It was a big day on the campaign trail. I dropped off 2000 leaflets around Grayndler and I only have 500 left. I’ll do those this morning.
I know people treat leaflets like junk but they are worth reading – no matter who the candidate. They give you more of an insight into what candidates stand for. Ads and posters cannot tell you enough.
I’ve spoken a lot about surveys this week. Yesterday, I found out we topped a survey on health. You can read about it here. The Australian Medical Association ranked the Australian Democrats as the best party when it comes to rural health policy. Probably not that relevant to the people of Grayndler but again it shows that we have quality policies out there. We are not single issue and we have more substance than the media savvy extremists. Parliament debates hundreds of issues. Vote for a party that offers responses to them all. A case in point – The Greens offer a mere 44 policies whereas the Australian Democrats have over 130.
These are important considerations to make as voters in Grayndler and beyond. We need to improve the quality of our elected representatives so that we get a better quality working for us.
I’m off now. There’s a lot of last minute stuff to do.
We’re half way through the final week of the election. I’m busily organising volunteers for polling booths and distributing How To Vote cards. I gotta say – they look good!
A lot of Democrats media has been released today. The first one in my inbox speaks about our success in the Senate and our balanced approach to IR. We are the best party to deliver outcomes for ALL Australians when it comes to workplace relations.
I was then greeted with another pearler highlighting the need for a greater focus on Research and Development. The Australian Democrats have led the way on calls for increased attention to R&D. Innovation can bring us answers to future challenges, it stimulates new economic opportunities and it assists our education sector.
Finally, Andrew Bartlett re-iterated the Australian Democrats call to end the Pacific Solution for asylum seekers. The unacceptable time and conditions asylum seekers have to endure is inhumane, deprives people of the presumption of innocence and tortures people long after the leave the priosn like properties. The overwhelming majority of these people are found to be genuine refugees.
It just goes to show that the Australian Democrats have the policy depth and the common sense approach that Parliament needs to curb the whims of whoever is in Government. We offer real ideas for the future.
More letter-boxing tonight. My feet hurt but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
I spoke at the Grayndler candidates forum last night. It again was a most enjoyable experience and the feedback I received was very positive. I stressed the good work the Australian Democrats have done across the board and how this would be lost without Democrats representation in Parliament. These points were acknowledged with nods of approval from fellow speakers and the audience. It really shows how important our work is and how important it is to Vote 1 Australian Democrats in order to ensure this work continues.
Today I awoke to find the following press release in my inbox. The Centre for an Ethical Society, a Christian organisation with broad experience in advocating social justice issues, has ranked the Australian Democrats as the number one party when it comes to issues of social justice. We left the other parties trailing behind. A vote for the Democrats is the best way to vote for social justice. You can find the press release here and you can view how the other parties fell behind here. The Democrats scored 77 out of 80 - a whopping 96.25%! Incidentally, their headquarters are in Lewisham, smack bang in the middle of Grayndler.
I have a lot of campaigning today. I have two interviews with Portuguese language journalists. One works for SBS Radio and one works for Lusa, a Portuguese news wire service. I could be featured in some Portugese newspapers. I wonder how many Grayndler residents will be voting at the Australian Embassy in Lisbon…
The final Monday of the campaign and it has been a good start. I woke to news that the Australian Democrats’ health policy has been judged the best of all parties by the Doctors Reform Society. You can read about that here. Please note the tables provided in that link give the Dems final score as 57 but in actual fact, the Australian Democrats scored 52 out of 55. That’s 6 points more than the Greens, 29 points more than Labor and 47 points ahead of the Coalition.
Again this shows how valuable the work of the Democrats is and how our absence from Parliament would be a genuine loss for the people of Australia. The absence of good policies from the other parties shows that our good work will not be carried on by them. There is a way to change – Vote Australian Democrats!
Tonight I am speaking at a Meet The Candidates Forum at Leichhardt Town Hall. It starts at 7pm. Hope to see a few of you there.
It certainly has been a long time since we last spoke and as we enter the final week, I thought I’d give you an update.
I’ve spent every spare moment of the past week and a half letter-boxing the electorate and preparing posters to adorn the streets of Grayndler. If you were drawn here because of me leaflet, welcome aboard. I hope you like what you see.
We score well on a lot of things. The Australian Democrats’ environmental policies scored 90 out of 100 by the Australian Conservation Foundation – nearly on par with the Greens and substantially ahead of Labor and Liberal. We are the best all round party.
The Australian Christian Lobby organised a survey of the candidates as well. The poll was not wide ranging and the advertisement displaying the results of the poll was even narrower. Unfortunately the advertisement was skewed towards issues of “morality” and did not necessarily reflect all Christian values.
The ad made the Democrats look bad because it mainly concentrated on issues such as same sex rights and censorship. I know many Christians (and am one myself) who look to broader issues that reflect Christian values. Little was asked about treatment of the poor. For example, there are more important issues when addressing poverty than the availability of RU486. Little was mentioned in the advertisement about treatment of refugees or indigenous Australians.
The Edmund Rice Centre is a body named after the founder of the Christian Brothers, an founder. This is an organisation with a strong Catholic tradition, recognising the community service aspect of Christ’s message. They are located in Croydon, a suburb on the boundary of Lowe and Grayndler. They conduct a lot of research and advocacy work relating to indigenous affairs, poverty, housing and refugees. I know for a fact that they are great admirers of Australian Democrats work, particularly of Andrew Bartlett. Unfortunately, this sort of good news does not get published by the Australian Christian Lobby.
Any reading of the New Testament would see the volume of missionary work performed by Jesus Christ and his disciples. The Australian Democrats reflect Christian values in the sense that we are a group of people that profess compassion and justice.
That’s all for now. I’m going back out there to letter-box again. There are 25,000 leaflets out there with my photo on them. They don’t mail themselves.
This video came out last week and I thought it was worth pointing out. The Australian Democrats have announced their plan to reform the childcare system.They propose a new medicare style system where parents pay around 10 per cent of the cost of the care and the Commonwealth negotiates the fee system.
Any reading of this would view it as a radical reform but it is a reform a long time coming.Child care costs are increasingly a worry for parents. At the same time, childcare is being recognised as an important aspect of a child’s development. Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison rightly points out that childcare is more than a place to park the kids. It is an important learning experience and the Democrats are creating a funding scheme that tries to make it as affordable as schooling. The Democrats have a comprehensive issue sheet on childcare and it is available here.
On top of the Paid Maternity Leave policy announced three weeks ago, it can be said that the Australian Democrats are trailblazers when it comes to innovative policies that support young families. The major parties need to listen to our call. Families want more than a tax cut, they need important services that encourage them to work, live and learn.
Another RBA meeting, another interest rate rise. Many mortgage holders will have to fork out more and renters may also feel the pinch if their landlords are faced with increased mortgage payments. Oddly, both major sides of politics are happy with this bad news because it gives them a chance to stamp their election credibility.
Has either party stopped to think of the average punter? Housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable, it is interfering with people’s quality of life and neither party is promising a comprehensive solution. In fact, many of the promises offered by the major parties will put incredible pressure on inflation and interest rates. Australian Democrats Leader Lyn Allison pointed this out today.
The people of Grayndler are struggling as much as everyone else in Australia. Some real solutions are needed, more than the sound grabs offered by the major parties. For a real alternative, Vote Democrat!
What a busy few days it has been for me. I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to fill you in until now. It has certainly been a hectic 4 days on the campaign trail.
On Thursday night I attended the Your Rights At Work forum which was held at Leichhardt Town Hall. There were representatives from the Greens, two different Socialist parties, Labor and of course the Democrats.
It was politics at its rawest.Only a lectern separated us from the public. It was a very nervous experience for a first timer like myself but without wanting to blow my own trumpet, I have to say I performed quite well.
The forums was about industrial relations and speakers were asked to outline how each party would secure pay and conditions into the future. I think I was the only one that answered the question reasonably. The two socialists called for protests and revolution whilst bagging the other parties. Saeed Khan from the Greens was more concerned with what was wrong with the present system. He offered little in the way of solutions. Labor’s George Campbell offered some ideas but unfortunately he was drawn into an argument by responding to criticism from the Socialists.
It was very disappointing that we did not hear a genuine debate of IDEAS. This is why I became a Democrat. Other parties like to protest but the Democrats do more – they offer solutions. You can find out IR policies here.
I spent Friday, Saturday and this morning campaigning in Newcastle with our candidate Aaron Johnson. Aaron is an auto-electrician with a penchant for home brew. Better than that, he is also a bloody passionate candidate with great ideas for the Hunter. It was a great few days. I’d never been to Newcastle and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The city has a lot of charm.
This afternoon I attended an indigenous affairs forum at the Greek Community Club of NSW in Lakemba. The forum was the brainchild of Alfred Vincent, a former lecturer in Modern Greek. This was to give Greek-Australian people – for whom English may be a second language – a more thorough look at the issues of the day delivered in their native language. The idea is that those with poorer English skills may not have access to as much in depth information on the issues of the day and they would benefit from an informed discussion in their native language. What a great idea!Today’s forum was about indigenous issues. Speaker delivered their speeches in English and Greek.
So there we have it. Quite a big weekend and a big week to follow. Life on the hustings is never dull. The campaigning will take a temporary break tomorrow as my brother, my sister and I cut our birthday cake to each celebrate a quarter of a century on this Earth. I hope it’s chocolate.
