Nobody has polled me either, still....

So, we come to the end of another week of living in the electorate of Greenway, and the end of another disappointing week in terms of pollies visiting our house. Total count still equals zero. They seem to have deserted the local area, even Mr Diaz was last seen ‘campaigning’ in the Penrith area. Poor fellow, still doesn’t appear to have come to terms with the other five points.

I feel a bit sorry for our local Greens candidate, I followed his Twitter account, and within one day his account was hacked and it started sending spam messages to his followers. Not a good start to engaging with the voters.

Michelle Rowland has sent a petition about not selling off local services, not sure how that relates to her policies or what she would do if she was elected, maybe she’s done the calculations and is starting to lobby the libs for our local services now rather than having to do so in a few weeks time? By contrast the M2 and local roads have had gigantic billboards installed that are plastered with Kevin Rudd’s face and election promises. This year more than ever it’s a presidential style campaign – not too many showings of the local candidates, but a big focus on the leader. And I guess after Mr Diaz’s go at campaigning, it might not be a bad idea to just focus on the leader...Yes, let’s focus on the leaders shall we..

Mr Creepy, as I am affectionately now calling him, received a tweet from me this week suggesting he should stop kissing random women. What’s wrong with a handshake good man! Being creepy is not having a dad moment. A dad moment is when you’re driving past the cemetery and your father says “look, that must be the most popular place in town, everyone’s dying to get in”, or when asked what’s on telly tonight he would once say “by the looks of it a pot plant and a book”. As a side note, it is a shame now days that that joke shows your age, there’s not much room on the top of your average flat screen telly for anything substantial. That’s why we have ensured at our place there are two smurfs, gargamel, a black pirate duck and a black sheep. That way when asked “what’s on telly tonight”, my partner can say a “black sheep”, I can groan, roll my eyes, and an Australian tradition can be upheld! But I digress into a post for another day about the loss of history and tradition from the Australian culture, or do I...

Speaking of those who live in the sentimental past, in the mail yesterday was the CD and promotional material for Clive Palmer’s party the Palmer United Party (or pup as I like to call it). On the CD are two speeches and his TV ads, but also a weird 15 minute quasi documentary on Clive’s building of the Titanic II. I’d have been more impressed with some dinosaurs on the CD, but the Titanic II story was certainly a new twist on sharing a vision of Australia with the local electorate.  I guess you have to look backwards to look forwards, or something, I didn’t quite see what metaphor he was trying to draw. As I said, dinosaurs would have probably illustrated it better for me. Clive admits he follows the liberal party politics, but he also has a cunningly numbered six point plan. What struck me most about the plan was his thinking on asylum seekers. Here was a man who at least appeared to have thought about the humanity of seeking asylum and was proposing a different, and more compassionate solution. It may not be entirely workable, but the idea of the fast processing of claims, keeping families together and not locking people up who have had a terrible time of it already is more closely aligned to my values than either the current cruel Liberal or Labor parties policies.

However, my misfortune of living in this electorate means I need to really consider my vote. Sure, voting for Clive might be fun, or a bit of a lark. A vote for the Shooters and Fishers might send a signal to Canberra, but I really doubt it.  I am left considering my options still for both the Senate and the House of Reps....but in reality, I know who I will probably end up voting for, it’s just that I probably won’t like it very much.

Guest Blog – One week in

Well, it’s one week into the campaign, and I must say, as a vital to the outcome of the election, Greenway voter, the list of potential suitors to my door has been exactly zero.

Today, being a Saturday, I thought I would try my luck, north, south, east and west of the electorate. 

A trip to Kellyville, in the north, whilst providing the opportunity to view a lot of snakes, none were unfortunately of the political variety. There was no advertising for candidates along the track either, so we returned south to our starting point: one to ensure we were home for a possible Saturday door knock, and two, to hang out a load of washing. Killing one bird with one stone, and the pollie score still zero, we headed west. To the local innkeepers establishment, home of the western suburbs working class man, surely a fertile ground to rub flesh with a Mr Diaz or Ms Rowland whist I peruse the fine wine aisle. 

But no, so back to the start we headed once more. This again, gave us the opportunity to maximise our chance encounter with a door-knock party, but neigh, again the only idea to go up the flagpole that morning was the washing. 

So head south we did, and this time, out of the electorate, into another. This time, we did encounter a local group at the shops. But it was actually hard to tell if they were in campaign mode or just doing laps of the food court looking for a seat, which they did not find, so they promptly left – a bit odd really, a blue shirted army going around and around in circles.

So, inspired once more to maximise the opportunity to have my vote count, to be heard and have my wishes taken to the parliament, we went home.

Nothing, nada, zip.

So, lets examine the letterbox. So far one flyer from a certain Mr Diaz, and one letter dressed up as an official postal vote application which is really a letter from Mr Abbot. Mind you, the timing was impeccable, it arrived on the Monday, exactly one day after Mr Rudd called the election. He must have known an election was going to be called. That has promptly been returned to sender.

Nothing so far from my current member and she hasn’t replied to my tweet about who is her favourite footy team, so minus points there. I even gave her a hint, mentioning that I’d like to see the Bears back in the competition...

I have one new twitter follower, the local greens candidate, but he doesn’t say anything.

Clive Palmer wont reply to any of my tweets and hasn’t responded to my latest request to host one of his giant dinosaurs in my front yard in return for advertising his local candidate. He hasn’t replied to my tweet either asking who his local candidate is going to be, nor will he send me a sticker for my car. I am beginning to think he is ignoring my tweets.

So at the end of week one, I’m not feeling that valuable to the major parties, so I think next week I might investigate the minor parties – you know, power to the people and all that.