Shaggy Dog Comments...

Issue 744

Pollie Waffle

One good reason to watch Aunty at the moment (aside from the puerile, yet funny Election Chaser, Monday, 9.30pm) is at least you avoid the political advertising at the moment, where politicians you never see in three years are suddenly annoying you in the privacy of your lounge room. Thankfully it ended on Wednesday night with the pre-election blackout. But Shaggy strayed and was watching when an ad for our benevolent backlit local Nat, Ian Causley, came on. You could have blown our kennel over when we spotted Our Ian standing there looking all development with Our Bob, aka the Mayor of Lismore. Why? Because he was asked Mayor Bob said. He says he would have done the same thing for the ALP. This has set Shaggy thinking. Why don't doesn't council start up a commercial enterprise called Rent-a-Bob. For a fee, you could have Our Mayor in your ad. The money raised could go towards heating the pool in the Memorial Baths redevelopment.

Nationals candidate Ian Causley has preferenced the ALP at number 3, just in front of The Greens at 4. Seems strange? Our Ian explained: 'I didn't really want Labor at number 3, but that's the way the numbers fell. At the end of the day, my preferences won't be counted because the Nationals and Labor will be the top two.' So Shaggy was a little surprised to receive a letter from Our Ian this week sticking it up Labor, who've placed The Greens at number 2 on their preferences - ie in the same order as the Nationals preference list. Complaining that Labor will be hostage to the Greens, he said 'This should be of concern to all fair-minded residents.' Our Ian's got a point. The Greens might do terrible things like show a more compassionate approach to asylum seekers and offer the moral courage sadly lacking in the major parties at the moment. God knows at the moment it's like watching Tweedledum and Tweedledummer.

Among the thousands of voters sent the letter by Our Bloke - who often accuses his political opponents of 'scaremongering' - were a Mr J & Mrs L Corkill. Mr Corkill is the Greens candidate mentioned in Mr Causley's letter as reason why 'we'll all be rooned' (with apologies to Hanrahan). Shaggy hopes that after reading Mr Causley's letter, Mr Corkill will see the error of his evil ways and not vote for himself. Somehow we doubt it.

And while the ALP has bribed The Greens for their preferences in the adjoining seat of Richmond, John Corkill cut no such deal and is preferencing no-one. 'The Greens cannot in good conscience recommend a preference to either Labor or the National Party. We recognise that Green voters can make up their own minds and don't need to be told how to vote,' Our John said. Now we understand why The Greens are such a threat to the major parties - they're encouraging voters to think. That can be dangerous in a two-party democracy.

So let's clear one thing up. When you vote for the 12 candidates in Page on Saturday, you must number all 12 boxes 1-12. (If you only put a 1, you vote will be invalid and won't count). You do not have to follow the preferences on your preferred candidate's how to vote card. Mungo McCallum explains how all this preference stuff works here.

As if people didn't blow enough dosh on Universal Prince in the Melbourne Cup, punters have put down more than $8000 on the nags in the race for Page. The favourites are the party geldings Ian Causley ($1.25) and Terry Flanagan ($4). The dark horse is the filly Kathryn Pollard-O'Hara, who has seen a substantial plunge bringing her down to 9-1. If the donkey vote is enough to get her over the line, someone stands to collect more than $50,000 from Northern Territory based Centrebet. On Tuesday, a punter placed $500 on KPO at 16-1. No other hay burners have been backed in Page. But the Greens might like to consider sticking a tenner on Corkill, who's at the longest odds in the field at 1000-1. In Richmond, it's a two horse race between Larry Anthony ($1.33) and Jenny McAllister ($2.60). So far Loz has $8000 riding on him, with the ALP filly backed for $7000. If you're keen, Centrebet's taking wagers until around 8am on Saturday. Go to www.centrebet.com, or phone (08) 8955 5800.

The Nationals show they have a sense of humour in the latest edition of National Leader (...the quarterly magazine of the National Party), which features this photo. It makes us think that their natural allies in this election must be the Roadkill Party - www.iconart.com/roadkillparty/ If you head for the site, you're in for a few seconds of cartoon in which the major party leaders, plus la femme fatale rouge, are taunted by dogs throwing bones on to the road until the politicians fall victim to the passing traffic. Yes it's in poor taste, but then most of this election has been.

The Nationals show they have a sense of humour in the latest edition of National Leader