This is a bit weird.
There’s a story in the Gold Coast Bulletin (not my usual weekend reading fare, but I saw it down at the newsagency and this was the front page yarn) about a local councillor, Eddy Sarroff, chatting to Kevin Rudd about preselection for McPherson, which you wouldn’t think the most optimistic Labor strategist would have on the electoral radar, being held by the Libs with a margin of 13.9%. So you’d wonder why the Ruddster spends his time on candidate selection, though maybe there’s some party polling somewhere that tells him something we don’t know.
Anyway, you can read all about Cr Sarroff’s life and times here, but here’s the other weird bit:
Cr Sarroff has made it clear he will not join a faction.
“The Labor Party is aware of that,” said Cr Sarroff.
“I’ve always been a swinging voter. I am not ideologically aligned to any political party.
“I will assess policies on their merit. The reason I have taken this opportunity (to run for McPherson) is that I believe Kevin Rudd is the best man to lead the country, and I want to be with him.
“It’s a cliche but I know I can make a big difference in a Rudd government. You can guarantee that the Gold Coast won’t be neglected like it has been.”
He seems to think he’s Kevin Rudd’s Independent candidate for McPherson. Or something.
Hmmm.
Funny things happen when there’s a landslide. There was a bloke who was elected as Member for Nundah in the first Goss government – forget his name, used to know one of his staffers who’d been put there to try and keep him out of mischief – it was the seat of the former Lib leader Bill Knox and regarded as safe – not that long into the term, he drove off into Northern NSW and disappeared and Terry Mackenroth famously flew off in the Joh Jet on a suicide rescue mission. There was another guy elected for a formerly safe Nats seat whose misadventures with young female constituents seeking his help never made it into the papers. But these were people who’d been thrown up by the branches for hopeless runs in safe seats – you’d think Rudd or his staff would vet someone they’re actually negotiating with…
Howard with Hair needs his own Barnaby Joyce too.
Speaking of more similarities
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21442872-1246,00.html?from=public_rss
Sheesh, who started throwing all these stones in the big glass house. At this rate it won’t end till someone tops himself possums.
The seat of Makin is retiring ‘Howard girl’, Trish Draper’s current seat and the 4th most marginal seat in the country for those who don’t know.
The same thing happened with the One Nation surge into state parliament. It threw up a lot of people with absolutely no experience, no morals, an inability to work with others and one eventually suicided to give Labor a one seat majority.
That will go down a treat in Caucus.
Perhaps he meant to say that he wasn’t aligned to any faction?
No, he thought the Tories were good things until he got a better offer I’d say based on the old definition of a swinging voter of being one who swings to the tories at every opportunity.
As a person who lives in McPherson I am excited at the prospect of Eddie Sarrof being my federal member.
At the moment we have the appallingly facile Margaret May – clink my name to jump straight to my blog thoughts about this pathetic excuse for a representative.
I have been peripherally involved with GC politics for a number of years and know Eddie. He is a genuinely honest and good bloke – I dream of a representative like him at any political level.
sigh…I really MUST learn to type some day. Clink the link behind my name for what it is like having Margaret May as your federal pollie.
Yes I remember that Member for Nundah who departed in unusual circumstances.
I think his name was Phil Heath; a troubled soul who was seduced by an ex-student of mine who had a fascination for lightly built men (jockeys) and Phil fitted the bill. The affair became public and Phil hit the toe.
BTW, this same female made some ‘efforts’ to seduce Goss but he never succumbed. Something to do with taste and integrity.
Just sayin …
I hope the Gold Coast Bulletin hasn’t been misleading people with the not ideologically aligned to any party line, is it? Or is there some genuine reason why they would make such a claim?
Mark:
Ha-ha-ha-ha …… Most famously, Australia had a complete novice in politics, an obedient party member who, at the urging of more experienced, ruthless and devious party wallahs, spoke out on certain touchy issues [wouldn't matter what an uproar it caused; the candidate was in an impossible-to-win seat anyway]. Having served the purpose and being completely expendible, the candidate would, of course, just slip back into obscurity …… and the rest is history …… Pauline Hanson was expelled from the Liberal Party and then went on to win the very safe Labor seat of Oxley in the face of all the dirt the Liberals could chuck at her.
I’m sure some party apparatchiks – on both sides of politics – would be happier operating in a banana republic than in Australia.
Another classic was Peter Johnstone a Liberal Member who put his hand up to run in the Federal seat of Brisbane because noone else wanted to stand in an unwinnable seat.
He got swept into power in the anti Whitlam landslide and got up in parliament one day saying anybody who couldn’t find work was a bludger and if they contacted his office he would tell them where the jobs were.
His office when contacted the next day had no jobs,he just thought it was a good thing to say in parliament. I think he only lasted one term.
It’s a direct quote from the Councillor, steve.
Tony Zappia,(link above) as mayor of Salisbury, was supposed to be a strong ALP candidate to wrest back a traditional Labor seat, after retiring Trish Draper had made it marginal liberal, due to some very hard work as a diligent local member. He has now given a glowing reference for a ‘high ranking Hells Angel’. That’s a bit of an understatement, because it doesn’t get any higher than the Sergeant at Arms in McKelliff’s case. What you also have to understand is that in SA, the Rann Govt has had a longstanding commitment to wipe out the drug dealing bikie gangs here, who were running the nightclub security industry(as well as some nightclubs) and peddling all the eccies and amphetamines. Rann has also vowed to close down all the bikie fortresses, but hasn’t managed to close one yet. (managed to get one Adelaide Hills bikie to pull all the security bars of his personal residence, the neighbours didn’t like) So you can see the dilemma now over Tony Zappia’s candidacy. Rudd backing him is probably not a wise idea in terms of the overall Adelaide electorate. Someone should have advised him about this and he should have demanded Zappia withdraw his candidacy. I’ve thought all along, the biggest handicap to Rudd making the Lodge, is the weakness of his Federal Party. Is this one of those bad signs?
Perhaps it’s another sign too. Are our two major political parties too weak to be good at both the Federal and State level nowadays?
Thanks Kim, just had trouble getting my head around the concept and wondered if it was true or something someone had dreamt up. The latest has him being promised a big shopping list.
Well, having just read her spray, Ms May seems to be a bit scared.
I mean, of course, someone from Southport couldn’t possibly understand the importance of the Gold Coast airport issues. Could they? I mean, it’s all of seven minutes away, isn’t it?
Steve your reference to Peter Johnstone is relevant in the current climate. His rant that:
was typical. Hansard also recorded his outright condemnation of women who burnt their bras.
The media did not mention that his family company was in the business of importing and distributing you know what.
‘Conflicts of interest’ only surface when politically convenient.
I’m sure, btw, that the good Councillor will make an interesting candidate once someone explains to him the rules of the federal game.
Why the assumption that this is any sort of a mistake, or that Cr Sarroff does not understand the rules of the game?
McPherson has never been held by the ALP. It’s had coalition luminaries like Treasurer and (very briefly) Prime Minister Artie Fadden, Minister for Territories Cec Barnes and Finance Minister Eric Robinson as its local member at one time or another.
To have even an outside chance of winning the seat, a “Kevin Rudd Independent” candidate would be far better than someone who emphasises their ALP allegiance. This is the Gold Coast we are talking about, not Newcastle.
A Rudd victory will depend on people voting for the ALP who do not traditionally do so, and who do not feel any sense of allegiance to it. Popular appeal to voters is more important than any potentially ruffled feathers amongst ALP loyalists, especially in a seat where the Liberal candidate got 58.95% of the primary vote in 2004. The TPP then was 62.17/37.83. http://results.aec.gov.au/12246/results/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-12246-171.htm
I don’t think Labor would be well placed to win McPherson, David, but when has there ever been serious effort put into contesting the Gold Coast federal seats? There might be a lot of fat in that margin. Consider that Labor broke through to the Coast at state level in 89, but it’s been relatively fertile pickings since then. Despite ominous predictions to the contrary, Labor held on to all its coast and hinterland seats in 06, and recorded a mean 2% swing in its favour in the region. With Gaven being regained from the by-election loss, Labor holds 5 out of 8 Gold Coast and hinterland state seats. There’s been a lot of demographic change, and the Coast is particularly groaning under the infrastructure squeeze – there’s a reason why the hospitals were a big issue down there last time. The feds persist in putting no money where their mouths are when it comes to infrastructure, and a Rudd $2 billion carrot might well swing a few votes. Probably not enough to win McPherson, but anything that keeps the Libs on their toes in safe seats makes it harder for them to hold marginals. And if there’s a big swing on, things never follow the pendulum and all sorts of surprises fall.