Election 2010 recap – motivational style

Here’s some of the highlights of the election as I saw, in the style of motivational posters.

Enjoy!

Link dump – Decision 2010 edition

There’s simply too much coverage to cherry pick, so here are a colleciton of links, including a superb article by Possum.

Let the Great Unhinging begin

Listening for the new told lies

The Coalition lost

Islands of sanity in the ocean of madness

A new Parliament a new era

They just don’t get it

And the winner is…

At last a decision has been made.

Firstly Bob Katter jumped the gun on his independent colleagues and held his own press conference at 2:00pm. To very few people’s surprise he went with the Coalition, leaving it at 74-74.

He then proceeded to thoroughly confuse everyone and say he’d have no problems working with Labor if they got it, implying that if the other two went Labor he’d join in and pass supply. Very much a bet each way….

One hour later Tony Windsor stepped up to the plate and announced his support for Labor, with broadband as his key decision maker.

Then Rob Oakeshoot stepped up and after gibbering on for a full 20 minutes (and driving everyone on the live feed into increasing heights of hysteria) he finally came on board for Labor.

Finally we have a Labor minority government returned.

Of course that doesn’t mean it’ll be all smooth sailing yet. Firstly they have to get through the first session of Parliament and get a Speaker elected.

Then after that I’m sure we can expect some or all of the following:

1. Tony Abbott decrying the “illegitimate” Gillard government who don’t deserve to govern.
2. The MSM providing us with a full 3 years of bile and vitriol of ever increasing intensity because we didn’t elect the government they wanted, particularly News Limited who lost this election so badly.
3. The independents to be totally crucified by the MSM for the next 3 years, for the purpose of a grass roots effort to get them arsed out.
4. Blatant obstructionism for the next 9 months until the Senate changes over…and more of that arse-clown Fielding.

So plenty of good stuff to look forward to. Enjoy!!

And now the end is near…

…But not quite the final curtain.

With the news yesterday of Andrew Wilkie siding with Labor it leaves the effective seat count at 74-73 to the ALP, with only the 3 remaining independents to go.

Considering Abbott’s approach to the negotiation process with the independents I would be amazed if they decided to go with him, but with Bob Katter in the mix who can tell.  Windsor and Oakeshott seem to be eminently sensible (for politicians) and from all reports seem to be viewing this as a chance to work for the benefit of the country.

With the results of Abbott’s costings turning up a $7bn – $11bn hole, it appears their claim to be the superior economic manager have died a noisy death.  Couple this with the Abbott demeanour of pretty much saying whatever thought crosses his brain at the time his mouth opens and I’m sure they can see the recipe for disaster.  It looks like Campaign Tony has been put back into his box and Real Tony has been let out to play.

On further thought you have to wonder if this is part of a deeper strategy for Abbott…I know that would actually require some thought, but maybe Nick Minchin has had a brain wave.

Based on his “negotiations” with the independents and continual expectorations into the media, you could be forgiven for thinking that either:

1. he is an idiot
2. he thinks the independents/Australian public are idiots
3. he doesn’t really want to be in a minority government, but wants to make life so hard for the ALP that they’ll need to call an early election.

The only problems he faces with option 3 is that both 1 and 2 are correct, he has a serious lack of talent around him (Hockey and Dutton are regarded as stars FFS!!), from July the Greens have the balance of power in the Senate and so his obstructive ways will come to an end, and finally he is continually and comprehensively pwned by the ALP in Parliament on a very regular basis.  If you have any doubts about this at all check Grog’s Gamut for recaps of past Question Time session…always good for a laugh.

It may be an early call but I reckon we are headed for a minority Labor government, with some surprising reforms coming through due to the influence of the independents.

Overall I think it’s the shake-up our country needs.

Cheerleading update

Now it’s getting beyond a joke.

The latest news this morning is that the Coalition has edged ahead by 2000 votes with 20% of the vote still to be counted.

Of course Crazy Eyes Bishop was immediately wheeled out to stare the public into submission and claim that Labor now had no right to form Government. Of course being the impartial observers and reporters of news that they are, the media immediately jumped on the bandwagon and are now pushing the independents to make a decision.

A couple of things on this:

1. There is still 20% of the vote to be counted and the lead is only 2000…get a grip!
2. Funny how as soon as the LNP edges ahead the independents get the pressure ramped up massively.

Frankly the media have now lost any minor semblance of impartiality they may have retained and are now simply cheerleading for the Coalition.

UPDATE:  As of now Labor have now regained the lead in the two party preferred votes.  Funny how I don’t see any commentary about the LNP no longer being entitled to form government now that they aren’t winning the 2PP…

Costings? We don’t need no stinking costings!

Not that you’d know much about it from the media, but it looks like the Liberal’s “costings” are coming back to haunt them.

As you might recall, there was a”leak” of information about one of the Coalition’s policy costings being out by $800 million, which made them completely lose their minds despite the fact that:

a)  the public would have found out anyway

b)  it was correct

This led them to having a massive tanty and saying they wouldn’t submit their policies for costing by Treasury because they were all dodgy and couldn’t be trusted *cough* Godwin Grech *cough*.  It was at this point that my irony detector blew up.

They then got an external accounting firm involved (co-incidentally founded by a former Liberal pollie) how basically checked that their spreadsheet added up and explicitly stated that this was all based on the assumptions provided by the Liberals.  Turns that this firm was hired 2 MONTHS PREVIOUSLY.  Lucky that leak happened otherwise it would have just been a waste spending all that money on the accounting firm hey?

Now the worm has finally turned.  The Independents are incredibly interested in how the potential government will pay for their promises so naturally they are interested in the costings.  As you would expect Gillard happily handed everything over without any dramas, but what does Abbott do??  Refuse outright.

Not suss at all right?  Even Bob Katter has come out and said it looks like he has something to hide.  Most normal people would agree that it’s really dodgy that he doesn’t want his facts and figures checked, but he even has the nerve to trot out that Treasury can’t be trusted to tell the truth and even has his sock puppets like Mal Brough pushing the same tired old line.  This is the same Treasury department that will actually be working for him if he’s in government and he’s publicly stating that they can’t be trusted to do their job properly and with integrity.

He’s been shown up for the empty shirt that he is, but don’t expect the media to make a big deal of this…after all they are running “polls” in the Independents’ electorates saying that they MUST side with the Liberals because these 600 people think so.  Excuse me but didn’t we just have a REALLY BIG poll on the weekend, in which these people said they trusted someone not aligned with a party to represent them?

It’s just getting more and more comical.

Open letter to the Australian media

I’d like to congratulate you on your election campaign…on the whole it was masterful.  Now most people would say that only political parties can run an election campaign, but you went against that old truism and ran an excellent campaign, albeit for one of the political parties.

It was a revelation on how campaigning should be done in the 21st century and set a benchmark for things to come.  Not only did you start your campaign early, 3 years ago in fact, but you adjusted your methods according to the ebb and flow of your audience.  Truly magical!

Here are some of the greatest hits as I saw them:

1. Now this is only a really small thing, but it set the tone for the entire campaign…the nickname “KRudd”.  One the surface it looks really trivial, but it is open to so many interpretations not the least of which is the similarity to “crud”.  If people start to object to it, they can be accused of being precious and not being a “true Aussie who can’t take a bit of knocking”.  You managed to sweep aside objections that it was disrespectful to the leader of our nation, or that we didn’t hear terms like “J-Ho”, “PCos” floating around either.  It was a perfect example of subliminal marketing.
2. Utegate/Grechgate.  This was almost your finest hour and your worst mistake.  It was excellent that you brought the scoop out into the public, but the dodgy email image that was obviously fake nearly did you in.  Then when you take into account Grech’s obvious instability and history as a mole, it reflected even more poorly on you…well more on Steve Lewis but you by extension.  Thankfully you managed to make it die a quiet death by abandoning all coverage as soon as it went pear shaped.  Nicely saved.
3. Insulationgate.  This was almost the pinnacle of your campaign.  The amount of outrage and hysteria whipped up was breathtaking to behold and resulted in the demotion of a minister, so I reckon you could claim that as a scalp.  The fact that you were able to drive public nuts over a program that had so few deaths (compared to previous years) almost all of which were attributable to negligence by the employer, that had new regulations applied (that the dodgy employers ignored), that actually reduced the incidence of house fires, most of which were related to dodgy wiring and not insulation was just magic.  The significant under-reporting of the report giving the whole program the thumbs up was very well done.
4. BERgate.  This was your finest work to date.  The fact that some of you have been able to extend it for so long is a testament to your skills.  The consistent under-reporting of the successes and the constant regurgitating of the dodgy projects was handled with consummate skill.  The comparison of house construction costs with hall construction costs (even though more stringent standards are required for school buildings) was just poetry…it sucked the punters in completely.  Even when the ANAO and Orgill reports came out you carried on regardless, completely ignoring the fact that 97% of the projects satisfied the schools involved.  It was a great example of driving your narrative home, regardless of actual reality.
5. Tony Abbott.  This was handled so adeptly I’m surprised you weren’t engaged as public relations for the Liberal party.  That you were able to gloss over or actually turn around his numerous character defects (lack of compassion, hubris, flip-flopping, foot-in-mouth syndrome) into “Aussie bloke” characteristics is a sign of your deep understanding of your audience.  They don’t want to understand the actual character of our potential face of this nation in the world or how he might be perceived, they want to know what he would be like to have a beer with.
6. And finally, the campaign proper.  This was just the icing on the cake.  By relentlessly highlighting the trivial and ignoring policy, and focussing entirely on Gillard and letting Abbott disappear for 3 weeks you steered everyone in the direction you wanted.  It was the best example of manipulation I have seen in a very long time.  The peak was the “news” story about Gillard’s earlobes.  That it was actually picked up by other organisations and disseminated further is a testament to your prowess.  Also the press conference for Gillard where 26 questions were about Rudd and other inconsequentials and only the very last question was about the actual policy was inspiring.  When you add in Laurie Oakes’ “leaks”, Mark Latham and the continued hounding of Kevin Rudd, it was without a doubt a thing of beauty.

Unfortunately, the public didn’t quite fully buy into your narrative and so we are stuck with a hung parliament instead of the LNP government you were after.  This means there is still a possibility the NBN will go ahead, meaning the slow death of your newspaper arms.

It’s now time to get into those wavering independents and apply the blow torch.  I see you’ve already started by saying their electorates want them to go with the LNP, but there’s a way to go yet.  Get into them as only you can, and best of luck.

***  N.B.  In case any of you think I’ve totally lost my mind, the above is satire.  ***

Election 2010: Last drinks

With voting happening tomorrow I thought I might go over my impressions of the campaign to date:

1. Instead of a politician’s campaign we have seen the media’s campaign.  They have gone out of their way to sensationalise the trivial and downplay the meaningful in every sense of the word.  This is either their attempt to keep the punters interested by making it a contest, or a more malicious effort to manipulate the public’s voting intentions.  I know what my money is on.
2. The media are not only trivialising the election they are blatantly boosting the coalition at every opportunity.  As a point in case, why did a cabinet leak (most likely from a public servant) about discussions on a policy THAT HAD BEEN PASSED AND WAS CURRENTLY ACTIVE  warrant 3 days intense coverage, whereas Tony Abbott’s refusal to have a debate on economics when both leaders were in the same place at the same time sink without a whisper?  Or the fact that the accounting firm that did the Coalition’s “costings” was hired 2 months ago, making it more likely that they were never going to submit them to Treasury and that they are the likely source of the leak themselves never rate a mention?
3. The disgusting nature of the various attack ads.  None of the parties is clean on this one, though it is somewhat interesting to note that the ALP ads all have attribution and a source for each negative comment…the Coaltion seem to be just making shit up.  You just have to look at their “$8 billion school halls rip off” to see that, in light of the Orgill report findings.
4. Thank god for the fifth estate, i.e. the blogs.  They are the only ones doing the necessary investigative work to put the policies of all sides under the microscope, regardless of their leanings.  I’m not so sure Twitter is helping that much, especially when you have “journalists” like Latika Bourke contributing with their vacuous mind farts.  It is quite useful to get a running commentary of events from a lay perspective, especially things like the various Q&A sessions or town halls…most twitterers leave professional journos in the dust.

In all I think has been a major disappointment and only the politically engaged will have the ability to find out exactly what’s going on…everyone else will only know what they have been spoon fed by the media, giving them a level of power they no longer deserve given their blatant bias.  Even the once independent ABC has now jumped into the gutter by reporting headlines and stories from The Australian as gospel without any scrutiny.

Given the last week of the campaign I think that Labor will get over the line with a reduced majority.  I think a hung parliament is not out of the question, but looking unlikely.  Greens to have the balance of power in the Senate, hopefully to the benefit of us all.

We’ll have to wait and see tomorrow.

Pulling out all the stops

I nearly gagged on my lunch yesterday when I read this bit of vitriol from Paul Sheehan:

Gillard’s pork pies hard to resist

Now I’ve heard of media cheerleading before but frankly this just takes it to a whole new level.  I fully expected to see his masthead photo in an outfit with pom-poms.

Quite rightly he is being completely pwned in comments, but if this is the state of the political news media in this country, lord help us all.

And to top it all off the desiccated coconut is now rabbiting on that the GFC was a purely regional crisis and nothing to do with us…*sigh* I smell relevance deprivation syndrome once again.

What financial crisis?

Coalition broadband policy – welcome to 1990

Being a professional computer nerd the National Broadband Network is of keen interest to me, particularly during this election campaign, so I was interested to hear what the LNP pulled out of their hat as their “better, cheaper broadband network”.

Well they didn’t fail to disappoint, with only half of their adjectives actually applying.

The basics of their policy is as follows:

1. $6 billion “cost” instead of $43 billion
2. 97% “broadband” coverage instead of 93%
3. fibre backbone and hybrid fibre copper to the premises
4. Tesltra to do it
5. 12-100 Mbps speeds

And apparently the magical wireless fairy will make everyone else happy.

Not surprisingly anyone who has any technical knowledge at all is shouting that this is basically bullshit and a massive step backwards…after all don’t we currently get 12-24Mpbs?  that’s if you’re lucky enough to live close to an exchange.

So the upshot is, they are offering us speeds that we currently get,  on a network that is still copper and hence will need to be upgraded at some point, being installed by the company that we desperately need to have their monopoly broken, with no guarantee that those people unlucky enough to live in an area with RIM or pair-gain will ever get broadband.

Contrast this with the government’s policy of faster speeds for 93% people, with fibre connections to the home, on a network that is future-proof with technological advances only requiring updates of the transmission/reception equipment not the pipes themselves, taking the monopoly out of Telstra’s hands and breaking them up.

No contest really is it?

Here are some further links on the topic:

Election 2010: Day 25

Why the coalition telecommunications policy has failed

Liberal Party unveils it’s internet thingy