What the 2007 federal election is costing taxpayers in little extras

According to a media release yesterday the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has authorised the first payment to political parties and candidates for votes received at the 2007 federal election.

The total of the first payment is $46,536,277.23. Payments have been made to seven parties and 15 independent candidates.

Payment is made in two stages. The first stage is 95 per cent of the amount due based on the number of votes counted as at the 20th day after election day. The second is the remainder due once vote counting is finalised.

Payments are calculated using an indexed sum per first preference vote. At the 2007 federal election, each first preference vote was worth 210.027 cents.

In order to obtain election funding a candidate must obtain at least 4% of the first preference vote.

At the 2004 federal election, the AEC paid out $41,926,158.91 in total to ten Parties and 15 independent candidates. The funding rate for the 2004 federal election was 194.397 cents per vote.

Below is a breakdown of the first payment of election funding for the 2007 federal election

AMOUNT AS AT THE END OF COUNTING ON 14 DECEMBER 2007

Name Amount ($)

Parties
Australian Labor Party 20,922,325.51
Liberal Party of Australia 17,222,359.78
Australian Greens 4,148,615.11
National Party of Australia 3,076,663.58
Pauline's United Australia Party 202,440.72
Northern Territory Country Liberal Party 160 719.91
Family First Party 133 965.51

Independent candidates
Nick Xenophon (Senate, South Australia) 296,627.70
Tony Windsor (New England) 105,217.86
Bob Katter (Kennedy) 64,919.66
Gavin Priestley (Calare) 37,979.71
Tim Horan (Parkes) 34,114.90
Caroline Hutchinson (Fisher) 21,141.74
Gavan O'Connor (Corio) 21,010.05
Noel Brunning (Forrest) 19,800.93
Aaron Buman (Newcastle) 12,655.91
Ben Quin (Lyons) 12,155.10
Cate Molloy (Wide Bay) 11,125.55
Ray McGhee (Boothby) 8 759.18
Rob Bryant (Murray) 8,727.25
Tim Williams (Macquarie) 8,270.34
Jamie Harrison (Lyne) 6,636.23

Total 46,536,277.23

Senate seats for NSW declared today

At 1.30pm today the following candidates at the 2007 federal election will be declared elected as senators for New South Wales:

Mark Arbib (Labor)

Helen Coonan (Liberal)

Doug Cameron (Labor)

John Williams (Nationals)

Marise Payne (Liberal)

Ursula Stephens (Labor)

 

Party representation at this election was matched with both Labor and the Coalition having three senators each.

Go Whalers!

 

Was the Coalition dishonest when in government?

At the declaration of the poll for the electorate of Page on Monday December 17 the unsuccessful National Party candidate Chris Gulaptis had this to say about the Coalition's loss:

"It's an opportunity for conservatives in opposition to make sure they represent us honestly."

Reading between the lines, one could easily arrive at the conclusion that Gulaptis thought that when the Coalition was in government its representation was something less than honest.

Quite honestly, that's rather easy to believe. Just look at the bundles of tripe the Howard government, and especially a number of its infamous ministers, served up for public consumption.


The Daily Examiner's report on the declaration of the poll is at:
http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3758647&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

ANZ Bank to use Equator Principles when looking to finance Gunn's contentious pulp mill in Tasmania

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group will be using the Equator Principles to assess any financial involvement with Malcolm Turnbull's 'love child', the Bell Bay pulp mill in northern Tasmania.

Would-be pulp mill owner Gunn's has been a customer of the ANZ since 1995. Not nearly as long as some of the bank's Mum and Dad account holders or other corporate clients.

I'm sure that a good many investors, bank customers and potential customers will be watching this process with interest.

Any attempt to use these principles simply as a PR airbrush is likely to have the opposite result.

ANZ Current Issues page:

 http://www.anz.com/aus/About-ANZ/Corporate-Responsibility/Current-Issues.asp

 

"For a number of years, banks working in the project finance sector had been seeking ways to develop a common and coherent set of environmental and social policies and guidelines that could be applied globally and across all industry sectors. In October 2002, a small number of banks convened in London, together with the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation (IFC), to discuss these issues. The Banks present decided jointly to try and develop a banking industry framework for addressing environmental and social risks in project financing. This led to the drafting of the first set of Equator Principles by these banks which were then launched in Washington, DC on June 4 2003. These Principles were ultimately adopted by over forty financial institutions during a three year implementation period. A subsequent updating process took place in 2006 leading to a newly revised set of Equator Principles that were released in July 2006."

The Equator Principles:

http://www.equator-principles.com/principles.shtml

Housing affordability on the NSW North Coast

It's good to see Lismore City Council adopting an innovative resolution to spend up to $2.5 million to guarantee the purchase of 50 homes for first home-buyers.
However, this move might help the few lucky families eventually involved but it does little to solve the home affordability issue which has crept out of the large metropolitan areas and is now making home ownership a distant dream for many in low-income areas on the NSW North Coast.
Lismore City Council has also recently approved a homeless shelter in the district.
With private rental costs steadily rising it is time for the Rudd Government to reassess the state of public housing across the nation and move, in partnership with the States, to rebuild these housing stocks to a level which reflects actual need on the ground.
Quixotic gestures make us feel good, but serious and widespread effort is required if Kevin Rudd is to live up to his election campaign rhetoric.
Of course it's early days yet and in rural and regional Australia many hope that 2008 will see a commitment to address public housing shortfalls.

The Northern Rivers Echo last Thursday:
http://www.echonews.com/index.php?page=View%20Article&article=19337&issue=306

Few noticed Andrew Bartlett's leaving as Senate forms a new face

In all the blather surrounding the Kyoto conference in Bali there has been little time to notice that the Australian Democrats federal leader and Queensland senator, Andrew Bartlett also lost his seat at the 24 November election and will no longer sit after 30 June 2008.
One of the saddest outcomes of this election has been the demise of the Democrats.
They will be sorely missed on Senate committees.
November 24 delivered us the same old two-horse race in the upper house, with minor parties and independents holding the balance of power.
A list of senators announced as elected so far (final AEC list should be out later today):
Nick Sherry (ALP)
Richard Colbeck (Lib)
Bob Brown (Greens)
Carol Brown (ALP)
David Bushby (Lib)
Catryna Bilyk (ALP)
Don Farrell (ALP)
Cory Bernardi (Lib)
Nick Xenophon (IND)
Penny Wong (ALP)
Simon Birmingham (Lib)
Sarah Hanson-Young (Greens)
Ian Douglas MacDonald (Lib)
John Joseph Hogg (ALP)
Sue Boyce (Lib)
Claire Moore (ALP)
Ron Boswell (Nationals)
Mark Furner (ALP)
Kate Lundy (ALP)
Gary Humphries (Lib)

Howard acolytes scramble for a new place in the sun

"The next group of potential losers comes from those interest groups and lobbyists identified with the Howard government. Every lobbyist in the country is reflecting now on their contacts with the new Government and rethinking their strategies. But those most urgently reflecting are those who campaigned against Labor. Some are even attempting to rewrite the history of their role.

The potential losers include some in the business community. They got preferential treatment from the Howard government in various ways, including the industrial relations reforms, and are now nervous about their future. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was recognised as the business lobby group closest to the former government. Not surprisingly its chief executive, Peter Hendy, has been under internal pressure since the election to justify his position.

The National Farmers' Federation has also been retreating from its pre-election advocacy. Some of its campaign advertising, though not all, was pro-government and anti-Labor. This was a calculated risk. Since the election, the federation has tried to deny that this was the case."
The Canberra Times last Thursday:
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/opinion/opinion/losers-scramble-for-a-place-in-rudds-new-queue/1104275.html

Of course all these lobbyists and special interest groups will retain access to the Federal Government. However it would be nice to see these rabid little neo-cons fall to the back of the queue for a while at least. A smidgen of poetic justice wouldn't go astray right now.