[csaa-forum] Re: Marginal

[Rob Garbutt]

Brett,

Yes, I guess I was responding to my sense that the significance of 
categories like "aspirational" can take on a priority that lasts just 
for a moment and in that moment appear to mean something.

As to what "the mood of the people" is in Lismore (Page) I could not 
say definitively other than that Ian Causley (National) increased his 
majority and the Socialist Alliance vote has dropped. Possible 
reasons(?):
* an atavistic longing for security and stability that the Coalition 
does so well,
* a fear of rising interest rates within a traditionally conservative 
region. Here housing prices have doubled in the last 3 years as 
people come inland because they can no longer afford to live on the 
coast (see below), and
* and a feeling that Federal Labor has not at all been helped by the 
Carr government which is really on the nose - a rotting carcass my 
friend Perry would say - he a rusted on Socialist Alliance voter. Bob 
the Builder has closed the Casino-Murwillumbah rail line while 
increasing funding of CityRail (nothing like a city-bush inequity to 
get the rural blood boiling), moved a number of government services 
south to Newcastle (ditto) and failed to fund key pieces of road 
infrastructure despite repeated promises (ditto).

In neighbouring Richmond we are still watching with interest as 
Justine Elliot and Larry Anthony pick over the postal and prepoll 
votes. Labor is still in the lead (though if you read the Sydney 
Morning Herald it is the other way round) but only just at last look 
- Larry's not done yet. This possible change in fortune for the 
Anthony dynasty has much to do with demographic changes that have 
seen the coastal strip from Ballina through Byron Bay to Tweed Heads 
go bonkers with an influx from who knows where but they have a lot of 
money and by and large vote Green. What can explain that?

Regards,
Rob.

>Thanks Rob,
>
>I think you make a fair comment. But I guess I was trying to refocus from
>the emphasis on consumption. ...  But, given the
>way discussion was flowing, I thought it might be productive to restate in
>a way that might carry some weight.
>
>Maybe you have something more to say about
>how things played out in your neck of the woods?
>
>Brett

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