This may be the last post unless I manage to flush out the sitting member before election day. When I started as a citizen-journalist with Youdecide2007 I sent emails to the Liberals, ALP, Democrats and Greens offering to post their media releases and provide access to the website if they so desired. Sharon Thiel (ALP) and Robin Chapple (Greens) have done so. The sitting Liberal member Barry Haase has not even acknowledged my emails, not even to reject my offer. Perhaps my ALP party membership has made me persona non grata or he is too used to the docile, coalition friendly mass media in the West.
In modern elections, access to the candidates is difficult at best. There have been no public meetings in Broome where I live and I have seen the two main contenders only once. This is compounded by the size of the Kalgoorlie electorate.
Barry Haase seems to rely heavily on printed publicity. We have had three mail-outs of glossy advertising material and three 4 page spreads in the Broome Advertiser. Thiel has managed two small leaflets so far. Sharon and Robin Chapple have posted their campaign TV ads on YouTube but I can’t locate Barry’s. His page on the Liberal website can be found at: http://www.liberal.org.au/locallib/barryhaase/. His current TV ad picks up on what seems to be a nationwide Liberal promise to target hoons and vandalism, presumably an attack on both State and local governments, as these are not federal responsibilities.
There have been very few truly local issues in the Kalgoorlie electorate so far. The environment is one, as reported some weeks ago. Live exports popped up but had no traction. Even the expulsion from the ALP of union heavyweights like Joe McDonald and the current resignations of State Upper member Shelley Archer and her partner Kevin Reynolds don’t seem to be make or break issues. None of the media seem interested in Barry Haase’s support for a nuclear waste dump in the electorate or his apparent silence on nuclear reactors here.
Work Choices is claimed to be a winner for the government in this seat based on the number of miners and other workers on AWAs. You’d think someone in the mass media would conduct some research into this central issue and how it is perceived by Western Australian voters. A google search revealed nothing.
As seems to be the practice lately with journalists, such as Steve Price and Carol Overington, I decided to enter the political fray myself, with a provocative letter to the newspapers. The Broome Advertiser was the only one to publish:
Just Marking Time
Almost halfway through the election, it is disappointing to hear so little of substance from the Liberal member for Kalgoorlie, Barry Haase. His recent glossy mail-out contained a 7 point so-called plan, barren of any new ideas or concrete action. We should expect more after 9 years.
We had a retread of his Taxation Zone Rebate proposal that doesn’t yet even have the status of a non-core government promise. It may pop up when they get desperate.
He gave uncritical support for the Maret Islands as the site for the LNG plant, before the company have even finished local consultations.
He has made an open commitment to hosting a nuclear waste dump in the electorate and has remained silent about nuclear reactors in WA. He even claimed John Howard was too busy to share his nuclear power plans. Just as busy as he was before the last election, too busy to tell the voters about his Work Choices plans if he snatched control of the Senate.
Being our representative in Canberra is not just a case of follow the leader. Nor is it enough to see the role of parliamentarian as a mixture of public relations and tourism promotion. The Kalgoorlie electorate and Australia need real leaders, not ones who are just marking time.
(Published in Broome Advertiser 8 November 2007)
This week’s Broome Advertiser Opinion section contained no responses. In fact there were no Federal elections news items at all in the paper. Hopefully this opinion piece may elicit some responses about the political ideas of the candidates. If information is the currency of democracy we are bankrupt at the moment in the West.
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Fedback from Greens' Robin Chapple
By: Kevin Rennie (Registered ) on 21-11-2007 05:46
Additional Greens campaign media for Kalgoorlie can be found at: http://greens.org.au/
Kalgoorlie Robin's Youtube video is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=TuszOA_lB4w
I also intended to become CJ but a new job with lots of extra hours cut down my entries to two. I contacted all candidates and got no replies except an email from labor candidate that was sent to me by mistake asking her Press secretary to take care of my email (which did not happen). In my own electorate marginal labor (I was redistributed 2006) the local member(labor) sent me nothing and would be member (national) sent 3 mail outs. No sightings on the ground even though the village was trashed by severe hail and all roofs need replacing. We are 80 klms away from the heart of the seat (Tweed Heads) but not good tactics from each party but Nationals seem to have done more.
Opinion Archive 
This may be the last post unless I manage to flush out the sitting member before election day. When I started as a citizen-journalist with Youdecide2007 I sent emails to the Liberals, ALP, Democrats and Greens offering to post their media releases and provide access to the website if they so desired. Sharon Thiel (ALP) and Robin Chapple (Greens) have done so. The sitting Liberal member Barry Haase has not even acknowledged my emails, not even to reject my offer. Perhaps my ALP party membership has made me persona non grata or he is too used to the docile, coalition friendly mass media in the West.
