Comments on: A walk in the Park

By: Teresa van Lieshout

Teresa van Lieshout — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:26:18 +0000

And yes, by the way, I support the values of Gordon Barton, but it has a different vision, although we both criticise the government.

By: Teresa van Lieshout

Teresa van Lieshout — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:18:13 +0000

Hello Graeme Orr, and fellow commentories.
Some of us noble citizens don’t have the luxury of thousands or millions of dollars. Do you expect real democracy in Australia if you continue to support Liberal and Labor year after year?
I chose the name ‘The Australia Party’ because one of my teachers colleagues suggested it, and it was not a name registered with the AEC, or is not a de-registered name listed with the AEC.
Perhaps you should take a bit of responsibility for getting our nation back on track in so many areas, rather than stand on the side and criticise those of us making an effort. Why don’t you criticise Labor and Liberal; they are the ones that deserve it.

By: Lathlain Local

Lathlain Local — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 11:34:09 +0000

The Greens appear to have the only candidiate that has recognised the need for local businesses to find ways of employing and training the next generation!

I am talking about Dee Margetts.

She appears to be the only one who recognises and is addressing the threats to local small business (the major employers in the electorate) from further Government National Competition Policy driven “deregulation” in favour of big business.

Rather than wait for victims of crime and attempting to deal with victim/offenders, I think the Greens policy looks at the causes of crime. It seems to me to be better to not have a victim rather than waiting for a victim and then “getting tough”.

There have been a couple of comments suggesting that the Greens candidate is not a local, but to my knowledge, she has lived in Victoria Park for many, many years.

Her Senate electorate was the entire state and then her Legislative Council electorate was 260,000 km sq of regional WA. She would have dealt with an enormous range of issues during that level of parliamentary service. All her hard work and dedicated service was thinly spread and yet she had a huge level of success. I suggest that working with community groups and individuals in the small area of the Victoria Park Electorate would see the same level of hard work and dedication but – CONCENTRATED! All you have to do to check her track record on community issues during both of those terms is check the Hansards.

Dee Margetts appears to me to be the only candidate with a good solid background with extensive experience. Add to that her incredible track record of success and she appears to be streets ahead of the other two who do not have the credentials and do not have a track record with accolades from both sides of politics and the business community.

By: The Poll Bludger » Blog Archive » A walk in the Park: episode two

The Poll Bludger » Blog Archive » A walk in the Park: episode two — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:51:38 +0000

...] f a comments contributor called "Vic Park local", who has been providing excellent updates on the campaign for the Victoria Park by-election in Western Australia while the Poll Blu [...

By: watcher

watcher — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:45:47 +0000

check out the libs’ website. bruce stevenson has made comment on a heap of topics like vic park train station and infill sewerage, but the newspapers haven’t ran them. a shame because these are local issues he’s talking about. the papers seem to report ben wyatt sneezing, but leave bruce wallowing.

By: Vic Park local

Vic Park local — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:14:39 +0000

Today’s installment might be the last as it seem this thread is about to drop off the bottom of the PB mainpage to be supplanted by more SA info.
The afternoon rush at Oats St train station yesterday was confronted by Ms Sue Bateman and two elderly helpers (her grandparents perhaps?) handing out flyers. Sue is, apparently, proud that she is a ‘local’ girl – however, see my post above of 22/2/06.
Also received another glossy from Ben Wyatt, this time with his female friend. He has a pretty impressive list of credentials for a young man however, I noted that his earlier claim to prosecuting drug dealers (impliedly directly) has now been slightly modified to confiscation of their assets as proceeds of crime. Of course, both could be true. I also noted the first appearance of GG – but just in a photo – not an actual endorsement.
Also received a CDP flyer – only interesting thing about it IMHO was the allocation of preferences with Wyatt a LONG way down the list (second last from memory).

By: Vic Park local

Vic Park local — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 01:40:23 +0000

Yay – thanks for that Kyle. I too noted the looming debate but my local paper only stated the candidates had all been invited – not whether they had accepted.
In other news, my local paper had a large glossy insert for Ben Wyatt. One side was a letter from the Premier urging people to vote for Ben, the other side was a list of ALP achievements and policies (I wish I could call them campaign promises but they aren’t really – see my previous post of 23/2/06). They’re still going with the slogan of ‘New Ideas, Local Values”. I was surprised that a large chunk of the Premier’s letter was praising GG, but still no sign of him.
Bruce Stevenson had a sizable ad in the same local paper and, miracle of miracles, he is starting to hit on some important (IMHO) truly local issues. I also noticed a small Dee Margetts ad.
Ok, for all candidates out there I hereby unveil my list of important local issues – feel free to actually address some of them and other locals please feel free to add (or disagree):
1) Infill sewerage – my house would have been sewered years ago under the previous Government’s programme. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to constantly hear in the media about State Budget Surpluses when a programme which would impact directly on you was cut for budgetary reasons???
2) This Government has thrown $10m already on a failed social experiment at Brownlie Towers and plans to waste another $10m on it. High rise, high density low socio-economic housing has been a blight on every place that has tried it. Use the money to rehouse the residents somewhere with dignity – don’t just pile them all together. I thought they were getting rid of these complexes elsewhere in Perth.
3) Oats St Train Station has effectively been downgraded. Previously every train service stopped there – for good reason as it is an important interchange – to now being by-passed, and not just by the E service either, on a not infrequent basis (or the train is so full you can’t squeeze on anyways). In addition the train service is overcrowed and unreliable in peak hours.
4) Bentley Hospital – continuity of care/service to the local area must be assured
5) Underground power – I don’t care too much about this but I know a lot of people near me do.
6) At least two facilities were situated in the electorate against a substantial amount of local resistance Bendat House and Boronia. While both have proven relatively successful it was disappointing to feel as though local concerns were ignored and overriden.
7) Although chiefly a local government issue the downgrading of Bentley Library and the closure of Canning Pools will see the diminution of local services.
Traffic on Shep Rd and around Carousel can be horrendous.
Ok, I’m out – for now at least – will add more as they come to me. Other locals please feel free to add your issues. If we don’t take advantage now to squeeze as much as we can out of them we never will. Hey, address my concerns and you get my vote – simple.

By: Kyle Harman

Kyle Harman — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 09:23:52 +0000

I asked about the legal training a while back, apparently he did a year of law at uni. He’s not yet a match for his namesake Laming (Member for Bowman in QLD; recently discussed in a free Crikey article) but he certainly seems to be trying for it.

According to today’s Gazette, the debate is in Bentley Baptist Church in Chapman Road at 7:30pm next Tuesday.

By: Vic Park local

Vic Park local — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:08:54 +0000

Today’s update – almost ran over Dee Margetts out campaigning (I assume) in Vic Park yesterday as I drove home from the train station. Impressive as she was pounding the streets in some pretty hot weather.
I also received a flyer in my letterbox from Andrew Owens where he boasts of his “over 10 years of commercial experience” and “basic-level legal training”. I guess that means he’s over 26 and has watched Law & Order???
The flyer looks very much like the info on his website. He does, however, encourage voters not to simply hand the seat to the majors and emphasises his independence.
I am waiting for the public debate between the candidates… haven’t heard anything yet.

By: Vic Park local

Vic Park local — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 03:34:30 +0000

Nothing much new to report on the local scene but for an interesting conversation I had with a close friend of mine who also lives in the electorate yesterday.
As a young man he was dyed-in-the-wool Labor and wouldn’t have dreamed of voting any other way. As he has aged (and acquired assets – you know the saying – if you’re not a socialist when young you have no heart, if you’re still one when old you have no brain) he has slowly but surely been shifting his allegiances to the right. I asked him what he thought would happen in the by-election. He told me he wasn’t at all impressed with the ALP candidate, that he was too young and hadn’t given him any reason to vote for him. He was leaning to the Liberal candidate and suggested that a lot of people would feel the same way!
I was surprised to hear that but I’m still not changing my view that any swing against the ALP will be small. Obviously it will depend on the campaigns but if the Wyatt camp runs a half-decent campaign I am still expecting the swing to be no more than 5%.