2 days Ago By Daniel Casey
We’re now in the last week of the official campaign. Luckily, as nearly every newsletter is at pains to mention, early voting has now started, so you can pop down to your local pre-poll and check out for the rest of the campaign if you wish. This is a choice more and more of us are exercising, making it more difficult for parties to decide when to make policy announcements .
It means you may miss out on a democracy sausage , but we don’t think a Spam sandwich is appealing either! Donation station For Labor HQ, the early voting surge was an excuse for seeking more donations: For us, however, the spam keeps on rolling. This week, we received 48 e-newsletters, with Labor still dominating. Eggciting times Our party leaders took a brief moment to acknowledge the passing of Pope Francis over the Easter Weekend.
Although religiosity isn’t exactly on the rise — around 20% of Australians identify as Catholic and 44% identify as Christian — parties are keenly aware of religious demographics when they campaign . Additionally, both major party leaders have mentioned they’re “culturally” Catholic , and even the most hard-boiled atheist is in favour of chocolate eggs. We therefore expected a few Easter messages in our newsletters this week.
However, only two MPs had anything substantive to say beyond a cursory “stay safe/enjoy the long weekend” sign-off. Newly independent Russell Broadbent (Monash, Victoria) wrote: Henry Pike (Bowman, Qld, LNP) wrote: Easter didn’t get a mention from the remainder of our spammers — including Michael McCormack (Nationals, NSW), whose seat of Riverina is more than 30% Catholic; and Senator David Smith (ALP, ACT), who is co-chair of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship. Maybe it reflects Australians’ discomfort with mixing religion and politics .
With all that being said, one might not have expected an Easter message from the hardly conservative Greenslanders, Stephen Bates (Brisbane), Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith) and Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan). However, all three were spruiking free community events, with Max and Elizabeth even popping on a set of rabbit ears for the occasion. Oddly specific pork Meanwhile, while everyone was eating eggs, our MPs continued serving pork — especially Colin Boyce (LNP MP for Flynn), who announced the following campaign promises: $100,000 to the Springsure Men’s Shed to fit out and establish its premises $16,560 to Callide United Football Club for a new toilet and shower building $40,800 towards the Gladstone Clay Target Club, including internal and external paintwork, internal floors and new toilets.
“Keen shooter” Bridget McKenzie decided to join Colin Boyce at the announcement, dusting off her rifle again (anyone remember the sports rorts?) $37,499 to the Moura Hack & Pony Club to replace the dressage arena and carry out upgrades to its canteen $106,157 to the Moore Park Beach Men’s Shed to fit out its new shed We do wonder about the bizarrely specific grant amounts here. Perhaps they’re related to those oddly specific donation requests ? Honed messages Labor MPs weren’t immune to the temptation to serve up some local pork, such as the road infrastructure investment mentioned by Matt Keogh, member for Burt. However, the ALP’s major theme this week was a strong anti-Dutton message.
While the Liberals were all about “getting Australia back on track”, Labor was warning voters that “Dutton wants to cut everything, except your taxes”. (Source: Pat Conroy, Shortland) However, it was Dan Repacholi, the big man from the Hunter, who took this week’s prize for not mincing his words after a recent visit by Dutton to the electorate: Honourable mention for negativity goes to the Liberals’ Claire Chandler, who continues to focus on transgender issues, warning voters of “total subservience to the radical-left extreme ideology”. It wasn’t all negative, though.
In a rare show of bipartisan solidarity, Dr Gordon Reid, Labor MP for Robertson, received a video endorsement from the former Liberal MP for his seat, the Hon Pat Farmer: Received any notable spam this election? We want to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected].
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