Reading the latest missives of Sartor and Keating she was alsa a pawn of Labor's faceless men.

Dear EQ, would so love to hear more of your opinion on this.
Thanks for reading the article and supporting OLO and indie media and joining the conversation.
Tess Lawrence

Opal Office? I thought you might be advocating Kristina knock Palin out of a tilt at the White House. That would be fun, huh?

Dear McReal, I have no political affiliation whatsoever but it's worth noting a spark of something that vaguely resembles governance ' by, for and of the people ' don't you think ? As for having an Aussie in the
White House, there already is one - Mark Arbib. And after all, the little red-headed girl did address Congress the other week.

Despite what both of our governnments do in our collective name, I'm a firm believer in ' we the people ' communicating with one another and sharing happy adventures. We have so much in common with our dear American cobbers. The Americans are no more their Government than we are.
What are your thoughts on this ?
Tess Lawrence.

Before the election, I had mentioned to a friend that I hoped that she would lose, leaving her free for a tilt at Canberra. My only reservations are that she has come out in favour of a “big Australia” and the fact that she is religious.
I was impressed with the way she spoke at the press club Lunch and felt she had integrity.
Hopefully she will see the light in the matter of Population and does not push religion on to everyone.

Dear Sarnian,
Interesting aspects you raise. Fascinating that you identified certain characteristics about Keneally that you would would like to see transplanted to Canberra - and that you would actually wish for her to lose NSW to get there! I hope Keneally reads what you said.
I hope all pollies take note. It's time they started to read/heed what their constituents have to say rather than rely on polls - and the actual construct of most polls.
Tess Lawrence

Tess Lawrence, today 9:57:27am

Thanks for the prompt response. My views on Kristina having a go at the US office was tongue in cheek - and a play on your use of 'the Opal office' as a goal for her.

I wonder if she would be a Republican anyway (her father might be). She certainly would be good for that stuffy institution!

Certainly the people are not the government, but I think the people expect better government than they are getting, worldwide. We might have some lessons to learn from our uprising cousins in North Africa, and part of the Middle East and recently the UK.

I'm with you McReal, and so intrigued at the way that people are protesting and marching in the streets in defiance of despotic and corrupt governments. For years dissenters in particular have been ridiculed and dismissed as conspiracy theorists, etc. One of the salient lessons learned through WikiLeaks is the horrible reality that in so many cases, our governments have been exposed as lying to us - and lying to one another. There were and are conspiracies. And far from being mere theories, many have now been exposed as Truth.
NB: Love your nickname.
Tess Lawrence

Hey Tess,

Good to see you putting up an opinion. That takes guts. I believe you when you say you have no particular political affiliation. I'm a liberal voter and onetime member of the Liberal Party.

I grew up in a Labor/Liberal home (Just about as difficult as the Anglican/Catholic religious practises of my parents. Yep I've seen it all ... and love truely can summount all!) and parts of my family had strong Labor affiliations for a few generations.

For the most part I think your opinion valid, however if Keneally wants a tilt at the PMship she'll need to do two things:

1. Form a new party because Labor is now a political rump in the community and according to Paul Keating's opinion, in NSW, finished. I'm assuming you've read his comments about Johnstone and are aware of his interview on the TV Tuesday night. I go further than Keating and opine because of it's links to the toxic NSW labor the Australian Labor Party is now dead.

2. Undergo a sexchange. Given how much of an absolute disaster Julia Gillard has been as PM, it will be a very very long time before the majority of Aussie voters will ever elect another woman PM.

Just in case you think my opinion sexist, it isn't. Just remember you've raised the issue and I'm discussing it.

Julia with her disgraceful backflipping on nearly everything she took to we the people at the last federal election has not only done a great disservice to genuine Labor people but also to Australian women.
Her still obvious reliance on spin is a hangover of the Knifed Kevvy and the NSW spinmiesters and it only compounds her disgrace.

Oh and a former Yank in the Lodge ... I don't think so ... it's an idea as odious as having a Pomme thinking they could possibly run Australia.

I would have thought Labor might have had about enough of affirmative action. Every tilt at it has turned out catastrophic, both in the parliaments, & the public service.

I don't know very much about the lady in question, but I do know that making a good speech is no qualification for leadership. In fact I tend to believe it may indicate someone who is best avoided.

Obama speaks very well, as did Churchill. Obama is hopeless, & Churchill would have lost the war if some of his underlings had not sat on his head quite often. This may be one reason why I don't mind Abbott as much as many.

Still, as Keith says, it doesn't matter much, while she's in the same party as our red head. I doubt that Labor could elect a cricket team, by the time she gets the boot.

@ Tess Lawrence, today 10:41:31am

Cheers.

"One of the salient lessons learned through WikiLeaks is the horrible reality that in so many cases, our governments have been exposed as lying to us - and lying to one another. There were and are conspiracies."

Wikileaks exposed the widespread lies behind the scenes, but we had inklings of lies in the big events, like Vietnam via Daniel Ellsberg; and we all smelt a rat with Saddam Hussein and supposed WMDs.

It seems to just become a game fostered by some weird organisational culture - in just about every jurisdiction.

Even at the recent Chillcott enquiry in the UK, Tony Blair admitted he did not fully discuss going into Iraq with his cabinet (and said something along the lines "they would have known what was going on from reading the papers". WTF??)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/01/22/tony-blair-admits-keeping-cabinet-in-dark-about-iraq-invasion-plans-115875-22866635/

We have similar here with Abbott releasing policy last year on paid maternity leave without discussing it with his shadow cabinet; Rudd being a one man band (and increasingly dysfunctional one at that), shunning even Gillard and Swan; and then one wonders who Gillard discussed the carbon tax proposal with. Likewise her seemingly-off-the-cuff East Timor processing proposal.

Muppets, the lot of them.

One thing I read once that was quite fascinating was a commentary that the founder so the USA government system were influenced by the open and fair negotiating style of the native Nth American Indians.

It might be a good idea to see what her philosophy is towards the big issues before public opinion sweeps her into office. After all, public opinion is said to be the weathervane that politicians watch, though there must have been so much hot air above Canberra the day Kevin got the push that it was impossible to tell which was the real rooster.
Kristina K (hey, what's with all these Ks?)may have lots of nice kwalities (heh heh) but what would she do for the citizens of Libya right now? It's so obvious that people's rights mean nothing to politicians. It's trade and money and saving face that matters, not saving humans from a mad ruler.
And that's another thing. For Gawd's sake, let's have our wannabe PMs psychoanalysed so we don't end up with another Mugabe, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi and the rest.

I am amazed that the author of this article cannot realise that the reign of Gillard, a total incompetent,(let's hope it comes to an end soon), has fouled for any other woman in the future a tilt at PM in this country. She has proven to be indigestible in whatever way she us served up. A mistake in every way.

That having been said, as a devious political operator with the Zionists pulling the Obama Washington sideshow strings and engineering the Rudd execution, she does have some capability to make a point or two, most based on lies, some on absolute stupidity (the Education Revolution...wait until that hits the airways) and now the carbon fiasco, painted into a corner from which she cannot escape. Her behaviour makes Rudd look like a saint, makes Howard's sickly "man of steel" pale when compared to the Zionist war dance in the Oval (not Opal) office and her take on really fair, honest and humanitarian foreign policy considerations makes her a living joke, if it all wasn’t so serious. And now, trying to consolidate her position with the US by suggesting a military presence in this country, selling off our independence for once and for all.

That will never happen, Ms Gillard, even with the US -compromised Arbib in their pocket.
What a messy bunch of NSW right wingers are now warming their backsides in the Federal club. That’s how they do it....with the interests of this country secondary to foreign interests and personal power.

So Keneally just doesn't have enough dirty Australian history to mix it with such people and probably never will. She is an amateur, a pretty little temporary appointment in NSW, dictated to as is the norm in that crippled state with even that well beyond her grasp. She might be admired by Bob Hawke but she’s the right shape for that honour.

For the serious rusted on Labor voters, if they are any left, start looking for someone who is not pretty, knows and understands people, is strong–willed and intelligent and available.

We’ll vote for him in 2023.

Tess Lawrence,

The politician, L’Enfant terrible of Democracy, has to be locked into a Lunatics' Asylum and left there until manageable.

In the hands of politicians governments cannot be but destructive, unjust and murderous.

Or should it be the other way around, and anyone who votes a politician to power needs that treatment until sanity prevails?

Sanity is when we stop waste and destruction, when we reject laws that foster dissent and injustice, when we defuse our armory of weapons.

But, you may say, where would we find fun without the carnivals of election carnivals?.

There are some who wonder why Kenneally did not stay on as leader, to help stabilise the ALP after its thrashing. Was this an abdication of responsibility?
Yes, she was given a poison chalice and knew it. Therefore, why did she compound the disaster by again raisng privatisation, surely the hemlock in the chalice?
Anna Bligh in Queensland, also, and her bottom-feeding antics on privatisation, easily explain why the perception has grown that women politicans are figure heads operating as shopfronts for Fugly faction barons; every one knows the public loaths neoliberalism and for good reason in most cases. In fact the most able and powerful realist women of our time, women like Gillard and Hillary Clinton, have struggled to make the slightest dent in our western political pathologies, thus far. As with the corporate women who made it to the top, the exercise seems to have been negotiated at the cost of the newcomers unconditional subscription to the political, personal and ethical values of the cultural hegemon, whether you care to see that in terms of patriarchy, or capitalism, or corporatism, or pomo "dominance".
The system seems to remain as impervious to basic cultural change as it ever was.

Tess Lawrence says:

"Kristina Keneally may have lost a State but she has gained a Nation."

Whilst I agree she was gracious in defeat, and displayed an acute sense of the theatrical in the choice of the funereal clothing she wore to deliver her concession speech, I am unconvinced as to her value to Australia in Federal politics.

To my mind, she fits the nepotic mould so all-too-prevalent in the ALP these days of being one half of a political 'power couple'. I have read in recent days a description of such as generally being so far out of touch with the lives and day-to-day concerns of ordinary Australians as to be incapable of competently representing them. Just recently I came across an old copy of the Sydney Sun-Herald of 3 April 2005, which I had saved for garden mulching and weed suppression. On page 22 was an item headed "All that glitters", and I quote:

"Meet another of the NSW Labor Party's
golden couples - Ben and Kristina Keneally.
He is executive director for policy strategy
and finance at the NSW Department of Housing
on $200,000 a year. She is the MP for the
south Sydney seat of Heffron on $106,270 a
year plus an electorate allowance of $34,735.
Ben ... works for Housing Minister Joe Tripodi,
head of the Terrigal faction to which the couple
belong. ... "

Kristina entered the Parliament at the 2003 elections, after having earlier won a bitter preselection battle with then-sitting Heffron MP and member of the Brereton dynasty, Deirdre Grusovin. Not a bad seven year stint, all in all, for a girl from Ohio.

Tess Lawrence also says:

"Yes, Kristina can do Canberra. ... If she's
not thinking about it, she should be. ... And
so should the other architects of the failed
Gillard Experiment, like ... Mark Arbib, America's little spy
guy in Oz."

Enough to make one wonder, in a 'designer democracy', how much worse the rout might have been without the operation of Kristina's Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment (Automatic Enrolment) Act 2009.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uak12iuc9OkJ:www.elections.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/84428/NSWEC_Annual_Report_Final_WEB.pdf+NSW+Government+Gazette%2B"Joint+Roll+Agreement"&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&source=www.google.com.au

McReal.

She actually said in her speech to the Press club, that to her dismay her father was a Republican.

Has been.

Smuts said of Churchill, it is the only time in the world’s history where one man saved the world. Yes he made mistakes and as the war continued he lost his edge at times but without him you might now be speaking German.

Rexw

While not arguing with you about Gillards competence, I would argue that you cannot tar all possible woman Prime Ministers with the same brush because of one woman example. If that was the case we would be looking for a gender neutral prime minister, based on the competence of some of the previous male prime Ministers.

Forrest Gumpp.

You say that you are unconvinced as to her value to Australia in Federal politics.
The question I would ask is:
Out of all the federal pollies we have on offer, who would you recommend as a future prime Minister, leaving out the lunatic fringe of Abbott.

The editorial by-line accompanying Tess' article titled 'Kristina's killer heels start the march to the Opal Office' says:

"Even her frenemies think Kristina's
got the right stuff, so why not inject
it in at the highest level?"

Perhaps, in a way, she has already done just that. Not as yet with her personal presence as a declared elected member of the House of Representatives, or Senator, but through something done during the term of the NSW government that bears her name.

Ten days after her having been sworn in as Premier on Friday 4 December 2009, the NSW Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment (Automatic Enrolment) Act 2009 received Royal Assent, on 14 December 2009.

The explanatory notes to the Bill for that Act included this statement:

"The new provisions make it clear that the
[NSW] Electoral Commissioner is to keep and
maintain a roll for each district. The current
practice of a joint Commonwealth-State roll for
each joint subdivision being kept by subdivision
registrars will no longer be continued."

It was a provision of the passage of the legislation that the Act was to come into effect on a day to be proclaimed. The proclamation of the Act was made on 24 September 2010.

It was a provision of the NSW and Commonwealth Joint Roll Agreement then in place that 12 months notice was required to be given of intention to terminate that agreement by either party. I have been unable to find any gazettal of such notice, despite an inference created as to its existence within the URL for the NSWEC Annual Report given in my earlier post. The Commonwealth, still believing itself bound by the agreement may see a requirement to continue to exchange roll information and incorporate names emplaced under NSW automatic enrolment rules upon Commonwealth rolls in effective circumvention of enrolment provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

Names covertly so emplaced could potentially be very helpful in paving the way for those 'killer heels', along with many others, to Canberra in the event of an early Federal election.

Was that the intention?

Tess Lawrence credits Mark Arbib, whom she describes as "America's little spy guy in Oz", (along with others) as being an 'architect' of the "failed Gillard Experiment".

I wonder whether she has let her mind rove over the possibility that a better descriptor may have been 'gopher', 'builder's labourer', or 'messenger boy'? None of which descriptors deny the existence of an 'architect' for that alleged experiment, other than to suggest that such 'architect(s)' are maybe not to be found amongst that talent pool.

It is pleasing to see Tess, as an article author, engage in the discussion threads to her articles. Her bio, http://www.independentaustralia.net/about/ia-contributors/tess-lawrence-bio/ , describes her as, among other things, 'a forensic researcher and analyst (communications)'. The subject of the swiftness of, and maintenance of the secrecy surrounding the preparations for, the removal of Kevin Rudd from the position of Prime Minister, certainly requires those talents.

It is even more encouraging to see her, as a passionate advocate of citizen journalism, attempt some 'crowd sourcing' on OLO. See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11782#202055 . Whilst attempting some connection between the AWB issue of yesteryear with suggestions of treason in relation to the handling of the Assange matter seems, on the face of it, to be drawing a rather long bow, the key to investigative success in many areas seems to reside in the asking of oneself the right questions. There are many questions surrounding the Australian electoral process, IMO, even as to whether there might be routinely a foreign hand in our ballot boxes. It would be good to see Tess deploy her forensic skills on that subject. http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3810#93520

Regarding the Federal prospects for Kristina Keneally, Paul Walter asks "[Given that] she was given a poisoned chalice and knew it..., why did she compound the disaster by again raising privatisation, surely the hemlock in the chalice?". Could it have been because there is an agenda, one hidden from the Australian public with respect to electricity 'privatisation', that is of overwhelming importance to certain other interests?

Forest Gumpp, hurts doesn't it?

OLO userID 'paul walter', I am assuming in response to one or more of my preceding posts, asks:

"For[r]est Gumpp, hurts doesn't it?"




My first internalized response was, of course, one of 'more information?'. What hurts? Hurts whom? An enigmatic post, to say the least. Should I be thinking Hertz cars? My next thought to myself was "Could paul walter be trying to make me think for myself?". I have read somewhere that that hurts. Then I remembered that I do that all the time, and it hasn't hurt a bit, at least not that I've noticed. Could paul walter mean that it hurts others who may not be so used to doing it, or have never done it at all? Would there be people like that viewing or using OLO? Surely not!

It must be that paul walter is referring to RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), you know, like what you can get in your index finger from clicking on too many links, I thought to myself. Then I realized that that interpretation wouldn't stand up, either. I suspect few users click links, much less digest their content, and in many respects I can't say I blame them. Which is why I generally try not to post too many myself, notwithstanding the generosity of the OLO software in relation to its policing of the word limit where links are concerned.

Speaking of the word limit, it approaches, and I haven't yet even got to dilate upon Ben Keneally and his amazing electric car project that might make Australia a better place, for some. Ben, the other half of the 'power couple'.

Its just as well that links can sometimes be like dots, and that people who can think for themselves can join them up. Here are some links in order of publication date. The Twitpics are of my Google search terms and the first page of results.

http://twitpic.com/4h1r0u

http://twitpic.com/4h1rvj

http://www.uiansw.org.au/gallery_thumb.cfm?id=98&category_current=2

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/convictions-in-the-blood-for-new-premier/story-e6frg6nf-1225807127015

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/keneally-rivals-shut-out-of-car-project-20100801-111ez.html

http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/national/national/general/electric-car-deal-premier-defended/2029927.aspx




Tess' article was meant as a 'come on', wasn't it?

DEAR FELLOW CHATTERERS,KEITH,HASBEEN,MCREAL,POLLY FLINDERS,SKEPTIC,SARNIAN, PAUL WALTER AND FORREST GUMPP,
I GOOFED UP AND USED UP ALL MY POSTS PER ARTICLE, I GOT SO EXCITED
RESPONDING TO YOUR COMMENTS! BUT SO LOVE READING ALL THE
CHEEKY INTERPLAY BETWEEN YOU DUDES, DO YOU KNOW ONE ANOTHER ?
KIND REGARDS, TESS LAWRENCE

Tess Lawrence, the article author, enjoys what she sees as the 'cheeky interplay' between posters on this thread, and wonders as to whether posters know each other. Speaking for myself, I would have to say "only from posts on OLO", and that only to the extent of the accuracy or veracity of the content of posts over time. IMO, consistency of literary style and the absence of internal contradiction as to personal claims are a reasonable guide as to 'knowing' one another online.

I like to think that among those whose posting history betrays no inconsistency in the glimpses it may afford into the real life situation behind the pseudonym, such anonymity permits a more honest or frank expression of opinion than might ever emerge in real-life situations. It is surprising the profile one can build up of a poster if one has a retentive memory, or avails oneself of the user posting history feature of the Forum.

Circumventing editors.




This is a summary of the OLO posting histories of those that Tess mentions:

Hasbeen first posted 20 November 2005 1647 comments in total: 875 article comments, 772 general comments.

keith first posted 2 December 2005 1617 comments in total: 1617 article comments, 0 general comments.

sarnian first posted 20 March 2006 140 comments in total: 133 article comments, 7 general comments.

Polly Flinders first posted 19 May 2006 33 comments in total: 19 article comments, 14 general comments.

Forrest Gumpp first posted 10 October 2006 1384 comments in total: 431 article comments, 953 general comments.

paul walter first posted 15 May 2008 99 comments in total: 99 article comments, 0 general comments.

skeptic first posted 3 December 2008 194 comments in total: 194 article comments, 0 general comments.

McReal first posted 16 April 2010 286 comments in total: 285 article comments, 1 general comments.




In answer to sarnian's question posed on Friday, 1 April 2011 at 9:23:13 AM: Wyatt Roy, since it seems Tess won't mind. IMO off-topic engagement between posters on article threads can all too easily damage the usefulness of OLO.

Gosh Mr Gumpp. I think I am falling in love with you. I am so impressed with your sleuthing and filing. I'm also gently working on an essay about comments - and commentators. Sometimes I find comments so much more interesting than the original article that prompted them.
And also, you all seem to have such a wealth of knowledge and information!
Kind Regards, Tess Lawrence.

Forrest Gumpp, good work reminding us of the smell around the Keneallys and the electric car grid. As a Terrigal KKK carries with her the stench of opportunism and/or corruption.
I'm not sure of what it is you're suggesting with the Smartroll. How does this make it any more likely that the roll could be corrupted?

Tess, yes KKK was energetic and upbeat but no one was listening to her. The swing in Heffron was close to the statewide swing; and she hardly, if at all, stauched the wound across the state. The best thing she did was engage Barry O in a number of one on ones in public and on radio, but spoiled this by often talking over him.
The last thing we need is another "star" parachuted into Canberra to save the day.

OLO userID 'steam' (Steam! If only a few more had just a little bit of it.) says:

"I'm not sure of what it is you're
suggesting with the Smartroll. How
does this make it any more likely
that the roll could be corrupted?"

I'm not necessarily SURE of that myself, but I can imagine a number of possible scenaria. For now, however, I shall just let the results of this morning's Google search, lightweight and spun as they may be, speak for themselves for those who have ears to hear. For the record, my search terms: http://twitpic.com/4hdn22 , which yielded on the first page:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/state-election-2011/young-may-pay-price-for-smartroll-20110325-1c9jk.html

http://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/enrol_to_vote/smartroll

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/375577/nsw_electoral_commission_kicks_off_e-enrolment_upcoming_state_election/

The Techworld article is perhaps the most informative. Just in case of a '404 message' shortly coming to replace that page content (you know, the shooting of it down under 'rule .303') I have posted this series of Twitpics of the page content:
http://twitpic.com/4hdqvv
http://twitpic.com/4hdrit
http://twitpic.com/4hds6z

It seems only 10,372 young people were added under SmartRoll in NSW before 26 March, according to the SMH news item. Not much help to Kristina, that few, was it! http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=4297#108978

However, this could be the most significant piece of information quoted in the Techworld article, perhaps revelatory of the real intended effect of SmartRoll in the not-too-distant future:

"“In a continuous mode, after the March 2011 state election,
SmartRoll automatic enrolment is expected to be at the level
of thousands of NSW enrolments per week,” the [NSWEC]
spokesperson said. “The SmartRoll project will continuously
automatically enrol or re-enrol large numbers of NSW electors
in the period following the election.”"

And duly transfer them to the Commonwealth rolls, no doubt, should the Joint Roll Agreement never have been, or be unable to yet be, officially terminated by 12 months gazetted notice, prior to the next Federal elections.

Tess,

Re your post of Tuesday, 5 April 2011 at 7:47:16 PM: we can't just leave things there.

Flattering, and perhaps even mildly embarrassing, as your protestations as to 'falling in love' with my online persona may be, Tess, I fear the reality might be disappointing for you. I wouldn't want you to be disappointed.

I have a suspicion that the reading of my posts in the voice of Sir John Gielgud, however, may help kill off any infatuation in a way that avoids heartbreak. Houellebecq seems to see value in that technique*, albeit in a presumably different interpersonanal context. (See! I invent new words, too. http://twitpic.com/4hrr8t . Is that what attracts you Tess, I wonder?) Even should you find Sir John Gielgud attractive, that, too, would let me fade painlessly into the background, and become camouflaged against it. Problem solved! Unrequited love, unnoticed, to fade away.

Just as you have hoped to 'crowd source', Tess, I, too, was hopeful in this thread of doing a little 'forensic journo recruitment' in the cause of shining a light upon Kristina's government and related behind-the-scenes activities. Plodding and clunky exploiter of the information superhighway that I am, I was hopeful of some free, knowledgeable, forensic research help. Someone of your skills capable of finding those seemingly missing gazettals, the purported NSW SmartRoll legislation of 28 April 2010 referred to by the NSWEC that I can't find, and such like.

You see, I am relatively slothful in the little sleuthing that I do. As to filing, the OLO user history feature does all that: its there for anyone to use. I can't claim any credit for it. What you credit to some OLO users as their being very knowledgeable may well be nothing more that an ability to recognize historical evidence like wreckage in the debris field of a sunken ship-of-state, and draw meaning from it. I was hoping filing was your forte.

In coming to OLO to gently compile a sabbatical essay on comments, you have undoubtedly come to the right place.

Welcome!

*http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11583#198765

Dear Forrest Gumpp, non, non, that's not the only reason I'm responding to comments, not at all. Studying comments is part of a research document I'm doing about facets of the media. I love this conversing and I am genuinely intrigued at the sometimes forensic detail that is sometimes enclosed, as in your comments. I got so rapt in it all the other day that I exceeded the four posts per article limit.
Tess Lawrence

Just thought I should mention that I had seen some advertorial stuff over the Easter long weekend on Channel 9 for the Better Place electric car! You know, the one being plugged (!!) by the company with which Ben Kenneally, as Head of Marketing and External Affairs, Better Place Australia, is involved: Ben, the other half of the former(?) 'power couple', the other half of which (or at least the 'killer heels' thereof) is the subject of this article.

Whilst it was undoubtedly not a good look for Kristina's government to be seen excluding all others who may have had an interest in tendering to Energy Australia for an electric vehicle grid enterprise agreement at a time when her husband was Head of Marketing and External Affairs of the lone eventually successful tenderer, and when her own government was trying to bumrush a firesale privatisation of NSW' remaining electricity assets before its time in power expired, perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on her.

With Better Place, founded by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, being the world's leading provider of electric vehicle services and a pioneer in sustainable transportation technology, perhaps we have a 'Chim Ham'-like situation with respect to Ben Kennealy being involved with that enterprise. It is not hard to imagine Thomas Keneally, Ben's uncle, having made many useful contacts with prominent Israelis over the years since he commenced research on his book, 'Schindler's Ark'. Perhaps Ben has been a beneficiary of that.

All of which, to my perhaps labyrinthine mind, makes all the more intriguing the initial Labor Party support within Marrickville Council for the Greens-initiated BDSM* campaign against Israel that commenced prior to the recent State elections, support which was the basis for claims of Labor hypocrisy made on behalf of the defeated Greens candidate for Marrickville at the State elections. See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11852#203281 **

A puzzle.




*The 'M' in this acronym standing, of course, for Marrickville, just to make sure that its Council's resolution is clearly identified in the wider Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions scene.

**I inadvertently posted this post to the 'Smear Campaign against Greens in Marrickville' thread. Dayyum!

Dear Forrest,
Is this the same electric car company headed up by a former Victorian pollie ? And what do you think of electric cars per se ?
Tess Lawrence

Tess Lawrence asks:

"Is [Better Place] the same electric car company
headed up by a former Victorian pollie ?"

Tess, I have no idea. Can you give me something to go on, like a name, or something?

The Keneally involvement with Better Place, and within that involvement that of Israeli billionaire Shai Agassi, I learned of by using the Google search terms ["Ben Keneally"+electric car]. The first page of search results showed up thus: http://twitpic.com/4qezkq and http://twitpic.com/4qezzi

The 'United Israel Appeal - Refugee Relief Fund' entry (the second-last listing in the second Twitpic of the first page of Google search results) caught my eye in the light of the then current controversy surrounding Marrickville Council's attempt to involve itself in a BDS campaign against Israeli interests. It seemed strange, on the face of it, that four Labor councillors would have voted in favour of the sanctions, sanctions that appeared as if they might adversely affect the private business interests and prospects of the then-Premier's husband, together with those of Better Place and the recently or about-to-be privatised Energy Australia, the other interested parties in the emergent electric car recharging grid enterprise.

I just wondered as to whether Ben Keneally was seen by other competing commercial interests possessed of some 'inside track' advantage with respect to the wider Labor party at large, as effectively doing some 'freelancing' that was seen as threatening some much more encompassing scheme of asset-stripping the NSW public of its generating capacity whilst getting the Australian taxpayer to fund the entry of, say, a major energy consortium into effective oil-replacement energy supply.

Bilking the Australian public of tens of billions of dollars of potential 'profit' PER ANNUM in the process, were both existing, and future replacement, electricity assets to remain in public ownership and substantially displace oil as a road transport fuel.

Why should the Australian public fund Big Oil into electric road transportation with Labor's proposed carbon tax and not own lock, stock, and barrel the business it thereby builds?

Crikey, Tess, I don't believe it! Surely forensic journalism research can't be this easy.

Without you having given me so much as a name to go on in the question posed in your post of Wednesday, 27 April 2011 at 2:20:36 PM, just to fill in time while waiting for one to come along, I entered this search term into Google:

[Victorian politician+"Better Place"] See: http://twitpic.com/4qqlnl

Bingo! The first listing on the first page of Google results connects the names 'Thornley' and 'Better Place' in the abstract. Clicking it brings up this item: http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/thornleys-better-place-may-be-last-years-business-model/ .

By crikey, does 'Crikey' know a thing or two about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)!

It looks from that item I may have been right on the money in speculating upon the Keneally involvement in the Better Place electric vehicle recharging network enterprise as being seen as a form of 'freelancing' at the expense of other Labor politicians.

No wonder in a way, perhaps, that Keating was so opaque in his reference to his having explained the selling-off of NSW electricity assets with the use of the term "consistent" with the setting up of the National Electricity Market (NEM) in his now highly-publicised castigatory 'Dear John' letter of non-congratulation to John Robertson, the now leader of the Labor Opposition in NSW. See: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/45678.html

Isn't it just as well there is going to be a Royal Commission into the NSW power sell-off. I mean, it could hardly fail to ask a few penetrating questions, make a few connections (!) as it plugs (!!) along, could it? Especially with forensic journalism research being so easy and 'enabled' in this digital day.




Tell me, Tess, is it you teaching me, or is it me teaching you, when it comes to forensic journalism research?



I'm beginning to like these little chats, Tess. Learning isn't as much of a drudge as one might think, is it?

Oh, and I don't think I would refuse an electric car, provided they didn't charge too much for them, although many see them as revolting.

Ciao for now.

Dear Cheeky Forrest Gumpp, one of the reasons I love teaching so much is that I always learn more than I teach. And I'm afraid with me, the more I learn, the more I realise I have so much to learn.
What's great about these interative forums is the exchange of
information and discussion they encourage.
Tess Lawrence

Deep down, Tess, I just knew it was all too good to be true. The seeming astounding ease of forensic journalistic research on Google, that is.



Earlier in this thread, in discussion as to a pair of 'killer heels' losing a State but gaining a nation, the matter of the NSW Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment (Automatic Enrolment) Act 2009 came up. See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11834#202588

As can be seen if one clicks that very long link in the above post, the NSW Electoral Commissioner has thrown me, and the public at large, a bone in the form of a reference on page six of that annual report, under the heading of '2009/10 at a Glance', to the new SmartRoll legislation. That reference, verbatim, reads:

"New SmartRoll legislation was
assented by Parliament on 28/04/10"

The very wording rang alarm bells: Parliament does not assent to legislation, as any Electoral Commissioner ought very well know. As is my perverse way, I wanted to have a look at this SmartRoll legislation for myself. I had already found the 2009 legislation, which was asented to on 14 December 2009, and proclaimed on 22 September 2010 as coming into effect on 24 September 2010, referred to in the Commissioner's Annual Report, on the internet without difficulty.

A Google search using the terms [SmartRoll+NSW+legislation+28April2010] gave me just five results,none of them useful. See: http://twitpic.com/4r9xyi

The search term [NSW legislation assented to 28 April 2010] yielded, among the results, this page: http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/epub?bulletin=20100430 , and on it an entry for 'Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment Act 2010 No 11' as receiving Royal Assent on 28 April 2010.



Problem is, that Act had nothing to do with the electronic voting and enrolment provisions of SmartRoll. http://twitpic.com/4radmj



The detailed SmartRoll provisions were in the 'Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Further Amendment Act 2010 No 126, assented to on 7 December 2010. http://twitpic.com/4rae82

Talk about buried information!

I wonder whether the then NSW Opposition would have supported the 2009 legislation if it knew the details of SmartRoll revealed in late 2010?