Almost time to hit the track for Casino Beef Week, 27 May to 3 June 2008

The NSW North Coast Casino Beef Week Festival is only weeks away. Mark your calendars for a fun time.

 

Festival Events

Tuesday 27th Fashion Parade   Friday 30th Beef Industry Breakfast - free breakfast in Walker Street from 7am, entertainment, face painting, and more Beef Week Cup Race Meeting   Saturday 31st Street Carnival Day from 8am Beef cattle auction Stud beef competition Art and Craft exhibition Wood chopping Show n Shine car show Street entertainment, food and market stalls, whip cracking, and more Street Parade, 1.30pm Rodeo, 4.30pm Sunday 1st June Family fun day, 9am  Dr Harry Old McDonald's Farm Farmer's market Market stalls Draught Horse Field Day, 9am  Ploughing competition Best dressed cart Damper and stew DOWNLOAD FULL PROGRAM HERE

Hillsong make monkeys out of bunnies

Hillsong 1 defeated Rabbitohs nil

Sydney rugby league club South Sydney, the Rabbitohs, have been made to look like absolute dills by playing follow the leader and responding to a tune harped by the bible-bashing Hillsong mob.

The Rabbitohs, along with a number of piss-poor politicians and self-serving business leaders, are supporting the Hillsong Church in its bid to build a super-dooper church in Sydney's inner city.

The weird team of bedfellows supporting this proposal includes the right-wing religious rat bag Fred Nile and the Liberal's Scott Morrison, federal member for Cook, who was previously a director of the NSW Liberal Party.

Want another opinion on this matter? See Oz Atheist.

Facebook digital board games helped win the Australian 2007 federal election?

A National Library of Australia staff paper The 2007 Federal Election and the Internet is quite firm on the point that the Internet is beginning to impact on federal election campaigns.
Election 2007 staff paper link.

It is clear now that the 2007 federal election can safely be adjudged as the first in which the Internet became not just the repository for information, but also a tool both to communicate policies with the public and to allow potential voters to in return interact in multiple ways with the parties and their candidates. It is impossible to say what effect this may have had on the electoral outcome, and assuredly as in previous elections not every voter would have visited an election website. However, the Internet is now and remains the only medium in which all those involved in elections are present. It is the only place that the general public can examine political parties' policies as the days of the printed manifesto or policy brochure are long gone. It is also therefore the place of record and as such needs to be preserved. Democracy requires the political process to be open and accountable, maintaining an archive of online election documentation, media statements and policies therefore is a vital component of that process.---

Unsuccessful and essentially pointless use of social networking was that by politicians who did not actually themselves create or maintain their profiles instead letting party staffers intermittently update them. The only benefit that 'friends' got from these sources was an occasional press release. However, many other less high profile candidates, particularly those who were not sitting, used the opportunity to create networks, communicate their views and motivate supporters. Successful social networking involves giving over something of your self, sharing interests and activities. Thus a candidate who was prepared to converse, take quizzes, play scrabble games and other quotidian activities on Facebook, was far more likely to develop friendships which could translate into votes.---

Blogs have been a feature of the Australian Internet landscape for a number of years. The blogosphere is now a mature feature of political discourse. However being mature has meant that political affiliations on most influential or popular blogs have become fixed and it is made very clear on most of them which political persuasion is dominant. On some of these blogs comment facilities exist only for those who agree with the blog's political line and discussion or dispute is treating as emanating from 'trolls'- trolls being the popular term for generally pseudonymous online agitators who enjoy causing controversy and baiting other users. However, it is also the case that a number of open forum websites and blogs are used not as a place for debate, but somewhere where interested parties (often un-disclosed party staffers) try to score points. Consequently, the more open arena for balanced and non-partisan comment and analysis was on the psephology blogs. There are a number of amateur and professional psephologists in Australia, most of whom seem to have websites and blogs. Some such as Possum Comitatus (http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-77602), Peter Brent (http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-42909) and William Bowe (http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-42908) maintain large sites continuously and have been doing so for a number of years. These sites cater both for voters or offer policy guidance but primarily provide election predictions and analysis of other's predictions and of other opinion poll derived data.

Meanwhile the Australian Electoral Commission supported Youth Electoral Study No. 4 looking at today's 'apathetic' youth was recently released. Study No. 4 link.

Besides a surprisingly high estimation of 300,000 18-24 year olds not bothering to sign onto the electoral roll, the study shows that while youth generally votes for the first time without a strong previous attachment to a specific political party, young women are more likely to reach their majority without this firm commitment and politicians are in with a chance with these women if they address social and environmental issues.

There is obviously a lesson or two for future election candidates in all this, as well as reasons for internet users to be cautious about political content.

"Government doesn't listen to us blackfellas anymore"

In a recent conversation I was told: "Government doesn't listen to us blackfellas anymore."

Four and a half months after Labor won federal government, it is unfortunate but not exactly surprising that this feeling still exists here on the NSW North Coast.

 

Labor MPs Janelle Saffin and Justine Elliott and Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker would do well to consider that it takes more than bi-partisan token gestures to bridge the divide perpetuated and often deepened by previous governments and parliaments.

 

Apart from Andrew Hegedus as a Clarence co-facilitator, how many people from local indigenous communities actually attended the two Labor sponsored three-hour Clarence Valley 2020 local summit meetings held on 4 & 5 April 2008?

 

Whatever local summit media release went out after these meetings obviously didn't contain much about Clarence indigenous views because nary a word from this perspective appeared in the online news media or any newspapers which came my way.

 

I await media coverage of the Lismore 2020 local summit next week with interest.

Perhaps that media release might also tell those without the means to attend exactly who was there creating the documents supposedly carrying our collective voices to Canberra at the end of the month.

Dr. 'I'm listening' Nelson fails to rate a blip on Google Trends this month

Poor Brendan Nelson didn't even raise a blip on this Google Trends graph covering worldwide searches for his name compared to that of Kevin Rudd, starting 30 March and ending 6 April 2008.
It seems his listening tour is not inspiring anyone to find out more about him.

* "kevin rudd" * "brendan nelson"