Hi Dave, Looks like it has died

Gerry

Just read through the previous posts and you will see that the knockers far outweighed the supporters. A lot of jaw flapping went on, with very little constructive comment. Many posters seemed to be stuck in the rut of years of voting one way or another, and seemed totally unable to get their head around the concept of a new party, quite independent of the existing parties.



Disappointing - YES. Surprising - NO.

Thanks GerryO and Pommey,

What a pity to see such potential layed to waste



Young Dave

It should not surprise anyone that we are all so cynical. Look at all the political parties and "special interest" groups we have had over the years. Is there ANY group of politicians that we know of that is worth voting for? Why else would the government insist on keeping compulsory voting?

kfchugo - this is why we need a party to represent the older generation. All political parties pay lip service to the seniors and many are taken in by it unfortunately. No party should be one-dimensional, and that is the danger when trying to form a party for a specific group.

Thank you to those who have offered comment on political representation. We all have good reason to be cynical from what we see and hear from politicians, but if they go unchallenged they will continue as always. I live in a modern residential park in Qld and our parks come under some of the most outdated legislation ever, not unlike other states. As retirees and pensioners we are regarded as an incumbrence untill it is time to up the site fees. to keep the story short, about five years ago a few of us formed a home owners association for our park and we copped lots of knockers. Now, we have 95% membership in the park and are reported to be the strongest home owners association in south east Queensland. Our park operator hates us because we challenge when he steps out of line. Our committee of seven, driven as always by a couple willing to fight back, are known by the relevant government agencies and are deemed to be assertive when it comes to our rights.

We are currently making submissions to a review of the legislation, we are apolitical and will use any politician who will support our cause and return that support in any way we can. We have three politicians we can normally access when required, we have a councilor who we support because he supports us, one of our committee recently had a meeting with the appropriate minister at parliament house to put our case for changes to the legislation. We don't expect to get everything we want, but we are in there bashing away regardless.

Has it been easy and without some stress? no, its been bloody tough going at times but we are still there.

We visit other parks and give talks on how to form an effective committee, our success rate could be better but some parks have taken up the challenge and we now help each other, other parks spend there time arguing among themselves and getting nowhere.

I am telling this story beacause it is true, we all have a choice, if people want to play bingo all day and not make the effort, so be it, but don't complain about the system if your not doing your bit to change things.

I hope someone is listening!

Young Dave

Congratulations Young Dave - it's great to see someone put their money where there mouth is and actually achieve something.