How I voted 2011
In the Legislative Assembly I voted [1] Liberal. I would have been justified in doing a donkey vote with compulsory preferential, as the Lib was top of the ticket followed by a former Lib who lost preselection, then Labor (if you're a Labor candidate at this election, what does it say about you etc.), then Green, and lastly Fred Nile Is Bigger Than Jesus Group.
The Legislative Council was hard. I didn't vote above the line, haven't done since the 1980s.
I voted for moderate liberals Catherine Cusack [1] and Greg Pearce [2] to encourage candidates like them.
John Hatton is running again; he doesn't have to and the fact that he is running means the age thing isn't an issue. The ICAC is all very well but the fact is NSW needs an anti-corruption campaigner in Parliament. I voted him [3] to see what he'll do and where he'll go.
Then I saw - the Democrats! I thought they'd been deregistered! I voted [4] Arthur Chesterfield-Evans.
Darren Marton [5] was a guy I had some dealings with years ago on drug/alcohol law issues. He can be a bit unctuous ("What sort of lesson are we teaching our children", etc.) but unlike a lot of candidates his heart is in the right place and he's smart. It will be interesting to see how he deals with backroom negotiations and having to live with compromises.
Jennifer Stefanac [6] has a long background in dealing with Aboriginal issues - far more substantial than Warren Mundine or Jenny Macklin, and she has clearly sacrificed concrete achievements for breadth of coverage. No other candidate came close in terms of bringing these issues to the table.
I did vote [7] for somebody or other but I can't remember who - it wasn't Hanson or anyone like that.
I liked the idea of Building Australia, so I put the guy atop their ticket [8]. If you won't employ engineers to build infrastructure, you may as well put them in Parliament.
After that it all got a bit difficult. I considered voting above the line - John Hatton group, Dems, Builders and Lib/Nats 1-4 in that order - but I got over it.
Duncan Gay [9] would have been a good minister and should have been ahead of some of the duffers who got gigs under Greiner and Fahey. Credit where it's due.
Michael Gallacher was inaugural President and a co-founder with me of Central Coast Young Liberals [10]. By this point I was struggling.
[11-13] went to the second Democrat, Building Aust and John Hatton person.
I looked back to the Lib/Nat column on the far left (don't you start). I couldn't think of a reason to vote for Natasha Maclaren-Jones or Scot MacDonald, nor vote against them, so I left them blank. Mind you, I recorded the same result against Peter Phelps, a man who has embarrassed himself and his party in a series of staffer jobs and will do so as an MLC (the fact that Gladys Berejiklian and Andrew Constance are prospective ministers and he isn't will drive him crazy).
I looked across to all those splitters: Socialist Alliance vs Restore Rights for Workers, Outdoor Recreation vs Shooters & Rooters, Fred Nile Is Bigger Than Jesus Group vs the Stephen Fleming All-Stars, and some carpetbagger from Queensland vs all decent people in this state. I sneered at wankers like Frank Monte, Danny Lim and Hanson, as well as inveterate try-hard Tony Recsei (save what, from whom, with what?). No Carers? I would have voted for them. No Sex Party?
Eventually I found three other candidates to fill [14-16] from the columns to which I've referred approvingly and I was away.
Will do an election wrap-up/predictions for new govt soon.
The Sex Party candidate was "there" but they had no registration as a party, so they were ungrouped. Not sure why they didn't think to get an un-named box. But they were concentrating on the electorate of Sydney, so no surprise that people outside that seat had no idea where to find their LC candidate.
ReplyDeleteI suspect this will be the last election the Democrats contest as a registered party in NSW.
"an un-named box" - yairs.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right about the Democrats.
'Central Coast Young Liberals',hmm? And I presume you were voting in this electorate then, going by your description of the ticket:
ReplyDeleteHornsby
Winner
Matt Kean
Matt Kean has retained this seat for the Liberal party. It is one of two original electorates from 1927 that has never been won by a Labor candidate.
The 182-square kilometre seat takes in most of the Hornsby local government area, including Berowra, Bobbin Head, Brooklyn, Cowan, Dural, Galston, Hornsby, Mount Colah, Mount Ku-ring-gai and Westleigh. The area is characterised by professionals with above average incomes and traditional families.
Sorry, but where is the Central Coast in that lot? Hornsby Young Liberals, maybe. Hawkesbury Young Liberals, more like. You are only a 'Coastie', Andrew, once you get your pimply behind over to the other side of the Hawkesbury River. All else is Faux Coastieism. :)
I was a member of Central Coast YLs 1986-8, HS. I'm a supporter of the Mariners and will be a Bears supporter once rugby league wakes up to itself.
ReplyDeleteMoved on since then. Voted in Ryde, actually (see earlier posts on Bennelong).
Well, the NSW registration laws are pretty draconian. You have to have been registered 12 months before the election, so the Sex Party simply didn't have time to get the party registered. That said, they still should have paid to lodge a full ticket like Hanson and Hatton did.
ReplyDeleteI handed out for them, and people didn't want the HTVs. The "woo hoo" of the name simply hasn't turned into votes, and at this election everyone was polarised behind their own party and not interested in only giving them a [2] via some micro at [1].
Anything further I have to say about the Dems would have to be off the record, but nobody on earth would want to hear it... but that election is a definite full stop in NSW.