"The hustings are over, the bunting is down, the mad hysteria is at an end. After the chaos of a general election, we can return to normal." -- Blackadder.

Well Queensland has elected it's city councils for the next four years.  And what a day I had whilst we were doing it!

I discovered that getting to the polling booth at 6am in the morning is just not early enough to beat the ALP.  Just like the state election, not only that they got there 3 hours before polling even began, but they had taken up the entire fence with their bunting.  Their bunting had a picture of Campbell Newman (the Liberal Lord Mayor) and was advertising the cost of the cross Brisbane tunnel as $2 billion.  (I know the official ALP line is that the tunnel costs have blown out, but the number seems to be different every time.  And they've ignored the fact that we need it, regardless of the cost and it will more than pay for itself as the Gateway bridge has).  Fortunately I've learned a few tricks and made sure my a-frames were in front of their signage, and put core flutes above the bunting on the fence and also on the gates of the community hall that had the polling station in it.  The last thing people got to see on the way in was a rather more flattering picture of the Lord Mayor than on the ALP bunting.

I spent the day co-ordaining workers from three campaigns rather than the one I had signed up for.  And challenging as it is to ensure a group of people are orderly, timely, saying the right thing, well hydrated and well fed, I actually enjoyed it...  well right up to the point where I got heat stroke, was headachy and dehydrated and started dry-retching (fortunately I hadn’t eaten much during the day).

I was kind of disappointed by the ALP trying to confuse voters, but I'm pretty sure the voting public are a bit more intelligent than either party gives credit for.  First of all there was the campaign of tunnel mis-information.  Then there was a sign up about how rates had increased 21% - double the rate of inflation.  First of all, inflation would have been 12-16%, so 21% is well short of double AND all of the increases that were over and above inflation, where actually at the initiative of the ALP councilors and passed because they had a majority.  Then there was the issue of Greens preferences.  The greens did not actually consistently put the Libs or Labor as a preference on their how to vote cards.  One of the electorates being voted on at my polling station didn't run a Greens candidate either, but I don't think that they had a HTV card for them aside for Mayor.  For the ward where the greens were directing their preferences to the Libs, the ALP had produced a second how to vote card, saying if you vote 1 greens, but care about the tunnel blow out, vote 2 ALP.  If I was in the Greens and found out about it, I'd be pretty annoyed and reconsider any future preference deals.  Also the guys handing out that card were in the I <3 BNE t-shirts, which were the Liberal Lord Mayor's policy initiative.

All in all I can see that the ALP adopted the campaign tactics that the Libs did at the state and federal campaign (where they had bunting with Beatie's face or the map of Australia with 'debt' all over it and something to do with how the ALP would run the country).  And it was as successful for the ALP as it was for the Libs - not at all.  Having an intelligent, decisive leader with integrity and credibility at the helm is also an incredible help.  Campbell Newman is a go-getter who has shown time after time that he is there to help the community, which contrasts hugely with a federal politician I recently heard speaking about how you have to do what you can to get into office, but shouldn't be swayed by what the people want if you're a real leader.  And it also contrasts with the Liberals in our state parliament who seem to have almost no self-control and certainly can't make a decision even if it saves their public face.

The day itself was actually interesting too.  I didn't realize that one of the sitting ALP councilors was handing out fliers with me until she was joined by my ALP state member as well.  I mentioned to my state member that he had actually shown me around state parliament and was berated for not remember 14 years later that he spoke about separation of powers (I was 12 for Pete’s sake, he's lucky I remembered at all!)  It then rained and I had to share shelter under the ALP bunting on the fence with the councilor.  She insisted on telling me how the Lib fellow running against her had done no work and that she was doing info booths and door knocking every day.  I didn't want to argue and say that actually the fellow in question (who's pre-selection I have previously blogged about), had pretty much been out at my closest bus stop at least twice a week even before the election was called and had been talking to people along with his wife.  I'd be surprised if he wasn't also at other locations as well.  But I think that she was, quite rightly, worried about loosing her seat, so much so that she had even produced campaign material with Kevin Rudd on it (including a big moving bill board, which I saw drive past several times on the day), an obvious attempt to key into Rudd's branding as many of the Liberal councilors were able to key into Newman's reputation.  She also was a little bitter about how many people in the ALP don't work together and are very territorial.  I think that she and the neighboring councilor (who managed to keep her seat) and the state member in that area had had some conflicts.  I told her that that's why the Latham Diaries were such a fascinating read, as it covered many of the conflicts and disagreements in the party.  Whilst Bronwyn Bishop's comments that the Libs don't have factions would be far from accurate to any one who ever read the paper, the divides aren't quite so pronounced or interesting.  (although may well be if there were to be a merger of conservative parties).

All in all I'm glad that the Liberals finally have something to celebrate, and I hope, very much, that the learnings from the council are taken to state and federal level.

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