Comments on: Hey, it’s Maribyrnong, let’s send a nong there

By: Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony » Blog Archive » More people I won’t be voting for

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:12:37 +0000

[...] I know I sound ageist; I don’t want to be, honest. They just keep sending us the wrong 24-year-olds. If one of my under-30 bloggy must-reads decided to run for office, I’d vote for them in a flash. Unless they lived in Camberwell. [...]

By: Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony » Blog Archive » This is a local post for local people. There’s nothing for you here!

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:23:07 +0000

[...] Williamstown is a safe Labor seat, a very safe seat, and there’s no Liberal candidate standing. (This isn’t the seat young Hamish got the boot from – this is State, he was feral. Sorry, Federal.) The Labor candidate is Wade Noonan of the Transport Workers Union, who has been parachuted in by Labor. This is a slap in the face to the people who live in the electorate – they have been trying to get trucks (monster B-doubles, container trucks and tankers) to keep out of the residential areas for years now. [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:14:40 +0000

The Libs put forth a bare faced nong… Labor is just as cynical…Wade Noonan, our replacement for Bracksy in the Willy by-election. Just happens to be secretary of the TWU, nothing against unions – just a bit of an issue with the thousands of trucks that use Yarraville as a shortcut to the docks and a way to avoid the tolls. According to the public lobby group, MTAG – the TWU has countered every move for change and Labor has fudged this issue for years. So now he is going to be running the show, we will be truly #$%&%$! in terms of genuine debate.
Good one Labor…Answer… Vote Green, I love you Janet Rice.

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:29:09 +0000

Parties, generally, recruit in waves. In the Liberals’ case most joined up at the start, as young political aware 20 and 30 year olds – especially the women – in the late 1940s and early 1950s (now in their 70s and 80s and the dominant membership group). Subsequently, there have been jumps in the mid 1970s (now in their 50s and 60s but the bulk of the parliamentary membership), and a smaller wave in the early 1990s who are slowly filtering into parliament – but might well never get there.

Given Colleen is now a member of parliament I am glad she is visible and sensible. If only all parliamentarians were.

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:04:05 +0000

The average age of a Liberal party member is closer to 70 than 60.The average age of a Liberal party member is closer to 70 than 60.

The average age? Dear god, how old are the oldest ones?

Colleen Hartland, a Green who’s visible in my area, is pretty sensible and very passionate about fixing public transport as her no. 1 issue. She told me she used to be a waitperson in the Parliament House dining room and it was quite a surreal experience getting to experience the other side.

By: Russ

Russ — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 08:07:41 +0000

Helen, this statement is truer than you think, and is part of the problem:

“Point being, though, that the Libs are a much larger and more powerful organisation than the Greens and have been around a long time”

They have been around a long time, and so has the membership. The average age of a Liberal party member is closer to 70 than 60. Labor and the Democrats – who to some extent have died a demographic death – are the same. So, sure, they have 40,000 odd members in Australia, but only a quarter of them are active enough to man a polling booth, and most are only there because it’s a nice social club for their retirement years. In terms of personnel, the Greens are no worse placed than the other parties.

Once you take out the people not remotely interested in running, I’d say there would be barely 800 potential [1] Victorian Liberal candidates for a seat in parliament – trying to fill 200 odd potential seats – with most of those in the electorates that they have a vague chance of winning. As much as the party was criticised for not running someone in the Williamstown by-election, they probably had enough trouble finding the troubled candidate above to run in the Federal slot.

Be insulted if you want, but this problem will get worse before it gets better. There just plain aren’t enough sensible, interested people actively involved in party politics. And far too many of the ones who are interested in sensible get run off by the rest.

[1] And I mean bodies here. This figure includes all the nutcases, loners and unelectables that invariable get attracted to politics.

By: Ariel

Ariel — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:24:37 +0000

Bernice – YES.

Helen, as a fellow Maribyrnong constituent I, too, am insulted. But also quite pleased that we still obviously have so few Liberals in our midst, despite rampant gentrification and overpriced cafes. (Though I guess the local latte sippers tend to be ALP/Greens, don’t they?)

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:48:29 +0000

Kind of a template, perhaps Bernice?

By: Bernice

Bernice — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:41:56 +0000

Does any one else think he looks suspiciously like Lord Downer?

By: Ann O'Dyne

Ann O'Dyne — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:28:33 +0000

GG – don’t fling ‘Epiphyte’ at FXH – he thinks that’s a make of guitar.