Do Not Read This Title

I suppose I should mention we've had a state government for a week now. It seems that state governments are actually important for going to interstate meetings, making statements to the media and jumping up and down when large companies threaten to close.

The way it happened is the Governor held discussions with the leaders of parties (they being the former premier, Bartlett, who had announced his party would step down if the Liberals got the greater percentage of the votes, and the former opposition leader, Hodgman, whose party got the greater percentage of votes) and after much deliberation announced that Bartlett would return as premier. So now boys and girls, we know what the role of a vice-regal governor is, right?

The week or two were taken up with negotiations to form the actual cabinet with insufficient Labor MPs to take on all the ministries, but it's done now, with the cabinet containing two one Green minister (the first in the country, we kept getting told) and a Treasurer who said he would not serve in a Government that included any Greens.

So, minority government for the next four years. If they can make it that far. It shall be... interesting.

Also, potentially interesting, the Gunns restructure with a subsidary company, headed by their former chairman, taking responsibility for their plantations and pulp mill development.

On Saturday there is a state election. This is of great concern to us and of little concern to the rest of the world :)

It is shaping up in an interesting way though. Labor are expected to lose. They've been out of favour for a while (this was reflected in the state's results from the last Federal election, when the rest of country showed a large swing towards the ALP). They're generally seen as corrupt, in the pocket of big business and quite removed from their traditional supporters (that is the workers). So a swing away from Labor is on the books, but to who?

At the last election, the Liberal party didn't seem to have its act together. They didn't seem to know how to target voters -- take up the neglected Labor role or stick with their traditional conservative views? This time around, they seem to have their act together. They had their election posts up early. Their general campaigning seems better. Even if the most of it goes like:

Party one: If elected, we are going to put money into this and focus more on this.
Party two: So are we, but moreso!

(I've seen hardly any Labor posters. I did get a leaflet in my letterbox about the "New Labor". Way to confuse voters, yeah.)

So Liberal victory expected, but...

Then we have the Green Party, who currently hold 3 seats I think. They have been been campaigning very well, with a focus on reducing the living costs, improving education and water quality (ha). They should pick up some disenchanted Labor voters. They should gain seats.

And that's where it gets interesting because the expectation at the moment is neither Liberal nor Labor will get enough seats to be able to govern in their own right and the Greens will have the balance of power. So to get a workable government, one of the parties will need to "join" with the Greens (can't think of the verb). The leaders of both parties claim they won't. There is a lot of scare-campaigning going on "Minority governments don't work! Vote for Liberals" alongside a lot of news reports of polls saying there will be a minority government.

Also some speculation on whether the premier will lose his seat.

So, interesting.

Might change that to the Mercury's version. Makes it sounds much more dramatic.

Public ejected after mill Bill is pulped by pollies

More than 250 people were ejected from the parliamentary gallery yesterday after they turned their backs on the major parties in a dramatic protest against the pulp mill.

More