senate

My senate picks... how and why

Submitted by Rick Eyre on August 21 2010, 10:41 am

For federal elections in the recent past, I have followed the Greens above-the-line ticket. This time, I chose not to, bit the bullet and voted 1 to 84 in the bottom half of the senate ballot. Making sure that I did my research first.

My main reasons for this were that I wasn't too keen on the Greens' flow of preferences (especially their high ranking to the Australian Sex Party), and that I wanted to choose the six people who I wanted to be my six New South Wales senators. (Is that too crazy a thing to ask?)

We have candidates.

Submitted by Rick Eyre on July 31 2010, 12:02 am

The complete lists of candidates in all House of Representatives seats and Senate contests were released by the Australian Electoral Commission tonight.

Here are the people I will have to choose from, in order as they will appear on the respective ballots, and with hyperlinks to party and candidate pages where known. There are six candidates in Grayndler, while in the Senate there are a bewildering 84 candidates for New South Wales in what appears to be 33 groups.

Great moments in Australian misogyny

Submitted by Rick Eyre on June 20 2009, 1:42 pm

This has nothing to do with football, but plenty to do with sexism and petty-minded politics going hand in hand.

By way of background, here is Senator Sarah Hanson-Young's interview with Sky News Australia yesterday, including footage of Thursday afternoon's incident in the Senate when her two-year daughter was forcibly ejected from the chamber while the division bells were ringing because, consistent with Standing Orders, the toddler was a "stranger":

Stinging nettle

Submitted by Rick Eyre on November 25 2007, 8:23 pm

Kerry Nettle's defeat in the New South Wales senate race is one of the disappointments of this federal election. She was squeezed out by the major parties who between them seem certain to claim all six NSW senate seats. It represents remarkable good luck for Ursula Stephens, who was booted down to number three on the Labor ticket. Her return represents a nett gain of one NSW senator for the ALP at the Greens' expense.

Looking at the Senate before my brain explodes

Submitted by Rick Eyre on November 24 2007, 9:32 pm

Not easy to interpret senate figures so early in the piece, but a couple of observations so far:

The Democrats are history. They have performed dismally in Queensland (0.09 quotas on first preference at the moment). They're on 0.11 quotas in Victoria which makes it damn hard for Lyn Allison. In New South Wales, they've been outpolled by the DLP, which has been spent force in Australian politics from the time Vince Gair was despatched to Dublin.

Youtubes do dia: Bob and Lyn and Kate and a singalong and Bob's John Howard moment

Submitted by Rick Eyre on October 30 2007, 12:43 pm

My selection of election ads for today. Firstly, GetUp.org - the Australian copy of the US's MoveOn.org - got Lyn Allison, Bob Brown and Kate Lundy into the same ad (not all into the same shot) to support a vote against the Coalition in the Senate. Steve Fielding told Insiders on Sunday morning that he wasn't invited - would he have played ball anyway? And why did Labor send a nonentity such as Senator Lundy to do the GetUp gig? Why not John Faulkner, Penny Wong, or Stephen Conroy? (OK, not Conroy.)

Youtubes do dia extra: Climate of Hope

Submitted by Rick Eyre on October 19 2007, 5:59 am

I'm not going to make any apologies for spruiking the Greens' candidates for the Senate all over Australia, not just in New South Wales. Scott Ludlam, top of the Greens senate ticket in WA, has made a half-hour animated video called "Climate of Hope". It's on Youtube in three parts, and I'll slip it in as an extra election Youtube selection for today.