A political candidate was once asked where he stood on the issue of duck shooting.
“I have friends who are duck shooters”, the aspiring politician answered.
“And I have friends who are against duck shooting”, he continued.
“And I always stand by my friends”.
They say that if you can’t ride two horses at the same time, you don’t belong in the circus.
The campaign trail can be a hazardous place for candidates. Sometimes all it takes is one slip and your election prospects are finished. The circus tent collapses on top of you.
Fortunately, no such calamity has yet befallen us. But then again, there’s still a week to go!
As for the latest from the campaign trail, below is the first of a series of half page ads appearing in the Sunday Mail and Advertiser.
At the last State election, we drew box J on the all-important Legislative Council (Upper House) ballot paper.
As we know, J is the 10th letter of the alphabet.
Readers may recall my interest in Hebrew letters and in particular my reference to the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, ‘Yud’.
Yud is a very important letter in Hebrew because it is the first letter of the name of God, YHWH: Yud – Heh – Vav – Heh.
In the Federal election that followed the State election, we drew the letter E, the 5th letter of the alphabet, which in Hebrew is Heh. Heh is the second letter of the name of God.
I mentioned at the time that we seemed to be spelling out God’s name “– just two more elections to go …”, I said.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, in this election we’ve drawn the letter F, the 6th letter of the alphabet, which in Hebrew is Vav – the third letter in the name of God.
In Hebrew, the letter Vav is a vertical line, symbolising the connection between heaven and earth. It’s the Jacob’s Ladder of the Hebrew alphabet. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …”. In six days. The six days of creation. Vav is the sixth letter.
One more election, one more letter and I’m relocating to Jerusalem …!
Anyway, back to Adelaide and the State election.
For this election we have done the hard yards, put in the hard work, refined all our policies, put together a great team of 50 candidates – 47 in the House of Assembly and three in the Legislative Council – and negotiated some good preference arrangements.
All our How-to-Vote cards are listed here.
We have peace about all this.
Across the globe, however, there is little in the way of peace. In fact, there is havoc. Shakespeare’s ‘dogs of war’ are growling and Australia will not escape at least some of this havoc.
Saturday March 21 is election day. Without wanting to labour the point, we can’t let our State go to the dogs.
A toxic algal bloom has blighted the South Australian coastline and shows no sign of disappearing any time soon. The Malinauskas government is copping much of the blame for not acting when the bloom was first reported.
The Premier’s 2022 election promise to ‘fix ambulance ramping’ has not been fulfilled – in fact, ambulance ramping is worse now than it was in 2022.
State taxpayers are expected to lose $500 million on the government’s green hydrogen debacle.
State debt is climbing towards $50bn and South Australia, once considered the nation’s home-ownership capital, is now ranked the 2nd least affordable in Australia.
And the government has introduced legislation into the South Australian parliament enshrining an Aboriginal Voice, despite South Australians voting overwhelmingly ‘No’ in the Voice referendum.
In ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’, one of the Sherlock Holmes short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes is sent to investigate the disappearance – on the eve of an important race – of a champion racehorse called Silver Blaze and the murder of its trainer, John Straker.
In what has become a famous exchange known as ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’ between Scotland Yard’s Inspector Gregory and Sherlock Holmes, Gregory asks Holmes, “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“Yes”, Holmes replied, “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time”.
“But the dog did nothing in the night-time”, said Gregory.
“That was the curious incident”, Holmes replied.
That the dog didn’t bark told Holmes that the person who took the racehorse was known to the dog. The thief was not a stranger. It was an inside job.
This exchange has become symbolic of the need to speak up, or ‘bark’, when something is amiss.
Rest assured, here at the Australian Family Party we will not hesitate to bark.
Early voting starts on Saturday 14 March and goes through to Friday 20 March. All Early Voting Centre locations are listed here.
Each electorate has between 22,000 – 25,000 voters. Half of them vote on Election Day, the other half vote early.
While each electorate has around 14 Polling Places on Election Day, there is only one Early Voting Centre per electorate (although some far-flung rural electorates may have more than one).
Therefore, it is possible to get a how-to-vote card into the hands of half the voters at the one early-voting location.
So, if you have an hour or so to spare between 14th – 20th March we’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for your support.
Authorised by Bob Day, Australian Family Party, 22 Grenfell Street, Adelaide SA 5000