Election Results
Apologies for no live-blog last night, I was busy carrying out uncle duties. But apparently the un-losable election for the Coalition was, in the end, lost by the Coalition, with Premier Pete and his team being voted back in for a historical third term. (Historical for the Labor party, PP is now the longest serving Labor Premier in the history of the party)...
So the final breakdown, keeping in mind 89 seats were up for grabs....
Australian Labor Party 60
Liberal Party 9
The Nationals 16
One Nation 1
Other Candidates 3
Some notables...
Gaven Nationals Candidate Alex Douglas, lost his seat to Labor's Phil Gray, maybe it was his son's partying with the bikie gangs, or his
desire to be elsewhere, we shall never know.
Come to think of it, any seat that Labor lost during a by-election the regained...
All in all the result was what many suspected, although I had my concerns after a number of commentators proclaimed "Cyborg" the winner of the debate on Friday... I still disagree...
That concludes state election coverage from this misguided one, more depressing international news from tomorrow!
Election Day
In honor of the QLD state election I am going to post something completely unrelated to the QLD state election.
It appears as though a British Tory MP has decided to offend more citizens of the planet...
Boris Johnson, one of the most colourful figures in British politics, is the higher education spokesman for the main opposition Conservative Party.He issued an apology after receiving a tongue-lashing for his latest column in The Daily Telegraph newspaper, where he revelled in the turmoil surrounding Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans to leave office. The well-spoken politician, famous for his mop of blond hair, wrote: "For 10 years we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing, and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour Party" Jean L Kekedo, Papua New Guinea's High Commissioner in London, said she was "shocked and appalled" by the bumbling eccentric's remarks.
The comments were "very damaging to the image of Papua New Guinea and an insult to the integrity and intelligence of all Papua New Guineans," she told Britain's domestic Press Association (PA) news agency.
"How far removed and ill-informed can Mr Johnson be from the reality of the situation in modern-day Papua New Guinea?"His response?
Johnson was suitably humbled, albeit in typically ironic style. "I would like to thank the high commissioner very much for her clarification," he told the PA.
"I meant no insult to the people of Papua New Guinea who I'm sure lead lives of blameless bourgeois domesticity in common with the rest of us," he added.
"My remarks were inspired by a Time Life book I have which does indeed show relatively recent photos of Papua New Guinean tribes engaged in warfare, and I'm fairly certain that cannibalism was involved."
"I'd be happy to show the book to the high commissioner but I'm of course also very happy to take up her kind invite and add Papua New Guinea to my global itinerary of apology."
QLD Election Debate
Ok so I missed live blogging the debate because I was having lunch with someone more important than the premier.... But the replay just started and the leader of the QLD Coalition just spoke about himself in the third person.... what a nutter...
Update 1Springborg just got asked if he thought it was a bad idea for the Liberals to replace fmr Leader Bob Quinn with Bruce Flegg... the answer.... well I haven't quite worked it out yet.... ok he finished and I still can't figure it out...
Update 2My replay just cut out so I can't even blog the replay... By all reports Beattie won the debate, some would say mopped the floor with "cyborg' I won't.... but some would...
The election is tomorrow, hopefully my blogging is more successful then!
QLD election part 2
Not surprisingly the death of Steve Irwin has had an impact on the campaigning for the Queensland State Election with Premier Pete (PP)
admitting yesterday his heart wasn't in election mode following the shock death of Irwin.Interestingly enough the Liberal State director has opted to blame Steve Irwin's death if the coalition looses on Saturday...
'Irwin's death on Monday after he was stabbed by a stingray's barb, had blunted a positive response to the Coalition's campaign launch the previous day. "It's all over isn't it. Who could predict this?" Mr Greene was quoted as saying in today's Australian Financial Review newspaper.
"The reality is, in this election Steve Irwin is the news from now until the weekend.
"Those stingrays are public enemy No.1 for us."The Nationals have yet once again disagreed with their Coalition partners' assessment of the situation with Deputy Leader Jeff Seeney saying Greene's comments were
irrelevant. Italics taken from
here.
Life becomes life...
The Indonesian Supreme Court has just confirmed the rumors that 4 Australians previously sentenced to life in prison have been sentenced to death on appeal.
A Supreme Court official, who asked not to be named, told AAP by phone from Jakarta that the court had imposed death sentences on Scott Rush (20), Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen (23), Si Yi Chen (21) and the youngest of the Bali Nine 19-year-old Matthew Norman. The decision brings the number of Australians facing execution in Indonesia over the charges to six. Ringleaders Andrew Chan (22) and Myuran Sukumaran (25) both received death sentences earlier this year.The Bali Nine were convicted of trying to smuggle heroin to Australia last year. The case attracted some controversy in Australia after it was alledged that the Australian Federal Police apparently tipped of the Indonesian Police which led to the arrest.
This should make Question Time in the Australian Parliament (set to start in about 28 minutes) somewhat more interesting today.
RIP - Steve Irwin
The Crocodile Hunter - Steve Irwin, was killed today after being stung by a stingray. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer released the following...
"Steve was a good friend and a great Australian," Mr Downer said.
"Always the showman, Steve made a significant contribution to raising the profile of Australia internationally, particularly in the United States."
Mr Downer said Mr Irwin was generous with the help he gave to promoting Australia's interests overseas and was one of the stars of the government's Australia Week Festival in Los Angeles over the last two years.I was speaking with my father this afternoon about Steve Irwin's death and we were both reminiscing about first watching his television show
The Crocodile Hunter when I was 12 years old. One of my favorite episodes took place just after East Timor gained independence in 1999.
Steve and his Australia Zoo crew flew out to rescue a crocodile trapped in a sewer, without going into detail, they saved the croc, built him a new pen and were hailed as heroes throughout Dili.
On behalf of the Misguided Trio I express our sincerest condolences to Steve's wife Terri and children Bob and Bindi...
QLD Election Part 1
I apologise to the international readers, I do realise that you would most likely have very little interest in a State election taking place in Australia, however it is where I am at the moment, so um... Yeah...
The opposing coalition had their campaign launch yesterday with big PMJH stepping in to try and show that Liberal Party leaders aren't entirely stupid. The launch essentially became a Premier Pete bashing contest. PMJH tried to rally support picking on Pete for not spending Qld's allocation of GST revenue...
"The state of the nation is strong and healthy and optimistic, and the bounty of those economic good times has been shared across Australia... No state in Australia has done better out of taxation reform, the GST component, than Queensland.It still astonishes many Queenslanders to be told that 46 per cent of all the revenue that flows into the Queensland budget comes from the Federal Government... The point I make is that Queenslanders are entitled to that money, but they're entitled to see it spent wisely. They are entitled to a better quality of service and there is no area where that applies more to than the area of health."PMJH is right, money should be spent wisely... Which may explain why just three... YES 3... Of the Coalitions promises will take QLD into debt by my 30th Birthday...
From News.com.au
Mr Springborg's pledges to abolish stamp duty, increase the First Home Owners Grant and the fuel subsidy for ethanol-blended fuels, would put the state into debt.
She said by 2010, the three promises would cost the state more than $2.4 billion, contrasting with a projected 2009/2010 budget surplus of $102 million.
"With these three promises, the Opposition is lumping Queensland taxpayers with a $2.3 billion deficit," Ms Bligh said.For the record she and Ms Bligh are the Qld Government's Deputy Premier and Treasurer...
As mentioned previously the
Gold Coast Bulletin is proving to be quite the forum for election news, especially their small features on the candidates, where some poor journalist records a candidates answer to 6 incredibly mundane and boring questions, below is the Nationals (Coalition) candidate for Gaven, Alex Douglas...
So why does this misguided one choose to feature Candidate Douglas?
Two reasons made me laugh... Firstly the answer to question 4 where Douglas responds with '... I play taxi and drive around picking up the kids from parties.'
It emerged last week that Mr Douglas's son enjoyed celebrating his post-formal at a questionable motorcycle club, which he staunchly defended, ignoring the fact that the motorcycle club had been raided by police a number of times and a number of illegal weapons being seized. But it's all ok because Daddy Douglas picked him up.
Secondly and perhaps most hysterically was Douglas's response to the 6th question 'If you could be anywhere right now it would be?' ... A town called Ronda, in Spain.
Why?
Anyone should remember how Mr Douglas first came to be a sitting MP. Through a by-election, which was held after the previous representative for Gaven, Ropert Poole, opted to spend more time in Thailand than the state. It appears Mr Douglas may be more like Poole after all, wanting to be somewhere other than his electorate....
From memory the latest poll had Douglas in a tight race with Labor candidate Phil Gray...
That's enough for this AM until later...
