Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

theage.com.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 119 posts

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#41

Post by adaml_623 »

femto wrote: post #34
adaml_623 wrote: post #14

Nice idea. Become a Senator and try for diplomatic immunity. Walk out of the Ecuadorian Embassy and wave goodbye to the police who have been waiting for him for the last umpteen months. The legal wrangling could become quite complicated if he succeeded. If the voters in Oz realise how annoyed the UK government would be if he did this then that would help his odds even more. For US residents I'll point out that Senate…

It'll be an uphill battle, as I can't see him doing a preference deal[1] with a major party. The Greens might prefer him, but I can't see the two major parties doing so. It will be a publicity coup though. --------- [1] Explanation: A preference deal means a party agrees to place another party further up it's how-to-vote card, the order usually being determined by what the party thinks will deliver the most self bene…

Good point. As well as that there is the question of him being relatively forgotten during the 8 month election 'campaign' that's just been announced.

Australians are going to be even more tired of their politicians by September but that's a separate story.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#42

Post by vacri »

chris_wot wrote: post #30
jacques_chester wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single-issue candidates irk me, so I'm ok with that. Honestly, I miss the Australian Democrats. They were boring, sensible centrists. And it was great.

I'm what you would call a Sydney Anglican - characterised by a largely conservative worldview. The only party I can see that is worth voting for, ironically, is The Greens.

Check out the Sex Party. Despite the stupid name, they're actually a civil liberties party - equality for all, privacy, net neutrality, that sort of thing. At least at the last federal election they were.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#43

Post by jacques_chester »

vacri wrote: post #42
chris_wot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm what you would call a Sydney Anglican - characterised by a largely conservative worldview. The only party I can see that is worth voting for, ironically, is The Greens.

Check out the Sex Party. Despite the stupid name, they're actually a civil liberties party - equality for all, privacy, net neutrality, that sort of thing. At least at the last federal election they were.

They're a gimmick party and we all know it. Numerous parties have stood under those policies without resorting to cheap marketing tactics.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#44

Post by caf »

belorn wrote: post #10

If he won, he would be the first person doing so while not being physically in Australia during the election.

That's not true at all - for example Adair Blain was re-elected as the Member for Northern Territory in the 1943 election whilst being held as a POW by the Japanese.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#46

Post by jacques_chester »

caf wrote: post #38
jacques_chester wrote: post #16

So far as I can make out ... he can't stand. Australian Constitution, s16: "The qualification of a senator shall be the same as those of a member of the House of Representatives." s34(i): "... must be an elector entitled to vote at the election of members of the House of Representatives, or a person qualified to become such an elector ..." Australians are allowed to be overseas electors only if they intend to return…

Antony Green wrote a posting on this issue (and Assange's general chances of being elected) here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/antonygreen/2012/12/what-chance-of-j... The short of it is that being qualified to become such an elector is a broader category than actually being on the electoral roll - you don't need to be on the roll to run for the Senate, just meet the basic requirements in S93.

I still think a court would be asked to rule on the question of "intention to reside", which is what the whole thing revolves on.

Assange can wish to reside in Australia inside the 6 year deadline. But that's not the same as being realistically able to. In that case, he may be unable to form a legally meaningful intent.

Or the Act might be read in the sense that intent is intent, regardless of whether such an intent could ever be realised.

In either case, watch for this section to be rewritten after the election. Or even before.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#47

Post by jacques_chester »

chris_wot wrote: post #29
contingencies wrote: post #25

Summary: Weak my mom says I'm cool hit-piece by AAP, Australian Associated Press. AAP is 90% owned by News Ltd and Fairfax, the two major publishers in the country, who promote it as a national organization but have a massive commercial interest in the media status quo. The media status quo is threatened by Assange, who has been extremely vocal about the failures of journalism and would presumably seek to re-regulate…

I've not bothered reading the SMH (and by extension, The Age) online for a long time. The online version is weak, lazy journalism, incredibly (to my mind) even worse than The Daily Telegraph . Check out www.smh.com.au now... More than a third of the articles are about celebrities, or are vapid commentary on meaningless issues. There's a bit of content, but nothing really groundbreaking. And today is a day when there…

I've said in other places that there are two Sydney Morning Heralds.

One is an old fashioned high-church leftie yawnfest staffed mostly by people who dine out on stories about being stoned in the 60s.

The other is a tabloid bilge pump.

The bilge pays for the yawnfest and everybody tries to pretend that the pulpit isn't being subsidised by the people it rails against.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#48

Post by jacques_chester »

contingencies wrote: post #25

Summary: Weak my mom says I'm cool hit-piece by AAP, Australian Associated Press. AAP is 90% owned by News Ltd and Fairfax, the two major publishers in the country, who promote it as a national organization but have a massive commercial interest in the media status quo. The media status quo is threatened by Assange, who has been extremely vocal about the failures of journalism and would presumably seek to re-regulate…

If you think AAP hacks give a flying fig about the uber-politics of global news, wait until you meet one.

Mostly they're interested in filling their daily quota of pap. And scamming free feeds, every time I've ever dealt with AAP journos the subject of lunch or dinner at my expense has somehow come up.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#49

Post by mr_eel »

ssharwood wrote: post #13

Assange announced this in early 2012, then again late in 2012 and then again today to co-incide with the announcement of Australia's September 14 election. So yes, by all means, let's give the same piece of news coverage for a a THIRD TIME. There's VALUE in that aggregation.

Saying 'I might run for the Senate' is different to the announcement of a federal election and then confirming that yes, he definitely will run.

If you don't think that's newsworthy, aaaaah, you're nuts.

Re: Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate

#50

Post by mr_eel »

digitalengineer wrote: post #15
gavinballard wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine it's probably a bit tricky to extradite a sitting member of the federal Parliament...

Extradite, waterboard, soletary confinement, sleep deprivation... The only positive thing is it would set a nice precedent for corrupt Parliament members.

I appreciate the humour, but he's running for Senate, not Parliament :)
Post reply on HN