From left, Greg Burke, Bill Stefaniak and Jason Potter at the Tuggeranong town centre. Photo: Belinda Strahorn
UNDETERRED by the party’s less-than-spectacular result at October’s territory election, in which it failed to get a single candidate elected, the Belco Party is heading east and south with new branches.
Intent on building on its slim electoral support across the community, it will form branches in the Gungahlin-based electorate of Yerrabi and the Tuggeranong-based seat of Brindabella, adding to its already established branch in the Belconnen-based electorate of Ginninderra.
Former Canberra Liberal leader Bill Stefaniak has confirmed he won’t be re-contesting as a Belco Party candidate for the next ACT election, but will remain as convenor of the expanded Belco Party (ACT).
Belco party candidate Vijay Dubey… getting his hands dirty.
THE Belco Party, which failed to get a seat at the last ACT election, is planning to clean up tomorrow… part of the Lake Ginninderra foreshore, that is.
Candidate Vijay Dubey has organised for the party to host the clean up between 8am and noon on Sunday, March 7. He will be at the Lighthouse, over the footbridge from Lake Ginninderra College, to hand out garbage bags and other utensils to help with the clean up
“For a few hours’ effort we can all do something to help our local environment and get rid of a lot of unsightly rubbish,” says Vijay.
Photo: Senthan Thani
LABOR spent $561,483 on engaging consultants or advertising agents to retain government for a fifth term in last year’s ACT elections.
The exorbitant amount of funds for services and material relating to advertisements that extends to broadcasting and publishing electoral matters was more than half of the party’s entire campaign expenditure.
Both of the major parties forked out more than $1 million – the Canberra Liberals spending $14,194 more than Labor – in total electoral expenditure to win over voters.
But Labor coughed up more than six times than the $85,049 the Liberals spent on public relations spin.
The ACT Greens, who have formed a coalition government for the third time, were one of 14 party candidates that did not pay out a cent on consult or agent fees.
IAN MEIKLEÂ muses about words.Â
WORDS are to me as horseshoes are to a blacksmith; I forge the adjectives, hammer the verbs and cobble them into sentences that are shaped into paragraphs, columns, pages and papers.Â
Ian Meikle.
Am I a wordsmith, I vainly wondered. “A skilled user of words,” Google confirmed. A lifetime in journalism hasn’t been a waste then, though truth be told, I’ve never felt particularly gifted with an especially grandiose vocabulary (though I do know what
crapulent
I
feel words. Other wordsmiths’ toes curl at the mere mention of a gerund and they take split infinitives very personally. Not me. I like the metre (rhythm) of active news reporting and can be very forgiving in my editing, favouring substance over form.Â