Despite a decisive swing to the conservative side of politics, the Greens still managed to increase their vote in both Houses, even if it is unlikely to result in extra seats. If preferences had flowed similarly to 2006, the Greens would have won the Lower House seats of Melbourne, Richmond and Brunswick.
Tuesday 30 November 2010
More on the Green failure in Victoria
Victorian election - Green vote goes down
Despite a decisive swing to the conservative side of politics, the Greens still managed to increase their vote in both Houses, even if it is unlikely to result in extra seats. If preferences had flowed similarly to 2006, the Greens would have won the Lower House seats of Melbourne, Richmond and Brunswick.
The Greens polled 297,931 votes in 2006 in the lower house.As of now, they have polled 278,859 – with 95.25% of the vote counted. Extrapolate that to 100%, and they end up with 292,765 lower house votes – fewer actual votes than they got in 2006. Their share of votes went up slightly because turnout crashed between 2006 and 2010. But fewer actual people voted Green at this election.Similarly, in the Upper House, the Greens got 314,847 votes in 2006.In 2010, with 96.11% of the vote counted, they are up to 293,222. Extrapolating that to 100% gives you 305,090.Hmm.2006 – 314,8472010 – 305,090.Somewhere along the way, 5000-10,000 Green voters have dropped off the face of the earth. Percentage-wise, they have gone up. People-wise, they have gone backwards. They shed just over 3% of their voters between elections.I wouldn’t say that their support is “on the rise” based on those figures.
Thursday 25 November 2010
Thursday photos
Why do they think that we are at "war" with refugees, and how will bringing the troops home help? If we were at war with refugees, we'd be machine gunning their boats and burning them to the waterline. Our detention centres would not be packed with people the Navy plucked from the water - they'd be empty, because everyone who tried to enter would be dead. Enough of the hyperbole - we are not at "war" with refugees. It takes a uni student to be stupid enough to believe that sort of tripe.
Tuesday 23 November 2010
You'd have to be nuts to go to Uni
RATES of serious mental illness are more than five times higher among university students than in the general population, according to research from the University of Queensland.Almost 84 per cent of students reported psychological distress, compared with 29 per cent of the general population. More than 19 per cent of students surveyed suffered from a serious mental illness. In the general population, the rate of serious mental illness is about 3 per cent.
Tuesday photos
Sunday 21 November 2010
How gay friendly is your electorate?
Spending, spending, spending
- Clancy Catholic College, West Hoxton
- Green Valley Islamic College, Green Valley
- Vern Barnett School for Children, Forestville
- Qibla College, Minto
- Sule College, Prestons
- St Therese Primary School, Padstow Heights
- All Saints College, Bathurst
- James Sheahan Catholic High School, Orange
- Mountain View Adventist College, Doonside
- St Bishoy Coptic Ordthodox College, Mount Druitt
- South Coast School for Children with Autism, Corrimal
- St Paul's College, Walla Walla
- All Saints Catholics Boys' College, Liverpool
- St Ignatius' School, Bourke
- Parents chip in an average of $6,053
- The state government chips in $5,381 per kid
- The feds chip in $1,883 per kid
Saturday 20 November 2010
Odd looking unrinal
Two other items in these early issues incurred the wrath of the NSW police. One was Martin Sharp's ribald satirical poem about youths gatecrashing a party, entitled "The Word Flashed Around The Arms"; the other another was the now famous Oz #6 cover photograph (pictured at right), which depicted Neville and others pretending to urinate into a wall fountain created by sculptor Tom Bass, which was mounted in the street facade of the Sydney offices of the P&O shipping line and which had recently been unveiled by Prime Minister Menzies.
Six flats in two weeks
Thursday 18 November 2010
Wednesday photos
I am not a complete Philistine
Why do governments feel the need to pour so much cash into "art", most of which is atrocious, when we can have things like this? The public was happy to fund this bloke - his buckets were full of coins (quite a lot of them gold), and I chucked in some myself. The public are much better arbiters of taste than bureaucrats and politicians.
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Who are Green voters?
John Black: That's right, the National Party is traditionally run by wealthy people who represent poor people, and the Greens tends to be run by lower income people representing rich people but who seem to have a view that their constituency is decidedly bolshy in terms of economic policy when in fact there's absolutely no evidence of that at all, and in fact the evidence is to the contrary.
Paul Comrie-Thomson: So in fact if green voters see green political parties threatening their income stream, they'll dump them. Is that how you see it?
John Black: In a New York second. This is not rocket science. People vote politically as consumers, and I fall back on my old Marxist historians for that little piece of wisdom. People do not vote to lose money, that's a case in point. Your green voter now has shares, your green voter now doesn't have children. Because they don't have children they have money, they have investment homes, they have shares. The simple correlations between ownership of investments, including shares, and the top income group was +0.94. You don't get any stronger than that. I mean, share ownership is clustered in then top quartile, green votes are clustered in the top quartile. Green voters are born overseas, they're the kind of people who were getting $100,000+ in WA on the old AWAs. They were into them with their ears back. These are rich, cosmopolitan, internationally qualified people.
Sunday 14 November 2010
Why do our national parks burn?
Completed fire management strategies for all parks and reserves, and finished 59,202 hectares of hazard reduction burning which is the highest total ever completed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Top brass vs rangers
Government by committee
Thursday 11 November 2010
Wednesday photos
Joe Tripodi goes - but why?
In earlier evidence, another Maritime lawyer, Sean O'Dwyer, said he believed Ms Kelly was ''very powerful, very highly connected'' with ''a personal and professional relationship with people as high up as the minister'' and invariably got her way.Mr O'Dwyer said it was ''common knowledge'' within Maritime that the then minister, Joe Tripodi, would drop in to see Ms Kelly.''It was the subject of a fair bit of comment whereby the minister would come to Rozelle and he would go into Tonette's office before going into the CEO's office, which is very unusual for a government department.''
You didn’t by the way like going to parliament did you?---No.You didn’t like the conditions of work at Parliament House?---No, I didn’t like the people at Parliament House.Okay. All right. So you preferred if you had a choice in the matter to work at the Drummoyne electorate office didn’t you?---I think that’s where the member’s work is, is, serves a greater benefit.Right. But at all events you personally preferred the class of people you encountered at the Drummoyne electorate office than the people at - - -? Infinitely.I beg your - - -?---Infinitely.Thank you. Now, so if there was any way of your getting out of going to parliament and remaining at the Drummoyne electorate office where you thought you could carry out your duties more efficiently you would take that option wouldn’t you?---If it was possible for me to remain in the electorate I would.
Tuesday 9 November 2010
Bad karma?
Monday photos
Monday 8 November 2010
Possibly not the best use of our taxes
Grant detailProgram title: Shaping an International Solution to Climate ChangeSub-program: Bilateral Climate Change PartnershipsRecipient: Australian National UniversityValue: $249,609Purpose: To host and facilitate the 1st Australia-China Climage Change Forum.Approval date: 1 June 2010
Dept of Climate Change - does anyone ever take any leave?
The Travel Team sits within the Business Services Branch. The Travel Manager is responsible for developing and maintaining the Departments travel policies and managing the Departments external travel provider under the whole of government travel arrangements. Through the supervision of a team travel offices, the Travel Manager provides support to business areas in supplying high level advice and reporting in relation to travel trends and compliance.
Amazing how some people describe themselves
? Peter Hannaford joined Her Majesty?s Royal Australian Navy in 1964 and was sent to Vietnam. He is a feminist who helped found Diversity in Safe Communities, a united front comprised of anti-Nazi organisers, which successfully drove the misogynist Blackshirts out of Brunswick. Peter is a renowned community artist who has marched against every war since Vietnam.
Labor attacks Greens - part II
Hey, you must be short-sighted or something (maybe one-eyed?).Can't see much in your thumbnail anyway, but "Labor" is pretty clear when I view the original.