Lyn,
Perhaps all of us that watch the media as opposed to those that couldn't give a toss have become too hungry for our daily blood? So we are 900 or so days out from the next election. Why should the Coalition run around like a chook with its head cut off?
Up to this point Rudd and co has only done things to garner love. From this point he really has to start doing things that work. These things are going to make him less loved.
Many families are already thinking that for every day he has been in power they have torn up $10 per year.
The media will bore of Rudd soon.

Les,
I imagine you'll be pleased with today's developments from a political point of view. Scrapping the carers bonus has caused a ruckus. Depending on your point of view the bonus was either a vote buying exercise or well deserved and about time, but people aren't seeing this in economic terms. It will be interesting to see how the media play it.

Lyn,
I don't like Rudd because he was my local member and I met him and spoke to him a few times.
From those encounters I formed the opinion that he was a slimey sneaky spineless arse'ole that wasn't to be trusted. I was a Labor voter for many years. No longer.

I can separate the dislike of him personally from my desire for Australia to do well.

The media will jump on it no doubt. Its tough out there for pensioners and they make up a lot of the cares so he may side step this by announcing a pension review.

Les,
A pension review is long overdue. I'm amazed at the number of my mum's friends who've taken liquidity loans on their homes just to get by. It seems the people who didn't have time to accumulate enough super before retirement are stuck between the old expectation of pensions and the new one of independent retirement.

It's not as if nobody saw this coming, but we don't seem to have prepared very well. The best we've come up with so far seems to be shifting everybody onto disability, but allocating carers as if it was some kind of special treat. Meanwhile, single parents cop a hiding when their kids go to school while happily married single income families get tax breaks.

Policy needs to have at least some relationship with reality and the reality is that the nuclear family taking care of their own elderly hasn't been the norm since the Partridge Family and colour tv. Review is probably too polite a word.

Yes a couple of local banks went in really big for reverse mortgages. It was very profitable for them and no risk. It started about 5 years ago and had a good run but I think it is beginning to dry up now.
A lot of elderly are moving into retirement villages(sorry they call them community living now)and gaining some needed cash that way. A friend has recently purchased in Earl Haven for 220k. She saw no point maintaining a big house and problems. The on going fees are only $85pw there.

I think the review needs to include raising the single pension. It is higher than half of the married couple rate but it is hard to come back to when one partner dies. Also I feel the war service pensioners perhaps have much more available to them and this breeds a have and have not class.

I think the crack down on people with disabilities is warranted. It is very obvious to me the people who have real disabilities and those that are lazy.

Les,
I agree with you on the war pension, but that's not the sort of thing we're supposed to say out loud, is it?

Car door?

You've lost me.

Faulty towers...dont mention the war....the Germans in the restaraunt....

Manwell.....car door!

Gotcha. Yes, very funny. I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.

Lyn,
Looks like Tom Tate will get the job to me. It was bad luck that the Elvis impersonator left the building wasn't it?

Les,
To be honest I haven't been paying that much attention, but I suspect you're right about Tate. I saw Clark's ad for the first time last night and laughed. Look at me in my shorts lighting this flame, what a great Mayor.

I'm surprised when people talk about it how many say they wanted to vote for Vegas. Also, depressingly, at how many say they're voting for him because they don't know he's not running.

Yes at least with Tate he is a Civil Engineer and that may be helpful. Of course he may be a crap one too.
Dean Vegas has always appeared a bit dumb to me and not being on the electoral roll seems to back that up. Many people would of voted for him for a lark without ever of spoken to him or know what he stands for.
An Elvis impersonator as Mayor! It could only happen on the Gold Coast.....oh yeah and Vegas

Les + Lyn,
I gather that the Queensland Liberals are desperate to win Saturday's council poll to atone for their disastrous performances in the federal election in November.

I would have thought that the Gold Coast Council, like the Tweed Shire Council, is well known historically for corruption--a bloc of local councillors are in bed with the developers who fund their elections.

Isn't Tom Tate, the Liberal Party's candidate for mayor, a developer wearing the mask of a politician? Isn't his campaign developer backed and funded?

Doesn't the pro-developer majority of councillors known as the Bloc, consistently side with developers in council decisions, since 2004? Aren't they about toppling Ron Clarke and the other independent councillors?

Gary,
Essentially, yes. Tate owns the resort where the bloc came into existence. At the corruption inquiry he said he hosted it but didn't go along with it. Hmmm.

They accuse Clarke of holding up development and threatening the economy, but he's really upset them by making developers build their own supporting infrastructure. Developers have been accustomed to council paying for stuff like what actually turns out to be private roads. Meanwhile the rest of the place is falling apart or is now inadequate with the larger population.

A lot of locals are also in favour of a population cap, which Clarke has favoured. Silly really. You might as well try and stop cane toads crossing the border.

We have developers building shiny new estates in isolated areas with no services, helped along by council support, advertising brand new homes in Sydney and Melbourne with all sorts of dodgy financial deals for prospective buyers. I'd like to know what proportion end up being investment properties. Council then has to provide services. Meanwhile you can't park around the hospital and public transport is woeful.

The bloc is running as a Liberal team and has "party" funding, so developer support can be shovelled in indirectly. I don't think a lot of people would be aware of the consequences a Liberal council will have. I suspect folk around here will see the Liberal logo and vote that way.

Gary,
The polls have Team Tate ahead in the Gold Coast and Team Newman ahead in Brisbane with a likelihood the Libs will actually control the council. Campbell Newman has sat as Liberal Mayor with a Labor controlled council.

Both groups have gone out strongly with the Team strategy. This is perhaps to dismay some dissatisfied Lib voters turning to Independents. The Gold Coast is very likely going to Tate but I am not so sure about Brisbane. Had the election been 2 months from now yes but the polls are still high with state and federal Labor in Brisbane so who knows. Newman's opposition is an ex cricketer, tall, good looking but lacks experience and media savy. We might see the largest ever numbers of people voting for Independents in Brisbane is my guess with the Libs getting up by a toe nail.

Yes as in every council there has been some corruption and some allegations of corruption that remains unproven.
Corrupt Council is such an easy thing for people to believe it tends to get good media coverage. That in itself tends to keep people a bit honest.