Liverpool - Infrastructure City and Place for Sydney's New Airport

Former Prime Minister, The Hon Paul Keating today called for the Rudd Government to reverse its "diabolical" decision to kill the option of a second airport for Sydney at Badgerys Creek. 

On how the electoral will can be stymied

After my year long hiatus I offer a final reflection on the 2008 Mayoral Election. It has implications for any future electoral efforts in and around Liverpool.

Time to ride the wind

Greetings everyone.  There is a stirring in my soul that raises me to fill the sails again with a fresh breeze to stir the doldrums of Liverpool’s civic affairs. 

All over - red rover...

Me with Justin Hardman and Dee Carvill of Dublin, soon to be my daughter-in-law.



Greetings all.

It is all over. Ms Waller has been elected with 36% of the votes cast - or 39% of the formal votes.

Today's counting saw me draw 2645 of Sim's 11432 votes even though he did not publish preferences. But the killer to the Independents' campaign was the 7799 votes exhausted vote due to no preferences flowing after Sim's No 1.

So I offer my best wishes to Wendy. I hope she breaks from the machine mode of politics and connects to her community beyond her welfare industry subset. She needs to make her own stamp of it and break out of the Paul Lynch school of machine politics that is self serving whilst Liverpool is run into the ground through lack of civic leadership.


Thanks to all of my workers on polling day - you did a great job.

And thanks to my merry band of leaflet droppers (the great semi-retired : greyed haired blokes) - ya done good. Wherever we dropped our brochure we saw a higher vote.

Click for Final Counts. Click Mayoral Results / Preferential Counts tab / then Final Count Report.

I am taking time out now.

I will start this blog up again later in the year.

It is now time to reflect on matters. What has been confirmed to me is what we have is not good enough. Our Local and State governments are suffering seriously from a great lack of intellectual nourishment and moral force. Such happens when capable people consider it beneath their station to engage or just too hard to engage. The paradox is that this leaves a void that is filled by the narks, nongs and careerist opportunists who make it even more unpleasant to engage. I will give thought to providing a solution to the "too hard to engage" aspect of the disengagement of clever people of good will.


I am looking forward to the surf lifesaving season due to open in 2 weeks. Some quiet time at Garie Beach will refill the energy tanks. Have a look.



Cheers and over and out - for the time being.

Michael

TIP:
Click on the Older Posts link at the bottom of the displayed posts to access the full list of post associated with this campaign.

Update - Wednesday after the election - 17/9/08

Gday all

I am still alive and running in the count. Last man standing of the Independents.

At close of counting Sim has 14.37% of the votes.

I have 15.72% which sees Sim excluded.

The Liberals have 21.71% and Labor have 36.67%.

So we have a Non Labor vote of 51.8% and an exhausted votes ( no preferences to count) of around 12%.


As known, Sim withdrew from a firm agreement based on a unified goal of allowing the people of Liverpool to give Labor an electoral belting. The agreement was that Byrne, Sim and Lucas, all Independents based in East Liverpool, to exchange preferences for one of us to stay in the race. We all agreed it was our individual tasks to win No 1 preferences to beat the others, but then to let our preferences work to attain the goal that one of us take the Mayoralty.

It was smart political planning.

Sim's breaking of the agreement - he did not preference at all- is likely to see Wendy Waller elected as Mayor with a miserable 36-38% of the final vote due to vote exhaustion. (If people Vote 1 only, when their selected Candidate loses then their vote exhausts with no preferences)

Sim's 11432 votes are to be preferenced tomorrow. My only hope is that his electors are smarter than he and ignore his HowToVote to support me as another Independent or vote Liberal which is his natural grouping. ( apparently he is an ex Lib). I feel sorry for Sim's workers who toiled all day at the booths to likely have an unworthy Labor Mayor elected as a result of their efforts.

I am off to the Moorebank Pub tonight to play Trivia. It was here last Wednesday before I arrived that one of our trivia team ( a lady far removed from the hustle and bustle of politics) took my little A6 sized brochure around to people in the pub. Sim regards this as his "Head Quarters" and that my friend intruded into his domain with some 60 people present.

Now stop laughing!!!!

And this was the excuse for his breaking of the agreement to see the peoples' will expressed with real political effect - Labor losing their mayoralty in their heartland.

Sim's wilful, petulant act is now likely to have caused the peoples' will to be again broken - a sad day for democracy.

However, who knows? Those little rivulets of the peoples' will still run. ( see previous post)

Counting begins at 8am tomorrow - Thursday 18th September.



Cheers

Update - Tuesday after election ( 16/9)

The Preference count due to be done today has been postponed until tomorrow, Wednesday 17th September from 9am

Is there a chance? Whilst the Telegraph ran a story of Wendy Waller (Labor) claiming victory I understand they have withdrawn from that until the preference count is completed.

And so they should.

Labor's confidence is based on either experienced evaluation of a well scrutineered primary result where preference trends were observed, or, an assumption of preferences leaking based on past experience, especially with the Sim miserable failure to hold to the preference agreement amongst the Independent candidates. However the high Independent count could see a change in behaviour.

There are 48000 of 74000 votes which preferences are yet to be countered.

42% of the votes went to the Independents, and the high danger is that people did not extend their preferences and thereby causing votes to be exhausted. Of course Sim's actions keeps over 10% out of the Independent count.

I am relying upon gaining enough leakage of Nunez and Jacotine preferences directly to me to beat Lucas and Sim. As well, for a minimal amount of leakage to Waller. I have been told that her scrutineers observed a fair amount of Jacotine voters' Number 2 going to Waller. If so it is all over.

The peoples' will runs in small rivulets to form the great river of democratic government. My campaign may still be floating in those hidden rivulets locked up in the Liverpool Returning Office.

Cheers

Michael

Results as at close of counting - Saturday 13th

Hello all

Following is my analysis of things as they stand at close of counting on Saturday night.