ACT Election

[Neferti]

A minority government is still better than being in opposition. Considering the negativity surrounding Gillard and the Greens for the last couple of years - it's a very good result for Labor.

You would say that, wouldn't you Mantra?

The Greens LOST 3 seats in the Assembly. They didn't all go to Labor. The ALP only gained 1 seat. Liberals gained 2 seats.

There is the Hare-Clarke factor too. However, there was a HUGE swing away from the ALP/Greens.

Canberra is, on the whole, a LABOR STRONGHOLD. For the Liberals (and I repeat, for Mantra ... there is NO Coalition in Canberra) to beat the ALP by even 41 votes is MAJOR.

We all knew that the dimwitted Green, Shane Rattenbury or whatever his name is ... would drag it out for as long as he possibly could ...... and eventually "go with Labor" .... NOBODY is shocked. A vote for Green is a vote for Labor. Always has been.

Boxy states that "he got a Ministry". A Ministry in the ACT Assembly? A Councillor in the Wollongong (or pick another country town) County Council has more thrust than any so-called Minister in the ACT Assembly would have. ANY Legislation that has been passed by the Assembly, that the Federal Government doesn't like, has been "disallowed" (cant' think of the term ..... over-ruled?). A waste of taxpayers money. The lot of them.

Oh, and I already have my new Electricity bill which is about $100 more than this time last year! Same rulers.

Ele will be thrilled but she would be about the only one.

[mantra]

A minority government is still better than being in opposition. Considering the negativity surrounding Gillard and the Greens for the last couple of years - it's a very good result for Labor.

You would say that, wouldn't you Mantra?

The Greens LOST 3 seats in the Assembly. They didn't all go to Labor. The ALP only gained 1 seat. Liberals gained 2 seats.

There is the Hare-Clarke factor too. However, there was a HUGE swing away from the ALP/Greens.

I haven't denied that the Greens aren't doing well. At least they got one seat. I expected them to be wiped out.

Canberra is, on the whole, a LABOR STRONGHOLD. For the Liberals (and I repeat, for Mantra ... there is NO Coalition in Canberra) to beat the ALP by even 41 votes is MAJOR.

We all knew that the dimwitted Green, Shane Rattenbury or whatever his name is ... would drag it out for as long as he possibly could ...... and eventually "go with Labor" .... NOBODY is shocked. A vote for Green is a vote for Labor. Always has been.

Boxy states that "he got a Ministry". A Ministry in the ACT Assembly? A Councillor in the Wollongong (or pick another country town) County Council has more thrust than any so-called Minister in the ACT Assembly would have. ANY Legislation that has been passed by the Assembly, that the Federal Government doesn't like, has been "disallowed" (cant' think of the term ..... over-ruled?). A waste of taxpayers money. The lot of them.

Oh, and I already have my new Electricity bill which is about $100 more than this time last year! Same rulers.

Ele will be thrilled but she would be about the only one.

The trick Neferti is to turn off your airconditioner during winter. That will save you a packet. This year my neighbours complained about it being a cold winter, but I didn't notice. You can acclimatise if you want to save some money.

[Neferti]

The trick Neferti is to turn off your airconditioner during winter. That will save you a packet. This year my neighbours complained about it being a cold winter, but I didn't notice. You can acclimatise if you want to save some money.

That's all very well for you to say, Mantra, up there on the Central Coast. You shouldn't need heating up there. Does is get to minus 10 overnight in Terrigal? I doubt it.

We even had snow in Canberra this Winter and I am not about to sit around causing myself hypothermia. I am happy to pay for my house to be heated while I am at home. ACTEW raised their prices from last July, I think, so that was part of the increase.

Having a Leftie Government in Canberra for 12+ years doesn't help either, and now we will have another 4 years of them in power. They promised (or the Greens did?) to have "light rail" installed in Canberra by 2014. Really? It won't be anywhere near where I live will cost several billion and won't be any better than the bus system we already have that runs at millions of dollars LOSS each year. Nobody takes the bus in the ACT ..... way too inconvenient ... even if they gave us FREE bus trips nobody would bother. It takes perhaps 20-25 minutes in the car to get to work. The same trip on a bus would take around 90 minutes.

Canberra is a Country Town of around 370,000 (last Census). It covers an area around the same size as Sydney but has farms between Town Centres. Tons of land to open up for new housing. We voted NOT to be self-governing ... twice ... but Hawke said "stuff that, they will get it anyway".

I quite like the fresh air here. The usually, hot but dry, Summers. The lack of Politicians on the street ........ I have never seen a Federal Pollie (or a local one either but I would recognise a Fed over a local).

[mantra]

They promised (or the Greens did?) to have "light rail" installed in Canberra by 2014. Really? It won't be anywhere near where I live will cost several billion and won't be any better than the bus system we already have that runs at millions of dollars LOSS each year.

Canberra is a Country Town of around 370,000 (last Census). It covers an area around the same size as Sydney but has farms between Town Centres. Tons of land to open up for new housing. We voted NOT to be self-governing ... twice ... but Hawke said "stuff that, they will get it anyway".

Sydney is a city - yet O'Farrell (coalition) has broken his rail promises already. Public transport is abysmal in the city - being overcrowded, never running to time and the roads are like car parks. Instead he's grovelling to Packer and allowing him to build a 70 story casino exclusively for rich chinese on public waterfront land. Packer won't even be subject to developing or licensing costs. NSW taxpayers will be paying for Packer to establish his high rolling club.

It doesn't matter which party is in power - one is no better than the other. They all lick the boots of the wealthy and don't give a stuff about the rest of us.

THERE'S nothing wrong in principle with James Packer having a glitzy new casino in Sydney. That's the business he's in and it's a free country.

If planeloads of Chinese billionaires, the so-called whale gamblers, want to fly here to throw their money at him, by all means let them. We are told the joint will be for them alone, invitation only. There'll be no buses trawling the western suburbs for local suckers to empty their pay packets into the pokies as they do at the hideous Star Casino. So far so good.

It's how it's happening that matters. What sticks in the craw is the stampede to get the thing off the ground. Our ground. To point out the bleedin' obvious - but it seems necessary to do so - Barangaroo is public space, owned by the people of this state, who are entitled to the final say in what happens there. Yet before a sod has been turned, the normal checks and balances have been tossed overboard into the harbour mud.
Crown chairman James Packer.

"I’m incredibly grateful to the Labor Party for not playing party politics and I’m incredibly grateful to Premier O’Farrell and the Liberal Party for doing what it has done" ... James Packer. Photo: Andrew Meares

Barry O'Farrell has flung himself into the Packer embrace with orgasmic whoops of delight, like a nymphomaniac at a Bulldogs' end-of-season frolic. ''I'm a lover, not a fighter,'' he trilled when asked about a new casino licence last week.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/public-a- ... z2BErRTd1u

[Rorschach]

Sydney is a city - yet O'Farrell (coalition) has broken his rail promises already.

Really? care to share.... instead of just making an empty claim?

[Neferti]

I thought you said that Mike Carlton wasn't biased, Mantra.

[Neferti]

Bourke to stand aside for ACT's first Greens Minister


Labor MLA Chris Bourke will give up his position as a minister in the ACT Government to make room for Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury.

Dr Bourke is currently Minister for Education and Training, Corrections and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Labor’s Legislative Assembly caucus has reconfirmed Chief Minister Katy Gallagher as its leader, Andrew Barr as deputy and ministers Simon Corbell and Joy Burch to the executive.

Under his power-sharing deal with Labor, Mr Rattenbury will become the ACT’s first Greens minister.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... 28t75.html

There you go! Chris Bourke took over Jon Stanhope's seat when the former Chief Minister retired, so no great loss, I guess. Typical of the ALP though. It isn't called the Mickey Mouse Government without a reason.

Apparently, Shane Rattenbury had a list of about 100 requests before he would agree to back Labor .... one was obviously to be an MLA and get the education portfolio. What is Green about education? He's the one who stopped us getting the "free" plastic bags at shops. Not just supermarkets but if you go to Target and anywhere else you carry your purchase out un-wrapped, although some shops have paper bags! I thought plastic was to save the trees?. The Greens sure are a loonie lot.

[boxy]

Apparently, Shane Rattenbury had a list of about 100 requests before he would agree to back Labor .... one was obviously to be an MLA and get the education portfolio. What is Green about education? He's the one who stopped us getting the "free" plastic bags at shops. Not just supermarkets but if you go to Target and anywhere else you carry your purchase out un-wrapped, although some shops have paper bags! I thought plastic was to save the trees?. The Greens sure are a loonie lot.

He'd be an MLA regardless of a spot on Cabinet, surely? I doubt he'll get education. Says he wants something related to the light rail project. Bourke will probably be back on the Front Bench when they add another Ministry, next year.

[Neferti]

He'd be an MLA regardless of a spot on Cabinet, surely? I doubt he'll get education. Says he wants something related to the light rail project. Bourke will probably be back on the Front Bench when they add another Ministry, next year.

Yes, I meant "Ministry", or whatever. Last time he was Speaker. I guess we will have to wait until after the Melbourne Cup to find out what the portfolios will be. The Assembly is meeting today but doubt much work will get done due to the Melbourne Cup .... "light rail" in Canberra is a stupid idea and there was a "Light Rail Party" that ran a candidate at the Election, I think. The last GALP just spent billions on the GDE (Gungahlin Drive Extension?) to make it easier for people from Gungahlin to drive to work, now they want to put in a light rail system for the same lot to catch a train into Civic. Not sure how many Labor MLAs or Greenies live in the Gungahlin area but it won't be useful for me as I don't live around there, despite Aussie and Monk's speculation.

[Rorschach]

Not sure Canberra is really set out for a 'light rail" system. Nor Sydney for that matter. I guess it'll be nice looking up at the blue Canberra skies through all those wires, and tourists will just love taking photos of things through them as well.