Election 2013: 14th Sept - the official thread

It's called a "rats leaving the sinking ship" reshuffle.

Yes, it happened with ALP in NSW and the LNP in 2007.

Must be heartbreaking for those politicians who care and wanted to make a real impact. The ALP had everything set up in 2007 to be in 3 terms of real unfluence at least. Instead. 1/2 term of action, the execution, the impotent 2nd term, to end in (likely) a huge loss.

To put your life towards getting into Parliament only to see it wasted.
Peter 14.7
 
I think you seriously under-estimate some of the talent currently in the Federal Parliament. There's a few characters in there who want to be....the salary doesn't exactly set the world on fire when it comes to what serious talent can demand in the private sector.

Sure, it's better than what the average smo gets paid, but then the vast majority of them are far more talented and dedicated than the average smo.

Malcolm Turnbull would be the stand out example....he's worth north of 250m....I don't think he is there for the salary or the pension.

A lot of the pollies in there could well be CEOs of various companies making some serious coin, but prefer to be in Parliament making a difference.

Not everything comes down to money.
 
A lot of the pollies in there could well be CEOs of various companies making some serious coin, but prefer to be in Parliament making a difference.

Not everything comes down to money.


I agree, there are definately brains in politics, as well as brains with wealth who don't need to do what they do, however those with neither, and there are many, do have their focus on their pensions or whatever public service positions their influential mates give them a leg up in, - how many make their transition into politics in the first place - because they stand a much lesser chance of succeeding in landing a plum job in the private sector.

You just need to look at the work experience of some of them to know they'll never make CEO.

Not quite a pollie but the point am trying to make about rising up the ranks when you have good mates.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...obs-for-the-boys/story-e6frea83-1226567075686
 
Oh yeah - the "hangers on"....

I was refering to the 226 people actually in the Federal Parliament....I wasn't commenting on all of the "advisers", some of whom literally still have bucketloads of water dripping from behind their ears.

I only heard the term "party apparatchik" about 6 months ago, so I'm still finding out what those army of people do....but each elected member seems to have their own football team behind them.

I guess no-one got there on their own, which is fair enough, but I can't get my head around these 20 and 22 y.o. "advisers". How a 20 something can 'advise' the PM is beyond me.....I think general dogs body or slave would be a more appropriate term.

Perhaps it's a bit like "property manager".....everyone simply gets confused by the moniker. It's not what they do, simply a term that someone has grabbed and it stuck.


Looking at all of the backgrounds of the folk in there currently, most are union bosses and union lawyers on the Labor side, whilst business owners and lawyers seem to be on the Lib side.
 
But even some of the elected members have little to offer. I can think of at least one MP who was a taxi driver before entering parliament.
 
There are quite a few that gained qualifications and went straight into the trade unions, or worked a very short period in their profession prior to working in unions.

Union experience and loyalty, not proven business acumen, has opened many a door for those politicians - and includes non politicians and advisors appointed to roles by pollies that they'd normally not qualify for.

Seems like lots of leg up all round sometimes.

So yes, it's Labor pollies I'm talking about.
 
I'm very quickly getting the impression that the elected Labor politicians are just the union members who have crawled their way out of the mire of union heirachy, and paid their dues....usually decades doing the hard footslogging for other more senior union members. Manning the polling booths, attending rallies, going to meetings, running errands, doing all the practical stuff to get the pollies over the line.

I also get the impression that the Green politicians are just the senior radical members of protest groups.....once again you don't get any of those spots unless you've done the decades of hard footslogging out in the mud chained to some bulldozer out in the back blocks of Tasmania.

I also get the impression that the majority of Liberal politicians are silver tails who have done the 'party supporter' thing for the past 15 or 20 years and finally been rewarded with either a safe lower house seat or a winnable senate ticket placing.

The only ones who seem to come in off the streets are the average workers who are ;

  • Labor candidates who contest safe Liberal seats
  • Liberal candidates who contest safe Labor seats
  • Greens candidates who contest unwinnable seats


I think it takes an extraordinary event - such as we all saw in March 2012 during the Qld state elections - where complete unknowns, like brand new LNP candidates being voted into Parliament representing seats which can only be described as Labor heartland seats......are suddenly thrust into the spotlight where under normal circumstances they would have been cannon fodder for the party machine.


It's very very rare for an unknown to walk off the street, pop their hand up, contest an election and suddenly find themselves winging their way to Canberra.


Given the current political climate however, don't be surprised if you see a few examples of that during both the WA state election and even perhaps the upcoming Federal election.


Nicola Roxon's seat that she is vacating won't be one of them however. Her Federal seat of Gellibrand is the second safest seat in the entire country with a current margin of 24.1%. Whoever from the union movement slips into her seat will have a seat in Parliament for life.


You can just imagine the knives and hatchets coming out to see who is going to win that prized pre-selection amongst the Labor Party faithful.....there will be Labor party advisers and maybe even other current Labor politicians crawling over themselves to get that prize.....none of which will make the papers.
 
Good points actually. I have a friend who was a rank and file member of the Dobell ALP branch.

Thompson was parachuted in despite their opposition. They wanted a local guy who was involved in the community.

The John Hyde Page book Education of a Young Liberal is an interesting read.
 
Apparently Kathy Jackson from the HSU was offered a safe seat by very senior Labor party people, prior to turning whistleblower (her words).

I'm inclined to believe her too.
 
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Apparently Kathy Jackson from the HSU was offered a safe seat by very senior Labor party people, prior to turning whistleblower (her words).

I'm inclined to believe her too.

I like Kathy Jackson. She seems to have some integrity, which appears rare for a union boss.
 

He would certainly tick a few of Labor's boxes.

It makes me wonder if this is all out of the blue and random, or whether there is already behind the scenes planning going on (but not by Gillard), with new people in mind who will be around to help restructure the party going forward.

Perhaps Roxon stepping down was someone elses idea?

It looks like someone will eventually be charged for the SWU fraud, and if Roxon becomes part of that investigation, as AG and someone who would retain her seat at the next election it would be a no brainer to rid of her before any election campaign.
 
Looking at the latest polls, I am forced to conclude one thing....

All of the gains Labor made over the Xmas break whilst our PM disappeared from view (up to 5 or 6 percentage points) have all been completely wiped out in the one week since she has been back on our screens.

....and what a week that was....election date declared, immediately followed by the arrest and plastic glove treatment for a Federal Labor MP, quickly followed by ICAC investigations of NSW Labor MPs, quickly followed by the simultaneous resignations of the Govt Leader in the Senate and the Federal Attorney General, who also was the Emergency Minister.

It didn't escape my attention at all, right smack bang in the middle of the Bundaberg flood disaster, that the Federal Emergency Minister quits. Wasn't mentioned in any of the media that I saw.

I gather the people on the ground cleaning up the mess up there in Qld are winging it with no direction from the Federal Minister. Abbott and Joyce were up there lending a hand and reviewing the damage, but the Minister in charge was nowhere to be seen, choosing instead to be in Canberra talking about her 7 y.o. daughter.

Let's see whether her replacement, sworn in just a few hours ago, the former Q.C. Dreyfus will be taking the bull by the horns in his capacity as Emergency Minister.
 
......It didn't escape my attention at all, right smack bang in the middle of the Bundaberg flood disaster, that the Federal Emergency Minister quits. Wasn't mentioned in any of the media that I saw.....

Both Latika Bourke & Peter Van Onselen tweeted the same question. Can't find the links to it now...
 
For those lamenting the rise of politicians from outside of the major parties political machinery, then you have missed the professionalisation of Australian politics over the past 20+years.

Despite the many jokes, sneers and the ridicule of politicians, the job associated with representing an electorate irrespective is an inordinately difficult one, where capabilities and attributes to be successful are not easily transposed from a private business or from public or non-profit sectors.

Some of the comments on many public forums, media and in normal life around the relatively obscure minutia of politicians, political lives, daily shenanigans and extraordinary suppositions based on tenuous facts and leaps of logic, make the arena & career choice of politics a very specialised one.

I have witnessed in a number of industries over my professional career in private sector political intrigue, posturing, formulation/dis-intergration of alliances and treachery the likes which would even surpass that which is played out in Canberra. Its just not in the public eye.

This has happened on both sides of politics, maybe one faster than the other, I don't know the facts between the 2 major parties, but I make the supposition that maybe the one that has more career political professionals has a better capability to deliver, all other things being equal.
 
received this in my email today so I thought I would share.

A young woman was about to finish her first year of university. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very labor minded, and she was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs – in other words, the redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch blue-ribbon liberal, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had attended, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harboured an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.

The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth, and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing at university.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 90% average, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many university friends because she spent all her time studying.


Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Audrey doing?” She replied, “Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 50% average. She is so popular on campus; university for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over.”

Her wise father asked his daughter, “Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 20% off your average and give it to your friend who only has 50%. That way you will both have a 70% average, and certainly that would be fair and equal.”


The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, “That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!”

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, “Welcome to the Liberal side of the fence.”
 
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