Richard Farmer's Daily Email Briefing
ACCESS BACK ISSUES
HERE
|
| Richard Farmer's Daily Email BriefingACCESS BACK ISSUES |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
NEWS AND VIEWS
|
The 2007 Election DiaryClick on the date to read the full daily entry23 November 2007 - It is the lack of faith in opinion polls with their different messages that has me turn for guidance to the collective wisdom of people as expressed on the market. 22 November 2007 - Back in June pollster Mark Textor reported to the Liberal Party that the Government had to stop Labor setting the agenda, stress its economic management record and paint Labor as a risk - or it would face electoral oblivion. At the National Press Club this afternoon Prime Minister John Howard certainly stressed his economic management record and the risk posed by Labor but he discovered again just how difficult it is to set the agenda. 21 November 2007 - Every day of this election campaign I faithfully check the front page of the Northern Territory News to gather the information I need to plug in for the Owl's Daily Verdict so I am, let me tell you, well informed about crocodiles. The brutes are a big favourite for a page one pic and banner headline up north but political reptiles just don't feature. 20 November 2007 - When you are well behind with five days to go everything in your campaign needs to go right. That did not happen for the Coalition yesterday. 19 November 2007 - The Newspoll to be published in The Australian in the morning continues to show Labor with a comfortable lead over the Coalition – 54% to 46% in two party preferred terms. The pollster gives the margin of error for his work as plus or minus 2.5 percentage points putting the Labor vote in the range of 56.5% down to 51.5%, 18 November 2007 - Where the two opposing political leaders spent today tells us something about how they read the state of play in this election campaign. 17 November 2007 - A further sign today that people are at last beginning to take a real interest in the election. Political stories on websites are being read in increasing numbers. 16 November 2007 - Just when you think that things could not get worse along comes a report from the Auditor General exposing the rorts being used to try and buy votes. That was something the Coalition campaign team definitely did not need. 15 November 2007 - No politician ever lost votes by under estimating the intelligence, or over estimating the selfishness, of the Australian people. Kevin Rudd can talk all he likes about the Australian attribute of a "fair go", as he did at his policy launch yesterday, but when it comes to self interest Australians would be right up near the top of the list of those countries which, as the politicians say, we normally tend to compare ourselves. 14 November 2007 - That candidates are a nuisance at election time was shown again yesterday when one of Labor's star new recruits had a few words to say on ABC radio Bega that ended up leading the nightly national television coverage in a way that Kevin Rudd could have done without. 13 November 2007 - Making the promises yesterday was the easy bit. The hard bit for John Howard is getting people to take any notice. And on two measures that will be no easy task. 12 November 2007 - It was the answer to a Sunday editor's prayer - a story about s-x and crime involving a good looking political celebrity. At last there was something about this damned election that people might actually read. 11 November 2007 - This election campaign is turning into a shocker for the Government. The interest rate rise has destroyed credibility. The Prime Minister has compounded the problem by his bumbling efforts over whether or not to apologise. Another week like the last one and the Coalition really will be facing a defeat of humiliating proportions. 9 November 2007 - There was a dash of seriousness about the election campaign yesterday as respectable men in suits replaced babies and senior citizens as the backdrop for political gallivanting. 8 November 2007 - I suppose it is natural enough for politicians to believe that what they say about things actually influences people but it is actions rather than the words that really matter. So all the talking we have already heard about interest rates and who is responsible and who would handle them better in the future and who did worst with them in the past and all the rest of the huffing and puffing on the subject from now until 24 November is largely irrelevant. 7 November 2007 - The interest was on horses not interest and just as well for the Government. 6 November 2007 - The old pro might not have the best of cards in his hand but he keeps playing them well. 5 November 2007 - If desperate politicians really do try desperate things - and John Howard pretending that a sixth interest rate rise since promising to keep them at record lows suggests he is in that category - then Rove Live next Sunday night should be worth watching. The PM has a standing invitation to appear on this politically influential program and if it is good enough for Jana Wendt it should be good enough for him. 4 November 2007 - Three weeks gone and three to go to election day and there's no evidence yet that the campaign has changed anything. 3 November 2007 - The Government attacks on Labor as the Me Too party apparently have come to an end as the Coalition campaign team desperately searches for something, for absolutely anything, to put them back in this election race. 2 November 2007 - In making my judgment that Labor again gets the nod in The Daily Verdict on campaigning yesterday I am assuming that all the talk about Me-Tooism is doing Labor more good than harm. If I am wrong about that then the scoring for the day should be quite different. 1 November 2007 - Perhaps the Liberal election planners have finally had their own reality check. There was no Prime Ministerial walk in a public place this morning. 31 October 2007 - The advice Prime Minister John Howard has got from his advisory team down in the Liberal Party's Melbourne headquarters is apparent for all to see. Smile dammit, smile. 30 October 2007 - Day 15 of the election campaign was like one of those nil all draws at soccer - boring and hard to get excited about. 29 October 2007 - The gap between the views of the top brass at The Australian and its readers continues to be marked with the paper still searching desperately for the best possible light to shine on the Coalition campaign while Labor is the clear choice of the consumers of those very same stories. 26 October 2007 - The footage of Kevin Rudd being verbally confronted by grey power while on a visit to Tasmania was not a good look for Labor. It exposed for the whole nation to see just how exploitative politicians are in their daily quest for helpful pictures. 25 October 2007 - To be a really big story on television you need to have pictures. That just talking heads are considered boring was perfectly illustrated last night on Melbourne 's commercial television news. That day's inflation figures, which had earnest economists preaching of interest rate doom to come, for example was story number six on Channel 9. 24 October 2007 - John Howard might not be a racing man but he took a huge punt when he postponed the election until after Melbourne Cup Day. He gambled his Prime Ministership on the Reserve Bank Board not putting up interest rates on the same day that most adult Australians will be having a dollar or two on something running over 3200 metres. 23 October 2007 - With the campaign proper well under way the Coalition and Labor Gravy trains are really getting up a head of steam. 22 October 2007 - Labor won The Daily Verdict on day seven of the election campaign - the announcement day the Sunday before we count as the zero day - in the hours before the Great Debate went to air. The announcement by Kevin Rudd of a child care policy saw to that. 21 October 2007 - A bit of boisterous behaviour as the Prime Minister opened the Granny Smith apple festival in his electorate was enough to swing things the Liberal Party's way in Saturday's Daily Verdict. 20 October 2007 - And then it was Labor's turn and again Kevin Rudd refused to take the bait and come out with a policy significantly different to that of the Coalition. By largely adopting the proposed new tax scales announced on Monday by Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello, Labor has again limited the differences between the two sides in this election campaign. 19 October 2007 - The tacticians at the Liberal Party headquarters can take a bow. They have had a good week so far and won three of the five days measured by our Daily Verdict. 18 October 2007 - Irate viewers, it is reported this morning, rang the ABC switchboard last night to complain about The Eulogy Song sung on The Chaser's War On Everything. 17 October 2007 - Ben Cousins has rescued a side many times and yesterday he came to the aid of Labor and pushed the talk of tax cuts right down the news agenda. The Prime Minister being hugged by a youth with body piercings could not compete with the tattooed torso of a drug using football hero. While SBS television nationally and the ABC in Sydney pretended their viewers were more interested in serious things and led last night's main bulletin with John Howard and his Treasurer Peter Costello spruiking their $34 billion, the story was down to seventh on the ABC news in Melbourne. 15 October 2007 - Day two of the campaign proper and a day to really lift the Liberal Party spirits. There is nothing like a fist full of dollars to attract attention and the Howard Costello duumvirate got attention aplenty. The radio was full of their future tax plans all day and the television tonight treated the announcement as if the money was already in people's pockets rather than a promise to put it there on the never-never if the forecasts on which it is based turn out to happen. 14 October 2007 - The advantage of incumbency is at no time more evident in an election campaign than on the day the Prime Minister calls the election. 12 October 2007 - The first truly significant event of the 2007 election campaign took place on Thursday outside the giraffe's cage at the Adelaide Zoo when the No Pokies Party founder Nick Xenophon declared he hoped to move from the state Legislative Council to the Senate. 11 October 2007 - Did the Prime Minister have an epiphany? No. Just a message from the pollster. There is considerable cynicism among traditional Liberal voters, reported Mark Textor, about the Federal Government takeover of Aboriginal policy in the Northern Territory . We look like losing seats we never even thought were in danger. 10 October 2007 - There is really only one point to all the daily talking and all the travelling of political leaders during an election campaign. The 60 seconds or so of coverage on the nightly television news is what it is all about with the pictures being more important than the words. 9 October 2007 - For a moment this morning I thought the party of Kevin "Me Too" Rudd had rediscovered principle. 8 October 2007 - Cartoonists have that wonderful way of getting to the heart of a matter. Wilcox in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning has the opinion pollster at the front door asking "If an election were called tomorrow, who would you vote for?" And the woman of the house replies "Like it would make a difference." 5 October 2007 - Andrew Garrett has entered in to the spirit of his leader's campaign style with a wonderful example of Me Tooism over the approval of the new pulp mill for Tasmania's Tamar Valley. 2 October 2007 - We saw an example of the gay abandon with which politicians can defame this morning when Employment and Work Place Relations Minister Joe Hockey and Treasurer Peter Costello disparaged a report by Sydney University academics in to Australian Workplace Agreements. 30 September 2007 - They showed their normal acute sense of humour at the Kangaroos AFL breakfast yesterday. Kevin "Me Too" Rudd's entrance was announced to Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better. For Prime Minister John Howard they chose the strains of I Will Survive. 29 September 2007 - You know that political campaigning is really getting dirty when they start throwing mud under the protection of state parliamentary privilege. 28 September 2007 - It was a good try but Kevin Rudd's effort to show concern for helping ordinary people play sport got lost in all the pre AFL and tugby league grand final hype. 27 September 2007 - Defence Minister Brendan Nelson believes terrorism is the greatest threat we Australians face. In a speech tonight to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Dr Nelson chose to publicly disagree with the suggestion by Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty that it is climate change, rather than mad bombers, that we should be most worried about. 26 September 2007 - The current role of Labor's last two Prime Ministers continues to provide an interesting contrast. 25 September 2007 - It is footy finals week in Victoria and for once a local team is in with a chance so there was no surprise that the Victorian State Government announced today that it would be making a contribution to the Geelong Football Club's development at Kardinia Park. 24 September 2007 That newspapers have very little influence on how ordinary people view the political process was brought home to me years ago when I was writing two columns a week for my then local newspaper The Canberra Times. 23 September 2007 - So now we know that the campaign which will not be personal will be about a person's character and capacity! Doublespeak at its very best. 22 September 2007 - Another day and another Labor agreement with a Government policy. A Rudd Government will not get rid of the Medicare safety net. 21 September 2007 - We are now getting down to the nitty gritty of election campaigning. The family pets have been called in to the action! 20 September 2007 - If there is a Liberal Party dirt file on Kevin Rudd there cannot be much in it. 19 September 2007 - Politicians have considerable vanity. It goes with the personality type of those who believe they know what is best for the rest. Politicians just hate having to admit that they are not know-it-alls. 18 September 2007 - Listening to Alexander Downer talk about Kevin Rudd is a lot like one of those old "Where do you get it" advertisements that helped make John Singleton famous. They annoy the hell out of you but the message gets through. The Foreign Minister was at it again this morning in his irritating attack dog mode. 17 September 2007 - Prime Minister John Howard will be pleased the Newspoll dice rolled in his favour this evening with the two party preferred vote for Labor returning to the 55% level it had been fluctuating around for months before the jump a fortnight ago to 59%. ... The Prime Minister is getting himself in to something of a tangle trying to tell the voters of Bennelong whether or not they will have a by-election if he is returned to the House of Representatives. 16 September 2007 - John Howard is like herpes - you cannot get ride of him. 15 September 2007 - The Prime Ministerial pride has obviously suffered a little in recent days. 14 September 2007 - It just seems mighty strange when a politician, desperate to prove that he is not yesterday's man, goes back 25 years to come up with a "new" policy for training nurses. But so it was today with Prime Minister John Howard when he announced that the Australian Government will invest about $170 million additional funds over five years to create 25 Australian Hospital Nursing Schools to deliver hospital based training within major public and private hospitals across the country for enrolled nurses. 13 September 2007 - The people have spoken - the bastards! 12 September 2007 - Hope springs eternal in the politician's breast but a little bit of encouragement from the pollsters can help foster the sentiment. Prime Minister John Howard knows that so he made sure he had a good news polling story to tell in this morning's party room meeting. 11 September 2007 - John Howard abandoned his normal formula for discussing the leadership this afternoon. No more talk of saying he will stay as long as it is in the best interests of the Liberal Party and as long as his party wants him to. Those questions, he told a press conference held jointly with the bemused visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, were resolved last year. It was not in the Party's interest to revisit them. 10 September 2007 - A pity they did not use the water cannon. 7 September 2007 - The Chaser performance at APEC is no laughing matter for the PM.
|
Federal election 2007 home page The Government's Grass Roots Gravy Train Labor's Grass Roots Gravy Train Election Advertising The Election Diary The Election Indicator
|
|
 | | |
© Richard Farmer 2007 ..... Privacy Policy |
