By the time you read this, probably 50 per cent of the ACT electorate will have voted.
I have written elsewhere in this publication as to who I think are the best candidates and also likely combinations of the numbers.
I will make the following observations of the campaign.
Firstly, it is my 10th and definitely my last campaign. It has been, however, a most enjoyable experience working with a group of like-minded individuals in the Belco Party who work well together, support each other, look out for each other, and don’t backstab each other. Not only at the candidate level but also at the organisational level. My Belco colleagues have been a joy to work with, and the camaraderie, loyalty, dedication and lack of egos my colleagues in Ginninderra Alan Tutt and Angela Lount have displayed has been inspirational. (Compared with the rivalry and sometimes outward displays of petty jealousy I have witnessed in the three major parties in elections past.)
I would be honoured to get a gig in the new assembly, but equally, if not, perhaps, even more delighted, if Tutty or Angela did. (Most likely Tutty, as he has been toiling away at it for months now.)
I am also happy to see a number of the boys in blue stand for election. Police, like prop forwards, usually make good members, as they tend to be practical people with great life experience. To our police candidates – the Belco Party’s very own Detective Sgt Jason Taylor in Yerrabi, Inspector Mark Richardson in Ginninderra (Independents for Canberra), and Commander Mick Calatzis (Liberals, Kurrajong) – thank you for standing, and good luck to you all!
On a sour note, more Greens hypocrisy has been displayed by the local Greens tolerating a candidate in Kurrajong [James Cruz] who in his posts wanted to “hang politicians in the street” (interesting, as he’s trying to be one), actively cheered the deaths of Israeli soldiers (charming and a tad anti-Semitic, I would think), and advocated for the abolition of prisons yet wanted to jail “banking execs”. Where do the Greens find these people? Come on, Shane. Please, if you profess to be a serious party, get rid of this clown!
Who will win? Well, I think there will be a turnover of members, but the odds are still with the government being returned. However, for democracy’s sake, we do need a change. A likely change might be the election of, say, 10 Liberals and hopefully about three, or maybe even four, independents/minor parties. That should lead to a new government. I’d urge likely independent members such as Fiona Carrick and Tom Emerson to vote for Elizabeth Lee as Chief Minister. You have both campaigned against the stale, incompetent, long-serving government, and it would make a mockery of your campaigns to get in and then return it to office.
I conclude by paraphrasing Oliver Cromwell when he dismissed the Rump Parliament in 1653: “You have sat here too long for any good you may have done. In the name of God, go, and let us have done with you!”
