For the last week or so I've been considering the rather naughty possibility of voting multiple times at the upcoming ACT election to help ensure my desired outcome, however as I like to be informed of the potential consequences of my actions, I decided to find out what the penalty for this could be. According to the ACT Electoral Act 1992, Section 130, the maximum penalty for this is $5000 or six months imprisonment. This is in stark contrast to the fine for failing to turn up at a polling place to get your name ticked off, which is $20 according to the electoral commission or $50 according to the act.
Needless to say, I have decided that spending my whole day voting as many times as humanly possible just isn't worth the trouble…although I have to admit that I find it amusing that the commission will take people to court who fail to pay the $20 fine for not voting…the court costs on that must be astronomical.
2UE’s Paul B. Kidd has announced that he has bladder cancer and will be off the air for the next six weeks.
Paul made the announcement today on his weekend show with George Moore.
I can’t find much about this online other than people saying that he made the announcement, so I really don’t have any more information about this at this time. None-the-less, I wish Paul a speedy recovery and will be writing to him in the coming days to express my best wishes for him.
Paul has been co-hosting weekend programming with George Moore since 2001 and is well known, amongst other things, for being the voice of “Dolly”, the Weekend Quiz scorekeeper. Paul, a well-known crime-writer, also presents a weekly segment on the show about a notable crime from Australia’s past, which can be heard on the George and Paul page of the 2UE website.
This email was sent at 9:46pm. I’m not sure why it didn’t appear automatically at 10pm
Hi Stuart,
When the planet and the universe aren't destroyed by the recreation of The Big Bang in the giant hadron collider, do you think the scientific community will accept that Intelligent Design is more likely to be an accurate theory than The Big Bang theory? Or will they just claim that they either found something wonderful or didn't quite calibrate the machinery correctly, and then deviate on to a "by the way, did we tell you that the planet is warming and it's all our fault" tangent?
Just to be fair, if they do manage to destroy the planet and the universe, I'll be more than happy to admit that they were right. If only they would extend the same courtesy to me and my fellow Intelligent Design believers.
If the experiment is successful and detsorys everything, can you imagine the scientists in fifty billion years time when they discover that a previous group of scientists created their universe in an underground tunnel?
Singapore airlines are lowering their fuel surcharge tomorrow on some flights, including some Australian services.
Now, just watch the enthusiasm with which other airlines will follow suit. Is that a vacant queue of airline executives I see over there?
It (with the last rate cut excluded) will be much like most interest rate cuts. The reserve bank can cut rates…but the banks don’t have to rush to follow suit.
I’m currently flicking between the ABC TV and Radio 6PR coverages of the Western Australian State Election which is certainly looking like a very close and interesting result, with either a narrow Labor victory or a narrow Coalition victory likely depending on which second your compare the results.
Labor do not seem confident on the ABC coverage, whilst a 6PR poll yesterday indicated a Liberal victory.
From the ABC coverage, all I can say is that I pity poor Antony Green who is battling probably the worst set of computer malfunctions that the ABC have ever had in an election coverage. They’re missing data from some seats, having erroneous results and predictions show up in others, and just not getting the graphics to display for a whole other set.
This election is very likely to go right down to the wire, and if it’s close enough, we might not have definitive result tonight, although I will admit that my body clock is slightly out on this one due to the timezone difference.
I had a chat with ACT Liberal senator Gary Humphries in Weston today and he indicated to me that his colleagues in WA really just didn’t know which way it would go…it was that close. It seems that the mood has changed since then if the Labor and Liberal reactions on ABC TV and 6PR are anything to go by.
My prediction, based on current data and the more consistent bits of ABC data, a hung parliament with the Liberals getting up on the backing of independents.
Update 11:13PM Canberra/ 9:13PM Perth: The ABC seem to think that the Greens’ preferences are doing something odd, and favouring the coalition more than Labor. I may have underestimated the effect of those preferences because the ABC computer is now giving Labor 23 seats, the coalition 27, 4 to others and 5 undecided. About the only thing which can save Labor now is a failure of the Liberals and the Nationals to form a coalition…something which is a 25-30% chance considering that the WA nationals aren’t overly keen on forming a coalition. I would think that they will do so after some chats and knowing that it would get them in to power. End Update
Update 12:06am Canberra/10:06pm Perth: WA Labor Leader Alan Carpenter announces that he believes the result will be a hung parliament with more seats belonging to Labor than Liberal, and the cross-bench to be the deciding factor. He, much like the rest of us, does not expect a definitive result tonight.
Some odd “move WA forward” statements which, along with his speech pattern, make him sound a bit like Morris Iemma.End Update
Update 12:12am Canberra/10:12pm Perth: That was odd, it wasn’t an acceptance or concession speech, but it sounded very downbeat. It didn’t sound like Mr. Carpenter likes his chances. End Update
Update 12:20am Canberra/10:20pm Perth: The ABC computer is predicting 27 seats to Labor, 25 to the Liberals, four to the Nationals and three to the rest. Federal Liberal MP Julie Bishop has made the interesting point that a large number of electorates in WA were redistributed in favour of the city and against the country areas where the Nationals traditionally poll well, in an almost deliberate attempt to wipe out the Nationals. As such, it would be odd for the Nationals to end up siding with Labor and giving them power. End Update
Update 12:28am Canberra/10:28pm Perth: Liberal leader Colin Barnett is presenting a speech now and seems considerably more happy than Alan Carpenter did. End Update
Update 12:32am Canberra/10:32pm Perth: Mr. Barnett says that the people of Western Australia have rejected the Carpenter government. He has said everything you would expect of an acceptance speech, other than actually claiming victory, instead saying “we’re not there yet, but we’re not far off”. End Update
Update 12:34am Canberra/10:34pm Perth: Kerry O’Brien has noted that Alan Carpenter mentioned the National Party, but Colin Barnett did not. This is interesting because the Nationals appear to be the party which will be needed in order for either of the major parties to form government. End Update
Update 12:51am Canberra/10:51pm Perth: Kerry O’Brien and Antony Green mentioned just before they left for the night that the electoral commission are being somewhat confusing and have some recounts to do, and some booths have not been counted yet. Normally Sunday would not be a counting day, but a confirmation day…on this occasion, nobody knows what’s going on, and we probably won’t have a final result until at least some stage on Monday. Kudos to the ABC for further delaying their already delayed Paralympic opening ceremony coverage on ABC1 to stay with the election coverage for an extra hour, and running it at the scheduled time on ABC2 and ABC HD instead.
Not so sure about the fact that 666 ABC Canberra, Radio National, and NewsRadio were showing absolutely no interest in relaying the 720 ABC Perth coverage though. And would it have been too much to ask to have ABC TV’s coverage relayed on ABC2 across the nation?
6PR are still on the coverage sound like they will be until the top of the hour. End Update
Update 12:56am Canberra/10:56pm Perth: 6PR’s coverage is now over. Both 6PR and the ABC believe that the end result will be a Liberal government of one form or another (either coalition with Nationals, or on the back of Independent support). End Update
Update 1:49am Canberra/11:49pm Perth: AAP are cautiously awarding the election to the Liberal party, whose leader they seem to have some rather peculiar medical information about:
The West Australian Liberals are poised to form government .. but face tough negotiations with the Nationals to enable them to do so.
Resurrected Opposition Leader COLIN BARNETT needed to take nine seats from Labor to form a conservative government with the help of the Nationals.
In a remarkable comeback the Liberals are now almost certain to win ten .. with huge swings of more than six per cent against the government in many seats exceeding poll predictions of a four per cent swing to the opposition.
Labor appears unlikely to be able to gain more than 27 seats in the 59-seat parliament.
The Liberals are likely to take 25 and the Nationals four .. with two independents and another seat to be decided.
Resurrected eh? I’d love to see the press release that they got that from, it would make for some very interesting reading. End Update.
I just noticed that Murray Olds is filling in for Tim Webster this afternoon on 2UE and 2CC. The Fairfax Radio Syndication website indicates that he will be filling in all week.
It’s nice to hear Murray on the radio again and to hear that he came back from Beijing safely. Of the possible fill-ins, he is definitely my preferred choice, although I have to admit that if Glenn Wheeler were still at 2UE, he’d be my pick of the crop.
Oddly, and for no immediately apparent reason, Sports Today NSW is being pushed back by 45 seconds, and will start at 18:08.00 instead of 18:07:15 starting tomorrow, and running through until September 26. John Gibbs (who has been referred to as Phil Gibbs in the Rugby World Cup material) is also on leave this week, being replaced by:
Russell Barwick and Bill Woods – Sep 1;
Russell Barwick – Sep 2 and 3;
Bill Woods – Sep 4 and 5.
To clarify that for the sake of anybody who is trying to work out (without help from Fairfax) why he needs two fill-ins tonight, that’s because Greg Alexander is also away tonight, tending to his NRL commentary duties with Fox Sports. Somebody has to clarify this stuff…although why I walk into doing it is beyond me.
Back to Murray Olds for a moment, perhaps John B1_B5 was right when he suggested that Furry Murray should be his theme song:
