Mood:
quizzicalTopic: election Oz 2007
Picture: Orange is the theme colour of the Sydney City Hub December 07 cover (rescued from the paper recycler with 9 other copies at Addison Rd Centre on Nov 25th 2007). Appropriate as orange is the Get Up livery as well. And by 'coincidence' its also the colour of choice of leading Left ALP MP Anthony Albanese on all his korflutes throughout local seat of Grayndler.
When you are called to serve the country, one must accept the invitation. But how best to serve? Brett Solomon has been covering his Evan Thornley/ALP aligned tracks for quite a while now. The 230,000 progressive movement (churning?) of Get Up is a marvellous form of political capital.
But will Get Up strengthen and consolidate what it has in terms of non aligned character, and cut the strings from mother US Democrat/ALP, with all the cruelling of access and fundraising opportunity?
Where the touchstone issue of forest protection is no longer "off the table". That specific approach is bogus. To be agnostic about a crucial issue of our time - Tas pulp mill/forest slaughter - is frankly not good enough. Lacks spine. Lacks credibility. Echoes the mediocrity and in the end moral confusion of the captured and wasted Peter Garrett MP.
We noticed on 10's Meet The Press vision some weeks back Brett Solomon in person on the picket line with the Greens inspired street protest with Senator Kerry Nettle in Phillip st federal govt offices. So agnostic about forests doesn't even wash dear Mr Solomon.
What's it to be? Perhaps we will find out soon with some 'Refreshing' honesty that Get Up seeks to promote?:
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 2:04 AMSubject: An extraordinary nightDear friends,
What an extraordinary night - and now, a new beginning for Australia.
Saturday night, as we were in the tally room, we saw a clear march of voters back towards the progressive issues that we've all been fighting so hard to put back on the agenda - with our campaigns on climate change, a fairer economy, indigenous rights, and the war in Iraq all having a major impact on this election. And GetUp members have been right there at the centre of it all - emerging as part of a powerful people-centred movement for change.
Last election we did not exist. Now we are 230,000 strong, having built the foundations of an unprecedented grassroots movement for the 2008-10 parliamentary cycle. In the words of one commentator, GetUp has "evolved from political experiment to a voice Australian politicians cannot afford to ignore."*
Allow us to express our profound gratitude to those of you who have worked so hard with us in this election year to inject accountability, honesty, and progressive policies into this pivotal election. Together we've run the most ambitious and effective non-partisan grassroots electoral program in Australian history:
- In Bennelong alone, over 800 GetUp volunteers campaigned on the ground over the last eight months, with every single polling booth staffed by GetUp volunteers handing out party comparison scorecards on Election Day. Your presence was unmissable and instrumental.- Yesterday, thousands of you flooded polling booths nationwide with a sea of orange to distribute GetUp materials - ensuring that the issues you care about were front and centre in the minds of over half a million voters. (If you volunteered at a polling booth, tell your day's story here.)
- Our campaign to restore balance to the Senate is looking to have succeeded, with the Coalition set to lose one Senator in Tasmania and one in South Australia - enough to end one party control of the Senate (Victoria and the ACT are still too close to call).
There's a lot more that we could say about the implications of last night's election results and your work over the past six months, but enough from us. Join the discussion on our election blog.
Finally, we all know our job didn't end on Election Day. In fact, our task of keeping politicians from all sides accountable to you is just beginning. We, like you, will take the next few days to catch our breath, but later this week we'll be in touch with our new GetTogether program, the next steps with Promise Watch and our exciting plans for this grassroots movement - to ensure the new Government builds the progressive Australia we all have in mind.
Today, we begin the journey to reshape our future.
The GetUp team
PS - GetUp's Refresh Conference, a national meeting of Australia's progressive movement to evaluate the election, share skills, and plan next steps, will take place Dec 7-8 (Fri-Sat) in Sydney - and you're invited! It's fillling up quickly, so RSVP now - and apply for one of our travel scholarships available for those from outside Sydney.
*Larissa Dubecki, The Age, 29 Oct 2007
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Postscript #1 30 Nov 07
Crikey.com.au seem to have cottoned on to this emergent Orange theme yesterday 29 Nov all set in train by Get Up livery. This image here itself echoes an orange korflute Mal Turnbull used to sledge Peter "we'll just change it all" Garrett in the seat of Wentworth with a call to "don't risk it". Given Big Mal rebuffed a national adverse swing and is known from Ozemail days to be a net savvy guy, we presume he bummed the livery off Get Up too.
But maybe all these serious players should recall that the original Orange People, or Rajneeshies, including here in Australia were very unusual if not strange like here deifying a rich guy in a Roller. It may be that's enough orange for everyone now?
