Lazy corflutes, rally crew says thanks
IN last week’s paper I stated that I believed Scott Morrison was the first PM ever to visit this electorate during an actual election campaign, and while doing some research on the issue I hadn’t found anything to show me otherwise.
Nor did anyone I asked about it remember anything to the contrary, so I was obviously asking the wrong people and using the wrong search engine.
Earlier this week Bob Berry sent me a text to let me know of at least one case in point.
“Bob Hawke as PM came to Dubbo in the 1 December 1984 campaign to address a meeting in the civic centre which was hijacked by protestors against an army base for Bathurst/orange,” Mr Berry said.
“This was unfortunate as Dubbo was one of the three areas selected for a new base – Hawke thought it was a protest for No Base at Dubbo.
“John Howard also visited in that campaign when Peacocke was leader, Michael Cobb was the sitting member and Jim Curran was standing for the ALP,” he said. I’VE had some feedback from various people about state election corflutes still hanging up on fences and forklifts around the place.
They’re concerned that these things are still hanging around even though there’s a federal election campaign on, which could confuse some people.
I’m sure that if a federal candidate had a corflute up during that state campaign that there would have been endless calls from other parties until they were removed.
I contacted the state and federal electoral commissions and both organisations told me there’s no actual law requiring people to remove their corflutes, even if a different tier of government is holding their own elections.
Here’s what the NSW Electoral Commission sent back to me via email:
“The Electoral Act 2017 does not provide for the removal of electoral material after the election.
“Please refer also to section 17.15.3 of the Candidate Handbook.
“Councils may have their own rules when it comes to the removal of these posters.”
When you think how horribly erroneously over-regulated we are in so many aspects of our daily lives, to think there’s yet another loophole in the state’s Electoral Commission’s Act beggar belief.
If you see any state election corflutes hanging around, please let me know or text a pic of them to me. I’M not sure whether to be worried that newly minted state Nationals’ MP Dugald Saunders bought this “Yes, Minister” book because he wanted some guidelines in his new job, or to be relieved that he has a sense of humour. (See the photo on opposite page.)
Or was it all because his campaign manager Peter Bartley, who doubles as the publicity officer for the Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie’s book fair, chose the book for him.
Anyway, it was a bit of a laugh at the 2019 Rotary Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair which saw 400 people through the doors in the first hour, the day raising thousands of dollars for charity.
Mr Saunders was officially sworn in as Member for Dubbo on Tuesday this week, and was scheduled to address NSW Parliament yesterday, although after the deadline for this week’s column. IF you missed the book fair but want to buy something useful and help out a local charity at the same time, this Saturday you can check out the giant garage sale at the Dubbo Community Men’s Shed just next to the skatepark.
You name it, they’ll have some of it.
Kitchen appliances, disability aids such as wheelchairs, stereos, radios, handyman items, table lamps, dining chairs, there’ll be plenty on offer and all at great prices.
Saturday, May 11, from 9am to 1pm. THERE are always so many great community events happening in and around this area, but quite often we forget to thank the businesses and individuals who supported them and made it all possible.
I was talking to Stan Single during the week, he’s president of the committee organising this weekend’s inaugural Dubbo Motorbike Rally, and he was at pains to point out just how supportive the community had been to make this event happen – and how it wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without that financial support.
We normally don’t list everyone in our reporting but there’s a long list here and it’s a good case in point so people can see what happens in the background, and many of these organisations support many other charities as well.
Destination NSW, Roberston’s Motorcycles, Castlereagh Hotel, MOTORRADGARAGE, Commercial Hotel, Old Bank Restaurant, Dubbo RSL Club, Pastoral Hotel, ARB, Early Rise Bakery, Macquarie Credit Union, Shannon’s Insurance, Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Zoo Premiair Hire, DTC Training, Dubbo Photo News and the VRA volunteers.
That’s not counting all the individuals who’ve devoted so much time to help getting this event off the ground, and it’s the sort of fairly well-hidden support that makes the community go around. THE old measles gets a lot of publicity these days and it’s frightening when you think a baby or elderly person could die if they’re exposed to a carrier.
Two new cases of measles were reported in Western NSW this past week, both with links to a recent