With the election concluded I intend to return to “normal” blogging. I’m moving my news blogging to a new site, mainly because my site stats show just how many people misspell my name trying to get here. So, for news, analysis and opinion from the Border region, check out:

The provisional results for the 2008 Wodonga City Council elections are now available at the Victorian Electoral Commission website.

I polled 302 votes, the third lowest in the field of twenty. Dennis Black polled 344 votes, resulting in a Green primary of 646. This is an increase of 180 votes over our showing in 2005. This was a small yet significant step forward for the Greens in Wodonga. We offered a Green alternative, and more people chose that alternative at the local government level than ever before.

The past three months have been tough, but I am proud of what we achieved. I would like to thank everyone who supported us, including: Emma & Steve, Carol, Graham, Ian, Kay, Steve, Peter, Trish, Paul, Martin, Kate, Jenny and Julie H.

Above all others, I would like to thank Dennis Black. Without you mate, I would never have run. It was an absolute pleasure working with you on this campaign.

In depth coverage of the result and what it means for Wodonga will begin appearing on my new blog, from tomorrow. Right now I need some sleep!

Update: Graham Parton (Greens, Indigo) polled 253 primary, and Ian Christoe (Greens, Shepparton) polled an impressive 1248 primary. Congratulations to both of them on a fantastic campaign, and I hope to see them at our meeting on the 9th.

Voting officially closed at 6pm tonight. The computer count should be complete by 7:30 Sunday, and the official declaration of results will be 9:00am on Monday. I presume the results will be available on the VEC website on Sunday night.

I’ll update my Facebook status as soon as I know the result. Thanks to everyone for their ongoing support.

Update: Here’s the Wodonga Results page, which should have some useful info later tomorrow.

Well not quite, but the Border Mail has, two days in a row, published a letter from my fellow Greens candidate Dennis Black.

Only one letter seems to have made it to the Border Mail’s ever incomplete website, it addresses some of the climate change “skeptics” (ie delusionists) who have appeared on the Letter’s page recently.

The planet has reached the point where our business-as-usual approach is not a viable option to protect ourselves and the other species that are our fellow travellers.

“We told you so” 10 years down the track will not be much consolation. Serious, effective action is essential now.

Sums up the problem for us perfectly. We don’t want to be right. We don’t want climate change to be real, we don’t want to be sitting here in ten years saying “well, told ya so”.

We need effective action now, from all institutions, all levels of government, and all members of society. We need effective action, not denial, if we are to secure a future for humanity on planet Earth.

I hope that my passion and concern on this issue came across at this mornings Chamber of Commerce breakfast. In possibly the last function for the campaign, Dennis and I once again confronted the wall of silence and tried to raise the issue of climate change.

I only hope that Dennis’s letters are evidence of us making the odd crack in that wall.

They have a 7.30 in the morning now?!

Tomorrow it’s off to the Chamber of Commerce candidates breakfast. I only get two minutes to speak, so I haven’t prepared anything spectacular. I might just mention the idea that greater democracy and action on climate change is good for business.

This will probably be the last act of the campaign, most people have voted, and it’s 10 sleeps until we have the result.

Last night I headed over to the Albury Wodonga Environment Centre AGM.

We were privileged to have Graeme Dunstan from PeaceBus.com and Hamish of Folk-Rhythm-Life fame in attendance.

Hamish told us about the ins and outs of his simple composting toilet system, Graeme gave an interesting talk on the philosophy of his ongoing activism. Sharece from the Environment Centre shared photos from some of Victoria’s leading Permaculture setups, taken during her recent two week course with the legendary David Holmgren.

Electoral politics is not the be all and end all for achieving practical change in our society. It was nice to be reminded of that at the AWEC AGM.

Today the Stockagents held their final “Save the Saleyards” Rally in Woodland Grove. Naturally I was not invited to attend, I’m an evil Greenie who wants to avoid the City of Wodonga taking on new debt. I went down to High St anyway.

Leafleting a short distance from the protest gathering, I received the usual array of hostility, as well as a few copies of the long awaited stock agents campaign leaflet (pictured above). It will arrive in Wodonga letterboxes during the coming week.

There are a few things that need to be said about it:

The most obvious is that it fails to comply with electoral law.

1. The recommendation that voters “Vote 1 to 9 according to your preference” is borderline, it could be seen as misleading voters on how to cast a correct vote (ie. number every box, not just nine).
2. The authorisation does not comply with the electoral act. Authorisations need to list the person who authorised the leaflet, and a physical address at which they can be found. The VEC is quite explicit about the fact that a PO box is insufficient. This leaflet lists the “Albury Wodonga Stock Agents Association Inc” as the authorising person, and then gives their PO box.

These are probably just honest mistakes, but none the less they make the continued distribution of this leaflet unlawful.

Even more embarrassing to the stock agents association has to be the fact that not all the candidates they recommend actually support them!

One candidate on that list has explicitly told me, in the presence of other candidates, that he does not agree with the tactics or position of the Stock agents association.

Another of the candidates has told me, and other candidates, that the primary reason he is running is to feed preferences to Lisa Mahood, a councillor who voted for the sale and relocation of the Saleyards.

A third candidate does not state that explicitly, but as a member of the Labor Party, that is what he is doing.

Then there is the small matter of the people who financed the leaflet. Look at the logos at the bottom of the leaflet, these businesses have a vested financial interest in ensuring that the ratepayers of Wodonga continue to subsidise a saleyards.

I am fed up. The self interested campaign of the Stock Agents Association has been an annoying distraction from the real issues of this campaign.

Update: Apologies to Ben Robson, I accept I can be a bit too touchy about these things. Keep up the good work.

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The Border Mail’s article on Thursday night’s public forum can be found here.

Once again the Border Mail has taken the odd liberty when selecting a “quote” to put next to my name. I the past I can see this has been an honest mistake that has not overly distorted what I was trying to get across, but Ben Robson took it a bridge too far.

“I think retiring the city’s debt is an essential pre-requisite to a just and equitable society,” Kieran Bennett said.

This appears to have been an attempt to contract two parts of my speech into one sentence, because I did say:

We are committed to the environment, because it is an essential prerequisite. Our ultimate goal, is to work towards a more just and equitable society.

And:

At the same time that we need urgent action to secure our future against the threats of climate change, our city’s ability to plan and invest is severely restricted by our large debt burden.

The speech I gave on that night, word for word, can be found here. I hope that in future, Ben Robson will prioritise accuracy over convenience when reporting on local politics.