A happily wrong prediction
On Thursday 22 November, when explaining how I was going to vote, I said:
In the Senate, I am going to put my friend Scott Ryan first, though as he is third on the Liberal ticket I don’t like his chances of becoming Senator Ryan this time around.
Happily, I was too pessimistic. This morning, the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed that Scott had been elected to the Senate.
Another advantage of this is that I had been disqualifying Scott, who lives in Carlton, from any claim to be a second Carlton classical liberal on the grounds that as a Liberal Party candidate he was bound to support its big government policies (as a mere Liberal Party branch member I can say what I like). So the wisdom of Victorian voters in making Scott Senator Ryan has also allowed me to keep my blog title. Somehow ‘Observations from one of Carlton’s classical liberals’ doesn’t sound right.
December 20th, 2007 12:51
It’s not often I like to see that you’re wrong but…this time I’ll make an exception!
December 20th, 2007 13:41
He is a very solid citizen, and I’m glad he’s been elected. Don’t think he was expecting it himself after seeing the early primary vote nationwide…
December 20th, 2007 17:14
Terrific. He and Judith Troeth will make a fine pairing, I’m sure.
Did you see how Peter Hendy has quit as boss of the ACCI to become Nelson’s chief of staff? I didn’t know Hendy was a Liberal. He managed to hide it so well when he was at the ACCI. He was never partisian in anything he said or did.
December 20th, 2007 20:03
Scott is a great bloke, and will make a good senator. Very happy with our new senator, better than most of the other ones.
December 20th, 2007 20:20
Spiros - means nothing. A few years ago I was approached by an ALP government to work as an economic advisor. When I pointed out an obvious problem they said they were more interested in getting the job done rather than ‘ideoogical friendship’.
December 21st, 2007 08:04
Spiros - I believe Peter Hendy was Peter Rieth’s chief of staff when Reith was Industrial Relations Minister. Moving to Brendan Nelson’s office will be like returning to the fold.
December 21st, 2007 09:48
Contrary to popular perception economists agree on pretty much 95% of everything. It’s just that the 5% they disagree on gets excessive attention.