Category: News

More than 200 people attended a Candidate Forum in West End last night, to meet 10 of the 11 candidates standing in the forthcoming Griffith by-election. Here are some images from the Forum.

The results are in and the winning words for 2013 have been decided. The winner of the Committee’s Choice is…infovore

Macquarie Dictionary has announced infovore as the Word of the Year 2013 from the list of new words selected for inclusion in the annual update of the Macquarie Dictionary Online.

The overall winning word was selected by the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year Committee, comprised of Dr Michael Spence (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney), Professor Stephen Garton (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Sydney), Anne Bell (Director of University Libraries, University of Sydney), Catriona Menzies-Pike (Arts Editor, The Conversation) and Susan Butler (Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary).

Infovore
noun a person who craves information, especially one who takes advantage of their ready access to it on digital devices.

The Committee thought that the coinage infovore was a response to the perception that we now had access to information all the time. The smart phone made it possible to find out immediately what we wanted to know. For some people knowing that whatever questions life threw at us the answer was a click or two away was a liberating experience. Indeed they were in danger of becoming addicted to this rush of instant information. This was a word that reflected a significant change in how we conducted our lives.

The Committee would like to give honourable mention to:

firescape
verb (t) (firescaped, firescaping) to landscape (an area) with the possibility of bushfire in mind, as by growing fire-resistant plants, creating firebreaks with gravel, concrete, etc., eliminating flammable wood or plastic items.

cli-fi
noun a genre of speculative fiction based on the premise that climate change will give rise to fundamental changes in the way human beings live.
[CLI(MATE) + FI(CTION) modelled on SCI-FI]

Each summer now we are constantly aware of a background of major bushfires. In response to this there is a continuing flow of new words related to bushfires and how we deal with them. Firescaping is a form of landscaping that reduces the hazard of fire.

The other honourable mention went to cli-fi, a neat coinage, and one that is prompted by environmental change. The committee thought that it was fair to say that in all the discussions generated by this topic, no one had predicted a new genre of sci-fi as an outcome.

The People’s Choice winner goes to…

onesie

Thousands of votes were cast on Macquarie Dictionary Online throughout January to determine the People’s Choice Word of the Year for 2013. This year the winning word was:

onesie

noun 1. a loose-fitting one-piece suit, usually of a stretch fabric, gathered at the wrists and ankles and loose at the crotch. 2. a one-piece stretch garment for an infant, with or without legs and sleeves, sometimes enclosing the feet. [one + -s- + -ie]

The runner-ups were marriage equality and showrooming.

Category winners

• Agriculture – dining boom
• Arts – fanfic
• Business – showrooming
• Colloquial – facepalm
• Communications – churnalism
• Eating and Drinking – coffee cupping
• Environment – firescape
• Fashion – onesie
• General Interest – watch and act
• Health – enabler
• Internet – Streisand effect
• Politics – marriage equality
• Social Interest – generation debt
• Sport – barefoot running
• Technology – dumb phone

For a full list of nominated words and their definitions please visit www.macquariedictionary.com.au

According to the National Litter Index (NLI) report, Queensland is officially known as the ‘most littered Mainland State’ in Australia.

To help combat this, not-for-profit environmental organisation Queensland Conservation, with the generous pro bono support of national advertising agency ‘George Patterson Y&R (GPY&R), have released a web film on the wasteful and deadly phenomenon – plastic bags.

Queensland Conservation Executive Director, Toby Hutcheon said that in Queensland alone it is estimated that 1 billion plastic bags are used every year and that the average household collects 60 bags per week.

“As the most littered ‘Mainland State’, it’s time that the Queensland Government got behind Queensland Conservations aim to have a ban on single-use plastic bags by 2015.”

Toby said that the web film titled ’PLASTIC BAGS – QLD’S HAD A GUTFUL’ aims to bring home the reality to shoppers that we wouldn’t feed plastic bags to our kids, so why do we release them in to the environment to hurt our wildlife – highlighting that each year 1 million sea birds die an agonising death after ingesting plastic.

“We’d like to take this time to thank GPY&R, as without their support this web film would not have been possible. It’s organisations like this, who get behind not-for-profits, that really make a difference to the environment and the lives of others,” Toby said.

When asked for comment as to why GPY&R worked on the film for free, Managing Director Phil McDonald said that he felt the need to get involved, as Queensland is lagging behind other States in banning single-use plastic bags.

“Other States and Territories have been running high-profile campaigns that have assisted them in banning the bag in their regions. I could see that Queensland Conservation was pushing the issue along, but felt that by offering our services that we could help to highlight the issue visually, which I think we have been successful in doing,” he said.

Also lending his support to the web film has been celebrity Chef, TV presenter and restaurateur, Ben O’Donoghue, who has personally donated his time and talent to help highlight the cause.

“When Queensland Conservation contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing this, I jumped at the opportunity no questions asked! To me the plastic bag is a modern day commodity that we can all re-learn to do without, and if by doing this it encourages people to take their own bag when shopping, then it’s been well worth my time,” he said.

The web film ’PLASTIC BAGS – QLD’S HAD A GUTFUL’ can be viewed online at www.QldsHadAGutful.org.au with the aim being to raise enough money to have it air on Queensland TV.

The new face of Family First (FF) in 2014 is Christopher Williams, 24, unmarried and resident outside the electorate at Mt Gravatt East.

A committed christian, he is interested in music and is currently studying for a Bachelor of Ministry.

Mr Williams said that Family First is not a one-issue party.

It is concerned about issues such as schools, jobs, and securing local funding for community groups.

He is one of only two candidates of the eleven standing in this by-election who is opposed to same-sex marriage, and underlined that the LNP and the ALP are in agreement on what he sees as the “controversial issues” of same-sex marriage and abortion.

I asked Mr Williams why he would characterise these issues as controversial when the majority of Australians are in support. He responded that, “they are controversial because of the level of feeling involved. People feel quite strongly one way or the other,” he said.

He said that FF looks through the lens of putting families first, and when it comes to same-sex marriage, he is interested in “protecting the rights and interests of children”.

“Children are harmed when they are not raised by a mother and a father.”

While he understands that for various reasons there are single-parent families, and that “single parents do their best for their children”, they are, “not ideal.”

As to his personal credentials as a candidate, Mr Williams said the he has proven himself in his studies and in his church service, “To be loyal, to be dependable, to be driven … if I told people I will do something, I will do it,” he said, “I will achieve what I set out to do for the people of Griffith.”

On the Medicare co-payment, he said it initially sounded reasonable, but he agreed with concerns about shutting-off access for people who need to go to the GP more often than others: “They could be negatively affected by it,” he said.

On education, he said he would like to see more power handed to schools and to parents and less central control. He thinks that would be more productive than the current ‘culture wars’ around a national curriculum.

Mr Williams said that a lot of focus in this election seems to be on “minor issues” concerning Mr Abbott or Mr Newman, and not on substantive issues about which candidates could have some impact: “Protecting the institution of marriage and protecting unborn rights.”

On preferences, Mr Williams said he is very disappointed that Dr Glasson preferenced Labor candidate Terri Butler ahead of Family First.

“I don’t know why they (the LNP) expect the conservative parties to stick with them when they show that level of disrespect,” he said.

Mr Williams does not expect party leader Bob Day to make it to the electorate during the campaign.

Mr Williams has a Facebook site, and tweets using the handle @FFP4Griffith

Reprinted with permission from No Fibs

In 2013, Jan McNichol stood for the Stable Population Party (SPP) and polled 0.19 per cent of the primary vote. This time around the party has selected a new and young face in Timothy Lawrence. The party hopes that their name change before this by-election, to the Sustainable Population Party, will more accurately describe its purpose.

The SPP has said it did not actively campaign in 2013. Now, they are getting behind their candidate and are particularly active on social media. Mr Lawrence told No Fibs that he intends to engage at a local level as much as possible, and he was out and about in Griffith last weekend.

Mr Lawrence is a newly married 23-year-old software designer. He told No Fibs that his interest in politics and the SPP came about because of his interest in “social systems, and how they interact with our ecological systems.”

Population, he said, is the “everything issue”.

In conversations with people in the Griffith electorate, Mr Lawrence said they have expressed concerns about over-development, housing affordability, aircraft noise and the cost of living.

All of these issues, he said, relate back to the issue of a growing population, as does the impact on rising health costs and access.

“According to the AMA, we have gone from 6 hospital beds per 1000 (public and private) in 1970-71, down to 3.8 per 1000 in 2010-11”, he said.

Strategies proposed by the SPP to sustain current population levels in Australia include the removal of “government birth payments (the Family Tax Benefit A and paid parental leave) beyond a woman’s first two children”, and, “zero net migration,” such that “permanent immigration is equivalent to permanent emigration.”

Mr Lawrence said that up to 70 per cent of Australians do not want a bigger Australia by 2050, but the major parties are not listening.

The SPP has an open ticket when it comes to preferences, which encourages voters to select the SPP as number one, and whomever they like after that. Mr Lawrence said that people who vote for the SPP are not wasting their votes because they will be sending an important message to the major parties.

The SPP has a Facebook site, a website, and is very active on Twitter using the handle @PopulationParty.

– See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2014/02/01/familiar-faces-join-griffithvotes-party-griffithelects-reports/#sthash.blp7AQNO.dpuf

In something of a surprise for the upcoming Griffith by-election, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) is standing a candidate new to Griffith, but not new to the KAP.

Ray Sawyer stood for the KAP in the division of Fairfax in 2013, a seat that was won by Clive Palmer, with Sawyer managing just 1.92 per cent of the vote.

While he does not live in the region, Mr Sawyer described himself as someone who has “strong connections with the Griffith electorate.”

His campaign literature revealed that he has operated a dance school for a number of years, which has given him “the opportunity to meet many locals and work with businesses and charities in the area.”

Mr Sawyer entered politics due to disenchantment.

“I became disillusioned by the major parties, realising they are in it to win and be in power, which is not representative of the local bloke or our democratic political system.”

Mr Sawyer told No Fibs that he and his wife run a wedding dance business, teaching couples how to dance the bridal waltz, for example. As Mr Sawyer has already been reported in the press as an opponent of same-sex marriage, I asked if he would be willing to teach a same-sex couple how to dance.

“If a couple came to me”, he said, “and they were the same sex and they wanted to learn to dance, I would have no problem teaching them to dance whatsoever.”

However, he said that a core principle of the party is that marriage is between a man and a woman. Mr Sawyer is a churchgoer and Sunday school teacher, and said: “You could say my upbringing has influenced my beliefs and that’s what attracted me to the Katter Australia Party.”

Among the issues of concern for the KAP in Griffith, Mr Sawyer listed the new runway at Brisbane airport.

“Air traffic is increasing and to some degree, while that is good for Brisbane tourism, it brings not only noise, it brings air pollution too,” he said, then added he would like to see a review commissioned on the airport noise issue, and would support ALP candidate Terri Butler’s idea of trialling a curfew.

He said that he is getting a good response from his recent door-knocking efforts. “A lot of people say they are worried about the way this country is going. They have issues with the 457 visas and the number of people coming to our country and taking good jobs that everyday Australians could no doubt do.”

He said that people are raising concerns about Australian industries closing and are worried about keeping their jobs and being able to support their families.

A key personal issue is the sale of public assets: “The government should be providing basic essential services, infrastructure, water, electricity, communications, health and transport. It is about providing affordable services for the community. Selling these public assets only promotes price gouging from private investors, and high costs are then unavoidable.”

He added that, “governments should provide suitable communications for us all, and that includes broadband.”

Like Labor and the Greens, Mr Sawyer is opposed to the idea of introducing a new Medicare fee. “I think a lot of people will take the attitude that they can’t afford to go to the doctor. It’s very important to encourage people to go the doctor when they need to,” he said.

I noted that apart from same-sex marriage, a number of his views seem to be consistent with his Labor Party opponent, and I asked whether the KAP had received any reaction to the preference deal which saw it list Mr Rudd last in 2013.

Mr Sawyer said the party “took a bit of a hammering” in the last election and that this time it would give supporters the option of preferencing either of the two major parties. He has listed independent candidate Travis Windsor at number two on this how-to-vote card.

The Katter’s Australian Party has a Facebook site and a website, and Mr Sawyer is new to Twitter, using the handle @RayWSawyer.

Reprinted with permission of No Fibs