ah politics
WARNING: EXTREMELY LOCAL POST.
We have an election in our neighbourhood on Saturday, to replace John Thwaites, the retiring State Treasurer. I’ve had the usual correspondence about the glories of the future member, as part of the democratic process.
But today I also had a letter from someone called Sue Loukomitis, saying that “I was alarmed to read about the Victorian Greens Party Policy to close Mac. Robertson Girls’ and Melbourne High Schools.
She then selectively quotes the Greens education policy, and says that “As a former student of Mac. Rob I am stunned by this policy.” She tells us that “I have often voted for the Greens in the past…. I can no longer vote for the Greens while they plan to take away the opportunity for our kids to attend good public schools based on their merit.”
Just on the face of it, this letter is dumb. A single issue monomaniac inviting other people to be the same. I am pretty unhappy about the Bay channel dredging policy, and the ALP’s attitude to conservation gives me the complete shits, but I still vote for them because I support the general direction of their politics, and they are the best practical alternative.
But who is this Sue Loukomitis, who is asking us to trust her? I feel I have the right to know, and the information is not on the page. She could be the Sue Loukomitis from the Neuropsychology Laboratory at Swinburne University, or the Sue Loukomitis who fought the Glen Eira Council to keep the Caulfield Child Care centre in 2003, or the Sue Loukomitis who is Director and General Manager of Auspoll whose “work in Local Government saw her involved in most of the exceptional change management processes of the sector during the 1990s. This included key positions in administration, human resources and competitive tendering.”
Maybe this is the same person. But if I was a Sue Loukomitis who is not signing a form letter attacking the Greens, I would feel that my name has been misused. Particularly if I was a member of the Greens, which is not a statistical impossibility.
We do of course know where this comes from. On the bottom it says it is authorised by Stephen Newnham. You might think that the absence of any identifying information about him signifies that he is just some old buffer who cares about the education of high achieving girls. With the might of Google, we know better. He is the State Secretary of the Australian Labor Party, an organisation that seems temporarily to have lost both its name and logo.
That nice Greg Combet, now standing for federal parliament after being an ACTU hero, sent me a letter today as well, endorsing the local ALP candidate. The slightly eccentric layout of that letter is identical to this one. It was also authorised by Mr Newnham, who still can’t find a logo. The Combet letter is folksy and nice, with his photo on it, and its clear what he wants and where he comes from. It contains this sentence:
“The commitment to decency and justice is what defines a good society.”
Well put, comrade. Do you think you could maybe find these sleazebags who sent me that smeary letter and tell them to fuck off where they came from, so I can vote for the ALP now and in the federal election without feeling sick?
The little character at the top, by the way, is a pubic louse. Which is how I see these parasites on the body politic.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:50 am
“so I can vote for the ALP now and in the federal election without feeling sick?”
Ah, David, but you can’t. With the way things are going, you’ll have to bite back the rising bile and shove the old red flag over your mouth to stop the sick spilling out in order to do that.
Or embrace the old green triangle…
It may give them a start or two ; )
September 11th, 2007 at 11:54 am
It is of course, the lovely, Sue Loukomitis current Director and General Manager of Auspoll that counts amongst it clients The Labor Party. It is acceptable under current electoral law to pull this sought of stunt. Pretty damn sleazy, though.
See Sues clients here….
http://www.auspoll.com.au/people/index.htm
Further, it is worth checking out more of Mr Newnham’s backed work, on this site. I believe he has a masters in bulldust.
http://greens-liberal-deal.com.au/
September 11th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Hmmm… I’ve been receiving similar – but different – flyers in the letterbox in the other electorate (Bracksy’s old seat), though I believe it did have the ALP’s name on it. Something about the Greens voting with the Liberals X% of the time (I can’t remember what X was, but it was a high number – 70, 80, 90 or something like that). There was no descriptions as to what the Greens were voting against, just the selective drip-feed of information that painted them in a bad light. The idea was that voting for the Greens is akin to voting for those godforsaken Liberals. I thought in some cases it could have been that the Liberals were with the Greens in opposing things that should be opposed. But without any details, I don’t know. That’s politics, I suppose. But I don’t have to like it. I see it as treating your constituents with contempt, belittling their intelligence. I too, would put the ALP ahead of the Liberals any day, for pretty much the same reason expressed.
BTW, for some strange reason, I thought you were a Sydneyite. We’re almost neighbours (and before I moved to this side of the bay, I lived in your electorate for 10 years).
September 13th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Yes, same sleazy labor stunts as were pulled at the last state election, with the lying letter from Peter Garret rabbiting on about some ficticious preference deal that I looked for but found no evidence of.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
We have received four… friggin’ … letters from the ALP lately telling us to vote for them. I just checked the last one before it went into the paper recycling and guess who’s name is at the bottom. Yes, Mr S. Newnham.
And comments are closed on the latest post on his godawful site. Wonder why?
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