Health warning about your democracy sausage

Campaign Confidential: The nanny state is fussing about Democracy Sausages. Plus: a minor party stunt on the Gold Coast goes wrong, and a premature launch in Wentworth.

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Nanny state cooks your democracy sausage

Simple and classic, the taste of freedom. Picture: Toby Zerna

In the history of Aussie barbecues, have you ever seen anyone use a meat thermometer on a snag? Campaign Confidential hasn’t either, but that hasn’t stopped the Food Safety Information Council suggesting vendors of Democracy Sausages use one this Saturday. We’re sure the advice is well-meant and scientifically sound, yada yada, but the Council’s recommendations verge on patronising, reminding election-day stallholders to wash their hands after using the bathroom, and to keep food covered. On meat probe thermometers, the Council says they should be used for sausages, hamburger patties and poultry, and they should read at least 75°C in the thickest part of the meat before the food is served. Don’t they know an Aussie snag ain’t cooked until it’s just this side of charcoal?

More hot air from pollies

A balloon used by candidates in the seat of McPherson to promote their message in Robina on Tuesday. Picture: Supplied

Minor-party candidates for the Gold Coast seat of McPherson insist the winds of change are blowing through the electorate. But gusts of another kind brought a premature end to an election stunt in Robina on Tuesday. Josh Berrigan from the United Australia Party, Andy Cullen from the Australian Values Party, Glenn Pyne from the Liberal Democrats and Kevin Hargraves from One Nation jointly launched a multi-coloured hot-air balloon, trying to catch the attention of passing motorists on the M1 motorway. But the balloon, which carried a banner advising locals to ‘vote the majors last’, became another victim of the Goldy’s recent inclement weather, with winds forcing it back to ground shortly before nine o’clock. The Gold Coast has a history of ridiculous election stunts, the most infamous of which was Andrew Bartlett bungee jump to launch the Australian Democrats campaign in 2004. The stunt was labelled “seriously weird” and the Democrats went on to lose three Senate seats in that election.

A fraction too much friction

Australian Federation Party candidate for Groom Ryan Otto. Picture: Kevin Farmer

It’s not all scenic flights and crazy stunts in the Sunshine State though. Reports out of Groom suggest politics is being played particularly hard in the Toowoomba-based seat. Last week sitting MP Garth Hamilton walked out of a candidates’ forum in Westbrook after a confrontation with anti-vax-mandate activists, saying he’d simply “had enough”. Now comes news the AEC is investigating claims Australian Federation Party candidate Ryan Otto has been harassing and filming Labor and Greens volunteers at voting booths.

Labor candidate Gen Allpass told the Toowoomba Chronicle Mr Otto had driven one older volunteer to tears. “It was the way he was standing over her and in her space — she started shaking and crying,” she said. “He just keeps going to the different booths and causing issues.”

Mr Otto told the paper he was simply having robust conversations.

“She said I was being too loud and tried to shut me up because I was having a passionate conversation, and I told her I had a right to speak,” he said. “If that made her cry, I’m sorry I hurt her feelings, I was just being loud – I’m loud and a little bit obnoxious.”

Spin cycle

Wentworth MP Dave Sharma (r) at the “launch” event for the uncompleted eastern suburbs cycleway. Picture: Dave Sharma/Twitter

Wentworth MP Dave Sharma was front and centre on Tuesday, unveiling the “new” 2.3km cycleway in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, linking Bondi Junction to the Sydney CBD. The project – funded by all three levels of government at a cool $18m – was hyped by the MP as being “good for commuters, good for roads, good for active lifestyles and good for our local environment”. No dispute there, but Campaign Confidential was curious about the timing of the event – construction on the cycleway started back in August 2019 and according to Waverley Council’s website, it should have been finished this month. But work continues, as locals who have been dodging roadworks for months can attest. In his press release on the matter, Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher said the first sections of the cycleway should now be finished in June, while the final section is due for completion in “early 2023”. So why launch anything this week?

Do you believe in life after loss?

Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison. Picture: Toby Zerna/Getty Images

“What are you going to do if you lose?” It’s the question neither Scott Morrison or Anthony Albanese have been willing to answer on the campaign trail, but let’s face it: one of them will be crying into their Weet-Bix on Sunday morning. Recent history shows some Australian political leaders choose to stay on after losing an election (Bill Shorten in 2016 and 2019; Tony Abbott in 2010; Kim Beazley in 1998 and 2001; John Hewson in 1993), one has been voted out of parliament entirely (John Howard in 2007); and the rest chose to bolt at the first available opportunity. The timing varies though: Paul Keating tendered his resignation a breathtaking nine days after losing in 1996, while Mark Latham and Kevin Rudd both gave it a respectable three months after they lost in 2004 and 2013. The record for a losing dummy spit, however, probably belongs to Labor’s Deputy Leader Gareth Evans in 1998, who announced his intention to retire during the actual election count, despite having just been elected as the MP for Holt. “He was doing TV commentary and he said ‘I’ve had enough, I’m resigning,” ANU Politics Professor John Wanna told Campaign Confidential. “There was a huge outrage about that, because he’d just been elected in a Victorian seat, he was re-elected, and he was going to bail out.”

Former Labor MP Gareth Evans running for the seat of Holt in 1998.

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