What will Chisholm do now? It’s always a numbers game in politics and insiders are wondering just what Anthony Chisholm is going to do now after narrowly missing out on Labor’s national secretary position. Some say he still has his eye on the coveted prize, claiming that the outsider and relatively unknown George Wright, expected to be elected unopposed to the job on April 22, is only a seat warmer until Chisholm gets through the Queensland election. Whatever, it seems to have caused further tension in the Queensland ALP office with infighting between Jackie Trad, Linus Power and Chris Forrester, along with other party office officials, who have been thwarted from running for the now “unvacant” state secretary post.

…but all hope isn’t lost. George Wright may have the gig, but Victorian ALP members still think they’re in with a shot.

From: Vic Info
Sent: Monday, 11 April 2011 4:45 PM
To: XXXX
Subject:Nominations Open for National Secretary Position

Nominations now open for position of National Secretary of the ALP

Nominations are now open for the position of National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party.

You can download the nomination form by clicking on the following link. https://www.alp.org.au/getattachment/bb97440e-d67b-4a38-9ed8-be80649ed381/ALP-Nat-nomination-form.pdf/

If you have problems downloading the form, please send a reply email to Vic ALP Info and a form will be emailed to you.

Nominations close at 12 noon on the 18th of April 2011 with the National Returning Officer.

Completed nomination forms should be emailed to: nominations@alp.org.au

Government on holidays for flood relief. The new era of enlightened federal public servants assisting flood affected communities didn’t last long. Several key federal government grants were released last week with a closing date of April 29. With the Easter holidays and Anzac Day creating an extra long weekend and the requirement of having to post applications (someone hasn’t heard of email) it creates a real deadline of April 20. The reality is that small shires and community organisations have now only two weeks rather than the prescribed four weeks. Many shires won’t be able to meet that deadline and gain much needed funds.

Flood cover: not lucky they’re with AAMI. Our home insurance claim for the Queensland flood was just rejected by AAMI today — three months since the flood. Rather than making a public announcement like RACQ, NRMA and others, they had some poor 20-year-old girl who had obviously been abused all week phone up and tell me in person. They might like to pretend this is about personalised service and respect for customers, but the truth is I’m not going to be another person who yells at some kid who has no control over the situation. I would have had a different view about verbal abuse if the CEO rang.

Their policies appear to be written to be superficially reassuring, whilst having massive get-out-of-jail cards whilst all their advertising boasts how you will never be left underinsured by AAMI. I just don’t want to see AAMI getting off the bad PR hook for their behaviour; at least cop it in the way some of the others have.

Down, down, prices are down (with pesticides). Coles’ discounting certainly doesn’t include organic vegetables. Yes, they usually do cost more than the ones which contain pesticides, but one wonders about Coles’ profit margin policy when organic beans are available for $7.00/kg at the wholesale market and they are selling them for just under $25.00/kg!

Delayed flights, expensive sandwiches. Could Virgin Blue (or Pacific Blue) explain why a flight that was supposed to leave Vanuatu on Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm for Sydney (direct) arrived in Sydney last night at 10.30pm, after travelling via Brisbane? In Brisbane the generous souls at Virgin/Pacific gave passengers a $6 allowance to buy some food. The cheapest sandwich at the airport was $7.50.

Faceless men: exposed. Proof that the ALP is run by faceless men — just check out the Labor Connect website…

Number plates for ANZ CEO. They’re taking your best offer, Mike Smith…