LONG WEEKEND!

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.

The trip was made better still when I saw Sydney FC defeat Newcastle United Jets 1-0 in the A-League soccer. The only sour note was hearing that Peter Andren had passed away. He gave true meaning to the term, “local MP.” Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett has written a moving post about him here.

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.

Coincidentally, the Democrats spokesperson on indigenous affairs has Greek ancestors. Andrew Bartlett can trace his family back to Australia’s first Greek immigrant, a man who arrived in Adelaide in 1840. The Democrats were acknowledged at the forum as one of the best performers in Parliament when it comes to indigenous affairs and rightly so. Our indigenous issue sheets are very thorough and very well thought out. Unfortunately I did not get the chance to speak. I would like to have given the public more information but I did speak to a lot of people afterwards and they spoke highly of the Democrats.

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.