1. 1st female elected as Premier in any state in Australia.
2. Over 2.4 million votes cast.
3. 397 candidates competed for 89 seats.
4. ALP retained government with 51 seats (down from 59 in 2006).
5. LNP won 34 seats (up from the coalition’s 25 in 2006).
6. Other parties won 4 seats.

QldVoice.org Stats

1. 3 hours to build the site.
2. 5 contributing writers (thanks for your efforts!).
3. 36 blog posts in 3 weeks.
4. 221 votes cast in our own polls.
5. 1300 visitors.
6. 99 Twitter updates.

See you next election!

At 31 years old I remember the last big recession that hit Australia.  I was studying it in high school economics class and then felt the full brunt of it as I exited high school into the highest unemployment in Australia in my lifetime.  I went on to ride the Y2K boom in IT and then survive the dot-com bust that followed.  Since then I’ve married and had children, and we’ve built a comfortable lifestyle through hard work, some good luck, and some bad luck.  We own a house and two small businesses.  I ride public transport every day while my wife deals with Gateway traffic.  We worry about the environmental mess, schools, and health system that we’re raising our kids in.

When I vote I don’t necessarily vote for a leader, nor do I necessarily vote for a local candidate.  Usually I vote for the party that has a message and policy platform that I can relate to the most.  This means I try to pay attention to what is going on not just in my own electorate, but also other electorates and the state-wide issues being addressed by party leaders in their presidential-style campaigns.

Deciding who to vote for tomorrow is going to be tough.

Australia Labor Party

With the ALPQ at the wheel when the crisis hit it is easy to blame them.  I’m not naive enough to think any party could save Queensland from some impact from the global economic crisis but it is alarming the speed at which we slipped into trouble ourselves.  Health, education, roads, and utilities seem to be in more strife now than they should be considering the years of the mining boom and the stamp duty revenues that were generated by the housing boom.  However I do like the idea of trying to protect jobs by continuing to invest and spend on state projects that generate employment, despite the deficit it will cause.

Liberal National Party

Springborg in the big seat again?  How many elections has Lawrence lost now?  Almost any other political party would have some other new face come bursting through the ranks to replace a leader that has failed to win more than once.  It isn’t Lawrence himself that bothers me, its whether he has the bodies behind him to form a strong cabinet and run Queensland through some of the toughest years we’re likely to see in decades.  I’d prefer to see less prime time attack ads against Labor (“Not good enough” does nothing to convince me to vote LNP) and more substantive policy.  The main policy of saving $1 billion in public sector waste without cutting jobs has me unconvinced.  Relying on natural attrition to reduce those costs is no strategy – I’ve worked in the public sector and some of those people will sit in the most boring, do-nothing job for years without resigning.  And for those that do leave where is their next job coming from?

Greens

I’ve just built a new home and frankly was surprised that few sustainable initiatives were offered as mandatory or even as standard by the building industry.  We had the option to do nearly anything “green” we wanted but at 100% our own cost with no government programs or subsidies on offer, with the exception of a rain water tank.  The Greens want to lessen our environmental impact in a way that could create new growth industries and boost our economy at a time when traditional industries are struggling.

DS4SEQ

Daylight saving was great when I was a kid.  I remember being disappointed when it lost in the referendum.  The extra sunlight in the summer months meant more outdoor play time after school.  These days I’d like to just be able to go for a run at night after work without it being pitch black.  I also think kids might get out and be more active instead of getting fat in front of the XBox if there were more daylight.  I know I would enjoy taking my kids down to the park after dinner when they get a bit older.  All that said, it is hard to vote for single issue parties because the thought is always there “What if they actually win some seats and have a major influence in our government, without us knowing anything about their positions on other issues?”

Independents/Others

There are independents and some fringe parties running as usual but none of them have registered on my radar during the 3 week election.  At this point I can safely rule out voting for any of them.

Who will I vote for?

A tough choice and one I’ll probably make as I look at the voting paper.  Who knows, I may even be swayed at the last moment by what a candidate or volunteer says to me outside the polling booth. The election where the two major parties are locked in a tie in the polls is also the election where I feel my vote is more important than ever before.  We’ll find out tomorrow what happens.

Are you watching the election results tomorrow night? Follow the #QldElection09 hashtag on Twitter to join in the conversation with myself and others.

Q: Please give a brief introduction of yourself

A: I am a 32 year old environmental lawyer, working in the non-profit sector with Queensland communities concerned about their local environment.

Q: If you win the seat what is the first thing you would like to achieve?

A: My top priorities if elected would be improving the public transport option for Mt Coot-tha residents (and scrapping all the urban freeway proposals in the electorate) and getting a mandatory renewable energy target into Queensland law including good rebates and feed-in-tariffs for households to encourage the use of solar energy.

Q: What are your plans for election day?

A: Tomorrow I will be visiting all the polling booths morning and afternoon to meet voters and also thank (and feed and water!) our volunteers.

Thanks Larissa for finding the time to respond to our email.

I’m curious whether DS4SEQ really has the support across Queensland that our site poll suggests, or whether a large number of DS4SEQ candidates and campaign staff/volunteers are active online and happen to be voting in our polls which gives a skewed result.

Have your say in our comments below. Does DS4SEQ really have your vote? Tell us why, or why not! If you are a DS4SEQ candidate or campaign member please disclose that in your comment.

Something I noticed straight away here in the Bulimba electorate is a difference in the literature each party has sent out.  Normally your local candidate is pictured alongside the party leader with some kind of supporting statement about how that leader is confident the candidate will work hard to serve local voters.  Paul Walker’s flyer is a good example of that.  The LNP candidate is shown with leader Lawrence Springborg behind him in classic leadership pose.

The ALP candidate has taken a slightly different approach.  Di Farmer’s flyer has her standing alongside Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.  Now granted K-Rudd is also a local and obviously fairly popular with local voters (or popular enough to win the seat in the last federal election).  But I haven’t received any Di Farmer/Anna Bligh flyers in my letterbox yet, despite receiving two of the Di Farmer/K-Rudd flyers so far.

How is your local ALP candidate promoting themselves?  Alongside Premier Bligh or alongside Prime Minister Rudd?

ALP leader Anna Bligh said:

Well, I think he should talk to the media more if he wants to get the best possible vote – Source

I agree.  In fact I figured Mr Platt would have more time on his hands to answer the QldVoice.org email Q&A that all the other candidates have been too busy campaigning to respond to.  Mr Platt’s contact details on the ECQ website are hidden behind the same media gatekeeper as all of the other ALP candidates, but fortunately the ALPQ website has his direct email address listed.

Looking forward to his responses!

A quick look at the Courier Mail’s election section answers that pretty quickly.  While most coverage is given to the two major party’s leader’s campaigns at least three stories are given prominent placement for Pauline.  The trouble is that none of them are about her positions or policies, they are all about the alleged nude photo scandal that has popped up during the campaign.

That is a lot of coverage for an independent candidate.  That in itself would be encouraging if it was substantitive coverage and not gossip about what is potentially a manufactured scandal with no truth behind it.

There are many independent candidates running in this election and none of them are receiving this kind of media coverage.  Perhaps they are not fortunate enough to have some nude photos floating around, or perhaps they aren’t savvy enough to fake such a scandal as has been suggested of Pauline.

One of three things is true here:

1. The scandal was manufactured by the alleged ex-boyfriend and the Courier Mail has fallen for it and considers it newsworthy and relevant enough to the election to cover it in depth.
2. The scandal was manufactured by Pauline or her campaign staff and the Courier Mail has fallen for it and covered it in depth.
3. The pictures are real and the Courier Mail thinks 30 year old nude pictures taken in private are relevant enough to the election to cover it in depth.

Meanwhile I’m sure some substantitive, issue-based campaigning is going on as the two major parties campaign across the state.  On the other hand, the Courier Mail is still giving a lot of page space to the mugshot of the ALP candidate who can’t be bothered campaigning in his electorate.  Must be a pretty slow election for the media.

Has your opinion changed or stayed the same at this stage of the election?  Vote and leave your comments below.

[poll id="5"]