2008 National Conference

The 2008 National Conference will be held on Saturday 26 January at the Drummoyne Sports Club.  Starting time is 12 noon. See the Get Involved page for location.

All members (financial and honorary) are encouraged to attend. Financial members may nominate for vacancies on the Executive and vote. Honorary members may upgrade to financial at any time, including at the meeting.

After the formal meeting there will be workshops to formulate plans and actions for building on the momentum created by the federal election.

60.5% support Rudd

A recent Roy Morgan poll showed a predicatable increase in support for Kevin Rudd’s new Labor government. The numbers are:

Labor     – 49.5% (up 6.1%)
Coalition — 34% (down 8.1%)
Greens   – 10.5%
Fam 1st — 2.5%
Other    — 3.5%

On two-party preferred that gives Labor a 60.5% – 39.5% lead over the coalition. Of course, this doesn’t really mean much so soon after an election. But it does show what a long road the Liberals have in front of them if they are to be competitive at the next election.

Random media

Since the election I have stumbled across some pieces of media coverage that I hadn’t seen before:

* A leftie defending Lisa & attacking ACA
* S.A. media noticed our candidates were from inter-state
* More mention of Family First dealing with “the enemy”
* Nationals don’t support “radical” LDP
* Voluntary Euthenasia society gives us a tick
* Talk about sex, sex (not work-safe), sex
* Some Indian interest in Sukrit

LDP King-Makers

As of today the AEC says eight seats are still too close to call. Of these it appears four will be decided by fewer votes than the LDP gained. If the LDP had not stood anyone in the seat, the outcome may have been different.
The seats and candidates in which LDP preferences look set to be critical are:

Solomon (NT)  Jacques Chester

McEwen (Vic) Rob Newnham

Dickson (Qld) Brad Cornwell

Herbert (Qld) Ben Thompson

Picking the right seats in which to stand candidates to achieve such an outcome relies on judgement and guesswork. It’s easy to get it wrong.

In this case I picked Solomon and McEwen and John Humphreys nominated Dickson and Herbert. I’m quietly pleased for both of us. At least four MPs in the new parliament will know who the LDP is.

Privatising public schools

During the election campaign we mentioned the idea of privatising public schools, and replacing them with a voucher system. Now two of the Oz blogosphere’s best will be engaging in a blog-debate on the same topic — whether we should privatise public schools.

In the free-market corner we have Andrew Norton. And arguing for the government is Andrew Leigh. Let the blog battle begin!