Gungahlin Community Council - Meet the Candidates Event - 08 October 2008
Gungahlin residents, business operators, and all election candidates (where electronic contact details could be found) for the ACT electorates of Molonglo and Ginninderra were invited to the Gungahlin Community Council’s… Meet the Candidates night on Wednesday 8 October, held at the Palmerston Community Centre in Palmerston.
Just 10 days before the election day on 18 October, the event was one of the last opportunities for candidates to ’strut their stuff’, and for Gungahlin people to put their concerns directly to the people whom were seeking their votes.
And so close to the election day, all candidates should have had their their policies well bedded down, so could have been able to give solid commitments on the issues that matter to Gungahlin.
The meeting was facilitated by Peter Martin, the former economics editor from the Canberra Times (now with The Age). Peter’s solid reputation for pragmatic economics, and familiarity with ACT politics, ensured that candidates got fair and equal treatment, with no opportunity for spin, and the ability for the residents to get concerns answered.
The majority of the Gungahlin district is in the Molonglo electorate, but all of Nicholls is orphaned in Ginninderra.
Click the play button below for the audio only of the meeting:
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Information as sent to all candidates:
Dear Ginninderra & Molonglo Candidates,
Just a friendly reminder that the Gungahlin Community Council “Meet the Candidates” Event will be occurring this Wednesday 8 October 2008 at the Palmerston Community Centre, Tiptree Crescent, Palmerston. (The centre is next to the Palmerston Local Shops).
If you have already received an invitation and responded there is no need to reply. If this is the first time you are reading about this event you are more than welcome to attend. We have assumed that in this day and age, any candidate serious about running for the Assembly should be able to be contacted electronically directly by email and that their contact details would be obvious to find (no harder than googling for their details).
If you have not done so already we urge you to visit the Gungahlin Community Council website at the following URL: www.gcc.asn.au
With regard to what questions will be asked and how the meeting will be run, we ask all candidates to remember that this is a Gungahlin-specific forum and it is expected that issues and answers to questions will be expressed in a local “Gungahlin” context. As with all GCC meetings in recent months, the entire proceedings will be filmed and placed onto our website.
In order to remain fair to all candidates this information is being released for the first time to all candidates as below. You will see that as our area is split across two electorates, and we therefore have a large field of candidates, our timekeeping will need to be tight, and your ability to convey your ideas concisely will be paramount.
We will no doubt be very busy on the night and during the next couple of days preparing. So let me take this opportunity now to reiterate a comment from my invitation email to all candidates. The Gungahlin Community Council appreciates your interest in representing our community in the ACT Parliament. I know from personal experience that to campaign for election is a major undertaking - and to perform well within the job if elected is even more so.
To those of you who are ultimately successful, we look forward to working with you to further the interests of our area and the ACT in general. To those of you who are not successful, we wish to point out that the Gungahlin Community Council is also a very effective way that you can contribute to your community. We would hope that at least a few people ‘left over’ after the election would be prepared to come on board to help us in our work.
To all of you, you are always welcome at our meetings - second Wednesday of every month except January.
Regards and see you on Wednesday,
Alan Kerlin
President
Gungahlin Community Council
PO Box 260 Gungahlin ACT 2912
m 0408 771633
______________________________
“Meet the Candidates” Event running format:
Welcome & Introduction by GCC President (approx 5 minutes)
- Welcome to audience and candidates
- Overview of Gungahlin Situation and Issues of concern
- Introduction of moderator – Peter Martin – Senior Economics Editor (Fairfax - The Age)
Introduction by Peter (approx 3 mins)
- Establish meeting running format & rules
Candidates introduce themselves (approx 30 minutes)
- Candidates will have ONE minute each to introduce themselves.
- You should use this time to advise the audience about yourself and your background
(warning bell at 45 seconds)
Parties & Independent put their specific case for Gungahlin (approx 30 minutes)
- TWO minutes per political party or ungrouped (independent) candidate
- Note that following the Robson rotation method, this candidate will be considered to have spoken and will not be able to speak again on behalf of their party until all their other candidates have spoken.
- (warning bell at 1 minutes 30 seconds)
Questions from the floor (Balance of time until 21:30):
- Audience members may not rise to make statements
- Audience member must state name, whether a resident of Gungahlin, and declare membership of any political party
- Candidates may not ask questions of other candidates
- Question must be asked within 30 seconds or the individual forfeits the right to ask the question and another question is given to another audience member
- Question must may only be a specific question of one of the types below:
Types of question acceptable:
- Question to a single specific candidate
- 45 second response from a single candidate (warning bell 30 seconds)
- Question to all parties and ungrouped (independent) candidates
- 1 minute response, only one speaker from each party, if speaker has already spoken then can not speak again until all other candidates from that party have spoken (rotation of speakers as per Robson rotation – it is assumed that all candidates will have a general grasp of the issues affecting Gungahlin and should not rely on any nominated spokes person as there is no guarantee that that individual will be elected to the Assembly – warning bell 45 seconds)
- Yes/No questions to all candidates (yes/no/undecided/pass answer only)
- All candidates may answer with a single word response only
Peter Martin will ask economics-based questions (throughout meeting):
- TWO minute response, only one speaker from each party, if a speaker has already spoken then can not speak again until all other candidates from that party have spoken (rotation of speakers as per Robson rotation – it is assumed that all candidates will have a general grasp of the issues affecting Gungahlin and should not rely on any nominated spokes person as there is no guarantee that that individual will be elected to the Assembly
(warning bell at 1 minutes 30 seconds)
Peter Martin will provide a summary of the meeting (3 minutes)
Alan Kerlin will close the meeting (1 minute)
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