Bradfield & Higgins by-elections Saturday 5 December 2009: links to virtual tally room and other live cover

By-elections for the seats of Higgins and Bradfield (recently vacated by Liberal Party members Peter Costello and Brendan Nelson) are underway today.

Twenty-two candidates are standing in Bradfield. Including 9 candidates from the Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group) and an echo from the past with a candidate from the DLP. Full candidate list.

Ten candidates are standing in Higgins from across the political spectrum, but without a candidate from the Fred Nile Group. Full candidate list.

Bradfield polling places
Higgins polling places

Australian Electoral Commission's Virtual Tally Room begins to track primary votes and polling booths after 6pm.

ABC's Election Guide and Antony Green also cover the by-election vote counts tonight.

Twitter on the by-elections:
#higgins
#Bradfield
#byelection

NSW public underwhelmed by Premier Keneally?

From The Daily Telegraph this morning

When will we ever be able to respect them in the morning?

 

When the Liberal Party allowed John Howard to trail his feeble political dementia through the last Australian federal election campaign, I thought surely things couldn't get any worse.

 

When a defeated Liberal Party elected failed former defence minister Brendan Nelson as its new leader, I hoped that there was nowhere to go but up for the party after that obvious blunder.

 

When the very rich ex-merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull plopped his rear in the leader's chair after Nelson's demise, I feared that the Liberal Party had plumbed to previously unimaginable depths.

 

Then the Liberal Party elected the rabidly conservative Tony Abbott as its leader going into the next federal election campaign and I discovered that the situation could indeed get much, much worse.

 

Upriver Bill

Northern Rivers

 

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.
Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

The Townsville Bulletin objects!

On 7 November 2009 the Townville Bulletin published a sports article; A-League is no sprint.

On 10 November it sent a takedown notice to Google Inc. complaining about the blog North Queensland Fury FC: the journal taking liberties with the newspaper's copyright exactly twice in around 939 posts about this football club.
The second time being on that 7 November Saturday.

Seems this News Ltd rag with a circulation of between 27,000-42,000 plus is toeing Rupert Murdoch's line with a vengence.

Though I have to admit that posting an entire newspaper column (using an identical banner headline) on a blog the very same day the print and online edition of the paper carried it was stretching patience a bit too far.