Posts filed under 'General News'
Originally posted October 13 at 10:17pm
2UE are reporting that the prime minister is currently en route to Sydney Airport, is about to fly to Canberra, and will visit the Governor-General tomorrow to call the election.
One wonders if, finishing answers to all the outstanding questions I have to attend to first, I should join the media scrum outside the Governor-General’s residence tomorrow morning and wait for the election to be called?
Update: 14 October at 6:39am: The tip is that John Howard will be visiting Michael Jeffrey at Government House between 9am and 11am, and as I have (to the best of my knowledge) answered all the questions posted on this blog as comments, and scheduled answering the handful of remaining emails for later today, I intend of being there when John Howard arrives. This is an important day in the history of democracy in this nation, and I strongly believe my place today, as a candidate, is right there when the announcement is made. I will take the camera with me, so if John Howard holds an impromptu press conference outside Government House, which he probably will, I will record it.
This isn’t quite related, but I will post my answers to questions as a new article either later today, or tomorrow morning. End Update
Further update: 14 October at 6:44am: AAP have just released an updated story, and are being less specific than me about the time of John Howard’s expected visit, simply saying that “Cameras are already set up outside Government House at Yarralumla to catch the PM’s expected visit this morning”. End Update
Samuel
October 14th, 2007 at 06:39am
I had given up on predicting when the prime minister will call the election, but in the last few days I have come to the conclusion that I believe I know when the election will be called, so I will predict it.
The Governor-General will be back in Canberra on Friday, and I believe that if John Howard were to leave the announcement until Friday or later, he would suffer another round of “why haven’t you called the election yet?” taunts, and so I believe he will try to catch everyone by surprise on Thursday by announcing the date, and then he will ask the Governor-General to dissolve the relevant section of parliament on Friday.
This would make the election date either November 17th, November 24, December 1, December 8 or December 15, and I believe John Howard will choose November 24.
As it stands, if John Howard does announce the election on Thursday, 2CC’s Mike Welsh owes me a Kit Kat, and if John Howard announces the election on Friday I owe Mike a Kit Kat. I’m not entirely sure if we will owe each other a Kit Kat if Mr. Howard doesn’t call the election on either day.
Samuel
October 9th, 2007 at 10:02am
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.
Samuel
September 21st, 2007 at 05:15pm
After hearing a mildly dubious phone call to John Kerr on 2CC this morning, I have sent the following email to Tanya Plibersek MP, the Labor member for the federal seat of Sydney and shadow minister for human services, housing, youth and women.
Dear Ms. Plibersek,
I am writing in relation to call to 2UE’s overnight program (relayed through a number of other stations) at about 1:30 this morning (Monday September 17, 2007) in which the caller claimed to have received an email from your office stating that, if Labor are elected to government, you plan on increasing the petrol excise by six cents per litre.
I must say that I find this claim quite extraordinary, and I am wondering if it is accurate. Do you plan on increasing the petrol excise by six cents per litre, or any other amount for that matter?
Please note that I am publishing this email on my website at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/2007/09/petrol-excise and intend on publishing your reply unless you explicitly request otherwise.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
Email: samuel@samuelgordonstewart.com
Postal Address:
PO Box 1272
Dickson ACT 2602
Mobile: xxxx xxx xxx
I have blotted out my mobile number in this reproduction, however I did include it in my email to Ms. Plibersek. I look forward to her reply.
Samuel
September 17th, 2007 at 08:49am
I wasn’t really paying attention to Nine News tonight, however it grabbed my interest when a very familiar voice appeared. It was the voice of ex-ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell making a comment about a proposal to give overweight people with chronic illnesses money to attend weight loss programs.
Apparently Kate Carnell is the chief executive officer of the Australian General Practice Network these days. It’s good to see that she is doing well.
A short time later Nine reporter Allison Langdon mentioned “chronic hillnesses”, something I can only hope no human ever develops, as I think we have enough hills and mountains on the planet as it is.
Samuel
September 12th, 2007 at 06:30pm
As you have probably heard by now, the latest NewsPoll has the Labor party leading the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis 59% to 41%
If those figures are accurate, then I should probably walk around Lake Burley Griffin as often as possible during the next parliamentary sitting later this year, as it could be the last chance I ever have to meet John Howard.
During the last sitting period, I took Nattie for a walk along the National Library’s side of the lake. It was a good walk, but I was mildly annoyed when I saw John Howard heading back to the lodge in his government car as we were walking across the Commonwealth Avenue bridge.
I would like to meet Mr. Howard at least once while he is still prime minister. He is currently my preferred prime minister by a decent margin, but even if he wasn’t, I have a lot of respect for him and his achievements. If the polls are accurate and he doesn’t win the next election, then I hope he will be happy with the knowledge that he was fortunate enough to attain the title of prime minister of a democratic nation, and hold it for a very long time.
Samuel
September 4th, 2007 at 06:06am
This morning as Nattie and I were walking along Limestone Avenue we passed Campbell High School where some students taking part in the “Road Ready” course were using a handheld speed camera to measure the speed of traffic travelling along Limestone Avenue. As we walked past there was a break in the traffic so they turned the camera on Nattie, and clocked her at 2.2 km/h.
Whilst it is a good thing that she was not exceeding the 60km/h speed limit, I dare say that, had she been travelling on the road, she may have been the lucky recipient of a not-quite-random breath test.
Samuel
August 30th, 2007 at 10:02am
“Better late than never” is a phrase I use far too often.
I have finally uploaded the photos of the lunar eclipse that I shot from the top of Mount Ainslie. They are available on the photo gallery at http://photos.samuelgordonstewart.com/lunar07
As the shadow of the earth was moving across the moon I took photos every five minutes…unfortunately the moon was too bright (and I don’t have the appropriate filters) to get a decent photo of the moon prior to the eclipse, but I did get some good photos of Canberra while I was on Mount Ainslie.
Some highlights include:
The full set of full size photos are available using the link above.
Samuel
August 30th, 2007 at 02:14am
Firstly, thank you to those of you who noticed my extended absence. It’s a long story and I won’t go in to it right now (and it’s not very interesting anyway). I do have a number of posts to catch up on, however I don’t know when I will get to them at this stage.
What I do know, however, is that I will be taking photos of tonight’s lunar eclipse, and I intend on putting those photos online for your enjoyment.
Samuel
August 28th, 2007 at 05:17pm
There appears to be some rather large and interesting storm activity around the Canberra region at the moment. The weather radar indicates that there is plenty of storm activity heading towards Canberra with some rather heavy rain to accompany it.
The storms also appear to have somewhat more powerful lightning strikes than usual, as they are completely disrupting AM radio signals rather than merely adding some crackle to them.
Update: Apparently the vast majority of the storm affected areas from Gungahlin through to Goulburn (and probably west towards Tumut). The Gungahlin Weather Centre has some interesting photos of the hail at http://www.gungahlinweather.com/photos/photography.htm
End Update
Samuel
July 27th, 2007 at 02:26pm
Today is prime minister John Howard’s 68th birthday. One does have to wonder if it will be his last birthday as prime minister…the polls certainly seem to indicate that it will be.
Samuel
July 26th, 2007 at 01:41pm
Thanks to 2CC’s Mike Frame for the heads up on this peculiar story…from news.com.au
WEARING his gold-framed glasses and gold headphones and sipping from his gold-rimmed cup yesterday, veteran broadcaster John Laws was down one vital glistening item – his golden mike.
Police are treating as suspicious the disapearance from his production office of the $10,000 nine carat gold microphone, presented to Lawsie in 2003 as a gift from 2UE management for his 50th year on the airwaves.
It is a one-off German Sennheiser, serial number JL 0001.
But Laws has been using another golden microphone, given to him for his 40th anniversary, since the brazen bandit looted the king of his prized instrument. “I’m very upset about it. It’s been part of my life,” Laws said yesterday.
Laws pleaded with the thief to return the microphone anonymously, saying he would not press charges if they did.
July 17th, 2007 at 07:05am
Video Ezy in Weston Creek was robbed yesterday afternoon.
The report I have received indicates that the large male offender managed to barge through the locked front door of the store shortly after it closed for the day, whilst the two female shop attendants were finishing up their end of day procedures.
The offender got away with $225 in cash.
At present I don’t have a description of the offender other than him being rather large, and I normally wouldn’t report on such a robbery here, however the fact that the offender managed to barge through the locked front door of the Video Ezy store makes him potentially more dangerous than your average robber, and the story a lot more interesting.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000
Update:
Here is the press release from ACT Police:
ACT Policing is investigating an armed robbery at the Video Ezy store in Weston last night (July 15) around 10pm.
The offender initially knocked on the door of the closed store requesting access to hire a movie. When the staff declined to let him in, he produced a knife and kicked the glass door, gaining access to the store.
The offender then threatened the two female staff members with the knife and demanded cash. He is described as male, Caucasian, approximately 30 years old, 168cms (5’6”) tall wearing a dark jumper and pants.
Witnesses last saw the offender leaving the area on a bicycle.
Police would urge anyone who may have seen this male in the Weston Creek area around the time of the offence, or who may know the identity of the offender to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
End Update
Samuel
July 16th, 2007 at 03:37am
It has been interesting this afternoon noticing that virtually the entire media has commented that the Live Earth series of continents are being held in seven continents concerts…but, that can’t be right…let’s list the continents.
1. Australia
2. Asia
3. Europe
4. Africa
5. North America
6. South America
7. Antarctica
And the Live Earth concerts are taking place in:
New York (North America)
London (Europe)
Sydney (Australia)
Rio de Janeiro (South America)
Tokyo (Asia)
Shanghai (Asia)
Johannesburg (Africa)
Hamburg (Europe)
Update: Mick has pointed out in the comments below that there will be a pre-recorded concert in Antartica…I stand corrected, but I still think the whole thing is a gigantic waste of time…probably great for the fans of the bands which are playing at the concerts though. End Update
All the continents except for Antarctica…so it’s only happening in six continents. That then brings me to the question of who is the source of this erroneous seven continents figure…with this many media outlets using the line, it almost has to be the publicist, and the Live Earth website confirms it:
Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
I can’t say that I’m entirely surprised that Al Gore is using inflated figures to promote this series of concerts to promote a questionable cause (and if carbon emissions really are to blame for climate change…how much more than usual is this concert series producing?).
Further Update: Mick also points out that the concerts are apparently carbon neutral. Someone must be making an awful lot of money selling those carbon credits! End Update
I, for one, am enjoying the cold and the rain!
Samuel
July 7th, 2007 at 05:12pm
2CC interrupted programming a short time ago to report that ACT Police have locked down and evacuated part of the suburb of Charnwood due to finding explosives in a house. I didn’t get all the details, but I’ll keep an ear out for further information.
Update 2:05pm: According to 2CC’s 2pm news, one person has been arrested and a dozen houses were evacuated in Saywell Place, Charnwood. End Update
Samuel
June 16th, 2007 at 01:11pm
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