Comments on: Gippsland by-election live

By: William Bowe

William Bowe — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:19:15 +0000

By: Frank Calabrese

Frank Calabrese — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:18:49 +0000

Oh, for goodness sake. It’s a safe National seat. Always has been. What the hell do you think is going to happen in a seat like that, at an early election? Shrieks of “I want Mummy” can be heard in this part of the State.

Exactly, The Nats could’ve put up Humphrey B Bear as a candidate and he would’ve won by that margin.

By: steve

steve — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:18:32 +0000

97 Comicjester, that article from Milne was comic gold. They only thing he forgot in his wide ranging tirade was to explain how the new Member for Gippsland is going to get even one of his election promises up from the Opposition backbenches.

Does the 5 cents a litre cut in fuel prices now come out of the member’s own pocket? Who pays for the Pension increases that the Nationals pushed during the campaign? I don’t think even Clive Palmer can help them out there. Or do all the promises from the Nationals during the campaign now become redundant and non core promises to be kept on ice for the next election?

By: Enemy Combatant

Enemy Combatant — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:17:31 +0000

But Monica, how can you be so dismissive? Eddy has stated that after this by election, Gippsland will be lauded as the new Bass. As well as a pseph-soothsayer a prediction or two short of actual credibility, Eddy is also a Trained Historian and posseses a great deal of “retrospective expertise ” in these matters.

By: LTEP

LTEP — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:11:48 +0000

Winston, there are many reasons people in a country seat may have not been pleased with the Government. Perhaps spin on the Government being ‘city-centric’ hit home. Perhaps people there are upset about AWB (I don’t know how that plays out). The Budget didn’t have any apparent sweeteners in it for the people of Gippsland, nor really for people in the country that made the headlines.

As for wanting a non-government presence in the Parliament. It always serves people for there to be more scrutiny of the Government. Government backbenchers are essentially a waste of space and given the result is not going to change who is in government it would appear to be a smarter decision to back the Opposition.

It’s certainly not like the situation you would have with a general election, where people would be looking at both parties more generally and deciding which would be a better choice to run the country (for whatever reason). A by-election, particularly in a country seat, is more likely to have people thinking about who will serve the individual electorate better.

By: Harryn "Snapper" Organs

Harryn "Snapper" Organs — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:58:55 +0000

Oh, for goodness sake. It’s a safe National seat. Always has been. What the hell do you think is going to happen in a seat like that, at an early election? Shrieks of “I want Mummy” can be heard in this part of the State.

By: cosmicjester

cosmicjester — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:39:58 +0000

Glenn Milne certainly is predictable, he even has the token “the honeymoon is over” in the title

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23939487-5006301,00.html

next weeks newspoll will be the same dismall results for the opposition, they really are deluded if they think gippsland means big trouble for Rudd

By: Winston

Winston — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:36:32 +0000

OK LTEP, that might explain the lack of a swing to Labor but there was a big swing to the Nats.

So your questions should perhaps be -
1. What has the government done to cause people to vote against them.
2. Would the interests of the electorate be better off by not voting for the government.

And I can’t think of an answer to that.

By: Progressive

Progressive — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:36:05 +0000

Yeah, if I was a resident of Gippsland, I’d think it’d make more sense for my electorate to be marginal, so the government of the day spent some money on it. Instead, they’ve got another useless National Party MP, who won’t do a thing for the seat, one hopes the protest over petrol prices was worth it!

By: Frank Calabrese

Frank Calabrese — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:30:42 +0000

Yes - The Age says “the honeymoon may be over”. How predictable.

As was “Our ABC” TV News reports here in WA. The ONLY reasons, the Libs did well is because they ran a candidate, thus splitting the conservative vote.