An excellent article. I agree that donations from the property industry have the potential to corrupt the entire assessment of development proposals. This is the reason all such donations should be banned, especially at the local government level and also state level in those states where the planning minister have so much power - like NSW.

However, we need to be aware that individuals who donate to a candidate's campaign in a local government election also lodge DAs (sometimes very large ones) and those councillors still vote on them. This is a practice that should be stopped.

Daggett,
I am truly astonished that, even with a year or more of intense media interest in WorkChoices and related issues, the union movement was incapable of providing more than the odd worker here and there who had been disadvantaged by WorkChoices. I'm not an employer and work from home so I admit that, over the last couple of years, I've talked to few employees who might have been affected by WorkChoices. Instead, I relied on the media to give real-life cases of how WorkChoices was having serious adverse impacts on workers. Why was it that the media reported so few, less than a dozen to the best of my memory? I remain convinced that it was a union and media beat-up, aided and abetted by an incompetent and out-of-touch government that deserved to lose the election.

Bernie Masters wrote:

"I relied on the media to give real-life cases of how WorkChoices was having serious adverse impacts on workers. Why was it that the media reported so few, less than a dozen to the best of my memory?"

Therein may lie the problem.

In fact, the case against WorkChoices, backed up by a good deal of research and numerous statistical analyses conclusively demonstrated that the claims made by the Government about WorkChoices were wrong.

The fact that the newsmedia did not convey that information to you confirms what many have long known, that is, that that Australia's newsmedia is not there to inform and educate the public, rather that it is there to inculcate beliefs into the public that will convince them to allow this country to be continued to run against their interests and in the interests of a selfish privileged elite.

One belief of course was that freeing up the Labor market would lead to greater prosperity for all. Given the nearly 47% of Australians still voted for Howard's appalling Government shows that they didn't do an altogether bad job.

Anyhow, this is not the place to argue about WorkChoices. The argument against WorkChoices has been won.

I have said a bit more about the newsmedia at: http://candobetter.org/PropagandaWatch (although it is not up to date)

I think too much is spent on all sides on political campaigns, but in the case of the Unions the expenditure on their "Rights at Work" campaign was clearly necessary and justified.

But we could be worse. It could be like the US. Tim Murray's article "An immigration policy bought and paid for?" at http://candobetter.org/node/335 shows how Corporate America has bankrolled candidates who favour the continuation of record high immigration which is threatening both the environment of the US and the quality of life of most Americans.

My response to a questionnaire from the Property Council of Australia may be of interest. See http://candobetter.wikispaces.com/Property+Council+Questionairre

James Sinnamon
Independent candidate for Lord Mayor of Birsbane