I’ll keep it short ‘n’ sweet Sammy.
My ballot paper belongs to me. I get to decide how I cast my preferences.
A salaried factional heavy and his NSW Labor mates - who wouldn’t know where to find the Northern Rivers on a map - have no say whatsoever.
6 comments:
Rubbish, the Greens/ALP alliance is GONE - to quote AAP today -
Labor is having talks "at all levels" on the future of its links with the Australian Greens, which have just as "loopy" policies as the coalition, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.
NSW ALP state secretary Sam Dastyari, whose branch holds its conference in Sydney this weekend, has sparked debate with a call to abandon automatic preferences for the Greens and arguing the minor party comprises "extremists".
The Greens entered into an agreement with Prime Minister Julia Gillard following the 2010 election to form minority government but many in the ALP from the Left and Right are concerned the party is driving key policy decisions.
"We are having a discussion at all levels at the moment," Mr Swan told reporters in Brisbane ahead of a federal cabinet meeting.
Mr Swan said the Greens had shown how "loopy" they could be by blocking in parliament laws to put the offshore processing of asylum seekers beyond legal doubt.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said Labor was not in an alliance with the Greens, but had merely negotiated with them to be able to form government.
"The Labor party is a different political party than the Greens party," he told ABC Radio.
"We have different values and different policies, and we certainly distinguish from them."
Government whip Joel Fitzgibbon said the Greens were "idealistic, not realistic".
Mr Dastyari will move at the conference that the ALP "no longer provide the Greens party automatic preferential treatment in any future preference negotiations".
The motion is understood to have cross-factional support but Left faction members are concerned the move could undermine the ALP's environmental credentials.
ALP national secretary George Wright said formal talks on preferences had not yet started.
Meanwile, Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews says the Greens in both the state and federal parliament are inward looking, self-indulgent, evangelical idealists.
"Their (the Greens') main game is being holding themselves hostage if you like to ... an evangelical idealism that achieves nothing," he said.
The Greens' refusal in Canberra several weeks ago to support any deal on asylum seekers that included offshore processing was an interesting close-up of the way the party operates, he said.
"They would rather protect their ideals than find the common ground that might just protect the most vulnerable," Mr Andrews told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.
"The absolute, almost evangelical idealism - these people are on a different planet."
"Anonymous said...
Rubbish"
Another citizen who apparently doesn't realise that the decision to assign preferences resides with the voter, not with the political party which can only offer suggestions via How To Vote leaflets.
Only donkeys blindly follow those leaflets.
Amen, CG.
75% of Labor voters are donkeys, that's why the Greens should be terrified!
Sam Dastyari is losing the Member for Page her seat.
Janelle Saffin deserves better than this - she has delivered so much for the Northern Rivers.
Sadly, Bill, I think you may be right.
Once again it is NSW Labor which is disembowelling this 112 year-old parliamentary party.
Looking back, it has never been the same since the generations of its members who intimately knew the 1890s recession, World War One and the Great Depression either became too old to participate in party processes or passed away.
The fat cats in suits who now appear to dominate the Australian Labor Party are as far removed from ordinary working class people as one can get and not belong to the Liberal or National parties.
Labor's Janelle Saffin MP is an exception as she obviously remebers her roots.
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