Posts by Charles Mabbett
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SMH: It's Bennelong, long time coming.
ALP sources suggest the expatriate vote from London and Hong Kong is likely to strongly favour her, since the McKew campaign succeeded in targeting the large group of voters in the electorate of Chinese and Korean backgrounds - who have traditionally favoured Mr Howard - to pull off the big swing in the seat.
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About 8000-9000 absentee and expatriate votes to be counted but Maxine McKew has a razor thin majority and her lead appears to be holding. We'll probably know tomorrow or Wednesday.
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I was going to stop posting but I have to include this fabulous quote from same story:
"I vomited when I found out," said a 16-year Liberal member, Wendy Anderson. "It was just such an incredibly stupid and unthinkable thing to do, and the fact that Jackie's husband was involved has really gutted us."
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Here's a little bit of Home And Away as reported in the Sydney MH today:
A broken home in a broken party
THE Liberal Party is in the doghouse - and so is the husband of the defeated Liberal Party candidate Karen Chijoff.
Days after Greg Chijoff was caught red-handed by Labor Party officials distributing a fake Muslim flyer in the marginal seat of Lindsay, delivering a death blow to his wife's chances of retaining it for the Liberals, a stoney Mrs Chijoff revealed she had not spoken to her husband since the controversy erupted and had kicked him out of the house.
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Yeah but Russell you must remember that Rudd's appointment - as relatively colourless as he is - as Labor leader is a reaction to the previous larger than life personalities Simon Crean and Mark Latham (he of the infamous 'conga line of suckholes' quote). They lined up like roadkill to John Howard.
The ineffectual Kim Beazley notwithstanding, after what the party has been through over the past 11 years, a candidate who appealed to the prevailing conservative nature of the Australian electorate with the qualities of being calm and undemonstrative was always going to be a winner.
Also the party badly needed Rudd to unify its squabbling factions which he appears to have done successfully - for now anyway. Plus he speaks fluent Mandarin. Now won't that come in useful in building a relationship with an emerging superpower.
Another feature of the new government will be the performance of of the deputy leader Julia Gillard. Isn't it great to see a woman close to the apex of federal leadershp in Australia? I think it may even be a first. They've had women state leaders but not in federal politics as far as I know.
Also interesting is the bogus Muslim pamphlets and Liberal MP Jackie Kelly's reluctance to condemn the actions of those close to her in printing and delivering them is one of the reasons being talked about for the larger than expected swing against Howard in his Bennelong electorate. Fascinating.
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Another parallel although I don't like it - but I bet John Howard is thinking it because he's a 'cricket tragic'- is Don Bradman's last innings in which he scored a duck. John 'I think I'm Bradman' Howard takes the long walk to the pavilion, robbed of a test average of 100 and a fourth term in office.
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The Sydney pamphlet row is a good little sideshow to the main event in Australia. Not only is the husband of the sitting MP implicated but a NSW Liberal Party state executive member! You'd think these people would know better. There are also suggestions that the leaflet came from Kelly's home. And someone needs to tell them it is Labor's not Labors.
It's going to be a fascinating weekend. I'll be watching Sky News Australia! Can't wait.
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Buy a really nice authentic Afghan rug. You'll see some real beauties.
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Without being able to see into the future and predict how much better they will get, I have to say that right now, the Phoenix Foundation are a group at the very peak of their game. The time to see them is now.
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Wow, what a relic! Excellent Youtube posting. Jim Morrison takes to acting like he was born to it and delivers his lines with real aplomb!