SA Election - March 18. VOTE GREEN!

[Dohmar]

> As far as lower house, Greens, Democrats, Labor, Liberal, Family First I think is a good order to go about things.

 

I like that order too...FF need to be destroyed, Liberal needs to be whipped for being scumbags, Labour needs to be whipped for being pussies and a few more independants in the ranks surely wouldnt harm progress. I'll probably vote green tomorrow. Hemp party would get my vote if they didnt come across as, well, stoners. (Appearance is everything. and a single policy party is useless.)

 

-D

[Dohmar]

/ Begin Rant

Just got back from the polls

 

Proud to say I voted Greens for spots 1-5 and Hemp SA 6. Family First and company down in the 50s

 

And may I say, my soul feels *that* much better for it. Chucking the liberals and FF down the bottom was a great way to stick it to them and their policies.

 

Reading the paper this morning, I was not surprised that the primary backing of both Labor and Liberal have dropped. 1/3rd of the people polled said that they would vote for neither party. I was however surprised to see family first has increased its popularity to 7%, with the greens trailing 6%. If you're in Adelaide and have the Saturday Advertiser, you can read this article, its on page 2.

 

Was surprised to see an independant candidate with a main platform of anti drugs. I shall have to contact this member to see what their policy is on alcohol and cigarettes. I'm sure it's a totally hypocritical (in that I expect they to appear hardline and oppose everything but the currently legal drugs).

 

Whatever happens, I hope the pollies get a shock to the core. As bloodshot_eyes so eloquently put it, to "fuck shit up" is *the* most potent way to make the pollies sit up and take notice. They dont listen to polls or protests unless it suits them politically, but when it comes to election day, and you "fire" them, they take notice then.

 

I notice Rob Kerin has said that if he doesnt become premier this election he'll quit. I expect that he'll have stood down by Sunday evening at the latest, as a Labor victory is somewhat inevitable by looking at the numbers. This is unsurprising. What is interesting is who will hold the balance of power and how the independants and non-mainstream parties fare. This is one reason why the preference votes are so very important, as they let a minor party decide which of two potential governments are more in line with their own policies. And you can vote under the line and declare your personal preferences from 1-56.

 

Another election down. Lets see what labor does regarding cannabis this term. They made a lot of strong claims pre-election, hopefully they'll have to fight their own legislative council, and maybe some of their attempted plans won't get through. And maybe they just wont keep that promise, as is the modus operandi of most politicians.

 

Remember, Politics is an hybrid word...

 

Polis being "Many", and Tics being "blood-sucking parasites".

 

/end rant

-D

[bloodshot_eyes]

Well, I voted, very similarly to you Dohmar by the sound of things. Now we just play the waiting game.... It was funny actually, at the school I voted at, all the people handing out cards out the front were pretty full on. I cant believe the liberal bloke was so intent on getting me to take his how to vote card. I DO NOT look at all like a liberal voter. I look like a feral coming in from the commune with my long scragly hair and full beard. I just looked at him with that "you cant be serious" look .

[Guest niall]

Good luck guys. Pretty shocking figures for Family First in the polls, and the Democrats look like they've gotten the final nail in their coffin. Sounds like a vote for the Greens was the way to go.

[Dohmar]

Hey Bloodshot

Funnily enough the liberal candidate was at one end, the labor candidate was at the other and the greens and independants occupied the middle of a 'front' that any potential voter would have to fight thru. The labor guy went to offer me a pamphlet, I told him politely no thank you. Then the girl who was handing out greens 'how to vote' offered me one and I took one there. I think she could see my type, given i was wearing a tshirt with GW Bush on it saying 'A village in texas has lost its idiot'. The liberal guy just didnt bother. Thankfully

 

Was amusing, yesterday at work a liberal rep came in to spruik herself. We all said we lived out of the electorate and as polite as she was, I just couldnt engage in any dialogue. Just didnt feel right, esp as I was at work and didnt want to start a debate in the middle of the store...

 

Havent heard any news about FF but I sure as hell hope that they get relegated to the arse end of the political landscape. For the sake of all.

-D

[Dohmar]

On page 13 of todays Sunday Mail, the tallies have come in...

 

With just under 200,000 votes to be counted..

 

Unsurprisingly, The liberals did poorly and labor got most of the swing. (10 seats). Labor now have a majority government and will most likely use that to their full advantage when it comes to changing laws. Rann has already indicated he intends to have a public referendum to abolish the Upper House.

 

The greens also did well, getting 6%

Family First got 5%, but were aiming for 7% which shows some resistance to them.. nice to see the greens get ahead of FF.

 

Heres the relevant stuff for us..

The Independant member for Hemp got 5071 votes so far, almost as much as One nation (5857) and the Nationals (5230). Quite re-assuring, considering a half baked campaign....or was there even a campaign? Aside from this forum of course, because I never heard nor saw anything relating to the independant candidate for HEMP.

 

The Hemp party member beat "Dignity for the Disabled" and the shooters party, and aside from Independant Nick Xenophon doing very well on 160,000+ votes, Hemp was *second*, out of *all* Independant votes. It was a distant second, however its a significant victory. Not sufficient to get any seats, but enough to be noticed by the big guys.

 

On that showing alone, Mike Rann may or may not tone down and/or can his anti marijuana rhetoric, as the liberals took a more hardline stance and paid the price for it (and other issues). We can only hope that with the greens making some progress, hemp being given a proportionally large vote for an independant.

 

Incidentally, Nick Xenophon recieved so many votes, a colleague of his will be getting in too. I think her name is Ann Bressington and she is affiliated with a program called drugbeat.org in Adelaide, which recieves government funding. (http://www.drugbeat.org/)

 

While I'm not sure of the political aims of this individual, she will be someone worth watching as either a) She'd be for decriminalization and harm minimalization for drugs or Take a hardline stance against all drugs.

 

Time will tell.

-D

[Frazz]

Good report Dohmar thanks mate....Bressington rings a bell with me, as i recall she is, among other things the parent of a teenager who was involved with drugs of some kind or other, and died.

I could be wrong but ive got a feeling she is a fucking crusader against dope, please some one tell me iam wrong

 

 

[Dohmar]

Hi Frazzle

Did a bit of reading and yes you're right, she had a daughter who died of a heroin overdose. Reading the website, she says that her daughter started smoking marijuana by 13 and her boyfriend smoked, but gave up. Her daughter didnt and got into smack instead.

 

So it'd seem that she would take an anti-weed stance, which is quite sad. Had I known that Xenophon had such a stance, I might not have preferenced him so highly.

 

As tragic as it is for her to lose a child to heroin, it's pure ignorance to link the two drugs together. We could argue that alcohol is a 'gateway' drug, or that smoking cigarettes makes it more likely for a child to abuse substances. Not only do they fail to make a distinction for substances, they dont distinguish between use and abuse. Tragic.

 

-D

[Frazz]

Yeah know what you mean about placing the blame mate, but this girl was her life, now she has only one

aim in life and that is to eliminate drugs entirely nothing else matters with her, she will not rest.

 

its like some kind of twisted revenge she wants, you could compare her devotion to the drug war to the

kind devotion that is normally reserved for religious fundamentalists

 

 

[Guest niall]

Well, at least it's a battle on relatively friendly terms - Labor has a majority and the Greens have increased their vote. Scarily, Friendly First did very well, and as for the Xenophobes... It could have been much worse.

 

So what now? Start counting down to the next election guys, you've got ample time to start planning, get HEMP SA involved in OzStoners and maybe even join her party or the Greens. Give them as much support as you can and get involved in the political process so you can make a difference for the cannabis community. Donate, become a member, plan for the next election so that we don't just hold the tide like 2006 but that we can some pro-cannabis representatives into Parliament!