MBRC Update Update Update
With two sleeps to go, the excitement is really hotting up. In fact I almost saw an entire column inch concerning the election in the Courier Mail. While I realise that the only game in town for the CM is Brisbane and whether Campbell Newman will get a working majority, there is more at stake than that. Brisbane is pretty much a done deal. Campbell is back in and the only surprise left is how many Libs get up for him in the wards.
It does concern me that there has been so little concerning the Moreton Bay Regional Council in the Mail. After all, we are only talking about the third largest municipality in the Country. Not really much at stake, just the fortunes and lives of close to 400,000 punters.
But despite the dearth of coverage by the Mail, I am more disappointed by the Quest Community Newspapers. These rags derive their entire reason for being from the local Council areas that they supposedly cover. We are on Thursday before the biggest shakeup in the State’s history in terms of local government, and we’re lucky to get three pages of coverage. And that includes candidate ads.
The fourth estate can rightly be said to have dropped the ball on this one. I know, I know, they are only playing to their audience and will only cover what their readers want to read. I can both understand this and despise it. They have a responsibility to their readers to keep them informed. It is a two way street. We will accept their invasions of privacy, their holier than thou attitudes and their lack of class and general hygiene, but only if they are seen to be doing their jobs.
The classic example is a candidate in Division 9 who has, two days out from the campaign, lied to the constituency about an endorsement from a retiring well respected Councillor. This retiring well respected councillor is not merely endorsing a different candidate, but is also delivering letterbox drops for him. Names will remain nameless to avoid legal issues by the obviously guilty and unfit for elction candidate. The only hint I will give you is that he is a “Local Bloke” that doesn’t actually live in the new Division.
I will leave it up to the Division to make their choice, who knows, they may prefer to be lied to and treated with contempt by someone who knows that were he not in Council already, he would be lucky to score a job flipping burgers.
Two sleeps eh, good luck with that.
Comment by MK | March 13, 2008