BCC - elections 2016

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Another council property sold to LNP donor

[verbatim9]

State Labor debacle will have a ripple effect on BCC election my bid on LNP as favourites

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Greens furious over debate exclusion

The two leading contenders to be Brisbane's lord mayor after March 19 go head-to-head in public next week at a ticketed Engineers Australia debate at a CBD hotel.

Liberal National Party Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and Labor candidate Rod Harding have agreed to a lunchtime debate on Tuesday at a $110-a-head lunch.

Greens candidate Ben Pennings is furious he's been excluded from an Engineers Australia lord mayoral debate. Photo: Michelle Smith

But the Greens, which along with Labor and the LNP have candidates in every ward, cried foul, saying they have been cut out of the process.

Greens lord mayoral candidate Ben Pennings said the party had spoken with Engineers Australia, which he said thought it was "too hard to put an extra chair and mic on the stage".

"The Greens have released a $491 million transport infrastructure plan for Brisbane," he said.

"It is the only infrastructure plan not reliant on 'maybe money' by other governments, the only plan that can be delivered in a four-year term.

"Engineers Australia has thus far ignored our communications about this debate.

"I plan to be at the event and encourage Engineers Australia to allow all the infrastructure plans for this election to be presented to their members and guests." ...

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

12th March 2016

Transport and Mains Roads Information Request - Light Rail and Bus Reform Election Costings

Greetings,

RAIL Back on Track formally requests a TMR desktop assessment of Rod Harding's light rail proposal and The Greens River Connect schemes. This should be publicly released before the election for all to see. As the department was able to provide an internal assessment for the ' metro ' (subsequently leaked), we see no reason why similar assessments cannot now also be released for the Light Rail, Fare Free Friday, the CentenaryGlider and River Connect proposals.

It is very difficult to get reasonable costings for things, or measures of impact for various policies before an election. People have a right to know what they are voting for, in the same way that household products are regulated to have disclosures, food has labelling standards or pharmaceuticals have disclosure statements mandated by law.

Politicians selling their wares to voters are essentially unregulated, and are often filled with outrageous, deceptive or misleading claims about their policies or their opponents.

A separate office could be established within the Queensland Productivity Commission to undertake analysis of election proposals, similar to how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in the United States releases public analysis of election campaign promises. It would actually be quite useful.

We look forward to the department releasing its findings.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org


Quirk Metro Could Cost $3 billion
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-council-election-state-memo-warns-quirks-metro-could-cost-3-billion-20160304-gnb38g.html

Brisbane City Council: Public Service used as 'political pawn'
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-council-election-public-service-accused-of-being-political-pawn-20160311-gnh0u4.html

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Brisbane Lord mayor could end up at odds with council

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Greens invited late to Brisbane mayoral debate

[ozbob]

Sunday Mail --> Lord Mayoral race a cliffhanger

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Graham Quirk's lord mayoralty on a knife-edge: poll

[BrizCommuter]

BrizCommuter's election scorecard.
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/2016-brisbane-city-elections-scorecard.html

[ozbob]

BrizCommuter's election scorecard.
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/2016-brisbane-city-elections-scorecard.html

Nice work!  Distributed to all outlets.

Agree.

Greens grade B

ALP grade D

LNP grade E

Real worry they can get it so wrong hey?

[BrizCommuter]

BrizCommuter's election scorecard.
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/2016-brisbane-city-elections-scorecard.html

Nice work!  Distributed to all outlets.

Agree.

Greens grade B

ALP grade D

LNP grade E

Real worry they can get it so wrong hey?

Yes, it is good that public transport is a major source of policies this time around. Just a big shame that most of the policies are somewhere between laughable and destructive.

[ozbob]

Twitter

Robert Dow ‏@Robert_Dow now Brisbane, Queensland

Brizcommuter ranks #bnevotes PT policy. @BenPennings grade B, @Rod4Bris grade D, @Team_Quirk grade E

> http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/2016-brisbane-city-elections-scorecard.html ... #qldpol

[SurfRail]

Nicole Johnston must be happy.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-council-election-lnp-candidate-ashley-higgins-quits-tennyson-race-20160314-gnivay.html

BT has tactfully reported that they cannot obtain independent verification of the reason why, but verifiability has never been anything to stop the CM.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/council-elections/penis-pictures-exchange-sinks-lnp-hopeful/news-story/1dd2e93ac1b4ec05a8394d0537ad8781

[ozbob]

^

Been updated >> http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-council-election-lnp-candidate-ashley-higgins-quits-tennyson-race-20160314-gnivay.html

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Lord mayor hopefuls trade transport barbs

[ozbob]

Twitter

Robert Dow ‏@Robert_Dow 25m

. @Team_Quirk @Rod4Bris @BenPennings Brisbane on precipice of grave transport failure ..

> http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/2016-brisbane-city-elections-scorecard.html ...

#qldpol #bnevotes

[BrizCommuter]

Thanks for tweeting my articles Ozbob.

Here's another topical blog post - are the LNP's public transport policies destructive?
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/are-lnps-public-transport-policies.html

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Parties' promises three days out from judgment day

[ozbob]

A pleasure ..

===============

Twitter

Robert Dow ‏@Robert_Dow now

Brizcommuter: Are the LNP's Public Transport Policies Destructive?

> http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/are-lnps-public-transport-policies.html ... #qldpol #bnevotes

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> The D word dogging Quirk's campaign

[ozbob]

Letter to the Editor Queensland Times 18th March 2016 page 13

Easy solution to nightmare

[ozbob]

Interesting poll here at Quest > http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/brisbane-city-council-elections-2016-who-has-your-vote-to-be-lord-mayor-of-brisbane/news-story/1f516e8bf6348f1a6ee48f604bf85d76

Doesn't show how many voted but has Harding a nose in front. Been running for 3 days now I think. If Green preferences go with Harding we could well have a new Lord Mayor next week.

What will also be interesting will be the number of each party councillors.  It would be ironic if Nicole J. ended up being a very key player in a hung council hey?  As they say, you make your bed you lie in it hey?  lol

[#Metro]

Wonder if bus reform will be easier with Rod Harding Red Team in Council and Red Team in State?

Or will another circus ensue?

My money is on Blue Team being defeated. The Greens have a good proposal, and the preferences will flow from that to get Harding over the line I think.

Quirk is a very decent person, but the policy is a weakness. The metro has massive holes in it, then you had the land scandal (cleared) and the alleged dic pic scandal (Tennyson) and Hwang paying workers $50 gratuity (storm in teacup), getting the number of new buses wrong.

The whole thing is rather haphazard, one wonders if they just thought they would coast to victory like last time.

[James]

Wonder if bus reform will be easier with Rod Harding Red Team in Council and Red Team in State?

Or will another circus ensue?

I expect another circus. Actions by both state and local ALP representatives shows they have no interest in bus network reform IMO. The appetite simply isn't there in the community.

[ozbob]

Harding has indicated that he is keen to deploy more bus services and supports the C. glider.

Fixing up the black holes will be achieved much more likely with Harding than Quirk.  There probably won't be the wholesale reform as planned for 2013 but I am confident there will be significant improvements, improvements not delivered under Quirk et al.

Let the polls begin !   

[ozbob]

Twitter

Trendinalia AU ‏@trendinaliaAU 58m

The 3 most active users for #bnevotes were: @Robert_Dow (65 Tweets & RTs) @QuestNewspapers (49) @612brisbane (49) — #trndnl

=====================

[ozbob]

Quest --> Brisbane City Council election 2016: Rod Harding could win Lord Mayoralty according to Quest Newspaper poll

A QUEST Community Newspapers poll reveals the ALP could win the Lord Mayoral race.

More than 2000 readers shared their preferred candidate with Labor's Rod Harding receiving 45.59 per cent of the vote.

Incumbent Lord Mayor Graham Quirk received a close 43.17 per cent, showing the race will certainly be a close one.

The Greens' lord mayoral hopeful Ben Pennings received 7.44 per cent of the vote.

Minor party and Independent candidates all scored less than 1.3 per cent.

[ozbob]

^

Latest figures on the Quest poll are:

Rod Harding (ALP)  44.48%   

Graham Quirk (LNP)  42.83%   

Ben Pennings (The Greens)  8.13%   

[ozbob]

^ latest

Rod Harding (ALP)  44.32%   

Graham Quirk (LNP)  42.69%   

Ben Pennings (The Greens)  8.21%   ...

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes -->  Brisbane council election: Labor left to rebuild as leadership contenders emerge

[ozbob]

Twitter

7 News Queensland ‏@7NewsQueensland 8m

The @Greens celebrating its first local Councillor in Queensland @jonathan_sri #7News #bnevotes

[verbatim9]

Hopefully some good input on Bus reform and safer streets for cycling. Regeneration of the Logan road Cafe precinct at the Gabba with water features to block the noise from the main road.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Brisbane council election: The Greens claim The Gabba

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Opinion: ALP looking at Greens with envy

QUEENSLAND Labor is worried. Very worried. But not for the reasons you might think.

It's not just the fact its excellent lord mayoral candidate Rod Harding, who ran a sharp and energetic campaign against a lukewarm LNP effort, could attract fewer than one in three voters in a city long regarded as a "Labor town" ...

More > http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-alp-looking-at-greens-with-envy/news-story/2773be566f7bec826a44d298a38d380b

[#Metro]

LOL, even The Gabba Ward did not want Harding's Light Rail!!
They voted in a Green!

[ozbob]

Harding developed a good campaigning style, a shame though that some of the major policies were not good at all.

If they had listened to our and others advice and went with a staged bus network reform policy, they could have made absolute mince-meat of the Quirky Metro.  Fare Free Friday was another disaster.  Level crossings and transit ways would have supported well a staged bus improvement process policy. 

As they say, history now ...

Greens have a well deserved foothold now.  Good on them!

[#Metro]

Fare Free Friday.... REJECTED.

I guess people didn't want to catch the bus - free or not!!

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> New-look Brisbane City Council sworn in at City Hall

... Public and Active Transport

    Adrian Schrinner (chairman) LNP
    Andrew Winds (deputy) LNP
    Jared Cassidy ALP
    Peter Cumming ALP
    Ian McKenzie LNP
    Kate Richards LNP ...

[#Metro]

New look?   

In addition to that, I thought it was not good that out of all the mayoral contenders, there were absolutely no women running.