State Election Looming ... is it?

personal comments by Peter Evans

... personally I am not a big fan of local state politics, let's take the issue of daylight saving, yes your curtains will fade quicker, and the cows won't get milked on time, don't get me wrong but I love daylight saving, I voted for it previously and will probably vote for it again, but hey wait, it has been defeated in two previous referendums, yet the pollies managed to overturn our vote, we are currently in a trial period, and have been for the last two summers, so what is the point, and here we are facing a new election, you would think to save money they would chuck in the referendum that is due for daylight saving, sometime in the future (next year) we will again put it to a vote, at an extra cost to the public and if we again vote no by majority, will they allow that vote to rule ...

let's leave the issue of daylight saving, you know the public voted against it but we still have it ... no let's leave that alone ... the pollies know best ...

here in Australia we have three levels of Government, Federal, State and Local Council, over governed to be sure, when it comes to State and Federal issues it can get a bit confusing as to who to approach with an issue, you go to a State member and they will say "Oh that is a Federal matter" and you approach a Federal member and they will say "Oh that is a State issue" ... personally I am probably for WA secession, but that IS another issue all together ... and as far as local government, you can only vote for a candidate in your own ward, which brings up a whole lot of issues (that is the people that represent you on your council - you don't get the chance to vote for or against most of them, only the ones in your ward) ...

anyway back to the upcoming State Election (6th September), I reside in Thornlie, and have lived in the Gosnells area most of my life, and guess what the boundaries have changed again, but don't tell anyone, it really is one of the best kept secrets, but like most forms of Government, you have been told, you just did not bother to read the information, recently we received a letter in the post, like less than two weeks before the election, that we are now in a new seat of Gosnells, yes the old seat of Gosnells has been revived, new seat or old seat I'm a bit confused, Kenwick has gone, but that was a new seat at the last election, I'm scratching my head, see over here the pollies have the opportunity to redistribute the boundaries to suit their election chances, "you can't say that", I just did, anyway it has been a bit of shift around here in Gosnells, boundaries have moved in most of the recent elections, we were in Southern River, now we are back in Gosnells, Kenwick has gone, so has the sitting member for Kenwick, the member for Southern River, who's offices have stayed in central Gosnells, yes his offices are not even inside his own electorate, so at the moment my electorate is Southern River, and my sitting member has his office in Gosnells, near the train station, which is currently Kenwick, well I'm confused, and if you check out the Labor web site to find info on the current member for Southern River, there is none, he has been the sitting member for Southern River since 2001, and hey the Labor party has absolutely nothing to say about him, I suppose they consider it to be a safe seat, but any way ... after the election I will be in Gosnells ... again ... so let's discuss the main candidates for Gosnells

in Australia we are basically a two party system, Labor and Liberal, not much of a choice, but it is all we have, (lucky we have a choice I guess) you can pretty much eliminate the rest of the candidates, sorry to offend them, but hey that's the way it is, the public here mostly vote for the leaders of the parties and tick the box that correspond to their local candidate (I guess one day the voting slips will be color coded to make it easier), personally I prefer to vote for the candidate no matter which party they stand for, so we have two choices in Gosnells one is a current Local Government Councillor (if who elected, will mean that we the ratepayers of Gosnells will have to pay to reelect a new Councillor!!!) and the other an environmentalist (helped stop the French testing in the Pacific, and fights against the cane toad, which is good, well not for the cane toad anyway, and if the French don't test in the Pacific, hey don't they own an island off the WA coast, eek let's not go there - literally) ... yes I am rambling on but it is early in the morning ...
so anyway we have an election coming up, personally I don't watch local tv (not exposed to local ads) and I can't afford the local rag (the West is all you need, and all you have), and by the way it is compulsory to vote here in Australia at State and Federal election, but not for local council, figure that out and you win a prize ... so who will I vote for, I have no idea, probably the donkey again or some other ass (don't mean to offend, but hey what choice do I have) ...

personal comments by Peter Evans