This blog recently received its 20 000th published comment. I doubt anyone else cares much about that, but I thought I should publicly note it somewhere, and this seemed like the appropriate location. To round out the trivia, those comments have come over the course of three and a half years and 1 068 posts (along with around 88 000 spam comments).
Every Monday morning during my radio show on community radio 4ZzZ FM, I chat with Peter Black, a constitutional lawyer, follower of social and political issues and obsessive user of social media. I don’t normally put links to those chats on this blog, but given that our talk this morning was all about the federal election, I thought it was worth putting a link to it on this occasion. You can have a listen to it by clicking on this link.
(0)Given I am now running as a Greens candidate, I suppose it is no surprise that I am indicating my agreement with a comment that Bob Brown made today. But I would also say that it isn’t any secret that I haven’t agreed with every public comment that Bob has made, and I would agree with the following comment about the schoolyard level nonsense regarding another possible leaders debate even if it had been made by Steve Fielding:
“What we’re seeing now between the two leaders is an absolute farce and people everywhere are rolling their eyes at Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard not having the maturity to get together to agree to the series of debates which would have enlightened the electorate,“It is a joke and a sad reflection on the optic and image driven nature of political media coverage in Australia. A couple of weeks ago, there was a three way debate at the National Press Club on important ICT issues such as internet filtering, broadband and wider communications policy. More... (6)
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about mountaintop mining in the USA. All mining has some impact, but the sheer destructiveness of this type of mining is astonishing – and that’s before you take into account the greenhouse impact of the coal. This article in the New York Times details the potential impact of a similar project in West Virginia. The significance of this proposal is that there is the possibility it may be stopped, or seriously curtailed, by the Obama administration, which would be a signal of a positive shift on this issue.
(2)Following are links to a couple of recent radio interviews I’ve done, plus an online one
More... (1)As I noted in my previous post, this week’s Newspoll saw the Greens register 16% support – the highest that party has ever achieved, comparable to the Democrats best Newspoll result of 17% back in 1990. History suggests it is unlikely that this peak will be maintained right through to election day (or even the next Newspoll) but it is part of a continuing trend of solid Greens results. I’ve written a piece expanding on this, and how the party might approach the challenges ahead, at The Drum/Unleashed on the ABC’s site – which you can read by clicking on this link.
(0)Contention over Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation has been bubbling along for quite a while now. Unfortunately, as with many issues which become polarised, each “side” is focused on defending their position, which has meant that some important underlying issues are not getting the attention they deserve. I’ve just had a piece on this topic published at The Drum on the ABC’s website. It’s fairly long, so they published it in two parts – the first part is at this link and the second part is at this one. I should emphasise that the article reflects my personal views, and is not a formal view of the Greens, nor of ANTaR Queensland, who I am also involved with.
(18)Hip hop fans in Brisbane might be interested in tuning in to my radio show on 4ZZZ FM this Monday morning around 7:30am. I’ll be talking with the Gold Coast based duo Choose Mics, who are launching their debut full length album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers at the Step Inn in the Valley this coming Friday night as part of what will be a big night for fans of hip-hop/rap/urban sounds, with Brisbane’s The Optimen also launching their second album “The Out of Money Experience” as part of the same event. Even though there is a steady stream of musical offerings in Brisbane, a double album launch of this magnitude doesn’t come along every day of the week, so I’ll dedicate a half hour or so to exploring not just the words and sounds of Choose Mics, but getting a broader overview from them of the hip hop related scenes locally and nationally.
More... (2)Disclaimer: The inclusion of a blog or website in this list should not be taken as an endorsement of its contents by me.
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15 Comments, Comment or Ping
Graham Bell
Andrew Bartlett:
Congratulations.
It shows that you are doing something right …. which brings me to a question that has probably occurred to a lot of people – given your pioneering work in parliamentary blogging as well as your approach to your parliamentary duties:
…. Are you going to be one of the participants in the Australia 2020 Summit?
Mar 1st, 2008
Andrew Bartlett
Thank you Graham – although I can’t vouch for the wortwhileness of all 20 000 of those comments. (yours have all been good though :-)
As far as I know I’m not going to be a participant in that summit Graham. I haven’t applied to go and haven’t received an invite as yet. I haven’t seen or heard anything suggesting that ordinary Parliamentarians will be able to participate (not that I’m saying they all should – if you had all 226 of us there, it would take up a big chunk of the spots before you start, and that’s without thinking about State MPs).
Mar 1st, 2008
philip travers
And I havent been invited either,being not a part of any towns village city s glitterati intellectuals.And having read the Treasurer stuff in the SMH today and his School mate Rudds problems with the economy,how can they even think of putting this show of so-called experts..fffff idiots,the same or a year younger than me,and they reckon they can find experts that will represent the intentions desires needs and wants of the whole poulace.Must be a lower standard of Education in Queensland then.And Mick Jagger would be somewhat older than the Swan idiot,and seeing he chose to respond to a question or dreamed that one up, well what do you think I think!?And kids left schoolsto start up bakeries too!Well,Man!Stoned out like Iam all I come across is bakers from the school I went to man!Is this Borneo Heads we are smoking!?
Mar 2nd, 2008
battery
So you have a comment on the gender controversy re: the upcoming Summit? The Democrats have a good name for gender equality …. most of them.
Mar 2nd, 2008
Goodbye Democrats
What about a comment on the possibility of any moderators using their position to stifle discussion at the upcoming summit?
Mar 2nd, 2008
Andrew Bartlett
Battery – we’ll have to wait and see what the final makeup of the summit is like. But the initial list of ‘leaders’ in each of the ten topic areas isn’t overly encouraging. The lack of ethnic diversity as well as gender diversity is not a good sign.
In regards to comment #5 – my site is about facilitating discussion, not stifling it, and I would expect the same will apply at the summit. Unlike blogs, I expect the summit won’t have the problem of spammers and trolls. Deleting that sort of rubbish, which inhibits discussion, is part of what moderators have to do on blogs. Moderating debate at the summit should be a breeze by comparison.
(I was going to suggest these comments were off-topic, but the post doesn’t really consist of a topic of any note, so I may as well go with the flow and treat it as an open thread about public debate and comments. And it helps get moving on the next 20 000 I suppose.)
Mar 2nd, 2008
Graham Bell
Andrew Bartlett:
One of the reasons your blog is so successful is that like Barista, Larvatus Prodeo and similar blogs, you are eclectic in your choice of topics – some are surprising and occasionally confronting.
Unpopular and neglected topics get a run on your blog …. but these are usually issues that really do have to be considered at some time by someone. There might be a slight similarity with Question Time in the variety of topics raised but your style of blog looks entirely your own. [Come to think of it, wonder if your style of blogging has influenced Question Time? :-) ]
Mar 3rd, 2008
Megan
Andrew, I remember reading somewhere – perhaps it was ‘Crikey!’ – that you said the calibre of discussion on your blog was often superior to that which took place in the Senate!
Mar 3rd, 2008
Andrew Bartlett
that’s not a very high standard to have to exceed, Megan. Although to be fully serious, I do feel the overall standard of comments on this blog isn’t as high now – on average – as it was six or twelve months ago. Maybe its just a temporary slump.
Mar 3rd, 2008
CORAL
As a Queenslander, I’d say our education system is definitely going down the tube.
The performance of Australian schools has recently taken a nosedive against other OECD countries.
What we need is a thread about the new philosophy of traders: “The customer is ALWAYS WRONG!”
I’ve had several problems with this in recent months; involving supermarkets, department stores, and even a door-to-door representative of a cosmetics company.
Not only are they all excessively greedy, the courts need to do something more about the shoplifters who are making life hard for us all.
Mar 3rd, 2008
rebecca ryan
Thanks Andrew,
I really appreciate your blog. I sincerly hope you continue after you leave the senate.
I first saw you at a climate change conference in Brisbane last year and I was so impressed that I found it difficult to choose between Democrats and Greens in the senate at the last election.
May I ask if you have considered joining the Greens given their rise in popularity and the similarity of views on many issues?
Mar 3rd, 2008
Graham Bell
Andrew Bartlett [2]:
[Off-topic] Being a parliamentarian should not of itself exclude you from participating in that Summit. Can think of half-a-dozen state and federal parliamentarians who should be there for their experience and understanding of particular fields. Yours is in blogging and in neglected-and-unpopular issues.
[9] What slump? Have I missed something?
Mar 3rd, 2008
The Feral Abacus
Congratulations Andrew. Should I take it from your comments above that you may keep your blog going post-parliamentary politics?
I hope that you do, because you brings a lot of insight into the political and parliamentary processes that aren’t very accessible to the wider public.
I’d agree the general standard of comments has slipped of late, but then there has been a general post-election lull on Australian blogs. On the other hand, I can think of several newish regulars who are consistently good value.
Mar 3rd, 2008
zen
I would like to thank Andrew and all the people contributing to this blog. I have learnt so much and I am still learning. The topics are chosen in the way that one can learn all ‘3 sides’ of the story. It is probably the best forum I have known and that’s why it is so popular. But it is also very brave ( and not very common) for any politician to let the people think and express themselves freely.
I am particularly happy to have learnt that there are so many compassionate people sharing their thoughts with others.
Million thanks to everybody.
Mar 4th, 2008
ken
Andrew, 20,000 comments and some 1068 odd posts. It would be interesting to analyse those figures by topic and by poster etc to see the range and interest of your audience relative to the topics. I suspect the comments may be being perceived as falling off, or of lesser standard as the topics tend to re-emerge fairly regularly, and some posters have extremely rigid and forthright views, I certainly include myself as part of the problem too, and that tends to lead to more argumentative posting rather than contributory posting, or more significantly others with something interesting to say not bothering to contribute.
Given that you are remarkably tolerant of some of our bickering perhaps all of us, or at least some of us, could be sin binned every now and then as a reminder.
Mar 4th, 2008