Early Election results - Wingecarribee Shire

Early results are as follows:
(note - as the figures keep changing - these are only preliminary figures.

Readers my check the latest figures for themselves by visiting the following URL:

http://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/result.aspx?areaname=wingecarribee

Group Votes 15% 326 Group votes ARKWRIGHT, Juliet. Liberals 2% 43 personal votes

Group Votes 10% 354 Group votes CLARK, Jim. Greens 2 % 68 personal votes

Group Votes 10% 376 Group votes McLAUGHLIN, Graham ALP 1 personal votes 47 (later votes indicate Labor is slipping below the magic quote figure - but they are still looking strong.

Group Votes 6% 205 Group votes WHIPPER, Larry IND 2% personal votes 85 (Larry is being preferenced by Theo, so he is OK). So much for running a "principled campaign", when he is prepared to cross to the "dark side" to spoil Malcolm Murray and Duncan Gair's positions.

Group Votes 6% 201 Group votes TURNER, Geraldine Save the Highlands 2% 57 personal votes (her position is weakening as votes trickle in).

Group Votes 5% 233 Group votes MAUGER, Jim IND 2% personal votes 72

Group Votes 5% 224 Group votes HALSTEAD, Ken 3% personal votes 145

Group Votes 4% 172 Group votes TUDDENHAM, Paul IND 2% personal votes 70

Group Votes 4% 171 Group votes GAIR, Duncan IND 3% personal votes 121

Group Votes 3% 151 Group votes MURRAY, Malcolm IND 1% personal votes 28

Ungrouped ONISFOROU, Theo IND 4% personal votes 162

• With 9 candidates to be elected, my understanding is that a "quota" is 10% plus 1 vote (of formal votes cast on the day). So, roughly speaking 10% is the magic figure for candidates to aim for.
• Liberals, Greens and Labor are looking assured of a first round seat (without distribution of preferences). Labor's position is weakening, but they got a strong early start, and are still looking pretty good.
  
• There will be a scramble for trickle down preferences from smaller groups for the remaining 6 positions on Council.
• 7596 Total Formal Votes counted (at about 10:30 pm)
• Residential and Non-residential Electors enrolled on 4 August 2008: 31,094

These are early figures only, but on this basis, it is clearly a strong showing for the Liberal Party, led by Juliet Arkwright. Indeed I would be so bold as to suggest that she might well be positioned to assume the position of Mayor of Wingecarribee Shire, with such a strong vote for her group. But of course, such a position is determined by collectives of the Councillors, and who owes whom a favour, etc. So, my guess is that the next most likely candidate would be Larry Whipper.

As far as individual polling is concerned, to my eyes, the stand out is Ken Halstead, who has gathered 5% for his team, but a very strong 3% for himself individually.

Theo, who was really only running as a spoiler against Malcolm Murray and Duncan Gair, is probably content with their relatively poor showings, and his own reasonable 4% personal vote. His votes are expected to transfer to Larry Whipper, which is somewhat ironic.

Larry's Whipper's group will be preferenced by Theo, so he looks assured of getting elected.

The Save the Highlands group (led by Geraldine Turner) might pick up some preferences from any spare votes of the Greens, as, both groups were strongly against land sales and the uncontrolled push for development favoured by the last Council's pro-development groups.

I expect a tight exchange of preferences between previous Councillors Malcolm Murray and Paul Tuddenham, Duncan Gair, and on that basis, I would expect that one of those three will get elected (i.e., one will just scrape in). It is even possible that as they were all in Council previously, their names will attract lower-order preference votes, or flow-on preferences from groups, two could possibly get in on their name recognition. Of the three Malcolm Murray's position is weakest.

Jim Mauger is looking shaky, I would say, although he was the very last member elected last time, so a flow-through to him is still possible. He has a high profile, especially on anti-corruption issues (which is pretty popular right now.

I would say that Ken Halstead is looking a reasonable chance, but whether his aggressive style will mean that he has not secured enough 2nd, 3rd or 4th preference votes, or flow-on votes from other groups remains to be seen.

To my eyes, the big loser on the night looks to be Malcolm Murray, as he has been backed by a very strong advertising campaign, and seemingly is the preferred candidate of certain business groups. May King ran a relatively low key campaign and has seemingly disappeared out of sight.

As with all polling results, on needs to know where the count comes from, so it is possible that the early votes come from small rural booths, which would be expected to favour Greens and the Larry Whipper team. Whether they can hold that popularity in Mittagong and Bowral remains to be seen.

NSW Council Elections

NSW Council Elections are being held in most New South Wales (State) Local Government areas today. However, if you live in Wollongong, (and I believe Shellharbour, and Coffs Harbour - don't take my word for these latter ones, but in Wollongong it is certainly the case) then you cannot vote today. That is because your previous Council was sacked by the NSW Government for corrupt behaviour and/or incompetence.

Why should that decision (to sack a Council) disenfranchise the community - for another 4 years?

Anyway, in happy little Wingecarribee Shire, our Council escaped the verdict of incompetence or corruption (because Sydney had bigger fish to fry), and our Council survived to the bitter end of its life. So today we got to vote for a new Council.

At least the weather was nice, this morning in Robertson, when I lined up to take the "How to Vote" cards from the hander-outerers at the front gate of the Robertson School of Arts.

And who did I vote for?
We have secret ballots, fortunately. But I will tell you who I did NOT vote for.

• Malcolm Murray and his team.
• Duncan Gair and his team.
• May King and her team, and the
• Liberal Party team.

And I voted No and No on the so-called Poll regarding the Leisure Centre.

Geraldine Turner (of the Save the Highlands team), Larry Whipper, Jim Clark and the Greens team, Graham McLaughlin and the Labor Team, Jim Mauger and his team, and Ken Halstead can all take some comfort from that information. As an individual voter I can only choose my preferences, but if there are not enough voters of like minds to get a particular candidate over the "Quota" line, then sorry, but I have done my best.

I only have a single vote, after all.

If you do not like that situation, then perhaps you ought talk to a local political wheeler and dealer (a particularly lucky boy). He might possibly have some ideas as how to overcome that hurdle. Personally, I am content to stick with the old "One Vote, One Value" concept.

We shall see over the ensuing days who has been elected, and whether the Leisure Centre has been rejected in the Poll.

The Southern Highlands News has done an excellent job of covering the Election Candidates opinions on a range of subjects. However, they have let themselves down with this last minute word of advice: "Dismiss the theatrics of the past few weeks, disregard your loyalties, and vote with your head!" That is a cop out, in my opinion. We have many candidates who were Councillors last time who frankly do not deserve to be re-elected.

Rooster One Day, Feather Duster The Next.

Matt Brown, Member for Kiama has been sacked (or has resigned) as Police Minister, after the leaking of a story about a party he supposedly held in his Parliament House Office on Budget night. In fact, he was apparently sacked for being less than frank with the Premier, when first questioned about the incident. He supposedly denied the details about inappropriate behaviour, but Mr Rees checked with other sources, then fronted Mr Brown again, who then confessed (supposedly). At that point, he was supposedly sacked by Mr Rees for not coming clean in the first place.
"It appears the leaking of the story was timed to either discredit the Minister who was promoted on Monday to the police portfolio or to destabilise Mr Rees." (Source: Sydney Daily Telegraph website.)

The Age website was more direct - allowing you to join the dots, as it were:

• "Mr Rees .... refused to speculate who may have leaked the story, and rebuffed suggestions it could have been Frank Sartor, whom Mr Rees dumped from the cabinet. "It would disappoint me, but I don't believe that's Frank Sartor's style. He's a more direct person than that."

• "Mr Rees said he was not aware of a meeting yesterday between Mr Sartor and News Ltd journalist Imre Salusinszky, who broke the story. "It would disappoint me [if Mr Sartor had leaked the story], but I have got no idea what Frank was talking about to Imre [Salusinszky]."

Well, Mr Rees, The Body Politic's resident graphic artist can show you his conclusion.

Frank Sartor, a proverbial Feather Duster himself, after being sacked last week, is showing Matt the tricks of the trade.

Aaah, such is the way of NSW Politics.

Fw: Is fascism is coming to America?

The following story comes to me via email.

As such I automatically believe it to be a true account, and unbiased. (NOT!)

None-the-less it tells me something very interesting about the US Presidential campaign.
Even if Sarah Palin is not as bad as they say, the Democrats see her as a demonic creature (ironically a Ultra-Right Religious Demon). In other words, the Democrats are panicking.

---

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross".

Sinclair Lewis, 1935

Sarah Palin's list of banned books:

Below is a list of the books Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla, Alaska Library. When I was in Anchorage two years ago, residents of Wasilla I met described the place as a growing, more-and-more suburban community north of Anchorage. In her speech, Palin called the area "the valley." Mayor Palin would seem to be a strong force in the suburbanization of the village of Wasilla. When the Wasilla librarian refused to trash these books, Mayor Palin tried to have her fired. This caused a stir in Wasilla which then turned into a drive to protect the librarian. Some of my favorite examples of American literature are on this list.

This is the act of a patriotic American? No, this is the act of a religious fundamentalist trying to squeeze herself into the role of a mythic frontier American. The attempt to ban American literary masterpieces like Catcher In The Rye, Grapes Of Wrath, To Kill A Mockingbird, Death Of A Salesman, Leaves Of Grass, As I Lay Dying, Huckleberry Finn, Catch 22 and Tarzan indicates, flags and Bible citations aside, her ascendance to national power would be downright un-American.

In the realm of Rovian political marketing and the unfolding effort to win the Presidency not with ideas but with a cult of personality, McCain is the humiliated warrior ready to "go to the gates of hell" to preserve American exceptionalism and Sarah Palin is his fascist "bride," a mythic frontier mom able to shoot, gut and cook a moose while nurturing her family who has said publicly our war in Iraq is supported by God and people should pray to God to get the Alaska gas pipeline approved.

This is a pivotal moment in American history, and we all need to expose this cult of personality for what it is, a cynical sham. John Grant

• ---

  *This list is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library
  Board. (I have highlighted some of the more striking selections for banning - in my mind - DJW).
  
  A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Eng le
  Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
  As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
  Blubber by Judy Blume
  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
  Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
  Carrie by Stephen King
  Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  Christine by Stephen King
  Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  Cujo by Stephen King
  Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
  Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
  Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
  Decameron by Boccaccio
  East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
  Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
  Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  Forever by Judy Blume
  Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
  Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
  Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. R owling
  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
  Have to Go by Robert Munsch
  Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
  How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
  Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  Impressions edited by Jack Booth
  In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
  It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
  James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
  Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
  Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
  Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
  Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
  Lysistrata by Aristophanes
  More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
  My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
  My House by Nikki Giovanni
  My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
  Night Chills by Dean Koontz
  Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
  One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
  One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
  One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  Ordinary People by Judith Guest
  Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
  Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
  Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
  Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
  Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
  Separate Peace by John Knowles
  Silas Marner by George Eliot
  Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
  Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  The Bastard by John Jakes
  The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
  The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
  The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
  The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
  The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
  The Living Bible by William C. Bower
  The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
  The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
  The Pigman by Paul Zindel
  The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
  The Shining by Stephen King
  The Witches by Roald Dahl
  The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
  Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
  To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
  Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
  Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth
  

  ---

  
  VFP31 Annual Banquet Speaker Chris Hedges wrote the book on people
  like Sarah Palin. It's called American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On
  America
  
  When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag
  and carrying a cross.
  Sinclair Lewis, 1935

Left, Right, Left, Right - NSW Labor marching to its death.

Further to my post of yesterday, here is an extract from an email to one of my brothers, in Canberra, who had asked for my impressions of our new "left wing" Labor leadership in NSW.

I confess to not having known that Rees was supposedly "of the left" (before he was appointed Premier). I can now tell you that the labels "left" and "right"  mean little or nothing in NSW Politics - it means the label of the group you hang around with (who your political "Mates" are), rather than signifying anything about what you believe in. None of these people believe in anything.  

Forget Socialism, or Ben Chifley's Light on the Hill.

I had a meeting with my local Member when I first got involved in the Kangaloon Aquifer campaign. His opening statements to us were like this:

• NSW's economy is the engine of the Australian Economy (which is palpably false, by the way)
• Sydney is the growth centre of the NSW economy
• We need to ensure Sydney's water supply is secure, in order to maintain confidence of the International Market in Sydney (and therefore in NSW, and therefore in the Australian economy).

For the record, I wanted to discuss the environmental impacts of the draining of the Kangaloon Aquifer, and to a lesser extent, the likely social impacts of the pumping program on the local rural community. 

I may as well have been talking to a Merchant Banker, not a Labor Member of Parliament. From an old-fashioned Labor Party supporter, I can think of no greater criticism. But to the new Labor politicians, they would not even see the problem.

This is symptomatic of the dire state of NSW politics.

 

NSW Portfolios

Hi Folks

 

Amazingly Kristina Keneally, previously a very junior Minister, last seen dancing with Benedict xvi, is suddenly the NSW Minister for Planning. At least nobody would say she has a history of corruption. But will she stand up to the Carpetbaggers from the Development Lobby, and the Mining Industry?

 

Full list of Ministry is at the end of this Daily Telegraph report.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24311066-5001021,00.html

 

The Tele has beaten the NSW Parliament website, which shows Rees as the Premier, but all the other old portfolios, as before.

 

Cheers

Denis
www.peonyden.blogspot.com

Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'

Read this and weep, my friends.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNulPSqaP1eyysv8ENJWhk0ZSrPgD92VJPL00?source=cmailer

Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'

By GENE JOHNSON – 2 days ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.

Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.

"God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.

"I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded," she added. "But really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God."

Palin attended the evangelical church from the time she was a teenager until 2002, the church said in a statement posted on its Web site. She has continued to attend special conferences and meetings there. Religious conservatives have welcomed her selection as John McCain's running mate.

The Assemblies of God, which claims nearly 3 million members, is one of the biggest Pentecostal groups in the U.S. Unlike most other Christians — including most evangelicals — Pentecostals believe in "baptism in the Holy Spirit." That can manifest itself through speaking in tongues, modern-day prophesy and faith healing. The Assemblies of God teaches that spirit baptism must be accompanied by speaking in tongues. Still, some churchgoers never have the experience.

Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, lamented Palin's comments.

"I miss the days when pastors delivered sermons and politicians delivered political speeches," he said. "The United States is increasingly diverse religiously. The job of a president is to unify all those different people and bring them together around policy goals, not to act as a kind of national pastor and bring people to God."

The section of the church's Web site where videos of past sermons were posted was shut down Wednesday, and a message was posted saying that the site "was never intended to handle the traffic it has received in the last few days."

Cheers

 

Denis
www.peonyden.blogspot.com