I got my sausage at the polling place sausage sizzle, so I was happy.
There seemed to be a few wedding parties about during the afternoon. I guess they’d managed to find church halls that weren’t being used for polling. (One wedding party on the steps of St Paul’s in Bentleigh were memorably sipping from stubbies. Steeling the groom’s nerves perhaps?)
By 6:30pm we tuned into the ABC, but occasionally flicked over to 7 (Mel and Kochie), 9 (Laurie et al) and 10 (The Empire Strikes Back, which might have been an omen for some people).
Frankly I didn’t believe it when Stephen Smith from the ALP declared early on that he reckoned they’d gain 20 to 25 seats. He turned out to be right on the money.
Very funny moment when Kerry was talking about Maxine McKew and accidentally said “ABC gain” instead of “ALP gain”. Kerry also seemed to try to calm Antony down when his computer crashed, and started to get a bit hot under the collar when rowdy ALP supporters in the Tally Room started to get noisy.
Channel 7 was going overboard on the flashy graphics and that set of knick-knacks — what was that about? The little caricatures of Rudd and Howard as they showed the various seats. Not to be out-done, Channel 9 put MPs losing their seats through a little “Into the shredder” animation. This is why we tuned to the ABC… to avoid the ads and lame jokes… and indeed they won the ratings for the night.
Channel 7 did show us the grinning Peter Beattie and the very sad looking Joe Hockey during the PM’s concession speech though.
And so following his ascension to power, now the glorious prime ministership of the mighty Rudd begins. Kyoto ratification? Bring it on, Kevvy-baby!
10 replies on “Election notes”
Daniel
thanks for the summary of election TV coverage. Seems Channel 9 can’t do anything right. The opinion polls largely got it right, it seems.
Rog.
Well, nice to see you Aussies voted for change. Let’s hope Kevvie-baby can get something done. Bring on the modern era and sweep out those Howard cobwebs.
We flicked between the coverage on 7, 9 and ABC just to see how outraged we could get lol! ”
We were appalled by the ‘Tower of Power!!’ on Channel 7 which showed the seats ‘won’ (read call as won by Channel 7) as a graphic of floors in the Eureka Tower [brought to you by Myer]. I wondered if in Sydney, the Tower of Power was a graph against CentrePoint and in Hobart, a graph against the Casino…!!!
I was so sorry to have missed Kerry’s ‘ABC Gain’ comment and his tearing up at Maxine’s speech – anyone know where I can find video?? Been unsuccessful in searching YouTube and ABC
cheers
Shell
I had to vote absentee even though I have been enrolled in my electorate for two years. According to one of the ballot supervisors this happens to “hundreds of people” every time around. Hmmmmm.
My sausage from the sizzle was delicious and they had plenty of crusts which I always request mine to be in. Holds the innards much better that way.
Hope Labor live up to their promises whilst at the same time not going overboard with the spending.
I was a bit embarassed to ask “what’s a sausage sizzle?” but have since found out by asking a friend from Aus what it’s all about. Essentially a traditional way of raising funds in a very simple manner, correct? We don’t have that here in Canada, anyhow. :)
Yes Toria; they sell you a cooked sausage in a slice of bread (with or without onions) for about $2. Common fundraiser used by schools and community groups.
No reason to ratify Kyoto when it finishes in 2012
What, only five years left so it’s not worth it? Better late than never.
And importantly, it means a seat at the table for discussion of future protocols.
But Kyoto doesn’t finish in 2012. The first commitment period ends in 2012. With ratification of the treaty, we should now have a seat at the table to shape the future of the protocol post-2012. This is the best chance we’ve got to prevent climate catastrophy, so let’s grab it.
Yes, and bring on years and years of asinine public transport management. Even your own PTUA gave Labor a D-, whereas the Libs got D.
It’s good that he’s signing the Kyoto protocol, but just plain hypocritical when we observe that pulp mill construction site.