Independents: South West Region
Feb. 25th, 2021 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
b_auspolThe last region is South West. We have an interesting mix of candidates with some experience at running here, though none that I would elect. Let's go.
John Banks & Phillip Spencer
John Banks is a pretty invisible name: I’ve had a look and he has a campaign email address, but no obvious social media or website for the election. He’s obviously not the former leader of ACT New Zealand though.
Phillip Spencer is the name of a former Toowoomba councillor in 2006, but I suspect he’s not the same person. Again I can’t really turn up any likely candidates.
Looking at the preferences for the group voting ticket: it’s a handful of independents, Sustainable Australia, more independents, DSP, WA Party, Liberals for Climate, HAP, Liberal Democrats, AJP. The end is Labor, Liberals then Nationals.
Sustainable Australia are the Druery group target for South West region. This is pretty clearly another fake “independent” group to try and harvest preferences.
Please don’t vote for a fake independent group that only exists to funnel preferences.
Yasmin Bartlett & Karen Perttula
Yasmin Bartlett has some experience in politics. She was a local councillor for the Shire of Denmark from October 2015 to October 2017, resigning two years early for unspecified “work and personal reasons”. There was apparently some sort of shenanigans going on down in the council, as 5 councillors all resigned prior to this election. She stood for Sustainable Australia in the WA Senate at the 2019 federal election, winning just shy of 5,000 votes (2.4% of a quota).
I cannot seem to find any advertising from her for the current election, but here’s her twitter where she talks a bit about Sustainable Australia during the 2019 election.
Karen Perttula is pretty hard to track down. I found her donating some money to surgery for a shelter dog in WA in November. There’s also the twitter of a Sky News/Qanon conspiracy theorist who has this name but I can’t tell if that Karen is even based in Australia; there simply isn’t enough to go on.
Yasmin is a bit of a woo. She runs a boutique hotel which she describes as “I offer a space where you can re-connect to nature, an opportunity to experience time alone in my Self Love Therapy room. I am also a Body worker with a background in Naturopathy and Behavioural Science. I have written a book, not yet published. This book will provide both an understanding of the Body/Mind Connection and practical steps to implement positive changes to your life.” She’s also been on the Conscious Living Show YouTube channel to talk about the “Awakening Festival” she wants to run in November 2021. It’s “an event to inspire sustainable heart centred living and consciousness-expanding experiences to create positive change in the world”. So there. You’ve been told.
I suspect we are once again looking at a fake independent group here, given Yasmin’s Sustainable Australia connection.
We are therefore defaulting to looking at the group voting ticket. Preferences here go to some independents, Sustainable Australia (there’s a shock), more independents, WA Party, Liberals for Climate, DSP, Lib Dems, HAP, WAxit… yeah this is another fake indie. Bottom of the ticket is Labor, Liberals and the Nationals.
Yasmin seems pretty flakey and is basically a front for Sustainable Australia. If you want to vote for Sustainable Australia, just do that.
George Seth & Noel Avery
George Seth is probably a manager of a donga company. I can’t find anything about his interest in politics.
Noel Avery, however, is a complicated fellow and I can’t believe he’s SECOND on this ballot. Noel played WAFL for East Freemantle between 1971 and 1976. He’s involved in the frozen meat export industry (including for pet meat) and is a full on GMO-causes-cancer conspiracy nut. He also doesn’t like selling land and resources (water) to foreign ownership.
Noel ran in the 2013 federal election for the Katter Australia Party in Swan (coming last on the ballot with 421 votes, behind even Rise Up), and in the 2013 WA state election as an ungrouped candidate in North Metropolitan Region (1,294 votes). He was the best placed of the independents in North Metro, probably simply on name recognition.
Please enjoy his 2013 federal election leaflet: http://www.electionleaflets.org.au/full.php?q=2093#l4265
There is nothing available about what Noel wants to do about THIS election, however. Even his facebook is a wasteland that hasn’t been updated since 2019, so I can’t tell you what his current position on COVID is.
So, on to the group voting ticket. He starts with all the independents, then WA Party, Health Australia Party (probably actually for their policies!), Liberals for Climate, Sustainable Australia, James Hayward (lead National), WAxit, No Mandatory Vax. Bottom of the ticket is Greens, Labor then One Nation.
They’re clearly cranks, but at least they’re not fake independents.
Dave Schumacher
https://www.facebook.com/daveforsouthwest/
Dave was actually easier to track down than I worried when I saw his name: he’s been a Councillor of Mandurah Council for 11 years. It looks like he was initially elected to local council as a Liberal, but became an independent after losing preselection for state level politics in around 2016/7.
Like many independents, he is concerned that government is controlled by political parties, and is largely concerned with telling me he’s independent, rather than what he actually stands for. He has a campaign facebook page and has also listed his candidacy on LinkedIn, which is certainly one place to let people know you’re running for election! He has a consistent facebook page which he uses for campaigning, which at least means people can track you down.
He seems to be something of a serial candidate, as one of the flyers he’s published for this election is a flyer from the last state election where he ran for his local electorate (and apparently managed 10% of the local vote). He also apparently ran in 2013. From that flyer and the preference spread, he preferences the Liberals over Labor, but wants to tells us he’s centrist, “midway Liberal and Labor”. He also tells us that he’s served on a lot of boards at local council level, is heavily involved with Lions Club, RSL, Halo and Make a Wish, and basically is your local hyper-involved local council guy. Also on his flyer:
“He is acknowledged by our community as a whole, for his integrity, selflessness, commitment, passion and his can-do attitude”.
But what does he actually stand for?
He’s for longer prison sentences (there’s a post outraged that someone got a 22 year sentence for murder, and that that’s been called life imprisonment: “Life is life end of story”). He’s mentioned recall elections, in that he wants to give the electorate the power to “sack a politician during their term”. After scanning a few local articles, he’s considered to be a campaigner for youth mental health services. He’s also interested in local homelessness, mental health issues leading to domestic violence and suicide, the school curriculum talking about mental and physical health and nutrition. He was angry about a shuttle bus service for seniors’ medical appointments being cancelled.
He had a spray at the Mental Health Commission for cutting funding to services when the Barnett government increased funding in a road toll campaign “as more people die from suicide than traffic accidents”. The Mental Health Commission seemed confused about this, as they have separate funding and don’t fund anything to do with roads.
The local paper also has signs that Dave is somewhat of a controversial local figure at council level: there’s been a mysterious investigation of him by the WA Department of Local Government which has nothing public about why he was being investigated; there was a stoush over election signs being defaced for the last local government elections where Dave claims he’s being bullied.
The group voting ticket: Independents, then Sustainable Australia, WA Party, Shooters, WAxit, Legalise Cannabis, HAP and GAP. Bottom of the ticket is Liberals for Climate, AJP and No Mandatory Vax.
I think he’s probably a reasonably popular and known local councillor, given the length of his term and the fact that he can pick up around 5-10% of the vote for a lower house state seat. He’s clearly hands-on involved and committed to mental health and services at a community level, particularly for teenagers, given the organisations he’s affiliated with.
I don’t think anyone outside of his local area is going to vote for him, given he can’t get himself into contention of second place in a very safe Liberal seat.
Bob Burdett
https://www.facebook.com/bob.burdett.754
Bob’s a serial candidate! There’s a nice pack of them in this region.
Bob Burdett has stood for Australian Christians in the 2013 and 2017 WA State elections in South Metropolitan, and in the division of Brand in the 2010, 2013 and 2016 federal election.
I’m not quite sure why he’s decided to stand as an independent this time around. He’s apparently been an Australian Christians WA State council member since 2010, yet they don’t preference him until after the Liberals and Nationals on the Australian Christian ticket.
I suspect there is some sort of schism, but I can’t find any articles about it.
Nevertheless, I think we proceed and assume that Bob’s general views conform with those of Australian Christians unless any other evidence comes to hand. He hasn’t updated his facebook page since 2018, tragically, but it’s pretty standard far right Christian crotchety old man content.
Let’s get to that voting ticket! He preferences Australian Christians first (so if it IS a schism he’s not feeling too bad about it), then Shooters, One Nation, WAxit, the Nationals, then the rest of the independents. Bottom of the ticket is Sustainable Australia, GAP, and the Greens. Hah! He really doesn’t like the cranks over at GAP.
Look, this appears to be Alternate Flavour Australian Christians. If you want to vote for Bob specifically, do that, but I don’t think he’s contributing much independence to this election.
John Banks & Phillip Spencer
John Banks is a pretty invisible name: I’ve had a look and he has a campaign email address, but no obvious social media or website for the election. He’s obviously not the former leader of ACT New Zealand though.
Phillip Spencer is the name of a former Toowoomba councillor in 2006, but I suspect he’s not the same person. Again I can’t really turn up any likely candidates.
Looking at the preferences for the group voting ticket: it’s a handful of independents, Sustainable Australia, more independents, DSP, WA Party, Liberals for Climate, HAP, Liberal Democrats, AJP. The end is Labor, Liberals then Nationals.
Sustainable Australia are the Druery group target for South West region. This is pretty clearly another fake “independent” group to try and harvest preferences.
Please don’t vote for a fake independent group that only exists to funnel preferences.
Yasmin Bartlett & Karen Perttula
Yasmin Bartlett has some experience in politics. She was a local councillor for the Shire of Denmark from October 2015 to October 2017, resigning two years early for unspecified “work and personal reasons”. There was apparently some sort of shenanigans going on down in the council, as 5 councillors all resigned prior to this election. She stood for Sustainable Australia in the WA Senate at the 2019 federal election, winning just shy of 5,000 votes (2.4% of a quota).
I cannot seem to find any advertising from her for the current election, but here’s her twitter where she talks a bit about Sustainable Australia during the 2019 election.
Karen Perttula is pretty hard to track down. I found her donating some money to surgery for a shelter dog in WA in November. There’s also the twitter of a Sky News/Qanon conspiracy theorist who has this name but I can’t tell if that Karen is even based in Australia; there simply isn’t enough to go on.
Yasmin is a bit of a woo. She runs a boutique hotel which she describes as “I offer a space where you can re-connect to nature, an opportunity to experience time alone in my Self Love Therapy room. I am also a Body worker with a background in Naturopathy and Behavioural Science. I have written a book, not yet published. This book will provide both an understanding of the Body/Mind Connection and practical steps to implement positive changes to your life.” She’s also been on the Conscious Living Show YouTube channel to talk about the “Awakening Festival” she wants to run in November 2021. It’s “an event to inspire sustainable heart centred living and consciousness-expanding experiences to create positive change in the world”. So there. You’ve been told.
I suspect we are once again looking at a fake independent group here, given Yasmin’s Sustainable Australia connection.
We are therefore defaulting to looking at the group voting ticket. Preferences here go to some independents, Sustainable Australia (there’s a shock), more independents, WA Party, Liberals for Climate, DSP, Lib Dems, HAP, WAxit… yeah this is another fake indie. Bottom of the ticket is Labor, Liberals and the Nationals.
Yasmin seems pretty flakey and is basically a front for Sustainable Australia. If you want to vote for Sustainable Australia, just do that.
George Seth & Noel Avery
George Seth is probably a manager of a donga company. I can’t find anything about his interest in politics.
Noel Avery, however, is a complicated fellow and I can’t believe he’s SECOND on this ballot. Noel played WAFL for East Freemantle between 1971 and 1976. He’s involved in the frozen meat export industry (including for pet meat) and is a full on GMO-causes-cancer conspiracy nut. He also doesn’t like selling land and resources (water) to foreign ownership.
Noel ran in the 2013 federal election for the Katter Australia Party in Swan (coming last on the ballot with 421 votes, behind even Rise Up), and in the 2013 WA state election as an ungrouped candidate in North Metropolitan Region (1,294 votes). He was the best placed of the independents in North Metro, probably simply on name recognition.
Please enjoy his 2013 federal election leaflet: http://www.electionleaflets.org.au/full.php?q=2093#l4265
There is nothing available about what Noel wants to do about THIS election, however. Even his facebook is a wasteland that hasn’t been updated since 2019, so I can’t tell you what his current position on COVID is.
So, on to the group voting ticket. He starts with all the independents, then WA Party, Health Australia Party (probably actually for their policies!), Liberals for Climate, Sustainable Australia, James Hayward (lead National), WAxit, No Mandatory Vax. Bottom of the ticket is Greens, Labor then One Nation.
They’re clearly cranks, but at least they’re not fake independents.
Dave Schumacher
https://www.facebook.com/daveforsouthwest/
Dave was actually easier to track down than I worried when I saw his name: he’s been a Councillor of Mandurah Council for 11 years. It looks like he was initially elected to local council as a Liberal, but became an independent after losing preselection for state level politics in around 2016/7.
Like many independents, he is concerned that government is controlled by political parties, and is largely concerned with telling me he’s independent, rather than what he actually stands for. He has a campaign facebook page and has also listed his candidacy on LinkedIn, which is certainly one place to let people know you’re running for election! He has a consistent facebook page which he uses for campaigning, which at least means people can track you down.
He seems to be something of a serial candidate, as one of the flyers he’s published for this election is a flyer from the last state election where he ran for his local electorate (and apparently managed 10% of the local vote). He also apparently ran in 2013. From that flyer and the preference spread, he preferences the Liberals over Labor, but wants to tells us he’s centrist, “midway Liberal and Labor”. He also tells us that he’s served on a lot of boards at local council level, is heavily involved with Lions Club, RSL, Halo and Make a Wish, and basically is your local hyper-involved local council guy. Also on his flyer:
“He is acknowledged by our community as a whole, for his integrity, selflessness, commitment, passion and his can-do attitude”.
But what does he actually stand for?
He’s for longer prison sentences (there’s a post outraged that someone got a 22 year sentence for murder, and that that’s been called life imprisonment: “Life is life end of story”). He’s mentioned recall elections, in that he wants to give the electorate the power to “sack a politician during their term”. After scanning a few local articles, he’s considered to be a campaigner for youth mental health services. He’s also interested in local homelessness, mental health issues leading to domestic violence and suicide, the school curriculum talking about mental and physical health and nutrition. He was angry about a shuttle bus service for seniors’ medical appointments being cancelled.
He had a spray at the Mental Health Commission for cutting funding to services when the Barnett government increased funding in a road toll campaign “as more people die from suicide than traffic accidents”. The Mental Health Commission seemed confused about this, as they have separate funding and don’t fund anything to do with roads.
The local paper also has signs that Dave is somewhat of a controversial local figure at council level: there’s been a mysterious investigation of him by the WA Department of Local Government which has nothing public about why he was being investigated; there was a stoush over election signs being defaced for the last local government elections where Dave claims he’s being bullied.
The group voting ticket: Independents, then Sustainable Australia, WA Party, Shooters, WAxit, Legalise Cannabis, HAP and GAP. Bottom of the ticket is Liberals for Climate, AJP and No Mandatory Vax.
I think he’s probably a reasonably popular and known local councillor, given the length of his term and the fact that he can pick up around 5-10% of the vote for a lower house state seat. He’s clearly hands-on involved and committed to mental health and services at a community level, particularly for teenagers, given the organisations he’s affiliated with.
I don’t think anyone outside of his local area is going to vote for him, given he can’t get himself into contention of second place in a very safe Liberal seat.
Bob Burdett
https://www.facebook.com/bob.burdett.754
Bob’s a serial candidate! There’s a nice pack of them in this region.
Bob Burdett has stood for Australian Christians in the 2013 and 2017 WA State elections in South Metropolitan, and in the division of Brand in the 2010, 2013 and 2016 federal election.
I’m not quite sure why he’s decided to stand as an independent this time around. He’s apparently been an Australian Christians WA State council member since 2010, yet they don’t preference him until after the Liberals and Nationals on the Australian Christian ticket.
I suspect there is some sort of schism, but I can’t find any articles about it.
Nevertheless, I think we proceed and assume that Bob’s general views conform with those of Australian Christians unless any other evidence comes to hand. He hasn’t updated his facebook page since 2018, tragically, but it’s pretty standard far right Christian crotchety old man content.
Let’s get to that voting ticket! He preferences Australian Christians first (so if it IS a schism he’s not feeling too bad about it), then Shooters, One Nation, WAxit, the Nationals, then the rest of the independents. Bottom of the ticket is Sustainable Australia, GAP, and the Greens. Hah! He really doesn’t like the cranks over at GAP.
Look, this appears to be Alternate Flavour Australian Christians. If you want to vote for Bob specifically, do that, but I don’t think he’s contributing much independence to this election.
