Comments on: Queensland media missing in action

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:11:01 +0000

I’m getting really annoyed by the amount of off topic diversions lately. So this thread is closed. If anyone has anything relevant to the actual topic - the disappointing nature of the MSM coverage of the local government elections and the role of bloggers and citizen journalists, please email me at mbahnisch at gmail dot com and I’ll re-open it.

By: Martin B

Martin B — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:05:55 +0000

Ok, Bruce goes on the list, but Nick isn’t mayor any more (he was in 2005).

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:46:38 +0000

I stand corrected, Martin. It’s a claim that’s often made and obviously one I should have checked.

By: Alastair

Alastair — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:11:25 +0000

I’m happy to share information. As I’ve said it’s difficult to find out without spending a long time looking, time which I do not have.

After doing a brief search I did come across a couple more Liberal Mayors:

Nick Dyer, Leichhardt
Bruce Motley-Smith, Randwick

There are many more out there.

By: FDB

FDB — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:57:49 +0000

“Michael Harbison and Peter Nattrass don’t count.”

Especially the latter, as he’s no longer in the job!

By: Martin B

Martin B — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:55:07 +0000

Alastair, I am just asking. Where it is easy for me to do the research I can assure you that I will - and to that end will add Dr. Arthur Frauenfelder of Albury to the list. But precisely because not all EC websites list political endorsements it is easier to ask people with local knowledge than for me to trawl through newspapers etc looking to find records of endorsements. I’m interested but not that interested.

I’m not asking for anyone to do my research for me. If you know of examples then let us know. IF you don’t know or don’t want to share, fine.

By: Alastair

Alastair — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:22:05 +0000

Martin, if you’re so interested in the topic then I suggest you do the research. I’ve had a bit of a look but the information isn’t straight forward to find. It is difficult and time consuming to find out whose the mayor of each city and then finding out what party they belong to. From what I’ve seen there are many Liberal mayors, even more Labor mayors, several Green mayors and independent mayors. There are also even mayors from other minor parties.

By: Martin B

Martin B — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:41:42 +0000

Thanks Alistar. We will duly enter John Flowers into the roll of endorsed-Liberal-mayors-who-don’t-control-their-councils.
I’m not sure that their are “many” others. It is not common for Liberals to have endorsed candidates for local government elections, certainly not outside NSW and Qld, and even in those states not outside urban areas. It is simple but tedious to check the EC results; so far no other examples have been found (although yes I missed Rockdale).

I repeat the call for the names of any other such examples. Remembering that we want endorsed Liberal mayors so, for example, Michael Harbison and Peter Nattrass don’t count.

By: Martin B

Martin B — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:33:38 +0000

as I said, the budget is twice Tasmania’s

So if you say it once more it may be true
Unfortunately it isn’t. The Tasmanian budget is ~$3.8 bn. The BCC budget is ~$1.7 bn.

It is the Tasmanian budget that is ~ twice the BCC budget.

By: look out

look out — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:51:37 +0000

The Mayor of Brisbane is the highest in the order of precedence because of the size of its Council. You will notice that the Lord Mayors of Melbourne and Sydney are only responsible for their CBD areas because there are Mayors in other Councils such as Liverpool, Richmond etc.

In Brisbane, the Lord Mayor is responsible for the entire City of Brisbane boundary from Forest Lake right up to Deagon and from Pullenvale all the way to Wynnum Manly.

By: Ambigulous

Ambigulous — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:22:18 +0000

Sorry Mark, another off topic item:

You wrote @ [13]:

“jughead, can you please try to conform to the comments policy and not diss other commenters on the basis of what you think is their politics and generally conduct yourself here civilly?”

I’m sure most readers of LP would prefer posters to conduct themselves here civilly. But on “Teh Surge” thread @ [21] a poster wrote “You’re an idiot” and as far as I can see has not been admonished.

Just wondering what the rules are…. but look, it’s your blog: you folk can run it in any way you please!!! As we used to say in primary school, “It’s a free country!”

cheers

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:02:02 +0000

Heh.

But rather than competitions, more on topic comments would be nice!

By: Alexander McLeay

Alexander McLeay — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:24:05 +0000

Gandhi, perhaps if we keep this up we can make 75 per cent of the comments here relate to not even the tangential question of precedence, but to the completely unrelated question of how many comments in the thread are about something related tangentially or less to the original post?

By: gandhi

gandhi — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:12:41 +0000

Let’s start a competition… Whenever someone writes a new post at LP, readers have to guess which nonsensical minor issue will become the hot topic du jour in the thread. Bonus prize if you can guess what percentage of comments will be side-tracked by it.

So far about 75% of comments here have been dedicated to thrashing out which minor Liberal cretin is the least insignificant pustule on the party’s well-whoop-assed rump. I’m sure Mark never saw that coming when he wrote his reasoned media critique.

By: Ambigulous

Ambigulous — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:38:14 +0000

Alastair @ [12]: OK.

By: H&R

H&R — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:27:07 +0000

If the public don’t care for mayoral politics as it is, why will they when blogs attempt to cover it?

On the off chance that anyone bothers flicking through even their local rag, it isn’t for news. Jobs and garage sales, perhaps. Phonesex hotlines.

By: Alastair

Alastair — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:18:17 +0000

Thanks for the info Alexander, DaOoSG.

By: Alastair

Alastair — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:58:42 +0000

Ok fair enough Mark. Thanks for the info. I did want to clear up a misconception around the place that the Lord Mayor for Brisbane is the only Liberal mayor in Australia. There are in fact a number of others. Sounds like the Mayor of Brisbane is a particularly important job, and one that the media ought to give proper attention to.

By: Down and Out of Sài Gòn

Down and Out of Sài Gòn — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:54:48 +0000

Or to simplify things for Alastair: Brisbane City Council’s population is 1 million, or near enough as to make no difference. That’s bigger than any two of the population figures for the ACT, NT or Tasmania added together, and just under the sum of all three. The next Local Government along is the Gold Coast with half that. Then there’s the ACT (which doesn’t count).

Like it or not, Campbell is the big cheese of the Libs - and what a cheese he is.

By: Alexander McLeay

Alexander McLeay — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:49:08 +0000

Daryl and Alastair, it is my understanding that the Lord Mayors are in order of precedence according to the size of the entire city, so the Lord Mayors of Sydney and Melbourne are above the Lord Mayor of Brisbane. This is certainly how Wikipedia lists them, but Wikipedia is not the authority on the matter. But that doesn’t change the Lord Mayor of Brisbane’s standing amongst Liberals, because Sydney’s Lord Mayor is an independent and Melbourne’s is from “Melbourne Living”.