Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
The State Election has catapulted NSW to the dubious honour of redneck capital of Australia, writes Dave Donovan
IF THERE IS one good thing to come out the terrible NSW Election result, where the corrupt, koala-killing Tories were returned for a third term, it is the validation it has provided to us much-maligned Queenslanders.
Polarisation
and the use of technology in political campaigns and communication The report offers a comprehensive overview of the relationship between
technology, democracy and the polarisation of public discourse. Technology is
inherently political, and the ways in which it is designed and used have
ongoing implications for participation, deliberation, and democracy.
Algorithms, automation, big data analytics and artificial intelligence are
becoming increasingly embedded in everyday life in democratic societies; this
report provides an in-depth analysis of the technological affordances that enhance
and undermine political decision-making, both now and in the future.
It’s desperate days when the promise of Minority Government is heralded as a resounding success. Especially when the Federal Coalition basically shut down shop when it became a Minority Government itself. Clearly Scott is no Gladys.
BSchwartz
The Coalition is down from 54 seats at the last NSW election - not a great result at all ... sorry Gladys
Giles Stratton
Wiser heads than mine said years ago Eddie Obied would put Labor in the political wilderness for at least three terms. And deservedly so. But the given the way the ALP have been trashed by the "objective" media...no support from any of the major media outlets and open hostility from "our" ABC...this was never a contest. Be interesting who to know who leaked the Daley tape...but I'll leave that for the conscientious journalist...if there is one. And yet still the LNP just scrape over the line. Meanwhile I can only look forward to watching the rugby from the luxury of my corporate hospitality suite...it's for all us, you know!
As all eyes are on the three seats in the balance, a storm of criticism
is brewing over NSW’s regional water minister Niall Blair’s decision
step down and leave parliament when the Liberals can find a replacement —
just moments after he was voted in.
He said he did not want to be a "distraction" and that after the state election loss, he wanted the party to clear the air and install a new leader.
End of campaign drinking started not on Saturday after polls closed but on Thursday, with state Liberal director Chris Stone throwing a last days knees-up for staff including Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s chief of staff Sarah Cruikshank and strategist Brad Burden. On
the menu, a bizarre addition of deep-fried whole onions, perhaps some
kind of postmodern commentary on a particular former prime minister’s
inability to refrain from taking a bite of the fresh variety.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian's election win set off a round of celebrations on Saturday and Sunday. Illustration: John ShakespeareCredit:
And the looming election didn’t stop new Wests Tigers chair, former premier Barry O’Farrell, spotted enjoying the opening of Handa Opera’s West Side Story at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair on Friday (but no sign of Berejiklian).
On Saturday, the result was clear (former Labor senator Sam Dastyari, now on the payroll at Network Ten, was apparently first to call it at 7.27pm.)
So while a few drifted through the official Labor function at Coogee Bay Hotel venue Selina's — federal frontbencher Matt Thistlethwaite a rare attendee from Bill Shorten’s team — Liberals crowded in to the Sofitel Wentworth for a major celebration. Berejiklian was joined by Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Education Minister Rob Stokes, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher, Wentworth candidate Dave Sharma and Senate hopeful Andrew Bragg.
Talk
of the room? The pivotal role played by the Liberal HQ’s “dirt
campaign”, who pushed negative messages about Labor’s preference deal
with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers and ensured a video of Michael Daley talking about Asians with PhDs last year made its way into the media last week.
And while it was always the plan to talk up the Shooters-Labor tie-up last Sunday, we’re told Berejiklian and her media chief Ehssan Veiszadeh made it clear there would be no point-scoring that day on the issue in the wake of the Christchurch mosque massacre. It was, however, pushed by Burden and became a campaign point later that week.
Also at the Sofitel, Premier State lobbyist Michael Photios, who in a jibe we expect to hear for days now, mimicked the infamous SCG Trust run-in between Daley and 2GB shock jock Alan Jones and was overheard saying: “Mr Daley, thank you for your service, you’ve Mark Latham-ed”. Last
night, the party moved to the CBD Hotel, where the Moderate faction met
to celebrate the win, hosted by powerbroker Fair Trading Minister Matt Kean.
What began 30-years ago as a single-issue party emerged on Saturday as a force controlling a huge chunk of NSW that poses an existential threat to the National Party's dominance in the bush.
