November 24!

In case you don’t already know, Prime Minister John Howard announced at midday that the election will be held on November 24.

Photos and videos coming shortly.

Update 1:21pm: I went down to Government House around 8:30. On my way I spotted a journalist camped outside The Lodge so I stopped to talk to her and she said that she had no idea when the PM was going to make his move, so I continued on to Government House. When I got there and setup I realised I had left part of my tripod at home, so I dashed back home, picked that up, and setup between Sky News and 2UE just after 9am. The Governor General got back from church around the time I arrived.

The crowd grew slowly throughout the morning, but to start with it was mostly media.
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Kieran Gilbert from Sky News did a bunch of live crosses. Between 9am and 11am he almost spent more time on the air than off the air.
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As the public turned out for the event, so did the enthusiastic pets.
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Most of the public stood right next to the gates. The Greens picked up the position directly beside the gate.
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It was a reasonable turnout.
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Channel Seven were setup with live broadcast facilities, and one of their staff members was wearing a jacket with the old Seven Sport logo on it.
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The ABC were there too. Jim Middleton was their television correspondent.
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Protective Services did a number of circuits of the area, and a police wagon parked nearby for John Howard’s arrival.
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And then it was on. A bit before 11am the media started getting excited as they were all informed that John Howard was on his way, then the gates of Government House opened, and then at almost right on the dot of 11am John Howard arrived.

Get the latest Flash Player ^[12] to see this player.

And just as quickly as he arrived, he left again. 2UE’s Adam Sims received a phone call just as John Howard was leaving, and therefore managed to provide commentary for this video.

Get the latest Flash Player ^[12] to see this player.

And from there it was a rush up to parliament house. The front desk had Sky News on their television waiting for the press conference, and whilst they weren’t going to let any of the public in to the press conference, the four interested people (myself included) were told that they might be able to get a peak at the conference, or at least the media attending it, through a gate at the other end of Parliament House.
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And then the protective services staff were told to move everyone away from the area, and we didn’t get to see anything at all.

I did enjoy telling 2UE’s Glenn Wheeler about my experiences just after 12:15 though.

And with that, the important dates are as follows:

Monday, October 15: Scheduled Parliament sitting suspended from midday.
Wednesday, October 17: House of Representatives to be dissolved at midday.
Issue of writs, commanding the Australian Electoral Commission to conduct the election.
Monday, October 22: Close of electoral rolls.
Tuesday, October 23: Close of electoral rolls. (Somehow the Australian Electoral Commission told John Howard the wrong date and have since corrected it)
Thursday, November 1: Close of candidate nominations.
Saturday, November 24: Election day.

May the most favoured candidates win!

End Update

Further update 2:32pm: Friend and 1WAY FM employee Tim Malone was there with me. Tim has written his account of the morning ^[14] on his blog, and seemingly went to a lot more effort with his video coverage than I did.

Those of you who were watching Kieran Gilbert’s marathon coverage of the morning on Sky News, or watched the videos on news.com.au ^[15] may have spotted Tim crossing the road. In case you missed it, here it is again.
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End Update

Samuel