Canberra Report – Doddcasting 29 November

Canberra – recriminations edition

As the Liberals take power, let the recriminations begin. There’ll be bloody hands monitoring the shredder in Spring St this morning.

The preference decision was key. When the Liberals decided not to go with the Greens, they not only got clear air, they made it a two horse race. And now we’ve got Ted.

This will make a few Canberrans very nervous this morning, particularly in the ALP. Victorian’s were the most progressive state in the Federal Poll, and while there’s a danger in inferring anything federally from State polls, we can say this.

The ALP admitted throughout the campaign that they weren’t too sure what they believed in. The Liberals stood for reducing crime. It’s pretty simple.

But, given that the ALP and Greens parties were in the same pub after the Victorian poll, I can definitely report more safety on Victoria’s streets after Saturday night.

Maybe the Liberals should get voted in South Australia to clean up the violence on their streets, with Kevin Foley being attacked outside a pub at 4.30AM.

Although police I spoke to were mostly reporting self harm from the ALP. And while our former colleague Shannon told me during the week Brumby was going to piss it in, at least his current employer knows where it is at, stating that the ALP lost because it focused too much on the Greens.

Shannon’s not alone. My favourite flaws come from ‘political expert’ Nick Economou, who predicted an ALP win over and over. Nothing says lazy journalism like quotes from this battler. But while he looks stupid, I suppose we can be relived that he didn’t hurt anyone.

How could you not focus on the Greens – Greg Barber’s comments had a gawk-factor, being a bit like a car accident, except one which caused others to crash and not merely be delayed.

So let’s cut to Canberra proper. The recriminations are more specific here, with everyone back in town for a vote on the NBN.

The irony. Couldn’t the have a division on Facebook, from the beach? Not yet. Anyway, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the waste of resources for everyone having to move holidays and return to the big house.

What this does say very clearly is that politicians don’t actually like Parliament.

However, the headline of the day could be “Gay push ‘will hurt ALP’” in the Australian. Take it slow guys, and use lots of lube.