This evening I went along to the campaign launch of my local member Grace Grace. To be upfront, I have been a huge fan of Grace Grace for some time – a ground breaker for women in Brisbane, who also can’t believe in this day and age, there is still a need for her to be a pioneer. I like that.
Over the course of the event, I spoke with party staff members, volunteers, a federal member, local councillor and many of the party faithful. Probably the greatest surprise of the evening was the truly eclectic representation of people in attendance. That has always been both the true spirit and vulnerability of the ALP – the wide variety of people and position it represents. This was reflected in a complaint I heard from another member’s staff, who told me he was frustrated with the lack of cohesion of message between the ALPQ, the campaign and what was happening on the ground. Obviously he felt that this was the reason that the “message” wasn’t able to get through, and therefore the Galaxy Poll results.
I said yesterday that I was waiting for the excitement of this campaign, and tonight I felt it in the grass roots of inner city Brisbane.
With a humourous lead in by Jim Soorley (previous Lord Mayor of Brisbane), the sitting Federal Member who represents my electorate, Arch Bevis and my local councillor David Hinchcliffe – I learnt a lot about Grace Grace. Probably the greatest surprise was that she was one of the two “rebels” who organised protests against the Iraq war, back when everyone thought invading was simply a grand idea. This revelation really took me aback and made me smile as I had no notion that was her. But enough of my love affair with my local member.
Naturally today’s Galaxy Poll results were mentioned – more than once. The ongoing themes on this topic were:
- I would rather be them than us with the numbers
- I would rather be us than them – period
- There can be no protest vote
- It is up to every single person to make sure ALPQ gets over the line
When I heard Grace Grace talk about the ALPQ policies, suddenly they weren’t just convenient sound bites, but well thought out ideas with real outcomes. When she said that she was all about jobs (don’t get me started on the differences between work and jobs – I am looking at you, Mr Springborg) I must admit that my cynicism clicked into overdrive, but I was pleasantly surprised. Commitment to the infrastructure projects, traineeship programs, 3000 green jobs, payroll tax cuts, and not slashing support and direction out of the public sector sounded pretty damned good. To be honest it was like I was watching MSNBC and FoxNews at the same time – Dichotomous views. Here we seem to have the best of both solutions from the US. Whether this was intentional or no I don’t know, but it should work.
Will the ALPQ win? Will Anna Bligh buck the trend and be the first elected female leader? Will the National Party win back Queensland (the LNP really is the National Party with a sprinkling of Liberal seasoning so you don’t notice the meat)? Two weeks till we find out.
But to close on a happy note -
My favourite part of the evening happened moments after a photo was taken of Grace Grace surrounded by Jim Soorley, Arch Bevis and David Hinchcliffe.
“This one’s for Facebook!”
{ 2 comments }
elections are such an exciting/nervous time, i have done it many times as a candidate (local gov. & Union executive), as well as ALP party member and simply member of public – its always got a similar energy to me and regardless of whether its me or another up for election i get the same sort of butterflies as a first date invokes!
anyway, nice piece as usual tae.
Thanks Rick – It is like having my own Flight of the Conchords fanclub – Do you mind if I call you Mel?
Taezar
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