Citizen Crikeys are hard at it, reporting on the election from their marginal seats. So how much pork has rolled into town? Are there any lampposts left without candidates nailed to them? And what songs does Liberal candidate for Makin Bob Day play when he sings for voters?

To read more reports from the frontlines, click here for the Citizen Crikey homepage. If you would like to share your own thoughts, send them to citizencrikey@crikey.com.au.

On with the show…

Bass. Heinz Guderian writes: The Ruddmeister took the back way into Launceston airport on Thursday after his run-in with angry octogenarians elsewhere in Tasmania, thereby avoiding pulp mill protestors. He also walked with ALP candidate Jodie Campbell in Launceston gorge, an attractive piece of scenery right near the town’s centre. He pledged a few bucks for an “interpretive walk”, which presumably will have to avoid mentioning the striking basalt walls are millions of years old, because as all good residents know the earth was made by God the Builder in six days, about 6,000 years ago. While strolling, Mr Rudd might have looked up at a controversial house, built for a local millionaire, that hangs obtrusively off one side of the gorge (see picture below). How it got through the planning process is anybody’s guess, but in Tasmania anything is possible if you know the right people, and it’s not like mainlanders should interfere in the murky dealings of the boganocracy, is it?

Click to enlarge. Pic by Heinz Guderian

 

Moreton. Ben Pennings writes: One thing the local paper is not full of is political advertising. In fact, there hasn’t been a single political ad in the last two editions. Labor has had more material delivered to letter boxes in the electorate but it has been paltry from what you’d expect in a marginal electorate. GetUp seems to be more interested in the electorate than either major party. The Courier Mail has reported that Moreton is fast getting the nickname “Five Past Six”, referring to the estimated time that the electorate will be called as a Labor win on election night. The lack of campaigning within the electorate indicates this may not be an exaggeration.

Robertson. Victoria Collins writes: I had lunch with Wayne Swan. Well, me and quite a few others. It was a generally antiseptic affair where everyone concerned stayed tightly on message with no questions asked, especially as it was the day after the Labor candidate, Belinda Neal, got the party into hot water for suggesting GST distribution deals were up for grabs after the election, which some commentators suggested, breathlessly, also meant the rate could be up for negotiation as well at the same talks. Bummer. I had some great questions lined up. So, in the end, all I got for my effort was the rubber chicken and a speech which I could have downloaded from the internet for free!