🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <pete.818253452@extro>,
Peter Merel <pete@extro.su.oz.au> wrote:

>Ah, hell, the game is rigged. The only way we're going to get any real
>representation in government is by putting someone there to do the
>work.  Say ...  Karl? You already live in Canberra - would you like to
>run for the senate?
>
>What about it - is this a practical idea? Maybe not Karl if he doesn't
>feel up to it (and not me - I may not even be in the country next year)
>but someone who knows their stuff? Michael? Kim? What's involved in
>making something like this happen?

Karl hasn't got a hope.  The ACT returns two senators, and as a result we
get one ALP, one Liberal, and no-one else gets a look in.  The next
election will be a half-Senate election, with consequently higher quotas
(i.e. for the ACT, you'll need 50% of the vote plus one, rather than the
usual 33.34%).  The Democrats are going to be busting a gut lest they lose
another few seats in the states, and you've got strong fringes like NAN
vying for the non-aligned.

So there's bugger all chance of getting in a member with an e-mail address.

However, a protest vote campaign might have some effect by attracting media
attention and eliciting promises by politicians to get on-line and listen
to their constituents.  (Yeah, I know, har-bloody-har).  The plum for the
media would be the image of a wired-up, plugged in politician,
techno-aware, cruising his government car along the Info Super Thingy. 
Good TV, especially with an enthusiastic, articulate candidate.

Christine Wallace has just joined the ABC's 7:30 team, and drives a
PowerBook.  She probably has an on-line address by now, as I fixed her
internal modem settings the last time she interviewed me. She's keen to get
more exposure and is one very smart (in both senses) young lady, with
connections at the highest levels.  Give her a tingle via the 7:30 Report
Canberra producer, Gaven Morris, on 06 275 4651. 

No, don't suggest I do it.  I'm a convicted hacker and my credibility could
be shot to pieces too easily.  I can add a bit of local colour as the
perpetrator of Australia's greatest leak, and I could rub my hands
together, speculating on the possibility of ripping off some digital cash,
or rooting around in the Democrats' computer system (Yuk, if they have one,
I'd have to wear a condom as well as gloves).

 ~ m
 u U     Cheers!
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   |>    -Peter Mackay 
  / \    "Put not thy faith in platitudes"
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