Mayne announces run for the Senate

Yet another Aussie Steve wants to enter federal politics. Why am I not surprised?

A chunk of Stephen Mayne's announcement emailed out in the early hours of this morning:

Shareholder activist, local government councillor, Crikey founder and former Liberal staffer Stephen Mayne turned 41 today and announced he is running as an independent candidate for the Senate in Victoria on a Nick Xenophon-style anti-pokies platform after the Rudd-Gillard government failed to act on sweeping Productivity Commission recommendations.

Mayne says Australians are the world's biggest gamblers on a per capita basis and Victoria's biggest pokies venue, the Woolworths-run Werribee Plaza Tavern, is located in Julia Gillard's seat of Lalor. He also says the family of the third Liberal-National Senate candidate in Victoria, Julian McGauran, owns a pokies venue, the Millers Inn, in Julia Gillard's home suburb of Altona where gamblers lost a staggering $13.2 million in 2008-09.

"Pokies are arguably the greatest social scourge in Julia Gillard's working class seat of Lalor, but she doesn't seem to care. At least Kevin Rudd declared he 'hates' the pokies before failing to do anything meaningful," Mayne said.

Lalor takes in the local council areas of Wyndham and Melton where working class people, many of them vulnerable females, lost $79 million and $42 million respectively on the pokies in 2008-09.

Mayne is calling for the Labor Party to sell the four pokies venues it owns and runs in Canberra and he'll be directing preferences to which ever party declares the toughest action against pokies in this campaign with the Productivity Commission recommendations being the benchmark which needs to be followed.

"If the Productivity Commission recommends a $1 maximum bet and the Tasmanian Liberals took that policy to the recent state election, then there is no reason why the two major Federal parties can't do likewise," Mayne said.....

Full list of all political and corporate elections contested by the newest Steve.

Northern Rivers xenophobia

For years an inaccurate and nastily xenophobic email has been circulating around the world and, adapted for Australia, it has turned up in Inboxes on the NSW North Coast from time to time.

Here is one version posted on a blog in May 2020 as If you cross the US border...

Now that the Australian federal election campaign has begun, the editor of the Tweed Daily News should exercise some care, because that same piece of arrant nonsense is turning up within that newspaper's pages.

From the Tweed Daily News letters to the editor published on 19 July 2010:

No room for immigrants

MUCH is being made of illegal immigration, be it by boat or plane. My belief is until all homeless Australian-born citizens are catered for, all Australian young people can get a real job, our immigration intake should be zero.

If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labour.

If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.

If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard of again.

If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into a political prison to rot.

If you cross the Australian border illegally you get: a job; an interpreter; free legal aid; a driver's licence; social security number; welfare; free education and free health care.

All at the expense of the Australian taxpayer.

With back-flip Gillard champing at the bit for a federal election, perhaps the locally based federal member could inform us what welfare payments illegal boat people receive. I am sure Australian-born pensioners who are battling to exist would.

Carl Redman *

* Carl Redman, Australian-born Cudgen resident

# Hat tip to Clarrie Rivers for alerting me to this letter.

2010 Election Campaign Day 7 - Who Airbrushed Teh Bishop Goyles?

There's barely a wrinkle in sight at Abbott-Team.......

The Daily Examiner editor raps Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan over the knuckles

On 19 July The Daily Examiner reported on a comment, containing personal abuse of sitting Labor MP Janelle Saffin, which could be found on Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan's Facebook page for the past month:

The Daily Examiner on 19 July 2010 Click on image to enlarge

The next day the same newspaper had Hogan demonstrating that he didn't understand social media dynamics and guaranteeing the swift death of his Facebook page through lack of reader participation:

To his credit, when he learnt of those comments yesterday, he contacted this paper to say they would be removed and that he would disable external commentary from the site in the future so the same thing could not happen again.

Details of the original comment can be found in the NCV post "Expose the cow"....

2010 Election Campaign Day 6 - All atwitter

It's immediate, it's busy - it's #ausvotes!

Phoney_Tony

@latikambourke Sorry about being stuck in Cbr, still researching powered flight. To think last week we thought the earth was flat! #ausvotes via web

latikambourke
@Phoney_Tony I seriously worry about whomever you are. :) #ausvotes via TweetDeck in reply to Phoney_Tony

hellharpy: it's going to be very hard to teach a pol sci course and be non-partisan during the next few weeks #ausvotes via web

silver_bodgie: RT @wayneswan: @JuliaGillard We need to take this campaign up a notch. We're calling in the producers of Ladette to Lady - NOW!! #ausvotes

CatherineDeveny: Tony Abbott is crazy for embryos but not so keen when they turn into brown people on boats #ausvotes


GreenJ: O oh. Tony Abbott just turned back the Pacific Princess. #ausvotes via TweetDeck


_struct: Tony Abbott has said Workchoices is "dead, buried, cremated", but let's not forget this man believes Jesus rose from the dead. #ausvotes


DR_KANGAROO: @juliagillard this is social media dear, not an avenue for 140 character press releases! When will you talk WITH us? #AusVotes via web

Hartsuyker not doing so well in online comments

In the heart of the Cowper federal electorate The Coffs Coast Advocate frequently runs stories quoting sitting member the Nats Luke Hartsuyker.
However, Luke doesn't always impress the locals.........

Posted by vallaben from Valla Beach, New South Wales

16 July 2010 8:45 a.m. Suggest removal » Post reply »

luke at it again bending the facts to win some votes for himself. if he spent 1 50th of his time he spends whinging about the government on actually doing something for his electorate he would probably get himself some support..you earn your votes by working for the community luke not whining about the government ...you are a do nothing politician and hopefully we will be rid of you this election

Posted by tlearyus from Pottsville, New South Wales

16 July 2010 11:05 a.m. Suggest removal » Post reply »

couldn't agree more...all we get from luke is paper waste in our mailbox and his party line rhetoric..if he wants to help this region he should change his parties policy on the National Broadband Network for a start, after all it was the coalition/nationals that wasted over 3 billion dollars on the failed Networking the Nation scheme run by Doug Anthony and Co. For those that are interested read the Auditor Generals report or do a search for "pork barrel" +NTN.

So this is what Abbott's tweaking at the edges looks like

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says that an election promise which will change the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to remove an obligation set out in Fair Work legislation is not changing the Fair Work Act, so he wasn't lying to the Australian people 5 days ago when he said "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."
Today's effort was a clumsy sophism; "This is a savings measure and it will be achieved by amending the electoral act. It does not require any change to the Fair Work Act."
This is how one section of the Fair Work Act would probably read under an Abbott Government.
Looks mighty like change to me!

Fair Work Act 2009

Subdivision F—Liability for costs of protected action ballot

464 Costs of protected action ballot conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission

(1) This section applies if the protected action ballot agent for a protected action ballot is the Australian Electoral Commission.

(2) The Commonwealth is liable for the costs incurred by the Australian Electoral Commission in relation to the protected action ballot, whether or not the ballot is completed. [superseded]

(3) However, except as provided by regulations made for the purposes of subsection 466(1), the Commonwealth is not liable for any costs incurred by the Australian Electoral Commission in relation to legal challenges to matters connected with the protected action ballot. [superseded]

UPDAAATE!
I see that someone in the blogosphere has begun to put about the story that Tones was only talking about general union elections and not protected ballots so that didn't involve changing Fair Work law at all.
But if one goes to the AEC website this pops up:
"Under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (the Act), the AEC must conduct all elections for office in registered organisations unless an exemption has been granted by the Fair Work Australia. This includes all elections and amalgamation ballots for trade unions and employer organisations that are registered under the Act. These elections are usually conducted by means of postal voting, and a wide variety of electoral systems are used."
Yep, Tones is really out to change Fair Work law.