Nationals Hartsuyker overreaches and gets a caning from one P & C

The Nationals Luke Hartsuyker (incumbent in the marginal seat of Cowper on the NSW North Coast) has been relentless in his pursuit of column inches in the local print media as he prepares to defend his seat at this year's federal election.

Recently he turned his eye to schools with this press release on 11 July 2010; Government must address broken promises at North Coast schools and apologise to students, parents and teachers.
Which The Daily Examiner published almost verbatim as Schools left out of pocket with the unverifiable teaser: The Daily Examiner knows of one such case in the Clarence Valley but has withheld publishing at the request of teachers after an 11th hour reprieve from the Department of Education.

The Nambucca Heads school community reared up in the face of all this shameless politicking and bit back via The Coffs Coast Advocate in Nambucca school takes aim at MP on 13 July 2010:

The president of the Nambucca Heads Primary School's P & C has accused Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker of using the issue to make 'sweeping statements with very obvious political bias in order to gain political gain'.......

"We the parents, staff and P & C body of Nambucca Heads Public School are extremely happy with the acquisition of a wonderful, sturdy and well built and well finished brand new school hall. We are very grateful to the Govt for making it possible for our school to own such a valuable asset.

"Prior to having a new hall our school community gathered for assemblies, performances and significant events in an undercover area with no walls. Special assemblies and occasions were regularly disrupted by inclement weather. To have a brand new hall, so beautifully built and finished off is an invaluable asset and one which has been out of our reach for many years, that is, until the Building the Education Revolution Project.".

2010 Election Campaign Day 3 - Case of the battling Facebooks

Not hard to guess which is the legit Julia Gillard Facebook site out of 691 results....


















Tony Abbott also gets three top entries which span the political spectrum........

















A case of one Facebook entry is not enough for a local pollie or extra pages booked by enthusiastic local supporters?




















With at least 410 Facebook entries for "Kevin Hogan" the Nats Kevin Hogan only pops to the front using a location filter. But Kevvie's out there at http://www.facebook.com/kevinhogan.com.au?v=wall&ref=search

OMG, we're all Michael Moore!

A few friends, a few beers an' a group try at a quiz.

Nuff said!

Federal election 2010: What's Your Politics tool

WorkChoices dead says Nats Kevin Hogan. Oh yeah?

This is what Leader of the Opposition and aspirant to the office of Australian prime minister,Tony Abbott, said in his Address in Reply to the 2010 Budget:

We'll seek to take the unfair dismissal monkey off the back of small businesses which are more like families than institutions.

We'll make Labor's transitional employment agreements less transitional and Labor's individual flexibility agreements more flexible. We have faith in Australian workers who are not as easily pushed around and exploited as the ACTU's dishonest ad campaign is already making out.

If elected, we will be faithful to the liberal conservative tradition......

This is Tony Abbott in 2009 on the 27 July ABC TV 7.30 Report:

Well, if we are going to have productive workplaces, we can never ring down the curtain on workplace reform.

Tony Abbott on 17 July 2010 in a speech at a Queensland Liberal Party gathering:

"Yesterday the Shadow Cabinet backed my recommendation that an incoming Coalition government would not seek to change the Fair Work Act at least for the three years of the next term of Parliament."

A senior Liberal Party MP Eric Abetz fleshes this odd promise out:

"We will not be revolutionising, or indeed reforming, we would only be tweaking and that is what our policy will confirm...
An incoming coalition government will seek to make Labor's individual flexibility agreements more flexible and seek to reduce the burdens on small business...

Nationals candidate in the Page electorate on the NSW North Coast Kevin Hogan, reported on ABC North Coast NSW last Tuesday, thinks that:

....it's silly to suggest Workchoices is back on the Coalition's agenda. "A lot of the things in Workchoices people didn't like - we realise that, we lost an election over that so there is certainly no way that we would bring back things that the Australian public and the Australian workers don't want"....

The unions and many local workers are understandably nervous about the Coalition's industrial relations intentions and Hogan does not inspire confidence given his own political inexperience and Abbott's track record on key elements of WorkChoices.

2010 Election Campaign Day 2 - let's get the parodies over with early

Julia Gillard by Anthony Pascoe

Tony Abbott encompassed

Boozing away...

Did you know that 1.8 million Aussies (11% of the adult population) account for 51% of all alcohol consumed in this country?

That's a hellva lot of booze over a lifetime!

2010 Election Campaign Day 1: And they're off!

If ABC News is correct Oz Prime Minister Julia Gillard is presently in the car on her way to meet with the Governor-General and once she exits Yarralumla the 'official' campaign period of the 2010 federal election will be underway, with formal writs to be issued later.
Media conference at noon today.
Keep up with the tweeted news at #ausvotes, #aus2010 and ABC News.
ABC election news site Australia Votes now live.
Media speculating on the motives of the two protestors outside Yarralumba as I write in this pic below - Rudd supporters or Lib subversives?

















Here's the AEC guide Federal Election Timetable.
Here's a wise word from Gillard last night on Twitter:
JuliaGillard Don’t miss out on your chance to have a say in our future. Go to www.aec.gov.au JG via web