a very funny man. All twelve of my readers agree with me. It would appear my attempts at humour have fallen flat in the offices of The Australian, hereafter referred to as the Government Gazette. Caroline Overington emailed us today asking to talk with us. She was cagey about what she wanted to discuss, insisting on a phone call. We agreed, reluctantly, because we wanted to find out what it was about. What could we have written on our tiny, barely-read blog to prompt a call out of the blue from a senior writer and columnist with The Australian? A two-time winner of the Walkley Award for investigative journalism (2004 and 2006) and recipient of the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism, for a series of articles on the Iraq wheat sales scandal (excellent work, credit where it's due!).

Well, to summarise our conversation: She demanded we remove the statement. First it was because her kids might see it. I replied that we were nowhere near the top 5 pages on a google search. Then it was because she was a married woman and the statement implied she was having an affair with a government member, which just couldn't stand. I defy anyone to look at the context of the statement and come to a conclusion that I was even implying that an affair was going on between them. Of course, she made the statement, not I. Also I note that in her emails to George Newhouse she stated that she was separated. "Not married, me. Separated five months ago."

She repeatedly brought up the marriage thing. She threatened legal action. I replied that I thought we'd be safe for reasons of absurdity of the statement, satire, and comment, otherwise we wouldn't have stand up comics. She claimed such defences wouldn't extend to our 'political' blogs. I asked her whether she'd like to legitimise a non existent implication by dragging us to court. She wouldn't answer, or state that she was in fact going to take legal action. She then implied that Malcolm Turnbull wouldn't be able to let the non-existent implication stand, suggesting he might sue us. I didn't enquire as to whether she had consulted Mr Turnbull or if it was just another click of the ratchet in her attempt to heavy us. Prior to accepting Ms Overington's call google analytics revealed someone had gotten to the post in question via the keywords "Caroline Overington husband" That generated only two hits. In the end I refused to remove the text she requested.

1) There was no implication the two of them were in a sexual relationship. The context of the statement was of her extraordinary attempts (bending over backwards, if you will) to be of service to Mr Turnbull. I did not speculate as to any relationship between them nor did I imply there was one. That she continually brought this up mystifies me.

2) The statement is patently absurd to a reasonable person and was made in a satirical context. There is no way anyone could think I was implying Ms Overington had a sexual relationship with Mr Turnbull. If I said John Howard was 20 feet tall, farts mustard gas and eats Chinese immigrant babies would I be liable to be sued?

3) I believe in free speech. If this is an issue of Ms Overington defending her reputation, why doesn't she go after the people who claim she's biased in her columns? We are defending our right to make fun of her. Certainly, if we're going to start loading the torpedo tubes, we should mention email threats to ruin Mr Newhouse's reputation. Something about houses, glass and stones in there. Also why is Ms Overington allowed to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Electoral Act and defend herself by claiming it's all a joke? Why don't we get similar consideration?

4) This is my latest bank statement.



Ms Overington can lawyer up and come get it if she wants. Perhaps she can split it with Mr Turnbull. I won't give up my $43 without a fight. Or my 71 cents.

It goes back to what I said about Australian media personalities constantly trying to insert themselves into their stories. If Ms Overington hadn't been engaged in doing just that she wouldn't be stuck trying to defend her hard earned reputation. It is simply beyond belief that a professional journalist would contact people like us and use legal threats (whose lawyers will she use, News Ltd's or her own?) to shut us up. Not only that but that she would allege that the law makes no exception for satire or comment in Australia. Watch out Crikey, you'll be out of business before long. I also find it odd that a journalist would be so ignorant of the Streisand effect. You know those thrillers where a guy's walking down the street and someone gives him something out of the blue and all of a sudden everyone's trying to kill him and he thinks he doesn't know anything but it turns out he does? I feel like I'm in one.