Re: The Federal Election Thread - 2007 (part two)

[G.Wood]

and Jimboomba could certainly do with Pauline's touch so it's a win-win

[embee]

Warwick Capper tackles Pauline Hanson's Beaudesert campaign
Article from: AAP

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Angela Harper, AAP

March 02, 2009 11:37am

IT could be game on for Pauline Hanson as former AFL star Warwick Capper looks set to run against her in the Queensland election.

Warwick Capper has challenged Pauline Hanson to an election cook-off in the March 21 Queensland poll.

The former Aussie Rules star said he lodged his nomination this morning to contest the Gold Coast hinterland seat of Beaudesert, and will kick off his campaign tomorrow with a bevy of placard-carrying bikini girls from a national men's magazine.

"Yeah - Zoo Magazine's sponsoring me and they're paying for it and providing the bikini girls with placards," he said.

"Politics is like a popularity contest sometimes isn't it - but I'm pretty popular too and I think I'd fit in okay there."

Pauline Hanson also formally announced today she'll be contesting Beaudesert.

"We could have a bit of a cook-off between me and Pauline," Mr Capper said.

"She's got the fish shop and I'm about to open a coffee shop called Warwick Cappuccino soon in Surfers, and if I win in Beaudesert I might open one out there too and give out free cappuccinos and a muffin.

"I wouldn't live out there 'cos there's too many flies but I'll go out there a couple of times a week and campaign and do what I could," he said.

The man famous for wearing the shortest shorts in Aussie Rules says he also wants to clean up the Beaudesert area by imposing a curfew.

"I want to keep people off the streets - there's too many fights and drugs out there," he said.
"I want to get everybody off the streets by 11 o'clock at night because there's too many fights between the multicultural people and the whites out there.

"There's too much violence between the different races and the different coloured skins and what have you, so I want to try to clean that up and bring everyone together.

"And I want to make more water available to the farmers out there who are going broke.

"Somehow I want to see more money going back into the farmers' pockets because they're not getting enough rebates and they're going broke and committing suicide out there because they can't afford the water.

"Politics is a bit of a joke and I'm the king of the jokers but I think we do have to get a bit serious sometimes," he said.

Mr Capper said he would swap his BMW for a Hummer if he won the election.

Asked what he knew about the Beaudesert area, he said: "I went there once - a fair few Aborigines and very multicultural out there.

"But nice place. I used to have a bit of land out there at Canungra."

His comments came on the eve of Pauline Hanson's formal announcement that she will contest the seat.

If Mr Capper does run for the seat he would be expected to formally kick off tomorrow, the last day to nominate.

Mr Capper and Ms Hanson share the same publicist, celebrity agent Max Markson.

[Bradman]

This thread is apparently FEDEXII. Which can't be called for at least fifteen months.

Pauline Hanson? Warwick Capper? WTF?

[bodyline]

I see the dirty pinkos are up to their old tricks - (not even talking about the return of the bag men in the cops up here)

Jobs for the boys!

Of all the Rudd Government’s ambitious ''nation building'' plans, its scheme to plough billions of dollars into building a superfast communications network is the most risky and dubious.


The government believes that high-speed broadband will underwrite the nation's future prosperity and that it must step in because the market has failed to deliver this critical infrastructure.


But whatever the nation's need for speed when it comes to communication, it does not justify rushing decisions, cutting corners, and side-stepping good governance when it comes to deploying taxpayer funds.


The latest instance of the government's erosion of the normal processes of policy-making and public administration is the appointment of Mike Kaiser as a senior executive with NBN Co.


A highly-regarded Labor political strategist, Kaiser was appointed last November to the $450,000 a year position as head of government relations and external affairs for NBN Co, the government-owned company which is to build the $43 billion broadband network.


Now we have learnt that there was a singular lack of process around this hiring - and apparently around many of the hirings at NBN Co.


In response to Opposition questions at a Senate estimates hearing on Monday, NBN Co's chief executive Mike Quigley said it was Communications Minister Stephen Conroy who had suggested Kaiser for the position.


Quigley told the hearing that after Kaiser was mentioned by Senator Conroy he had referred the name to NBN Co's head of human resources.

Kaiser was hired after two interviews, one with Quigley, and reference checks. The job was not advertised. There was no executive search process. No other candidates were short-listed.


Yet Quigley insisted this was an appropriate selection processs. ''We made an assessment against what we believed the job needed to have. We've done that in other circumstances also,'' he told the Senate standing committee on environment, communications and the arts


Quigley said NBN Co had relied on similar referrals to find more than 40 per cent of its staff because it was growing rapidly. Its current 112 employeess were expected to rise to 300 by June.


The problem with all of this is not Kaiser's competence for the job.


Kaiser is a former ALP state secretary in Queensland. He was forced to resign as a state MP after revelations about branch-stacking in Queensland Labor.

After working as a key strategist on the ALP's 2004 national election campaign he was chief of staff to the former NSW premier Morris Iemma and then, until late last year, was chief of staff to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

His high-level political experience and exposure to government policy-making no doubt equip him well for the government and external relations role at NBN Co.


But in a $450,000 a year senior executive hiring, a wider field of potential candidates should have been identified and an initial assessment process should have produced a short-list for the final selection decision.


Last week the Australian National Audit Office released a report on the government's first, failed attempt to find a private sector partner to build an earlier incarnation of the national broadband network.


The government spent $17 million in 2008 running a ''request for proposals'' process seeking bids from the private sector to build the network with $4.7 billion of public funds.


This exercise failed to elicit any bids representing value for money, prompting the government to establish NBN Co to build an even bigger and faster $43 billion fibre-to-the-premises network. The ANAO report showed the government's rush to get the original network under way contributed to the failure of the original competitive assessment process.

The report is littered with observations about the trade-off between speed and risk management in any major government procurement exercise.

The fast-tracking of the Kaiser appointment suggests the government has learnt little.

[skully]

I see the dirty pinkos are up to their old tricks - (not even talking about the return of the bag men in the cops up here)

Jobs for the boys!

the Rudd Government - risky and dubious.

This is the only bit I read.

[CT]

oh please doesn't all govts including the liberal sooks who have changed leaders like their underwear, give jobs for the boys.