Menzies campaign supporters update - call for volunteers
June 26, 2016
Dear supporters of our Make Menzies Matters campaign,
First up today, if you haven't signed up for some fun booth work on July 2, email Gabi at volunteers@maynereport.com. We're getting close to 100 troopers who have committed but probably need close to 200 to comprehensively cover all 35 Menzies booths.
Six weeks ago, a senior Liberal made the dismissive comment: "we're not even polling Menzies".
How things change.
The Liberals are now so worried about our hard-hitting $50,000 campaign against Kevin Andrews that Victorian President Michael Kroger has even resorted to writing a long attack letter to The Manningham Leader. This will be published next Monday, along with a news story on his claims I'm some Greens-supporting lefty, not the "true liberal" depicted in our flyers, posters and full page ads in the local papers.
The "true liberal" vs "Fake Liberal" got a solid work out during this interview with Peter Van Onselen on Sky News from Parliament House on Tuesday afternoon. Michael Kroger is a paid Sky News contributor and avid watcher, so it probably sparked his letter, which was just a reprise of what Kevin Andrews himself said after one of his staffers asked a dorothy dixer at the candidates forum on Monday night.
Kevin barely mentioned the Labor candidate at the forum, but he took a few shots at me, suggesting the "true liberal" is regarded as the chief rival in the field.
The staffer wanted to know why I was preferencing the Greens ahead of the Liberals and the full history with the Greens.
The answer is that Kevin is so bad (branch stacker, pokies donations, doesn't live here, undermines Turnbull, terrible for women etc etc), he's last on my ticket.
In responding to the stooge question, I was happy to say that I've never met a crooked Green and find they are terrific on all things transparency and honesty in government, particularly at City of Melbourne.
However, the voters at the Doncaster Church of Christ on Monday night also heard me say the Greens are often anti-business, can't be trusted with money and harbour plenty of ex Communists, such as Lee Rhiannon.
After I'd finished, Kevin then got up and quoted from a few past how to vote cards trying to claim this meant I wasn't a "true liberal". This completely ignores the fact that small parties often preference each other strategically when taking on a big party. There's no chance of winning without that and this Menzies campaign is no different as can be seen on this final version of our how to vote card which we are picking up from the printer tomorrow.
We are also refining the full page ad which is running of page 4 of The Manningham Leader next week, taking into account the Kroger attack.
The art must be submitted shortly, but have a look at this version and let us know of any suggested refinements before noon.
For the record, here's the largely pro-Liberal record that I'll be rolling out publically once the Kroger letter appears:
1987
Attended John Howard's tax policy launch and campaign launch and handed out Liberal how to vote cards on polling day.
1988
Voted for Jeff Kennett in state election and was signed up by Sophie Mirrabella as a member of the Melbourne University Young Liberals.
1990
Voted for Andrew Peacock in Federal election.
1992
Voted for Jeff Kennett in state election then joined his staff as a successful press secretary for 18 months who then left on very good terms before later falling out with him over governance matters.
1993
Voted for John Hewson and Fightback!
1996
Didn't vote for Jeff Kennett in state election due to governance concerns but voted for John Howard, attended Liberal election night party at The Hyatt and applied for a job as a Howard government staffer
1998
Voted for John Howard's excellent GST tax reform package.
1999
Voted for Kerry Chikarovski in NSW election as particularly like power privatisation plans, then took on Jeff Kennett over governance concerns and gave up on John Howard after he cruelled The Republic.
2001
Voted Green ahead of Labor with Liberals lower as hated nasty politics of The Tampa, children overboard and "we decide who comes to this country".
2002
Voted for Robert Doyle in Victorian election and editorialised in his favour in Crikey on election eve.
2006
Published the anti-Labor website Bracksed.com but did preference Labor's Evan Thornley first in Southern Metropolitan region as he was a personal friend and I wanted to see successful business figures in Parliament. Personally voted for the Liberals ahead of Labor.
2007
Often tend to be disappointed with government so supported Rudd over Howard and ran against Peter Costello in Higgins.
2010
Voted for Ted Baillieu as wanted Labor out after 11 years, ran in Northern Metro and preferenced Labor last with Greens ahead of Libs.
Federally, couldn't stomach Abbott and fed up with Labor dysfunction so voted Green ahead of both majors.
2012
Contested state by-election in seat of Melbourne where Libs didn't run. Preferenced Greens ahead of Labor.
2013
Can't stand Abbott nasty conservative streak so voted Green with Labor ahead of Liberals
2014
Disappointed with Baillieu-Napthine effort, so voted for a change.
The bottom line of all this is that I've preferred the Liberals ahead of Labor in 11 of the 15 state and Federal elections that I've voted in over the years.
The Liberals only tend to lose me when they went nasty, right wing and conservative in the Abbott and later Howard years, all of which was supported by Kevin Andrews.
I've been waiting for decades for a progressive, pro-business, modern Liberal leader like Malcolm Turnbull, hence the attempt to try and take down Kevin Andrews, who has been his second biggest enemy in the Liberal Party, after Tony Abbott himself.
What the polling says
Market research company Roy Morgan put out this very encouraging statement on Tuesday suggesting that we've made solid progress in Menzies such that the three way vote between Labor, Liberal and me is "fairly evenly split" and that "honest government" was a very important theme for voters.
We're now happy to share with you the full Reachtel poll that a third party helped us commission on the evening of Monday, June 13, before our first full electorate flyer was distributed.
Apart from having largely matched the Green vote, the two most encouraging aspects were the strong preference for Malcolm Turnbull over Tony Abbott (79-21) and the distaste for politicians who take money from the poker machine industry.
With a little bit more donation support, we're looking to spend another $2000 on a second Reachtel poll early next week.
Fabulous work at early voting
The main early voting centre in Menzies has been getting steadily busier and there have already been more than 3000 early votes cast at the Manningham Uniting Church on Andersons Creek Rd in East Doncaster.
Throw in another 1200 early votes at the four other Menzies early voting centres where we are not handing out and we are already well past the 3330 formal pre-poll votes cast at the 2013 election.
With another 8 days of early voting to go, including 9am until 4pm this Saturday, we are headed for more than 8000 early votes, which will be very important in the count.
As the AEC website reveals, the votes have turned up in these numbers to the main East Doncaster early voting centre over the past week:
335: Tuesday, June 14
303: Wednesday, June 15
335: Thursday, June 16
436: Friday, June 17
432: Monday, June 20
432: Tuesday, June 21
Talk about freakish having two days with 335 and two days with 432.
A big thanks to Len, Vivienne, Dawn, Maria, Terence, Ron, Charles, Paula, Laura, Venetia, Alice, Philip, Gabi and Anne and for their great work on early voting so far. Len has been an absolute trooper, doing his 5th shift right now.
Make Menzies Matter – Invitation to all Campaign Volunteers
You are invited to join Stephen and the campaign team on Thursday 30th June to enjoy Pizza and free drinks at the Templestowe RSL, 156 Parker St, Templestowe VIC 3106. Kick-off time is 6:30pm. We will have How To Vote cards, T-shirts and Posters for election day ready for collection.
RSVP by Tuesday 28th June to Gabi at volunteers@maynereport.com.au or call 0414 844 387
Incidentally, the Labor Menzies campaign had a fundraiser at the Doncaster Inn last night, which is a large pokies venue. The Templestowe RSL does not have pokies and is next to Templestowe Village on the old Templestowe Primary School site which is now known as the Templestowe Leisure Centre.
Email updates about Menzies campaign
There are some new donors and volunteers enlisted who haven't received any of our earlier missives, so here are all the links dating back to the campaign announcement on May 7.
Kevin's getting worried, campaign update, pokies, News Corp dispute, City of Melbourne and family news
Friday, June 17
Kevin locked in, so Make Menzies Matters campaign hits top gear
Friday, June 10
Menzies update, "Fake Liberal" corflutes, AFL pokies & gift registers
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Menzies update, Westfield rate dodging and candidate betting
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Menzies update, ASA board, pokies and Four Corners
Monday, May 23, 2016
Announcing Menzies tilt as Kevin Andrews embroiled in stacking scandal
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Links to other Menzies campaign coverage
What voters in Menzies say about Kevin Andrews
A true Liberal explains why Kevin is a fake Liberal
Media coverage of Menzies tilt
Manningham budget submission: the $50m of Federal support we need
What people say about Stephen Mayne
Real time disclosure of donations received
City of Melbourne update - the governance push continues apace
The 30 hour trip to Canberra on Tuesday and Wednesday was primarily about cranking up the pressure on the Canberra duopoly to finally introduce an independent anti-corruption watchdog as operates in all Australian states.
It was the Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly and the City of Melbourne motion pushing for a Federal ICAC passed comfortably without any debate late yesterday morning.
We also got a motion up calling for periodic online disclosure of councillor expense claims and pre-approval of international trips at open council meetings.
Check out this list of the 50-plus transparency reforms that City of Melbourne has implemented over the past 4 years, as well as this list of nearly 50 motions we have put up since late 2012.
I'll be taking leave from council after the budget is approved next Tuesday night. As chair of the Finance and Governance committee, it was appropriate to delay leave until the budget is formally approved.
Donate to help boost the final sprint to the line in Menzies
We've received a very generous $34,000 worth of donations from more than 100 contributors so far.
This has funded the following:
$20,000 in newspaper advertising
$10,000 for two whole of electorate delivered flyers, the second of which is going out next week.
$3000 on corflutes
$2000 on how to vote cards
$2000 for polling
$3000 in wages for campaign workers
$700 on t-shirts
$1000 for design and video work
We're looking at more corflutes, polling, automatic phone calls and possibly even some targeted addressed mail next week, depending on the financial support we receive.
If you are able to help, please click on the image below:
Alternatively, if you don't like using your credit cards through Paypal, donations can be transferred to our account at Westpac
Mayne Report Pty Ltd
BSB: 036 406
Account number: 130897
Or, you can send a cheque to PO Box 925, Templestowe 3106.
That's all for now.
Thanks for all your support. I'm feeling really good about the whole campaign and you never know your luck in a big progressive city like Melbourne.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* To unsubscribe from this email list, click here. Authorised by Stephen Mayne, 90 Swanston St, Melbourne 3000.
First up today, if you haven't signed up for some fun booth work on July 2, email Gabi at volunteers@maynereport.com. We're getting close to 100 troopers who have committed but probably need close to 200 to comprehensively cover all 35 Menzies booths.
Six weeks ago, a senior Liberal made the dismissive comment: "we're not even polling Menzies".
How things change.
The Liberals are now so worried about our hard-hitting $50,000 campaign against Kevin Andrews that Victorian President Michael Kroger has even resorted to writing a long attack letter to The Manningham Leader. This will be published next Monday, along with a news story on his claims I'm some Greens-supporting lefty, not the "true liberal" depicted in our flyers, posters and full page ads in the local papers.
The "true liberal" vs "Fake Liberal" got a solid work out during this interview with Peter Van Onselen on Sky News from Parliament House on Tuesday afternoon. Michael Kroger is a paid Sky News contributor and avid watcher, so it probably sparked his letter, which was just a reprise of what Kevin Andrews himself said after one of his staffers asked a dorothy dixer at the candidates forum on Monday night.
Kevin barely mentioned the Labor candidate at the forum, but he took a few shots at me, suggesting the "true liberal" is regarded as the chief rival in the field.
The staffer wanted to know why I was preferencing the Greens ahead of the Liberals and the full history with the Greens.
The answer is that Kevin is so bad (branch stacker, pokies donations, doesn't live here, undermines Turnbull, terrible for women etc etc), he's last on my ticket.
In responding to the stooge question, I was happy to say that I've never met a crooked Green and find they are terrific on all things transparency and honesty in government, particularly at City of Melbourne.
However, the voters at the Doncaster Church of Christ on Monday night also heard me say the Greens are often anti-business, can't be trusted with money and harbour plenty of ex Communists, such as Lee Rhiannon.
After I'd finished, Kevin then got up and quoted from a few past how to vote cards trying to claim this meant I wasn't a "true liberal". This completely ignores the fact that small parties often preference each other strategically when taking on a big party. There's no chance of winning without that and this Menzies campaign is no different as can be seen on this final version of our how to vote card which we are picking up from the printer tomorrow.
We are also refining the full page ad which is running of page 4 of The Manningham Leader next week, taking into account the Kroger attack.
The art must be submitted shortly, but have a look at this version and let us know of any suggested refinements before noon.
For the record, here's the largely pro-Liberal record that I'll be rolling out publically once the Kroger letter appears:
1987
Attended John Howard's tax policy launch and campaign launch and handed out Liberal how to vote cards on polling day.
1988
Voted for Jeff Kennett in state election and was signed up by Sophie Mirrabella as a member of the Melbourne University Young Liberals.
1990
Voted for Andrew Peacock in Federal election.
1992
Voted for Jeff Kennett in state election then joined his staff as a successful press secretary for 18 months who then left on very good terms before later falling out with him over governance matters.
1993
Voted for John Hewson and Fightback!
1996
Didn't vote for Jeff Kennett in state election due to governance concerns but voted for John Howard, attended Liberal election night party at The Hyatt and applied for a job as a Howard government staffer
1998
Voted for John Howard's excellent GST tax reform package.
1999
Voted for Kerry Chikarovski in NSW election as particularly like power privatisation plans, then took on Jeff Kennett over governance concerns and gave up on John Howard after he cruelled The Republic.
2001
Voted Green ahead of Labor with Liberals lower as hated nasty politics of The Tampa, children overboard and "we decide who comes to this country".
2002
Voted for Robert Doyle in Victorian election and editorialised in his favour in Crikey on election eve.
2006
Published the anti-Labor website Bracksed.com but did preference Labor's Evan Thornley first in Southern Metropolitan region as he was a personal friend and I wanted to see successful business figures in Parliament. Personally voted for the Liberals ahead of Labor.
2007
Often tend to be disappointed with government so supported Rudd over Howard and ran against Peter Costello in Higgins.
2010
Voted for Ted Baillieu as wanted Labor out after 11 years, ran in Northern Metro and preferenced Labor last with Greens ahead of Libs.
Federally, couldn't stomach Abbott and fed up with Labor dysfunction so voted Green ahead of both majors.
2012
Contested state by-election in seat of Melbourne where Libs didn't run. Preferenced Greens ahead of Labor.
2013
Can't stand Abbott nasty conservative streak so voted Green with Labor ahead of Liberals
2014
Disappointed with Baillieu-Napthine effort, so voted for a change.
The bottom line of all this is that I've preferred the Liberals ahead of Labor in 11 of the 15 state and Federal elections that I've voted in over the years.
The Liberals only tend to lose me when they went nasty, right wing and conservative in the Abbott and later Howard years, all of which was supported by Kevin Andrews.
I've been waiting for decades for a progressive, pro-business, modern Liberal leader like Malcolm Turnbull, hence the attempt to try and take down Kevin Andrews, who has been his second biggest enemy in the Liberal Party, after Tony Abbott himself.
What the polling says
Market research company Roy Morgan put out this very encouraging statement on Tuesday suggesting that we've made solid progress in Menzies such that the three way vote between Labor, Liberal and me is "fairly evenly split" and that "honest government" was a very important theme for voters.
We're now happy to share with you the full Reachtel poll that a third party helped us commission on the evening of Monday, June 13, before our first full electorate flyer was distributed.
Apart from having largely matched the Green vote, the two most encouraging aspects were the strong preference for Malcolm Turnbull over Tony Abbott (79-21) and the distaste for politicians who take money from the poker machine industry.
With a little bit more donation support, we're looking to spend another $2000 on a second Reachtel poll early next week.
Fabulous work at early voting
The main early voting centre in Menzies has been getting steadily busier and there have already been more than 3000 early votes cast at the Manningham Uniting Church on Andersons Creek Rd in East Doncaster.
Throw in another 1200 early votes at the four other Menzies early voting centres where we are not handing out and we are already well past the 3330 formal pre-poll votes cast at the 2013 election.
With another 8 days of early voting to go, including 9am until 4pm this Saturday, we are headed for more than 8000 early votes, which will be very important in the count.
As the AEC website reveals, the votes have turned up in these numbers to the main East Doncaster early voting centre over the past week:
335: Tuesday, June 14
303: Wednesday, June 15
335: Thursday, June 16
436: Friday, June 17
432: Monday, June 20
432: Tuesday, June 21
Talk about freakish having two days with 335 and two days with 432.
A big thanks to Len, Vivienne, Dawn, Maria, Terence, Ron, Charles, Paula, Laura, Venetia, Alice, Philip, Gabi and Anne and for their great work on early voting so far. Len has been an absolute trooper, doing his 5th shift right now.
Make Menzies Matter – Invitation to all Campaign Volunteers
You are invited to join Stephen and the campaign team on Thursday 30th June to enjoy Pizza and free drinks at the Templestowe RSL, 156 Parker St, Templestowe VIC 3106. Kick-off time is 6:30pm. We will have How To Vote cards, T-shirts and Posters for election day ready for collection.
RSVP by Tuesday 28th June to Gabi at volunteers@maynereport.com.au or call 0414 844 387
Incidentally, the Labor Menzies campaign had a fundraiser at the Doncaster Inn last night, which is a large pokies venue. The Templestowe RSL does not have pokies and is next to Templestowe Village on the old Templestowe Primary School site which is now known as the Templestowe Leisure Centre.
Email updates about Menzies campaign
There are some new donors and volunteers enlisted who haven't received any of our earlier missives, so here are all the links dating back to the campaign announcement on May 7.
Kevin's getting worried, campaign update, pokies, News Corp dispute, City of Melbourne and family news
Friday, June 17
Kevin locked in, so Make Menzies Matters campaign hits top gear
Friday, June 10
Menzies update, "Fake Liberal" corflutes, AFL pokies & gift registers
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Menzies update, Westfield rate dodging and candidate betting
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Menzies update, ASA board, pokies and Four Corners
Monday, May 23, 2016
Announcing Menzies tilt as Kevin Andrews embroiled in stacking scandal
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Links to other Menzies campaign coverage
What voters in Menzies say about Kevin Andrews
A true Liberal explains why Kevin is a fake Liberal
Media coverage of Menzies tilt
Manningham budget submission: the $50m of Federal support we need
What people say about Stephen Mayne
Real time disclosure of donations received
City of Melbourne update - the governance push continues apace
The 30 hour trip to Canberra on Tuesday and Wednesday was primarily about cranking up the pressure on the Canberra duopoly to finally introduce an independent anti-corruption watchdog as operates in all Australian states.
It was the Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly and the City of Melbourne motion pushing for a Federal ICAC passed comfortably without any debate late yesterday morning.
We also got a motion up calling for periodic online disclosure of councillor expense claims and pre-approval of international trips at open council meetings.
Check out this list of the 50-plus transparency reforms that City of Melbourne has implemented over the past 4 years, as well as this list of nearly 50 motions we have put up since late 2012.
I'll be taking leave from council after the budget is approved next Tuesday night. As chair of the Finance and Governance committee, it was appropriate to delay leave until the budget is formally approved.
Donate to help boost the final sprint to the line in Menzies
We've received a very generous $34,000 worth of donations from more than 100 contributors so far.
This has funded the following:
$20,000 in newspaper advertising
$10,000 for two whole of electorate delivered flyers, the second of which is going out next week.
$3000 on corflutes
$2000 on how to vote cards
$2000 for polling
$3000 in wages for campaign workers
$700 on t-shirts
$1000 for design and video work
We're looking at more corflutes, polling, automatic phone calls and possibly even some targeted addressed mail next week, depending on the financial support we receive.
If you are able to help, please click on the image below:
Alternatively, if you don't like using your credit cards through Paypal, donations can be transferred to our account at Westpac
Mayne Report Pty Ltd
BSB: 036 406
Account number: 130897
Or, you can send a cheque to PO Box 925, Templestowe 3106.
Thanks for all your support. I'm feeling really good about the whole campaign and you never know your luck in a big progressive city like Melbourne.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* To unsubscribe from this email list, click here. Authorised by Stephen Mayne, 90 Swanston St, Melbourne 3000.