Election ads for unelectable governments

[RedRalph]

I will probably vote for Kristina. But I'm so sick of political ads advertising how they're for families. They're annoying. Kids are annoying. We're overpopulated. How about somebody who's for singles?

Like Hosni Mubarak?

 

[Arwon]

Did you mention the Wollongong sex-for-development scandal?

I don't think Verity Firth's husband getting caught buying drugs is going to hurt her, given that the voters she needs to woo are the potential Green voters in the seat. We're still favoured to grab her seat, but not because of that.

Also she's Charles Firth from the Chaser's brother, wonder if they'd have gone in hard if they were still doing anything on TV.

 

[Lord Baal]

Did you mention the Wollongong sex-for-development scandal?

I don't think Verity Firth's husband getting caught buying drugs is going to hurt her, given that the voters she needs to woo are the potential Green voters in the seat. We're still favoured to grab her seat, but not because of that.

Also she's Charles Firth from the Chaser's brother, wonder if they'd have gone in hard if they were still doing anything on TV.

I left out the Wollongong scandal because I couldn't remember if that was actually the State or Local Council government. It was the very first scandal that came into my head though. Wasn't that also briefly linked (by the media) with McGurk's death as well? I seem to remember that he loaned money to several of those developers.

Interesting news about Firth. It's unfortunate that The Chaser team split up, particularly since their non-political comedy tends to be quite awful.

@RRW: That is the best goddamn political poster I've ever seen.

 

[Masada]

I never found the Chaser's funny. Condescending and swarmy was their reason d'etre.

But more seriously, how the hell has Labor in New South Wales survived this long?

I left out the Wollongong scandal because I couldn't remember if that was actually the State or Local Council government. It was the very first scandal that came into my head though.

The implication always was that people in the State government knew. I don't think anything ever came of it. But it isn't like lying to police is the worst thing they've ever done.

Wasn't that also briefly linked (by the media) with McGurk's death as well? I seem to remember that he loaned money to several of those developers.

Murder would be a step up, a little one, but a significant one. Gangster government?

 

[Camikaze]

The most current scandal, involving the Education Minister's husband being caught buying drugs in a sting operation.

I don't think this can be used against the government.

Here's the guy who used his taxpayer-funded car to visit gay pick-up joints, including (allegedly) several outright brothels. His job? Transport Minister.

Nor this one, really. Do we really care about everywhere MPs drive their cars?

The problem is more that I cannot think of a single good thing they have done (actually, Keneally did do a reasonable job of sticking by the teachers union against the federal government). I can think of factional fights, though. And dodgy dealings with developers. And their latest gambit of attempting to confuse the Coalition into submission by taking over their ideological turf in the privatisation stakes (and then attempting to shut down the inquiry into the matter). And ever other week a new bungle being made. Headline grabbing sex scandals don't matter as much as this general incompetence and corruption (unless of course those sex scandals involve corruption, which half of them did).

 

[Masada]

I don't think this can be used against the government.

Of course it can, he's the husband of a MP, a political staffer, obvious mover and shaker and apparently a user of recreational drugs all rolled into one. The Labor Party in miniature? Incestuous, conceited and corrupt. That has a certain ring to it, no?

Nor this one, really. Do we really care about everywhere MPs drive their cars?

Yes, we do; it's our car after-all. "WOULD YOU LET THIS MAN DRIVE YOUR CAR; WOULD YOU LET HIM RUN YOUR WHOLE TRANSPORTATION NETWORK?" Bonus points for implicit homophobia. (Actually, it was objectively awful how they treated that poor man. It was really poor form, he was obviously struggling with a serious identity problem and didn't need all that media coverage. I'm also not sold on the notion that was in the public interest at that particular time.)

 

[Tee Kay]

So is it that the current image of NSW Labor stems from exaggerated media portrayal of the government more than what the government actually did?

 

[Camikaze]

Not more than. I mean, it's obviously a factor. The media do love to hate the government. But even if you take away the media sensationalism, there's nothing much good left, and plenty of bad. It was only really outing David Campbell and in the last week picking on Verity Firth's husband (I don't really mind Verity Firth, to be honest) that are completely media generated scandals. You can't blame the media for reporting on corruption, for instance.

 

[Tee Kay]

You can't blame the media for reporting on corruption, for instance.

As usual, the answer is communism.

But yeah, I suppose. Is this descent a relatively recent thing or has it been going on for a while?

 

[Masada]

No, it's a terrible government. The best example of the whole situation is the botched privitization effort. The intial proposal had to be have been as a result of corruption. There's simply no rationale for how a government can so baldly abuse the public's trust. Then to shut down Parliamentary oversight of the whole deal makes an intolerable situation even worse. That people haven't stormed Parliament and thrown the buggers out of the windows is a demonstration of just bad the situation is. In any other state, we would have got rid of them, long ago. Mssr. Kennitt, for instance, went down for less and he's still a figure of revilement in Victoria...

 

[Lord Baal]

No, it's a terrible government. The best example of the whole situation is the botched privitization effort. The intial proposal had to be have been as a result of corruption. There's simply no rationale for how a government can so baldly abuse the public's trust. Then to shut down Parliamentary oversight of the whole deal makes an intolerable situation even worse. That people haven't stormed Parliament and thrown the buggers out of the windows is a demonstration of just bad the situation is. In any other state, we would have got rid of them, long ago. Mssr. Kennitt, for instance, went down for less and he's still a figure of revilement in Victoria...

The reason that NSW Labor has survived as long as it has is because the alternative is; NSW Liberal. And that's as bad, if not worse. At least the factional leaders of NSW Labor, right-wing as they are, aren't card-carrying members of Opus Dei who refer to Lebanese people (publicly) as filthy camel-****ers. Many of the leaders of the NSW Liberals are.

If the people of this state had even a modicum of intelligence they'd simply vote Green - or at least some third-party, I almost don't care who, even that nut-job Fred Nile would at least scare the crap out of the major parties and make them change their ways - and oust both major parties. But, as anyone who's lived in this state for very long would know, intelligence is a commodity which is scarcer than the Philosopher's Stone in this hell-hole.

There's an old saying about there being no such thing as an honest politician. In NSW, we'd happily settle for a lying bastard, so long as they were competent. We've yet to find one.

 

[Masada]

I would totally vote for Fred Nile to at least keep New South Wales politics interesting. I admit it, I like disaster porn. A good train-wreck causes ma' juices to rise

 

[classical_hero]

The reason that NSW Labor has survived as long as it has is because the alternative is; NSW Liberal. And that's as bad, if not worse. At least the factional leaders of NSW Labor, right-wing as they are, aren't card-carrying members of Opus Dei who refer to Lebanese people (publicly) as filthy camel-****ers. Many of the leaders of the NSW Liberals are.

If the people of this state had even a modicum of intelligence they'd simply vote Green - or at least some third-party, I almost don't care who, even that nut-job Fred Nile would at least scare the crap out of the major parties and make them change their ways - and oust both major parties. But, as anyone who's lived in this state for very long would know, intelligence is a commodity which is scarcer than the Philosopher's Stone in this hell-hole.

There's an old saying about there being no such thing as an honest politician. In NSW, we'd happily settle for a lying bastard, so long as they were competent. We've yet to find one.

So many times the NSW Liberals were in a winning position and then do something absolutely stupid and get Labor back into office, but it would have to be an absolute catastrophe this time. I do feel sorry for those in NSW, with their totally incompetent government and opposition.

 

[Arwon]

How Labor is still in office? Couple of things.

Most directly, it's because the Libs under Debnam utterly botched the 2007 election campaign against Iemma, and Labor still had a lot of seats from the 1999 landslide. Things didn't move much, it was a shift of 3 seats and 3% to the Libs. In the election before tha in 2003, things weren't really seen as going badly and the 1999 situation prevailed - four seats were traded 2-2, and an independent won against the Nationals.

The other reason is, of course, that the NSW Liberal Party is mostly run by what even Lib mates of mine refer to as the Christian Taliban. The main factional divide there is between two rival groups of hard right Liberals. There's something about NSW which produces awful politics.

(I have no evidence but I suspect that "abolish the states" is a much more popular sentiment in NSW than anywhere else. I think we are also much more prone to forgetting that we even live in a state, and certainly have the weakest sense of state/territory identity in the country)

 

[Abaddon]

They should just save money and not even bother campaigning this time around.

 

[classical_hero]

(I have no evidence but I suspect that "abolish the states" is a much more popular sentiment in NSW than anywhere else. I think we are also much more prone to forgetting that we even live in a state, and certainly have the weakest sense of state/territory identity in the country)

I have never heard that anywhere else, so it must be true. We over here would never think of abolishing out state government

 

[Justo]

I have never heard that anywhere else, so it must be true. We over here would never think of abolishing out state government

Queenslanders extremely dislike our state government. I know some (although probably only a minority) would have no objection to removing state governments. We find ourselves in a similar situation to NSW. A highly unpopular Labor government but the opposition can't even organize itself and offer a single set of policies to counter Labor.

 

[Masada]

... Stop the cancer; Keep the states! Seriously, I understand why New South Welshmen might want to abolish the states, but I would wholeheartedly support a campaign to kick them out of the Federation if that were to happen.

 

[Tee Kay]

... Stop the cancer; Keep the states! Seriously, I understand why New South Welshmen might want to abolish the states, but I would wholeheartedly support a campaign to kick them out of the Federation if that were to happen.

I say let them abolish themselves, and then the rest of us partition the pieces...

 

[Masada]

There's nothing worth taking.