Parliamentary Privilege
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
– William Shakespeare, “Othello”, Act 3 scene 3
The following is from the LDP site.
“The Liberal Democratic Party rated a mention in Federal Parliament yesterday when the member for Prospect Chris Bowen falsely accused the Party of electoral skullduggery.
“Under Parliamentary privilege, Mr. Bowen suggested the LDP were placing people at random on our list of members, and encouraging them to tell the Australian Electoral Commission that they were obliging members, should they happen to call.”
On checking the circumstances, I was informed that the party had a membership application form from the person involved, that he was elderly, and a Justice of the Peace.
libertarian blogs & federal election
Well, the results are now in for the 2007 best libertarian solo-blogger. Among allegations of electoral fraud, rapid fluctations of fortune, selling sex (pommy) and drawing on our racist fears (fleeced), we have received an unprecidented 1191 votes.
And the winner is… Andrew Norton. Both Andrew and Pommygranate received 13%, but Andrew had a handful more votes. Fleeced finished in 3rd with 12% and Jennifer Marohasy came in 4th with 11%. All very worthy contenders.
And for the next poll we will look at the voting intentions of the libertarian blogosphere. There is a federal election expected around October/November this year and most current polls are predicting a victory to the social democratic Labor Party. But five months is a long time in politics and Howard’s conservative Liberal party has come from behind to win before.
Despite their slow-motion decline, the rural conservative Nationals will expect to remain the 3rd party in Australia. Australia’s most left-wing serious party, the Greens, have a chance of taking Senate control at this election, while the centre-left Democrats are fighting to stay alive.
This will be the first federal election where the moderate-libertarian Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will be standing candidates, competing for a final Senate spot. The Christian conservative Family First Party also will be trying to repeat their 2004 success. Finally One Nation (and/or Pauline’s new United Australia Party*) will be trying to bring the nationalist-conservative fringe of Australian politics back to life. I’ve also given the option of “other” and for people who don’t vote.
* If you want to vote for Pauline’s United Australia party, please tick the “One Nation” box.
UPDATE 02/06/07: When I declared the voting outcome I forgot to turn off the poll… and in the past few days we have had another 350 mystery votes. I have now turned off voting. Andrew is still coming first and Pommy second, with Fleeced and Jennifer Marohasy tied for third.
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