During the week where I was still deciding whether or not to stand for parliament, Michael from the 2CC production department put together a rather amusing audio piece containing snippets of my original discussion with Mike Welsh on the issue, and two songs. The artists behind the first song get the musicians of the week award this week, and you’ll find out about the second song next week.
So, the musicians of the week award this week goes to T-Rex, and the feature song is Telegram Sam.
Oooh, oh man, oooh
Telegram Sam, Telegram Sam, you are my main man
Golden Nose Slim, Golden Nose Slim
I knows where you been oh
Purple Pie Pete, Purple Pie Pete
You’re lips are like lightning girls melt in the heat, yeah
Telegram Sam you’re my main man
Telegram Sam you’re my main man
Oh, ooh
Bobby’s alright, Bobby’s alright
He’s a natural born poet, he’s just outta sight
Jungle faced Jake, jungle faced Jake
I say make no mistake about jungle faced Jake, Jake
Telegram Sam you’re my main man
Telegram Sam you’re my main man
Oooh, Samson and Christoph, what a pair!
Bobby’s alright, Bobby’s alright
He’s a natural born poet, he’s just outta sight
Automatic shoes, automatic shoes
Give me 3D-vision and the California Blues
And me I funk but I don’t care
I ain’t no square with my corkscrew hair
Telegram Sam you’re my main man
Telegram Sam you’re my main man
Telegram Sam you’re my main man
Oh, do-do do-do do-do, oh
Telegram Sam, Telegram Sam
I’m a howling wolf an’ I whoo-hoo-hoo
Telegram Sam, I’m a howling wolf an’ I whoo-hoo-hoo …..
Telegram Sam, I’m a howling wolf an’ I whoo-hoo-hoo …..
Telegram Sam, I’m a howling wolf an’ I whoo-hoo-hoo …..
Yes, that’s right, I have officially launched a bunch of policies with more to come.
I have started setting up a campaign page, it’s nowhere near finished, but it has some useful information, and I also have a policies page, also not finished, but the exciting thing is that there are policies there, and a lot more to follow.
This, for me at least, is a very exciting day!
Update: There was a typo in the link to the policies page which I have now fixed. I apologise for any inconvenience. End Update
Stored for archival purposes
Here is a majority copy of the press release I am currently distributing to media outlets in Canberra.
Samuel Gordon-Stewart, independent candidate for the federal seat of Fraser, has officially launched his campaign today by outlining some of his main policies.
Samuel is committed to providing a viable alternative to the major parties, and as an independent, has the ability to represent the views and wishes of the people of Fraser without the “party line” getting in the way.
Among Samuel’s key policies are:
The nationalisation of education and health, with plans to move government funding from the private sector to the public sector, and provide bulk billed health and dental services in as many areas as possible. Samuel is also committed to ensuring the ACT education system, particularly the college system, is used as the basis for the national education system.
Bold new initiatives to stave off drought and replenish the farming sector, and therefore make the economy better, and improve the standard of living for regional areas.
The acceptance that Climate Change is a mostly natural phenomenon, and that we need to plan around the natural climate cycle.
Economically sustainable targets for the reduction of pollution, and the introduction of renewable energy to improve the air quality, and therefore our standard of living.
A majority government owned national fibre-to-the-home high speed broadband network, and the urgent provision of broadband services to all areas of the nation that do not currently have them.
Oppose the Tralee development in favour of a Googong development to prevent excess aircraft noise over Canberra.
A speeding up of the rollout of digital radio, and government assistance to ensure that no broadcasters are adversely affected by the change.
Full details of these policies can be found on Samuel’s website at https://samuelgordonstewart.com
Maybe the four letter thing you put money in to when you work, and take money out of when you retire, is a "Bank", although that's not something Peter Costello introduced.
Based on the speech, of the caller who posed the question, I'd hazard a guess at "beer".
I just stepped out of the office for a minute, only to discover that it's raining. The air smells wonderful out there at the moment, and it was nice to be rained on ever so lightly for a little while.
I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to Floraide on the weekend. Sadly Floriade is one of the delights I simply can not enjoy due to my hayfever. I have been to Floriade on a number of occasions, but the aftermath doesn't justify the pretty flowers for me.
As for people who spend their entire life in the right-hand lane, please take them off the road. I really can't understand why people insist on travelling ten kilometres per hour or further below the speed limit in the right-hand lane. I would submit them as my entry in John Stanley's "What Drives You Nuts" segment on Thursday, but I have another gripe already lined up for him. Maybe you could ring him up on Thursday.
I have had a few people ask why I haven’t properly outlined any policies yet. The answer, unfortunately, is administrative issues.
Right now I am walking a very fine line between this website requiring official authorisation and not requiring it. Publishing policies or other campaign/electoral matter would tip the balance. At the moment I don’t have an office, nor do I have people assisting me, and therefore the street address on the authorisation would have to be my residential address.
As much as I would like to be open to meet the people of Fraser and discuss things with them, I really don’t want to publish my residential address on this website and every single document I produce between now and the election if I can avoid it.
I want to, and plan to, sort this out in the next few days so that I can have an official campaign launch later in the week. This will include a reorganisation of parts of this website.
To that end, if anybody would like to assist with the campaign, please get in contact with me as I would really appreciate it if a handful of people would be willing to put their hand up to help out. At this stage the budget is almost non-existent, but I will do what I can to make it worthwhile for you.
This week the award goes to Creedance Cleerwater Revival, and the feature song is Have You Ever Seen The Rain.
Someone told me long ago
There’s a calm before the storm
I know, it’s been comin’ for some time
When it’s over so they say
It’ll rain a sunny day
I know, shinin’ down like water
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Yesterday and days before
Sun is cold and rain is hard.
I know, been that way for all my time.
‘Til forever on it goes
Through the circle fast and slow,
I know, it can’t stop, I wonder.
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Yeah
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Due to work on the power supply system at the TransACT data centre in Canberra, this website may be offline for a period between midnight and 6am on Monday, September 24 (Canberra time, GMT+10). This outage includes email services. Emails sent to me during this period will be queued by a backup server and delivered to me during the day.
I apologise for the inconvenience and hope to be back with you as soon as possible.
As I mentioned earlier, 2CC’s Mike Welsh interviewed me at about 4:10 this afternoon. It was during this interview that I made the public announcement that I had decided to run for parliament. The interview contains a brief summary of me, the electorate, a couple of my policies, and electoral procedure. I think, overall, this is a good starting point if you want to understand where I stand on a number of issues.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/SamuelwithMikeWelsh2CC20070921.mp3] Download link
I didn’t prepare myself properly for the interview, mainly due to the fact that it was quite busy at work today which meant I didn’t really have time to jot down some notes (which I should have done overnight anyway). I have more ideas than those I mentioned during the interview, including thoughts on subjects such as broadband, workplace relations, roads and education (I suppose some of those things fit in to the welfare category that I drew a blank on during the interview), but for the moment while I sort out a couple administrative matters, the interview will do as a good starting point.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part in the poll, the people who entered 2CC’s “come up with a slogan for Samuel” competition, the people who decided to link to this website, and everyone else who helped me make up my mind on whether or not to stand for election. Your assistance with this decision is greatly appreciated.
Yes, as I announced on 2CC’s drive show earlier this afternoon, I will be running as an independent for the seat of Fraser in the upcoming federal election.
More details shortly when I have a spare moment to outline some of my policies. (Or perhaps get the interview audio online…it has a couple).
The one thing I really need to make this happen is 50 people enrolled to vote in the seat of Fraser who would be willing to sign a form from the Australian Electoral Commission nominating me as a candidate. There is no fee, and you don’t even have to vote for me, all I am asking is that you sign a bit of paper to allow me to run for election. If you would be willing to help out with this, feel free to send me an email.
I’m holding off an a proper media release for now until I have a couple more details, and work out whether or not it will need an “authorised by” line on it.
I’m ending the poll a bit earlier than usual this week as I intend on making my announcement this afternoon and there is no point in running the poll after the fact.
Would you like to see Samuel stand as an independent candidate at the upcoming federal election?
This is the highest number of people to ever respond to a poll on this website, nearly doubling the previous record. I would like to thank everyone who took part, and also the Canberra media (especially 2CC) who promoted it throughout the week.
I will be making my announcement on the issue shortly. I would suggest that those of you in Canberra who want to hear it should tune in to 2CC around 4:10pm.
We haven’t had a Friday Funny for a while, but Charity from Sydney has come to the rescue today with the following bit of fun.
One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out.
She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.
Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, “Good morning, Ma’am. What are you doing?”
“Reading a book,” she replies, (thinking, “Isn’t that obvious?”)
“You’re in a Restricted Fishing Area,” he informs her.
“I’m sorry, officer, but I’m not fishing. I’m reading.”
“Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I’ll have to take you in and write you up.”
“If you do that, I’ll have to charge you with sexual assault,” says the woman.
“But I haven’t even touched you,” says the game warden.
“That’s true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment.”
“Have a nice day ma’am,” he said as he left.
MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It’s likely she can also think.
Do you have something you would like to contribute to Friday Funnies? If so, email it to samuel@samuelgordonstewart.com. All contributions welcome!
As you are probably aware by now, ABC TV’s “Media Watch” presenter Monica Attard, and executive producer Tim Palmer, are going to leave the program at the end of the current season in November.
Whilst Attard, who has been hosting the show for nearly two years, has not announced her future plans, Palmer has announced that he will take up an executive producer post with Lateline and Lateline Business when he completes his one year stint on the program.
I do have to wonder if Media Watch has a future. Of late, although it has produced some very good stories, it has resorted to filling in time with either short bloopers, or lengthy beatups, and has even started to pour more scrutiny on ABC programming than it used to (a behaviour which played a part in the demise in SBS’s Hotline and the similar shows on other stations).
Last year in April, Monica Attard and (then) executive producer Peter McEvoy threatened to quit if ABC management interfered with the show, following ABC management removed a story from the show. The tension between Media Watch and ABC management has been fairly obvious since then, with ABC managing director Mark Scott openly criticising the program a number of times.
It is rumoured that Media Watch is destined for the chopping block which, despite its many faults, would be quite unfortunate. Media Watch may have slipped in to the realm of reporting bloopers (the start of this story would be a good example), but it does often make some very valid points and observations about the state of the media in this country, and the amount of work the staff of Media Watch do behind the scenes investigating issues and corresponding with various people in the media does keep everyone on their toes.
Media Watch, in many ways, plays an important role in maintaining common sense in the media, at a level which is too minor for ACMA to investigate, but too important to be ignored completely.
For all its faults, Media Watch is an important part of the Australian media landscape, and cancelling it because ABC management can’t stand the heat of having scrutiny of their own staff would be a tragedy.
Just a note about what Eric was saying about the compact fluorescent lightbulbs interfering with AM radio signals to the extent that if you have one light on in the house, you have no radio…well I had three on during his call, including one about a metre and a half from the radio, and I could not hear any interference. I then picked up the radio to test his theory, and I had to bring the radio within five centimetres of the bulb to get a minor buzz.
If his bulbs are knocking out his radio, then his bulbs are faulty and should be replaced.
I love these lightbulbs, mainly because I prefer the light they produce to the light a traditional incandescent bulb produces. The fact that they cost less to run and last a lot longer than the average bulb is a bonus. And as for the dimmers, there are a handful of CFLs that work with dimmers, they aren't very common yet, but they will be (not that I'm a huge fan of dimmers anyway).
Regards, Samuel Gordon-Stewart Canberra
P.S. Congratulations on your new 2UE promo…it's almost funny to think that you've had a promo on 2CC for months and you've only just got one on 2UE!