Wills Forum ends with call for compassion and decency to be reclaimed in politics reports @takvera

By John Englart 1 September 2013 The 3rd and final meet the candidates forum for Wills was hosted by the Brunswick Uniting Church on Friday night. Five candidates attended to present their policies and to take questions from a moderator and from the audience. But it was the very last response to the very last […]

Spin the Voter Propaganda Wheel: Power and Persuasion

How to play the ‘Spin the Voter’ Propaganda Wheel. Spin the wheel and select your preferred technique. Pick your favourite real life example from Australian (or other countries’) politics and/or election campaigning to match it. Submit your example  in the comments below or by using the hashtag #spinthevoter in a tweet or on Facebook. Add the #ausvotes hashtag if there’s room. […]

Let’s excise western Sydney so the rest of us have a say: @sarah_capper column

  By Sarah Capper 23 August 2013 During a candidates’ debate (a loose term) in the seat of Melbourne recently, an impassioned local resident rose during question time (again, loose term) and implored other local voters to send a message to Canberra – that voters in Australia’s “most progressive seat” should reject the major party policies […]

Undecided voters – who are they and what are they waiting for?

By Michelle Primmer August 22, 2013 There was a debate last night between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in front of 100 supposedly undecided voters. Abbott was declared the winner, based on the votes of these people. The count was 37 in favour of Abbott, 35 for Rudd, and 33 undecided. […]

Coalition big guns and generic letters leave locals cold in Mirabella’s Indi

by Wayne Jansson August 12 In more signs Indi Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella is under pressure, campaign advertisements started appearing on local TV on Sunday featuring Joe Hockey. Is Sophie’s brand so damaged in Indi she can’t front her own advertisements? One of the criticisms of Mirabella heard most often is that she’s a Melbourne […]

Jensen skips climate forum, but takes questions from our reporter at tea

Guinevere Hall August 8, 2013 On Monday night I attended a Climate Round Table forum to be chaired by Professor Fiona Stanley with three panellists, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, Labor candidate for Perth Alannah MacTiernan, and Liberal Dennis Jensen, my local member in the seat of Tangney. Dr Jensen is a well-known climate sceptic and […]

Burke questions why she runs for Labor

By Georgina Moore, 5 August, 2013 The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Anna Burke, has wondered aloud whether she still belongs in the ALP after recent cuts to foreign aid and the party’s new hardline policy on asylum seekers. Speaking at a candidates forum in Melbourne on Sunday night, the member for Chisholm said the government needed […]

Briskey’s back in Bowman: ex state MP riled by Qld sackings says locals are for turning

By Michael Burge August 2, 2013 Not long after I moved into the southeast Queensland electorate of Bowman in late 2012, I spotted a man sitting in a plastic chair on Redland Bay Road, next to a rather fetching retro caravan emblazoned with bright red lettering. The local media confirmed the fellow’s identity as the […]

#QldPol and the birth of Newmanism

By David Marler  @Qldaah No Fibs Queensland Reporter 31 July 2013 Out of all the Australian states and territories, it is Queensland’s Newman Government that is the most indicative of what an Abbott led Australia might look like. Welcome to hashtag #Qldpol. May 17, 2012: New Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman rises and delivers his maiden […]

Di Smith’s Labor pitch in Wentworth

By Di Smith 30 July, 2013 People often ask me why I have put myself in what they perceive to be an impossible situation: pitting myself against someone who is respected, well liked and, according to some commentators, quite possibly the most popular politician in the country. There are also those that say nothing is […]