Plan B Forum

Where the sausage sizzles are being held!!


Finally the ultimate use of geospatial data!

There’s an online map of election day sausage sizzles!

Cake stalls and vegetarian options for the unaustralians and perverts are also mapped.

Aranda Primary Sausage sizzle
egg and bacon rolls, sausage sandwiches,cakes and craft, face painting. Lots of fun!
Cake Stall: Yes Sausage Sizzle:Yes
Banambila St Aranda Primary School, ARANDA

Joe Guy wrote:But he is an unaustralian pervert.

Here are 10 highlights and lesser-known facts about the elections.

1. Longest ballot paper

More than 50 parties are contesting this election - more than double the number in 2010. A record 1,188 candidates are contesting seats in the House of Representatives and 529 in the Senate.

Tens of thousands of magnifying glasses have been ordered for voting booths in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland to help voters when they are confronted with a metre-long senate ballot paper.

2. Strangest political parties

There are a number of fringe parties, but a handful stand out because of their unusual names or policies.

Bullet Train for Australia Party is a one-policy party. It wants a high-speed train network and promises to be the least annoying party

WikiLeaks Party - formed to support the bid of Julian Assange for a Senate seat in Victoria state. He recorded this campaign video at his bolthole in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London

Pirate Party Australia has nothing to do with swashbuckling and the high seas, but intellectual property

Australian Sex Party - the Australian Electoral Commission actually had to decide whether its name was obscene. The civil libertarian party's risque campaign ad went viral

3. Obligatory vote

Every Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to vote. If an enrolled citizen fails to vote and is unable to provide a valid reason, a penalty is imposed.

If the penalty is not paid the matter is taken to court, if found guilty a fine of up to A$170 (£100) plus court costs may be imposed.

Elections are always held on a Saturday because traditionally that is the day most people are not at work or church.

4. Remote polling stations

Even living in one of the most isolated places in the world - Antarctica - is no excuse.

Despite being 5,500km (3,400 miles) away from the nearest official polling booth in Tasmania, more than 50 scientists and support staff based in Antarctic must send their ballots by ship or via a designated polling officer on site who will phone their vote through.

5. Gaffes and blips

Media attention has been somewhat diverted from campaign pledges by a peppering of high-profile gaffes, from suppositories to sex appeal.

Opposition leader Mr Abbott has been the prime offender. During a speech to his supporters in Melbourne, he attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's reputation for making decisions without consulting colleagues.

He said: "No one, however smart, however well-educated, however experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom."

Mr Abbott apparently meant to say "repository", but seemed unperturbed by the titters from the crowd.

He also created a media storm by congratulating one of his candidates on her sex appeal. The same candidate, Fiona Scott, later made a gaffe of her own, saying that asylum seekers were contributing to traffic jams in western Sydney.

Meanwhile, Mr Rudd was accused of cheating during the first leaders' debate because he used notes. The prime minister said he had acted in good faith and that no one had told him otherwise.

''I prefer to be as accurate as I can,'' he said.

6. Worst interviews

Perhaps the most toe-curling interview of the 2013 election campaign was the Seven News television one-on-one with the 27-year-old ''poster child'' of the anti-immigration One Nation party.

Stephanie Banister thought Islam was a country and that Jews followed Jesus Christ. She withdrew as a candidate shortly after the ill-fated interview.

Described as a "curious" interview by Kevin Rudd, would-be Labor lawmaker Lisa Clutterham withdrew her candidacy after conceding on ABC radio that she had never lived in Melbourne - where she wanted to contest a seat - and had been a Labor Party member for less than a month.

The Liberal Party's Jaymes Diaz, meanwhile, boasted his party had a six-point plan to stop boats carrying asylum-seekers, but he couldn't get beyond point one - that they will stop the boats.

7. Logistical challenge

Millions of people will cast their ballots across Australia on Saturday - a logistical nightmare in a continent-sized country.

The biggest parliamentary constituency is the Western Australian district of Durack, which is roughly three times the size of France. It covers 1.5 million square kilometres (580,000 sq miles).

By contrast, Wentworth in Sydney's eastern suburbs is the country's smallest and most densely populated electorate, covering just 30 sq km.

8. Prisoners' rights

Prisoners serving a full-time prison sentence of less than three years can vote in federal elections, under Australian Electoral Commission rules. But those serving longer sentences are not entitled to take part.

Prisoners are served by mobile polling teams, which visit prisons two weeks before the election date, or by post.

In 2006, while in jail, Vickie Lee Roach fought a High Court case that overturned an attempt by the John Howard government to remove the vote from all serving prisoners.

9. Murdoch's media clout

In Australia, Rupert Murdoch dominates the media landscape, and he has made no secret of the fact that he wants a change of government.

Two of his daily newspapers, the Courier-Mail and Daily Telegraph, are actively campaigning against Kevin Rudd.

The Daily Telegraph ran an unequivocal front page headline: Kick This Mob Out. It has also depicted Mr Rudd as Colonel Klink, a bumbling Nazi commander from 1960s comedy Hogan's Heroes.

Days before the polls, meanwhile, Australian commercial TV networks refused to broadcast an advertisement that criticised News Corporation.

The ad, paid for with funds raised by the activist group GetUp, shows a man using a copy of the Courier-Mail to pick up dog mess.

"Tell Rupert we'll choose our own government," the actor says.

10. Safest seats

Mallee in north-west Victoria is preparing for a genuine election battle. For the first time in 20 years, the Liberals will take on the Nationals. Whatever the outcome, however, it remains the safest coalition seat in federal parliament, with a massive swing required for Labor to win it.

Gellibrand in Victoria is the safest Labor seat in the country, if another party wants to win it, they would need a swing of about 24%.

Mr Abbott apparently meant to say "repository", but seemed unperturbed by the titters from the crowd

Bullet Train for Australia Party is a one-policy party. It wants a high-speed train network and promises to be the least annoying party

Every Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to vote. If an enrolled citizen fails to vote and is unable to provide a valid reason, a penalty is imposed.

If the penalty is not paid the matter is taken to court, if found guilty a fine of up to A$170 (£100) plus court costs may be imposed.

Compulsory voting seems to me about the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time.

dgs49 wrote:Compulsory voting seems to me about the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time.

As long as no one is prevented from voting, the fewer voters the better. If you don't care enough to vote then you should not vote.

Sue U wrote:So I see you've gone with Tony Abbott. Good luck with that.

Conservative leader Abbott sweeps into power in Australian elections

(Reuters) - Australia's conservative leader Tony Abbott swept into office in national elections on Saturday as voters punished the outgoing Labor government for six years of turbulent rule and for failing to maximize the benefits of a now fading mining boom.

Abbott, a former boxer, Rhodes scholar and trainee priest, [that's an interesting combo]promised to restore political stability, cut taxes and crack down on asylum seekers arriving by boat.

"From today I declare that Australia is under new management and Australia is once more open for business," Abbott told jubilant supporters in Sydney.

It was frustration with Labor's leadership turmoil that cost the government dearly at the polls.

Labor dumped Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2010, for Australia's first female prime minister Julia Gillard, only to reinstate Rudd as leader in June 2013 in a desperate bid to stay in power.

"It is the people of Australia to determine the government and the prime minister of this country and you will punish anyone who takes you for granted," said Abbott.

Rudd was given a rousing welcome from dejected Labor party supporters in his hometown of Brisbane, conceding defeat and announcing he would step down as party leader.

"I know that Labor hearts are heavy across the nation tonight. I gave it my all. But it was not enough to win," Rudd said, supported by his wife and family.

Labor's overall vote was its worst since 2004, when then conservative prime minister John Howard won his fourth and final term, but was not as bad as the party had feared. Labor held on to all of its close seats in Rudd's home state of Queensland, and held onto several marginal seats in western Sydney.

Election officials said with about 80 percent of the vote counted, Abbott's Liberal-National Party coalition had won around 52.6 percent of the national vote, and projected it would win at least 88 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

Abbott could end up with a majority of around 30 seats, ending the country's first minority government since World War Two. Labor had relied upon independent and Greens support for the past three years.

"This was an election that was lost by the government more than one that was won by the opposition," former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke told Sky News.