Well I reckon that's better than going straight into parliament from a fish and chip shop.
Stott-Despoja Resigns
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Well I reckon that's better than going straight into parliament from a fish and chip shop.
Actually Shinners, on second thoughts, it sounds more like a name for an Archbishop!
BSA
Debutant
She went straight from Adelaide University into Federal Politics.
Shes never had a real job in her life and as for having empathy with a young family in the "burbs who are attempting to feed, clothe, employ and shelter themselves for around 34,500 dollars a year (before Tax), well I can tell you from my own personal experience of Natasha* - she has absolutely no idea at all.
In fact she lives in La-La land where we all wear black and drink coffee and chat about how "nice" the world would be if only everyone was like us !!!!!
cheers
* my wife went to Adelaide Uni with NSD and knew her quite well at one stage. I met her at some of the same parties and stuff as well.
Shes never had a real job in her life and as for having empathy with a young family in the "burbs who are attempting to feed, clothe, employ and shelter themselves for around 34,500 dollars a year (before Tax), well I can tell you from my own personal experience of Natasha* - she has absolutely no idea at all.
In fact she lives in La-La land where we all wear black and drink coffee and chat about how "nice" the world would be if only everyone was like us !!!!!
cheers
* my wife went to Adelaide Uni with NSD and knew her quite well at one stage. I met her at some of the same parties and stuff as well.
Originally posted by The Ewok
Good riddance!
F*** YEAH
Come to think of it.......you might be onto something.
I think NSD was completely shafted. To me it looks like the party put her up front for voter appeal. She is young, blond and has dimples so basically the dems thought she wouild be a good figurehead.
Unfortunately, NSD didn't see herself as a figurehead and tried to have the appropriate influence on party politics, putting the historic power base offside. Then push came to shove.
I'd like to see how they will do in the next election - go ahead dem people, throw your vote away!!!
Unfortunately, NSD didn't see herself as a figurehead and tried to have the appropriate influence on party politics, putting the historic power base offside. Then push came to shove.
I'd like to see how they will do in the next election - go ahead dem people, throw your vote away!!!
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Originally posted by RacerX
I think NSD was completely shafted. To me it looks like the party put her up front for voter appeal. She is young, blond and has dimples so basically the dems thought she wouild be a good figurehead.
Unfortunately, NSD didn't see herself as a figurehead and tried to have the appropriate influence on party politics, putting the historic power base offside. Then push came to shove.
I'd like to see how they will do in the next election - go ahead dem people, throw your vote away!!!
I agree with some of this post.
Yes, she was shafted, but also fell on her own sword. After taking the leadership, she tried to push her own views onto the party and some of the members did not respond well to her views.
Yes, she had the "looks" to attract voters, but a smiley dimply girl with no idea of the real world will never get votes anyway. We Australians simply vote for policies, not how people look. If it was that way, who thought Howard, Keating, Hawke or Fraser would be Prime Ministers?
The Democrats are becoming a liability for themselves. They are a party just holding onto existence. Janine Haines and Don Chipp were the real members of the party, from there, Powell had problems, Kernot was a sookie feminist, Coulter was a lost garden gnome and the party lost it's way years ago.
Lees sold out her party to the Liberals for 15 mins of fame and that moment of stupidity cost Lees her job.
I was surprised at the polls on who should be the next leader.
Aden Ridgeway is miles in front of everyone but Lees who is only a handful of votes behind him. Lees is a lost cause i think, even if she did return to the fold, there is too much tension and suspicion to allow her to lead the Democrats.
Time for this party to make amends, install Ridgeway as leader and get back to the roots of their party for which they were formed upon. There is to be no alliance with either the Libs or the ALP and time to make the bastards honest once again.
IMVHO, the next election is still a couple of years away, they have time to rebuild their shattered image and make policies for the good of the Australian people. If not, they may as well fold and lay flowers upon the grave of the Australian Democrats.
Originally posted by BSA
She went straight from Adelaide University into Federal Politics.
Shes never had a real job in her life and as for having empathy with a young family in the "burbs who are attempting to feed, clothe, employ and shelter themselves for around 34,500 dollars a year (before Tax), well I can tell you from my own personal experience of Natasha* - she has absolutely no idea at all.
In fact she lives in La-La land where we all wear black and drink coffee and chat about how "nice" the world would be if only everyone was like us !!!!!
Stuart Littlemore did an excellent piece on his self-titled show last year on how superficial NSD's political base was; anyone who watched that wouldn't be surprised by the way her political career has ground to a halt. Her efforts to be hip and appealing by appearing on 'trendy' shows such as Good News Week were seriously lame.
Having said that, I don't see how the Democrats could maintain a basis of popular support if they take the Lees/Murray political line, considering how reviled their GST actions were taken by their supporters.
The Democrats are quickly becoming an irrelevance, just as the DLP did a generation ago.
By the way, I was interested to see Hugh Rimmington do the newsreading for 'Nightline' on this story last night. Didn't he used to go out with NSD a few years back?
Yep. They were together for a year or two.
How was his reaction to the story?
Or as the Chaser put it last year in one of their p*ss takes, "I AM NOT A MEDIA **** - NATASHA TELLS ROVE, GOOD NEWS WEEK, THE PANEL, GOOD MORNING AUSTRALIA".
I think NSD took it for granted that she would sweep the youth vote on the assumption that everyone in that demographic would think the same way that she did. As the ALP found out in New South Wales in the last two federal elections, you can't take your voters for granted.
When the Democrats vote collapsed last election, one of the analysts pointed out that the Democrat's slogan was "Change Politics". It was pointed out that the average voter couldn't give a sh*t about politics as long as there was bread on the table and a roof over the head. It just showed how out of touch NSD (and how accurate BSA's post was in this thread) was. Tashi blamed Meg Lees, but Tashi had the Federal and SA State elections to turn the vote around and she failed.
Are you serious? He was the one that ambushed NSP in the first place.
Originally posted by Mead
And that bothers me..why?
It was the integrity comment I couldnt let pass.
just for the sake of the argument, I'd suggest that Ridgeway's loyalty is to the ideals of the party he joined, that of being a middle voice in politics somewhere between Liberal and Labor. He wasn't prepared to give his unconditional support to someone who was changing the party into something it was never meant to be, and he had the balls to say so. To be honest, if I were a party leader, I'd prefer a deputy who was prepared to argue than a sycophantic yes man a la Grieg. I'm not really fussed either way, because the democrats are never going to be getting my vote, but he does strike me as a principled bloke.
Beautifully put.
It's certainly true that's how the party was formed 25 years ago. However, the political landscape has changed enormously since then, as the two major parties have converged on virtually all the key issues and the policy differences between them are negligble.
So how can the Democrats be a political force working between the two major parties when there's virtually no difference between them. Certainly, NSD was an insubstantial political figure, but the Lees/Murray alternative will mean a quick dive into irrelevance for the party.
The facts are that the party's principles have changed over 25 years, as has their supporter base. Their supporters are increasingly left-wing, yet if Ridgeway has his way, the party will move much further to the right as it adapts to the increasingly right-wing political trajectory of the establishment parties. As one political commentator noted, does Australian politics need another right-wing/centrist based party?
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Chipp basically started the Democrats to get up Fraser's nose, whom he detested. They were a rag-tag amalgam of the Workers Party and various other people disaffected with mainstream politics.
Not sure about this, but it occurs to me that Howard has never had a real job. He did a law degree, because he worked out that qualification would be best suited to gain him entry into politics. As far as I know, he has never practised law. Instead, I think he was pre-selected straight out of uni., when he was about twenty-four.
Not sure about this, but it occurs to me that Howard has never had a real job. He did a law degree, because he worked out that qualification would be best suited to gain him entry into politics. As far as I know, he has never practised law. Instead, I think he was pre-selected straight out of uni., when he was about twenty-four.
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According to his bio
Howard entered politics at 35 in 1974 and from July 1962 was a solicitor of the NSW Supreme Court and a partner of a law firm until he entered politics
12 years as a lawyer, if you can call that a 'real job' being a lawyer
Not sure if it's true or the persona that Howard built for himself, but he always portrayed himself as being just a "surburban lawyer" - the small practice in the suburbs, not a firm like Freehills, Mallesons, Clayton Utz etc.
If he did work in a suburban practice, it would explain his ability to win the votes of the people in Sydney's western suburbs - a traditional ALP area. He would have developed a very sharp instinct on what would resonate with the voters in those areas.
It would also explain the difference between Howard and someone like Michael Kroger. Kroger was a lawyer and merchant banker, and as much as people within the Liberal Party saw him as Prime Ministerial material, outside of the party, the voters don't understand him, and I suspect that he doesn't really understand the voters. The criticisms that I have of NSD can also be applied to Kroger.
And most politicians of all sides of politics. I can remember Joan Coxedge deriding Cain as "Nothing more than a suburban solicitor" and thinking that she had no idea at all.
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Thanks for that Ewok.
Also, I'm not a Howard fan, but didn't his old man have a petrol station, and he grew up pumping petrol.
Then, he became a solicitor as an articled clerk, not as a uni student.
Then, he became a solicitor as an articled clerk, not as a uni student.
