Ordinary people speaking with an extraordinary voice @MargaretOConno5 reports

By Margaret O’Connor @MargaretOConno5 13 December 2013 It’s Monday December 2 and thirty degrees. The nation’s capital is sliding into a languorous warm late afternoon. I trundle into the Parliament House car park and try, with difficulty, to find a park, because northeast Victoria has come to town. Inside the House of Representatives Chamber, the […]

Greens Griffith candidate on what’s gone wrong @GriffithElects reports

By Jan Bowman  @GriffithElects 3 December 2013 Less than a month after the September Federal election, Geoff Ebbs, former Greens Candidate for Griffith, posted a Facebook message which said: “I’m about to go into financial recovery mode, post-election, and take a job selling photocopiers unless anyone has a better way to earn some decent dollars […]

‘It’s our responsibility to be the last sentry at the gate’: Clive Palmer’s maiden speech

[clear] Madam speaker, Australians know who I am and where I come from. They know I love my family and I love Australia. In 1918 my father, at the age of nine, went to see a silent movie. By the time he was 14 he was producing and starring in his first movie. He went […]

Doing politics differently: @indigocathy maiden speech

Madam Speaker, Colleagues, special guests, friends and family. Madam Speaker, warm congratulations on your election. I thank you and my colleagues for your warm welcome. I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of this land, both past and present. Today I am going to share a story – about myself, about my electorate […]

Reporting Indi: A reflection by Margo Kingston

[clear] By Margo Kingston, 1 December 2013 I take the Gold Coast train to Brisbane airport, the plane to Melbourne, the sky bus to Southern Cross Station, the train to Seymour, and the bus to Wangaratta train station. Wayne Jansson leads me to his battered old car and drives me to the hamlet of St James. […]

How I reported Gellibrand for @NoFibs, by citizen journo @Dusty_1

By Grant Philpots 24 October, 2013 Margo: The highlight for me of my return to journalism so far has been @NoFibs Twitter-based citizen journo seat reports for the 2013 federal election, and a couple of our contributors want to keep keep reporting on the seat where they live. In this post Grant reflects on his […]

Roo Poo and Who’s Who in the Senate Zoo

[clear] By Sarah Capper 18 October 2013 It was perhaps the moment in which I found myself googling “Ricky Muir” + “poo” that served as the final straw in realising the need for Senate reform. Not that I needed much convincing – the new Senator-elect from Victoria from the Palmer United Palmer Motoring Enthusiasts Party is just one […]

Sal Kimber on singing the @voiceforindi song, and getting Paul Kelly’s OK

[clear] Sheila’s editor and No Fibs columnist Sarah Capper interviews Sal Kimber, who re-wrote and sang From Little Things Big Things Grow for Cathy McGowan’s campaign launch. Sarah was at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre where Sal performed on election night, during which swings going against the tide of the rest of the country increasingly showed […]

The intellectual grunt behind @Indigocathy Indi victory: @sarah_capper report

Image by No Fibs citizen journalist Wayne Jansson taken on election night, of Alana Johnson, Cathy McGowan and Mary Crooks.By Sarah Capper Sheila’s editor 20 September 2013 When Jeff Kennett lost the “unlosable” Victorian election in 1999, the Victorian Women’s Trust’s Mary Crooks wasn’t overly surprised. In the years leading up the state poll, in her […]

McGowan to apologise to Indi Aborigines: Transcript of her victory press conference

Margo: So it’s the end of the beginning for the member for Indi Cathy McGowan. Wayne Jansson has kindly transcribed her answers to reporters’ questions at yesterday’s victory press conference. McGowan announced that she would end the hurt created by Ms Mirabella’s boycott of the Stolen Generations apology by making a formal apology on behalf of Indi next Sorry Day. Wayne discovered […]