Mood:  bright

Gregory Peck as Captain Horatio Hornblower from the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower

 

Peter Debnam MP is a  retired navy man. He's a bit like the CS Forester novels of the fictional hero Hornblower  - a humble midshipman, wist champion,  navigational genius like Cook, implacable foe like Nelson, to become Admiral Hornblower - because Peter Debnam likes a dip at Bondi Beach every morning as part of his fitness regime, just as Hornblower would have the bemused crew hose him down with fresh sea water: Forester had his character dance around like a scolded Native Indian under the force of the bilge pump.

In the swim ... Peter Debnam.

We find Debnam's commitment to rude good health at his age damn impressive while the slovenly (!?) big media generally preferred to satirise (presumably out of envy) the nakedness of the then Liberal Leader in the March 2007 state election.

Debnam holds the local seat of Vaucluse in the heart of much bigger marginal federal seat of Wentworth held by his colleague Malcolm Turnbull. The ex Liberal leader appeared to us of moderate and reasonable disposition (if not policy) at a polling booth way back in the 1996 federal contest. He pulled into line some nasty jackals on the booth from his side of politics, just a pity it was needed. He gave this writer a hearing about these low life perhaps because we took 10% of 'his' vote for a minor party in the 1995 state election and had since become a local councillor.

Picture: Ripples of Cyclone Wati reach Eastern Suburbs beaches some 1,000 km south of the big storm. Taken by this writer 27 March 2006

Yesterday Debnam is reported like this [Greens media release follows]:

NSW minister and shadow agree: clean coal is an oxymoron
 
Media Release: 19 November 2007
 
NSW Opposition Energy Spokesperson Peter Debnam has joined Environment Minister Phil Koperberg in stating an important but self-evident truth of climate change. It is time for their state and federal leaders to listen, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
 
Dr Kaye said: "Last week when Peter Debnam called clean coal an oxymoron, he was echoing Phil Koperberg's condemnation of the technology in September.
 
"With the future of the electricity industry in NSW hanging in the balance, it is time for the debate to be driven by the realities of low emissions sources, instead of a bunch of convenient untruths peddled by the coal industry.
 
"Even the most enthusiastic clean coal technologists agree that carbon capture and storage technology is highly unlikely to be available for commercial applications before 2025, if ever.
 
"The Iemma government cannot now use the clean-coal excuse to build a new coal-fired power station.
 
"Two 700 MW coal units would pump out 122 million tonnes of CO2 between  completion in 2012 and the first possible date at which carbon capture and storage might become commercially available.
 
"Even then it would be difficult if not impossible to convert the plant into a clean coal power station, if the technology is ever proven to work cost-effectively.
 
"Peter Debnam and Phil Koperberg have unmasked the myth that clean coal is relevant to the current debate about new energy sources for NSW.
 
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released this weekend makes it clear that this state must act immediately to reduce emissions.
 
"Premier Morris Iemma and Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell should listen to their colleagues and reject the clean coal oxymoron," Dr Kaye said.
 

For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455

.....................

Given Debnam is effectively thwarted in his ambitions at State level we responded, perhaps too cynically, to his latest surprising political 'dance' routine reinforcing savage criticism of NSW Liberal Party leader PM Howard (for not supporting the Kyoto Protocol) as follows:

"Debnam is deliberately shoring up Turnbull's vote and as insurance for his federal colleague [in] this part of the city against [a] post election bloodbath [in the Coalition]? And maybe as a jump to the federal sphere in some
way?"

In terms of influence on local Liberal aligned voters in Wentworth we wonder if Debnam may also be seeking to gazump this apparent spoiler front page cover in the most recent Wentworth Courier (bottom right hand side of this collage) re Mal Turnbull's predecessor and rival Peter King, a refugee from the same party who may be implying Mal, the govt party and the ALP have all been lazy on local issues:

Posted by editor at 6:57 AM EADT

Updated: Tuesday, 20 November 2007 3:16 PM EADT

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Mood:  sharp

[mail out of Get Up follows who also interviewed former UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix recently]

Dear friends,

When Sam McMillan and Louise Barry - two young Australian women who know the real cost of war - began their quest for answers, they were only two people. Then, GetUp members joined the call and suddenly we were 40,000 strong. Last week, Sam and Louise personally asked you to join them for this final push, and we grew to 60,000 in 48 hours. But still their calls to meet the Prime Minister remain unanswered - and the Foreign Minister last week merely brushed them off.

But the stakes are far too high to just give up. So Sam and Louise will travel back to Canberra this Thursday to make one final attempt to deliver our petition and get some answers. And to help them put peace back on the national agenda, we're planning an online media blitz with a powerful new web ad to get the message out to hundreds of thousands of more Australians.

How far can we spread Sam and Louise's message? That is up to you. Just $50 can show the ad directly to 3000 Australians, $100 will double it. Please click below to see the ad and give what you can:

www.getup.org.au/campaign/OurOwnPlanForIraq

We've seen throughout this election how effective the internet is in framing the national conversation - now we want to put Iraq right where it should be: on webpages viewed by voters and in the forefront of Australians' minds on the eve of the election and before Sam and Louise take their message to Canberra. For good measure we've also booked a full page ad in the newspaper read by the very people who can really influence the PM - voters in his own electorate.

Not only could this be the last opportunity to hold the PM accountable for taking us to war on false pretenses and without parliamentary or popular approval, it is also an opportunity to tell Mr Rudd if elected that he has a mandate for peace. This is our opportunity to change the course of history for the better, propelled with Sam and Louise's ambitious message. Donate now to take their urgent message directly to hundreds of thousands of Australians who can vote us out of this war on Saturday:

www.getup.org.au/campaign/OurOwnPlanForIraq

Sam and Louise simply want the man responsible for dragging Australia into this conflict to hear from the Australian people and provide some answers about how he intends to end it. Mr. Howard can ignore two Australians. And he can try to ignore 40,000, or maybe even 60,000. But at some point, if we keep adding new voices, we become too many Australians for even Mr. Howard to ignore. And what happens then? Our voices are heard. We get some answers. And we take one giant step closer to restoring accountability and ending this war. Please give what you can:

www.getup.org.au/campaign/OurOwnPlanForIraq

Thanks for making it possible,
The Get Up Team

PS - Want to see what happened last week when Sam and Louise tried to talk to the Foreign Minister? You'll see why we need to go straight to the top. Click here to see the video.

Posted by editor at 6:45 AM EADT

Updated: Tuesday, 20 November 2007 2:58 PM EADT

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Mood:  irritated

Another regional rort:  Abetz must explain
Hobart, 19 November 2007: 
 
Forestry Minister, Senator Eric Abetz, has overseen a massive taxpayer-funded slush fund that has dished out more than $32 million in the past year to a series of questionable projects under the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement (TCFA).

Greens Senator Christine Milne said, hot on the heels of a nationwide expose of the Coalition's regional rorts' program, details revealed under Freedom of Information (FOI) expose the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement as another rort, with evidence of poor accountability, apparently ineligible projects funded and a total lack of strategic co-ordination.

"The Minister for Forests needs to explain why, for example, funding has been given to big businesses to fund new equipment and mill upgrades which any other company, in any other industry, would regard as the cost of doing business.  The Minister must also tell Tasmanian taxpayers why a total of $964 250 has gone to N.E. Victorian timber company, Buffalo Valley Logging, and what is its relationship if any, to CK Forest Management and its $91 625 grant.

"Why did the Howard Government have a special column for 'electorate' in its grants' application table? ... A whiteboard by any other name.

"The Community Forest Agreement has become a slush fund.   Under the TFCA program, grants totaling $32.2 million have been paid in full.  Of these, seventeen should have provided audit reports by now - only three did so on time, and seven have provided no reports at all. 

"The Greens will refer its administration and outcomes to the Commonwealth Auditor General for investigation.
"We also know the TCFA funds had not been fully allocated as at 1 October this year, and it is our firm understanding that, just before the election was called, Senator Abetz wrote to forest business operators, recommending they rapidly access more public money out of the Commonwealth's TCFA funding pot. 
"Is Senator Abetz effectively urging contractors and others in the timber (LOGGING!) industry to squeeze more public money out of the $250 million TCFA funding pot, without proper justification or purpose?
"We want to know, and Australian taxpayers are entitled to know, if this allegation is true.  "In the interests of accountability and transparency, Senator Abetz must release details of the letter and the select group to which it was sent.
"Announced by the Prime Minister with great fanfare in May 2005, the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement was always intended to be a multi-million dollar, pro-logging package which has locked in continued old-growth logging of Tasmania's carbon-sink forests.
"The TCFA was nothing more than just another political fix to get John Howard re-elected with the assistance of the CFMEU, and to bring in Work Choices.
"There was nothing in the Agreement to proscribe a transition from native forest logging into the plantation sector, into genuine value adding and job creation that protects our spectacular forests into the future.   There was also nothing in the fine print to make sure the money set aside for the Agreement was being expended in the most appropriate, legitimate way," Senator Milne said.

For more information:  Cassy O'Connor (Hob) 02 6224 8899 or 0400 628 939
Tim Hollo (CBA) 0437 587 562



Cassy O'Connor
Communications' Adviser
Senator Christine Milne

Posted by editor at 6:37 AM EADT

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Mood:  a-ok

All election related comment on this non profit micro news website is authorised by Tom McLoughlin, C/- 142 Addison Rd Marrickville 2204*

* this is a mailing address only, no relation to Addison Rd Community Centre Board or tenants. The editor works part time as a gardener at the ARC.

Posted by editor at 6:07 PM EADT

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Mood:  caffeinated

Author’s general introductory note (skip this if you know this regular weekly column):

This is not a well packaged story. It’s a contemporaneous traverse of the Sunday television free to air political talkies indicating the agenda of Establishment interests: Better to know ones rivals and allies  in Big Politics and Big Media.

Indeed it’s the tv version monitoring task similar to what Nelson Mandela refers to here in his book Long Walk to Freedom (1994, Abacus) written in Robben Island prison (where he was meant to die like other African resister chiefs of history in the 19C), at page 208

For actual transcripts go to web sites quoted below except with Riley Diary on 7. And note transcripts don’t really give you the image content value.

Media backgrounder

 - Incredible theme of dangerous climate change concern, perhaps metaphorically symbolised by the Sculpture by the sea above, blue man and people looking one way, the turbo liesure cruiser and follower going the 'wrong way' on energy policy:

- commentators note Insiders pissed with Rudd 'who prefers Rove' or is it posturing so Rudd turns up?

- Marian Wilkinson, serious, talented, sticks by George Newhouse campaign last Friday in Sydney Morning Herald noting ALP "doubling" efforts.

- lots of attack adverts on unions on commercial free to air. Also noticed a few flyers in Wentworth beachside suburbs - Labor 'can't manage money' vibe based on States debt but ignores reality of Commonwealth disproportionate financial resource.

- Last quarter of football match metaphor of Rudd and to don't let up at all.

10 Meet the Press

Steven Smith looked hard worked. Good line about Howard experience led to climate Iraq water non policies.

Tuned out on other work for rest of it, but mostly standard rhetoric.

Nicholson animation about excessive bidding on Kirribili House thow in Harbour Bridge con artistry. Funny, sad all in one.

Get Up advert about fearmonngering in empty box.

Second half with panel Steve Lewis, Jennifer Hewitt both of News Ltd, tabloid, broadsheet respectively both sharp and tough.

Transcript in due course www.ten.com.au/meetthepress ,

7 Weekend Sunrise, 8.35-40 am Riley Diary  -

 Missed start but Gene Wilder side kick afro american comedy artist buying votes theme like Nicholson animation on MTP. Funny. Long Q & A with Mark Riley but deferred to 9 early coverage of politics especially Greenwood feature on Rupert Murdoch interview.

New attack ad re Howard on diverse stuff "won't" but "will" build reactors at 9.15 am.

Insiders 2

Laurie Oakes on 9 with treasurer set against intro by Cassidy:  Final show before election: ALP looking at historic lead.

Grumpy BC notes Julia Gillard as stand in, Rudd won't appear first leader in 3 elections.

Gillard against Treasurer on 9 in the ratings at 9.10 am. Looking very goomed and hard worked too.

Gillard uses union slang - "chop out" ie to help a MUA campaign back in waterfront days of lawyer Josh Borshman, a good friend.

Home page is http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/

Sunday 9

 Pre 9 am Peter Van Onselan (spelling wrong) and quick talker ALP snot nose like out of West Wing from Qld on political panel.

 Ross Greenwood has brief footage of Rupert Murdoch in Australia saying Australian's too highly taxed (which is why we are actually fairer and more stable you nitwit), both sides of politics are making people too dependent on the state which means less aspirational , and commercially no difference obvious between ALP and Coalition, which in itself damages Howard's case really.

Longer sit down with John Hartigan of News Ltd. - look to their website for transcript probably - upshot is that nationally News Ltd will play it 'straight' - no leaning on editors who will exercise their own readership discretion. That is agnostic.

Given that News Ltd is notoriously conservative this shows that Rudd is very conservative and also that Howard has lots of traditional advantage and thus the green light to News Ltd papers to editorialise for Rudd.

Laurie Oakes on 9 with treasurer set against intro by Cassidy.  Peter Costello looking upbeat, maybe lost a bit of weight too. 

Gillard against Treasurer on 9 in the ratings at 9.10 am.

Oakes bowls up toughie about hospitals boards not in the Govt costings. PC sledges Rudd not following schedule of Budget Honesty - is it true?

Laurie gets very riled about differentials on Julia Gillard as union lawyer when PC was a bosses lawyer.

Feature on flight safety in south east asia

Feature about corruption implied in Victorian Police involing "people's lives".

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/default.asp

Posted by editor at 8:45 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 19 November 2007 7:43 AM EADT

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Mood:  hug me

Picture: Oxford St Paddington, heart of Wentworth electorate 7 hours yesterday, opposite the busy Saturday market set up in front of St George Bank, not trading perhaps due to the recent interest rate hike? 

We were out yesterday doing what we do (Christian Kerr calls it “skulduggery”) and on return found there were no invitations in our email for “growth” of a wedding tackle kind, or “Want to u love” from cosmopolitan types. No spam, no nuthin. Not even the 15 Green Party media releases you might expect with 6 days to go until the election. Mmm.

“WTF?” we thought, not again after yesterday’s blank Blog greeted us as bare as a baby’s backside. We got the website front page back after a snotty blog post (RSS feed to malcontent?) and some judicious queries to the Lycos folks over in the USA (server upgrade glitch?).

We had over 400 page views yesterday. That’s unusually high in fact.

Funny how the clunks, glitches, airbrush gremlins all happen one weekend before the election on a community media micro news website. Mmm.

………………………….

Our last email before before we lost transmission of any electoral significance was this:

Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 12:29 PM

Subject: Re: [chipstop] Woodchip company power plant may supply Eden area

 

The politics of this relate to the season - summer season. It's mid November. We all know what's coming. When the bush burns SEFE will point to that 'lost opportunity' literally 'up in smoke'.

It's mad enough to work for a stupid ALP state or federal take your pick. No one seems to get that it's this exact kind of logging that has dried out whole landscapes inviting huge bushfires through lost humid climates under the canopy (or what's left of it), let alone destroyed water supply.

More here:

bushfire science

It might also be a PR trap for the greens etc. As soon as you complain they will say ... you prefer to see it burn in a bushfire. Cheap but redneck effective among quite a few voters.

And who knows who will light a fire between now and 24th November voting day!

Remember on the mega fires in California the mailbag to Australian 60 Minutes follwoing week about 3 weeks ago, was all about not climate change which was the actual premise of the story ....but greenies stopping logging to stop such big fires. That is the logger industry got all over it with their letters in denial. Peter Harvey was sceptical but he read out the feedback all the same.

So my strong recommendation is to shift focus - Go for woodchipping causes mega bushfires angle. Or go for climate change causes mega fires, and saving forests is the best way for carbon storage and strong bushfire prevention resources. You could use the diagrams on the web link there about destroyed humidity. Or at the least think very carefully about the PR dynamic.

Cochrane was surely enough boosting a redneck agenda on World Today re horses in Kosciuszko NP yesterday here (for similar reasons - its the election season):

Critics fear brumby removal plan threatens Kosciuszko tradition

The brumby is part of Australia's high country history, inspiring poems and legends. But growing numbers of the wild horses have forced the National Parks and Wildlife Service to come up with a new plan to control them in the Kosciuszko National Park. Some are opposed to the plan, believing the service's aim is to eventually rid the park of the horses altogether.

Yours truly, Tom McLoughlin.

----- Original Message -----

 

Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 11:15 AM

Subject: [chipstop] Woodchip company power plant may supply Eden area

 

Hi greenies
This is SERIOUS!!!
The chipmill has been putting out hints for some time now that they are heading this way. They see the writing on the wall for woodchips (largely due to exchange rate problems, not environmental; Aus woodchips are priced in $A)  and they see their future burning forests and calling in clean, renewable, green energy.
They look like they are getting their foot in the door with pine, but that will get them their infrastructure and their markets stitched up and next step native forests. It is quite disastrous. We have seen this coming but nobody has taken it seriously. I fear it has even been encouraged by some clean energy campaigners, so that makes it harder.
regards
harriett

Woodchip company power plant may supply Eden area

ABC Regional
Posted November 16, 2007 08:34:00
Updated November 16, 2007 08:33:00

• Map: Eden 2551

The New South Wales far south coast's woodchip plant could soon become an important producer of electricity for the region.

South-East Fibre Exports has outlined plans to build a multi-million dollar generating plant at its mill near Eden, using waste products from its chipping operations.

The plant will run in conjunction with a new softwood chipping line soon to be installed.

The company's spokesman, Vince Phillips, says the electricity plant will not only power the mill, but also the surrounding districts.

"We think we can produce something like four megawatts of power here and we need about half that, so we would think the other half would go back into the grid," he said.

"From what understand about what happens in Eden, that would make a pretty significant dent in the general day-to-day power consumption of the Eden township areas.

"We'd certainly be hoping it goes back into Eden.

"We've been in Eden 40 years and it would be a great thing if Eden and us ... went into partnership on this."

Tags: electricity-energy-and-utilities, forests, bega-2550, eden-2551

……………………….

We think the gremlin issue is unconnected but who really knows. Here are the critical diagrams showing how the unrestrained woodchipping turns our wonderful natural heritage into mega fire prone land scapes, and yes including in wet old Tasmania eventually: 

Which reminds us of this wet old growth forest pictured in The Australian half pager yesterday. Humbling isn't it? This is the forest the woodchippers have excelled in killing, along with the water cycle and humid canopy this last 40 years hand in glove with the major parties, ALP and Coalition. Disgusting isn't it?

It's this mentality that leads younger generations like our mate Dylan from Turrella's Mekanarchy (also seen in the SMH recently) to make apocalyptic sculptures like this at 'Sculpture by the Sea' (last day today 18th Nov 07):

And for the world's thinking people to notice how Kyoto has been junked by the institutions of power in Australia and the USA. What hope is there really? Not much is our depressing view.

Posted by editor at 6:32 AM EADT

Updated: Sunday, 18 November 2007 7:03 AM EADT

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Mood:  sharp

Greens caught up in the Newhouse net

THE Greens have split over the controversy surrounding the Labor candidate for Wentworth, George Newhouse, as they fight off accusations of hypocrisy and betrayal.

We have thought deeply about this as it's this writer's vocational core business of ecology action. We decided it would take the wisdom of Solomon which we don't have but do aspire to, to know if it's a wise approach. 

Strange because it crueled any negotiation power over policy like opposition to the pulp mill when it counted pre approval. And isn't that what elections are supposed to be about? Policy?

This writer has an informed opinion having been the Greens candidate in Wentworth in 1998 with a humble 5% vote - at least we got the parties roughly $500 or so bond back. We are now non aligned a good 7 years now when our membership lapsed (knowingly) in 2000.

We remain agnostic because time will tell whether the green (ie ecological action) in Green will best be served by a Newhouse victory. Factors to weigh up in the moral calculation from a vocational green community media activist perspective include:

1. In our judgement Howard has a covert agenda for nuclear weapons, not just reactors. It works like this - USA pressures Iran, and maybe even invades one day. Iran may or may not declare nuclear weapon capacity. North Korea already has them. The USA seeks to boost its military industrial complex in the JK Galbraith sense by turning Australia into a link not only in it's Star Wars 'defence shield' (which doubles as a first strike pre emption device) but also with nuke weapons on 'aircraft carrier Australia'.

This is a recipe for a nuclear apocalypse via weapons proliferation, goodbye ecology, with Australia under ideological hawk Howard playing a serious role in the end of the world in shorter rather than longer term.

2. On another serious ecological policy problem Newhouse "accepts" the criminal pulp mill in Tasmania. This was always going to be the case under the pro logger/woodchipper CFMEU controlled national executive ALP policy on natural heritage me toosim of Howard. That's the price to be an endorsed candidate (Mayor Pearce now MP paid same to get endorsement for seat of Coogee after the Olympic stadium on Bondi Beach Affair of 2000). We know George having spent possibly as much time with him at interminable Council meetings for 4 years as maybe he did with his family. We know enough of his character that in his heart he supported closure of the very controversial dioxin producing Waterloo Incinerator. We noted when and when he didn't vote, how soft or sharp. He is of a certain younger generation and greener tinge but the NSW ALP is not.

3. The role of the leftish/centre ALP branches like Waverley is to deliver progressive votes to the dinosaur Big Business Right of the ALP party that could never hope to get them in a naturally indepedent milieu (like State seat of Manly for so many years). This is why George and his professonal friends in the Eastern Suburbs Greens are dupes of that cyncial vandalistic ALP machine by throwing in their lot with Sussex St, when they could take the truly independent road and build a true community voice. That was how I did my politics for 4 years there as Chair of the Environment Committee, ex officio co director of the Incinerator I helped close, member of the Finance Committee, and Bondi Beach Ward councillor, and also how I ended up with the numbers to be the Mayor that George did in fact become. We preferred to retire than be so harnessed, preferring freedom from Party and Local Govt hackles. Those interminable meetings. It was that rock the Greens built on with the tripling of Green Party councillor representation in Sept 1999 elections. I was the pioneer which was built in turn on my work with The Wilderness Society 92-95. But these Greens haven't learned the value of fair dinkum independence as one can read front page of the Herald today.

4. So on domestic ecological policy Newhouse is crueled and captured but trending to green personally. On covert policy he at least is no Howard barracker for nuke weapons proliferation or Iraq wars.

5. Will Wentworth help decide the government? It might but unlikely. But an early preference approval can also play a role in building momentum for a broader campaign of removal of the Howard led govt. And it's perhaps this cranking of the early momentum with the 'moral' vote of approval for Newhouse as brand ALP so far out that was important in regime change in Australia. We think the motives of the Eastern Suburbs Greens (including Rhiannon and Kaye MP as their local group) are likely ideological and narrow socialist (like faith in public ownership of everything it seems) rather than ecological in calculation. But the preferencing of Newhouse so early might well be the right one by default for the ecology.

However it would be quite foolish to think that local Green Party group are deeply motivated by ecological concerns. We didn't observe that in 6 years membership after 3 years with The Wilderness Society, the last 2 as State Campaign Coordinator leading to the election of the Carr Govt in March 1995.

To such people climate change, like forest to Carr back then, were an expedient wedge of the Liberals from the Nationals Coalition. But history tells us neither the ALP or some opportunists in the Green Party are commited to ecological sustainability. They are committed to their own political career first and foremost. That's the brutal truth, and that's why this writer got out. To save our sanity upon realising Green was not really green in 2000 in NSW.

Now it's mostly a moot point because climate change is such a scary reality everyone is coming back to the real green position of "ecology action" just as the national Green party slogan is "Green Action" pictured above. Gotta love that.

...............

Feedback and response

A long time writer, researcher, campaigner writes:

Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: Wentworth


tom you use the word 'crueled' in this piece below. methinks you
might mean corralled, which essentially means herded into an enclosure.
yours in the interest of clearer communication
with respect

[signed]
ps. seems newhouse's campaign might have gone off the rails for the
moment, or so he's behaving that way (having, it seems gone to
ground). i'm not sure i'd say wentworth is a defining electorate.
it'll still be the outer metro marginals, although i suspect there'll
be a few surprises: seats considered safe will likely become marginal.

[I actually meant cruelled. But thanks for the feedback. ALP definitely
corrals their endorsed candidates but in this case it would be highly
popular for Newhouse to oppose the pulp mill and he would like to I don't doubt
it, but he can't for Tas election purposes and nasty Oconnor on the national
executive. The Waverley Council and him specifically has voted symbolically
against destruction of forests. So the ALP have in fact cruelled his natural
leanings. If he was a redneck (and there have been some ALP rednecks at
Waverley (like Norman Lee RIP, father of Ben Lee) then there would be no way
to justify the Greens preference to him.

Cheers Tom.]

............................................

Postscript #1

To give Senator Kerry Nettle of The Greens her due they are punishing Turnbull in the week it counts here:

Sydney pulp mill protest at Malcolm Turnbull's office

Who: Greens Senator Kerry Nettle and Greens members and supporters

What: Sydney pulp mill protest part of day of action on pulp mill, with
protests from London to Hobart.

When: 1 PM, Saturday, November 17, 2007

Where: Office of Malcolm Turnbull, 5 Bronte Road, Bondi Junction.

For more information: Damien Lawson 0419 253 342

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: "No Pulp Mill" triangles in front of Minister for the
Environment's office.


Help retire John Howard by volunteering to help the Greens  at
http://greens.org.au/volunteer
Kristian Bolwell
Office of Greens Senator for NSW Kerry Nettle
T:(02) 96902038
F:(02) 96902041
M:0411638320
www.kerrynettle.org.au

Posted by editor at 7:23 AM EADT

Updated: Saturday, 17 November 2007 7:05 AM EADT

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Mood:  quizzical

Dani Ecuyer Preferences

November 15th, 2007

Dani Ecuyer is announcing that as a true independent, who is standing on a 'Climate Change and anti pulp mill ticket", will split preference. Ms Ecuyer says "that she was always standing to give the constituents of Wentworth a chance to make a concern or protest vote. Voters can send a strong message to the major parties that  they want immediate positive policy action on Climate Change solutions and approving the pulp mill is not acceptable, to combat Climate Change.

Ms Ecuyer has preferenced the Greens, the Democrats and the Climate Change Coalition ahead of either the major parties. She is preferencing the Greens in the Senate.

However, Ms Ecuyer says "all voters to must seriously consider that only one party has agreed to ratify Kyoto, the Labor Party. It is imperative that Australia is at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Bali meeting in December. Voters who make the choice and want action on Climate Change should therefore preference Labor."

Download my How to Vote

Posted by editor at 6:51 AM EADT

Updated: Friday, 16 November 2007 9:00 AM EADT

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