Comments on: Greens take on Labor in Brisbane Central by-election

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:06:14 +0000

Update: Videos of Grace and Boccabella's speeches and segments of the questions have now been posted here.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:04:07 +0000

I think it may be all three, feral.

By: feral sparrowhawk

feral sparrowhawk — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:01:19 +0000

Whenever I hear someone say the Greens “transcend Left and Right” (or more often “neither left nor right but out in front”, my immediate question is whether they don’t understand the Greens, or don’t understand what left and right mean.
Fortunately, in the majority of cases, its the latter. You get some very interesting responses when you ask people to define “left” – most come out with responses that don’t stand up to even a moment’s thought.

I don’t know whether Boccabella simply hasn’t thought out what the terms mean, actually has politics that are well to the right of most Greens, or is just putting this spin on because with no Liberal candidate those are the voters worth targetting. Hopefully its the first.

By: Paul Norton

Paul Norton — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:04:31 +0000

Boccabella emphasises that the Greens â??transcend Left and Rightâ??

She doesn’t know me very well, does she?

By: Austin

Austin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:02:48 +0000

It was interesting when I attended this meeting that national party supporters were saying that the Greens candidate was their choice. I’d guess that this is the ABL (anyone but Labor) stance. But I could be wrong.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:25:08 +0000

Your petty pedantry pays off, Mr Lefty. Right you are!

By: Sam Clifford

Sam Clifford — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:19:12 +0000

Sacha, probably because the Liberals know that they only got a few more points than the Greens at the election proper last year. If the Greens had’ve ended ahead of the Liberals, I’m sure enough Liberals would like to stop a union official being elected to raise the Greens’ vote a bit. It’s not a guarantee that the Greens would win, though, but it certainly raises an interesting anti-ALP question.

In the Victorian state election, the rumour was that the Greens and Liberals had done a deal for the inner city seats. Knowing that they didn’t stand much of a chance, the Libs preferenced the Greens in an attempt to unseat Labor members. Labor faces criticism from “the left” in the Greens and from “the right” from the Liberals. I’m sure the Greens would rather see Labor elected than the Greens but it’s looking like the Liberals would rather see the Greens elected than Labor (Tasmania of course, being the quite obvious exception).

I think the Libs are spineless for not running in the recent by-elections. It makes it look like they’re afraid to face the electorate. I also think it’s poor form on the part of Family First to not participate in the recent forums (QCC’s “Our Future” and last night’s “Politics in the Pub”). Perhaps they are banking on people voting for them based on their friendly name and happy smiles and that if the actual meat of their policies got out, they’d be completely out of the running.

Last night wasn’t too bad, all in all. I still don’t understand why Grace Grace’s family cheered so much when she responded to my question with a promise to vote along party lines no matter what. Is party unity that much more important than principle? Rudd (with McClelland) and Garrett (with nukes and Pine Gap) seem to indicate that to be the case.

By: MrLefty

MrLefty — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:02:04 +0000

“to an electorate largely disinterested”

Without meaning to be petty, but actually being petty, I think you mean “uninterested”.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:56:33 +0000

The Nats and Libs have copped a roasting over the past two days in Question time for not standing a candidate but the wierdest thing has been the Libs attack on a Gold Coast needle Service by the Member for Currumbin and Flegg. Hard to know if it is a determined push to lower health standards by the Libs or another case of them being lost and out of touch. See page 3335. Scary stuff!

By: Sacha

Sacha — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:46:12 +0000

The Greens might have been better positioned for a win in Brisbane Central had the Libs got their act together and run a candidate.

Why do you think this, Mark? The Greens may well pick up a lot of otherwise Liberal tactical votes and a lot of Liberal preferences may have exhausted if they had stood, assuming that the Greens were ahead of the Libs at the key point in the count.