NSW DUers, are you in despair?

[Matilda]

You know what I'm talking about - the state election next month, and the choice between the glove
puppet and the sock puppet.

There's no way that Labor deserves to be re-elected, but who in their right mind could possibly
even consider Debnam? I swear, if they replaced Debnam with O'Farrell next week, he'd win in a
landslide. And he's nothing to write home about either!

Mr Matilda says he's going to vote informal, but I hate wasting my vote. I'll vote Green, but
I'm in a blue-ribbon Lib seat, and Andrew Humpherson is a shoo-in, so my Green vote will have to go
to someone else on preferences. It kills me to think about it.

I actually had accepted that I could live with John Brogden who practically had it all sewn up until
the Xian Right got rid of him and put their vent-dummy in his place. So now we have a choice
between the puppet of the NSW Labor Right and the puppet of the Xian fundy Right. Bloody hell!

I wonder if the informal vote will be extraordinarily high this time?

[no safe haven]

1. In a word, yes! Absolutely.

It’s a sad day when it comes to a choice between two equally dysfunctional parties headed by equally odious leaders. Never been a Iemma fan because of his ALP right connections, and his cohorts aren’t much better. But I think even worse is Debnam and his xtian fundie backers.

Thankfully, the electorate seems to feel that Debnam would be a worse choice than Iemma. They're groaning under the weight of his sanctimonious rantings. Which does not say much for the state of NSW politics.

I was trying to think how and when it got to this, especially for the Libs. Remember back in the day when there was a viable choice? It seemed to start when Peter Collins, a seemingly honest, decent man, was unceremoniously kicked out, replaced by Kerry Chikarovski, who was likewise dumped and replaced by John Brogden, who was also laid to rest (almost literally). Now they’ve got this Xtian City, Hillsong crowd panderer at the helm. No wonder Barry O’Farrell kept his head below the parapet. Yes, he could well easily win a state election for the Libs but no doubt he would find himself sidelined out of politics for good.

When all is said and done, I think I’d take the corrupt ALP over the fundies. I’m sure there will be many, many informal votes and who knows, maybe a kick start for Greens in the lower house, and more Independents sitting.

If the ALP gets in again, it had better clean up its act and get rid of that air of arrogance that the electorate is utterly fed up with.

[Matilda]

2. A pattern emerges for the Libs ....

Howard backed Chikarovski against Collins; he gave Brogden only grudging support, and although he
kept his head down, you can bet he knew what was going on when Debnam was being manoeuvred into
place. As things turned out with Brogden, he may well have not been up to the job in the end anyway,
but how stupid to get rid of him when he almost had the election in the bag two years ago - and that
was before it went really bad for Labor. I know little of O'Farrell personally, other than having
heard he's a very pragmatic, tough nut. Instead of taking on the Xian fundies, I think he's waiting
for Debnam to self-destruct, and he'll just walk into the job.

I'm really hoping that in the end this will turn out to be good for the Greens and Independents. I
cringe at the thought of this government getting back - Iemma is just a hapless tool, but there are
a lot of people around him who I think are really evil - Sartor, Costa, Tripodi, the whole lot of
them are just pigs at the trough. But Debnam and The Fundies are total nutters. Except for one
thing - recycling over desalination. That one I'll back, and if Labor does get in, I hope people
will take to the streets in protest over the plan to make Macquarie Bank even richer. Because that's
what it's about - thank you, Bob Carr.

[no safe haven]

3. Ah yes, that dynamic duo Costa and Tripodi

My god, I sometimes wonder if they’re for real or if I’m not on the set of a 1930s gangster movie. ALP is entrenched in the ideology of corporatism – Costa was on radio a few months ago, singing the praises of globalism and how we’d all be mugs not to support all aspects of it, jobs outsourcing be damned, a far cry from when he was secretary of the NSW Labor Council.

Seems like the Macquarie Bank is on its way to becoming Australia’s version of Haliburton or the Carlyle group. As for Macquarie’s bid for the desal plant (on its land), there is potential infrastructure available here now out at the Prospect water treatment plant. When Greiner government partly privatised water services, he contracted a French outfit, under the guise of Australian Water Services, to build and operate the Prospect treatment plant. That company is a world leader in reverse osmosis. (I worked for AWS for a short while, and French was spoken almost exclusively in management circles.) So how come it has not been utilised?

Possibly due to the fact that Macquarie wants to have it both ways – desal and recycled effluent. I don’t know whatever happened to the bid by Sydney Services (owned partly by Macquarie)to recycle water from the North Head sewerage treatment plant. Note that Graeme Samuel, ACCC boss, who was to ultimately approve the bid, is on the board of Macquarie.

It’s all a shell game. Us punters are caught up in a corporate battle, and since water is a precious resource to be fought over, the issue will continue until a winner emerges. Meanwhile, we suffer. It’s disingenuous for any politician to use the ‘sewerage or desal’ argument, since it matters not what we think. We’ll end up with both when they sort out their little games and figure how to make huge $$$. But then, it’s election time.

[gemini_liberal]

4. Not even in NSW and I am in despair!

God, not envious of you guys at all here!

I think the most sickening thing about Iemma is that for a Labor Premier he spends a lot of time standing up for Howard.

[Random_Australian]

5. I have a cunning plan.

I forgot to register with the AEC, so now I have to work out how to avoid a fine.

I could really do without it too - I'm kinda kicking myself a bit over it.

[Aussie leftie]

6. A good result for the up coming election would be

for the Liberals to be trounced, and for the Greens to have the balance of power in the upper house. When and if Labor win, there should be a purge of Labor Party Head Office which is extremely right wing. They are just totally out of touch with the average person. Since they started privatising our roads they have lost a lot of support. It makes me cringe though to think how much worse it would be under the Liberal Party headed by Peter Debnam (member for Vaucluse).

[Kaotac]

7. Yeah, it's depressing.

I want to vote green too. It's a shame that Bob Brown can't be Premiere.
I saw him talking on the ABC in the '04 election, and he was awesome.

Sadly, I'm in a Nationals electorate. You'd think the electorate that houses Ninbin would be a Green one! I guess it is, it's just the wrong green. Bloody Nationals.

I don't even know who the oposition for this seat is from any party..