Kevin Hogan - another Nationals MP who doesn't understand the Internet

On 7 September 2013 approximately 46.65 per cent of voters in the Page electorate gave their first preference vote to the National Party’s Kevin Hogan.

Kevin is now the Federal Member for Page in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

Like his NSW Nationals state counterpart before him, Kevin has attempted to obliterate the contents of his campaign website.

One has to suspect that, like his Prime Minister Tony Abbott, he has no idea how the Internet actually archives items.

Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis caused a deal of hilarity when he closed his 2007 federal campaign website down, as Pandora already had it online in perpetuity.

Now Kevin is also causing a great deal of belly laughter across Northern New South Wales.

This is the only page remaining on his post-7 September 2013 version of his election campaign website:

This is the same home page of Kevin’s pre-polling day version of the website, courtesy of the Wayback Machine:

Just for good measure and in the interests of an accurate historical record, here is Kevin's website copy of his how-to-vote- card, which is also still available online at Pandora along with his 2010 and 2013 campaign websites:

Everyone of Kevin Hogan's election promises are there on the Internet  for all to see - forever.

Click on images to enlarge

So did Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott break a promise made to the Yolngu community?

On 22 September 2013 what is best described in the vernacular as a flaming row broke out on Twitter between journalists David Donovan and Samantha Maiden.

Despite this eyewitness tweet (below) being there for all to see, Ms. Maiden continued to assert that in August 2013 Tony Abbott did not state that he would spend his first week as Australian Prime Minister in the Yolngu community in north-east Arnhem Land.

[Independent Australia,23 September 2013, Tony Abbott’s broken Indigenous promise and News Corp Breaking Bad]

Now, as Abbott was not speaking from written notes at the Garma Festival, I'm sure he didn't regard this as a firm promise because in the past he has told the world that people should only believe his carefully prepared scripted remarks.

However, it is obvious that those hearing and reporting on this speech took it as a commitment to return in his first week as prime minister and, as he made no effort to correct this misleading impression - he just accepted the audience applause - one must assume it was intentional on his part.

So unfortunately for the Sunday Telegraph National Political Editor’s credibility, David Donovan was essentially correct and despite the name calling she indulged in Samantha Maiden was hair-splittingly wrong.

Here is the exact quote preserved for posterity in a YouTube video:

“Why shouldn’t I, if you will permit me, spend my first week as prime minister, should that happen, on this, on your country.” [YouTube,http://youtu.be/F1OKujvU2wQ,then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at 21:27 minutes]

* Thank you to John Fraser for sending North Coast Voices a link to the Independent Australia post which outlined the Twitter exchange

UPDATE

As for “Tony’s” commitment, Denise agreed Abbott had definitely made it, but characterised it as merely a “slip of the lip”. Denise said that when “Tony” made his promise, she remembers looking across at his chief of staff (Peta Credlin) for confirmation. According to Bowden, Credlin immediately and emphatically shook her head and told her Abbott would be “far too busy in his first week”. [Independent Australia,3 October 2013]

A Political Mirage or Where's Kevin Hogan?

According to the Australian Electoral Commission the National Party of Australia only has 9 Members of the House of Representatives in its own right and, if  the Australian Parliament website is to be believed there are another three Nationals who presumably come under the banner of the Liberal-National Party of Queensland.

However, one of the new Nationals in the Lower House is of such importance that he has been left off the official members list on the Australian Parliament website twelve days after the Abbott Government officially took over the reins of government.

As of 30 September 2013 there is still no parliamentary evidence that the Nationals Member for Page, Kevin Hogan, exists outside the pages of mainstream media.

Here are the National Party MPs recognised on the Australian Parliament website.

The Hon Darren Chester MP Member for Gippsland, Victoria

Mr George Christensen MP Member for Dawson, Queensland

The Hon John Cobb MP Member for Calare, New South Wales

Mr Mark Coulton MP Member for Parkes, New South Wales

Dr David Gillespie MP Member for Lyne, New South Wales

The Hon Luke Hartsuyker MP Member for Cowper, New South Wales

The Hon Barnaby Joyce MPMember for New England, New South Wales

The Hon Michael McCormack MP Member for Riverina, New South Wales

Mr Ken O'Dowd MP Member for Flynn, Queensland

Mr Keith Pitt MP Member for Hinkler, Queensland

The Hon Bruce Scott MP Member for Maranoa, Queensland

The Hon Warren Truss MP Member for Wide Bay, Queensland

At present Directory Assistance also has no listing for Kevin Hogan MP, but if one happens across old campaign literature then there is one phone number listed which is still operational - (02) 6622.7253. 

Post-Federal Election 2013: Liberal Party turns on its own 'faceless men'

the faceless men are running the Labor Party [Then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott quoted in The Australian 23 February 2012]

We will get productivity up because we are not run by faceless men—the same faceless men who dictate the policy of this government when it comes to workplace relations. [Then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in House of Representatives Hansard, 27 February 2012]

From 2006 onwards Tony Abbott made repeated reference, both in and outside of the Australian Parliament, to faceless men in the Labor Party and held his own party up as being free from the taint of such men.

Now the Liberal Party itself is publicly coming clean about the antics of its own ‘faceless men’ in New South Wales and revealing examples of the party’s undemocratic pre-selection processes.

Prime Minister Abbott may be about to lose control of the post-election political message again, as media attention was triggered by his own apparent pursuit of payback for what he sees as NSW factional bosses costing him the 2010 federal election as well a losing him an expected ‘landslide’ victory in 2013.

ABC 7.30 25 September 2013:

Today, two party activists emailed 10,000 members urging them to support broadening a ban on party officials being lobbyists. The ban was announced by the Prime Minister last week.

And senior Liberals have called for an end to branch stacking by NSW factional bosses. They blame the practice for hampering the party's efforts to pick up seats in Western Sydney in the election....

ROSS CAMERON [former Liberal MP for Parramatta]: Same thing happened in Parramatta. The Liberal Party's constitution rewarded branch stacking. Martin Zaiter took the opportunity that it presented. We stacked in 100 Maronite Lebanese into two branches. It meant the preselection was a stitch up and it was a weak - it produced a weak outcome.... 

ROSS CAMERON: The extraordinary thing is that you can become a branch member in Parramatta, as I was, and not have the opportunity to vote for your candidate. You know, you only get to vote for the delegate who's gonna vote for the candidate, and it's that concentration of the franchise that empowers the factional boss....

But today in an email to nearly 10,000 state members, party activists John Ruddick and Walter Villatora have called for the changes to go further. "... our party is now at a crossroad," they've written. The, "NSW Liberal Party is unique ... our lobbyists (have) until now not only been influencing lawmakers ... they've been installing many lawmakers."....

ROSS CAMERON: Labor are going to steal a march on us here. And if we want to be competitive, we have to be putting forward the cream of each generation as the candidates representing ordinary Australians through the Liberal Party. And the only way we will attract them to our cause is to broaden the franchise and give them a feeling they've got a real chance....

ROSS CAMERON: You've got to take the power which is currently concentrated in the hands of a few factional leaders and you've got to push it out to the rank-and-file members.