Comments on: These foolish things

By: steve

steve — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 19:48:04 +0000

A win for the Nationals in the Gaven by election today would be a flaunting of the political axiom that disunity is death. Already we have the spectacle of Springborg saying that if he loses it will be because of the effects of a cyclone and not because of the dreadful incompetence and division that the conservatives in Queensland display on a daily basis.

This opposition is both the best resourced and laziest in the history of this state and the voters of Queensland have been able to see right through them in recent years and rewarded them according to their talents and effort.

I think that tonight will prove that while some people can be fooled by a smoothing over of deep division, the majority probably won’t.

By: The Speaker

The Speaker — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:39:42 +0000

As a semi-local (Brisbane) I can tell you the Channel 7 Nightly News report on the Gaven Byelection (15 minutes ago) was not kind for the ALP and there is no way they’ll keep the seat if many of the electorate watched it:

- Showed Peter Beattie not remembering the ALP candidates name
- Showed the ALP candidate dodging the fact that before the last election they promised a police station? that they didn’t deliver
- Described the ALP (Premier + candidate) off to lunch with bigwigs while the coalition had a barbie “with the people”.

The general tone of the story was cynical and negative to the ALP – based on this and the mood in QLD, I’m predicting a win for the Nats.

By: Glen Ryman

Glen Ryman — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:37:27 +0000

From this poll, I would say that the One Nation vote has pretty much transferred to Daren (due to pref swap) and the ONP candidate didn’t really take part in the campaign. I think the undecided are mostly Liberal voters which is what will make tomorrow very intriguing.

By: Geoff R

Geoff R — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:07:20 +0000

Some of the undecided are One Nation voters I suspect. If the really undecided park their votes with the Independents Labor looks a chance.

By: SR

SR — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:50:37 +0000

… and I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen “the collapse of the Green vote” heralded by the media…!

By: Glen Ryman

Glen Ryman — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 22:19:47 +0000

From the hard copy of the Gold Coast Bulletin:

NAT 35
ALP 30
GRN 5
ONP 1
Phil Connolly 4
Daren Riley 6
Other 1
Undecided 18

Elections are always treated as a hunting season on the Greens by the Gold Coast Bulletin. There is still a sizeable margin of error on these results, so I wouldn’t read too much into it yet.