Cowardly and telling silence continues

OUR CLEAT CHEAT CAMPAIGN ....

The basic reason for our long-running campaign against the LNP's use of the Brisbane City Council cleat in defiance of council policy is simple: how can our elected politicians expect the rest of us to follow the rules and do the right thing if they aren’t prepared to do that themselves.

And why would any Brisbane City Council candidate use gold and blue blocks down the left hand side of campaign literature if not to seek an advantage by suggesting he or she has some form of city council approval. In this case, Team Quirk becomes Council Team Quirk, and any worthwhile academic in political studies would attest to the advantage accruing to candidates who used that ploy. The long silence from Lord Mayor Quirk and Councillor Howard also tells a simple tale: there is no other logical explanation for what they did. It was cynical, underhand, far-to-clever-by-half sneaky politics that Australians in recent times are showing a real aversion to. Below are the questions we resubmitted to Cr Quirk (and similar ones to Cr Howard) this week. We weren’t expecting a reply. Sooner or later, we hope they’ll see the sense of coming clean on this sad and sordid saga and say sorry for being copycat cleat cheats. Below are the questions as resubmitted to Lord Mayor Quirk early this week. Similar questions were also once again sent to Councillor Vicki Howard. Neither replied.

PREFACE: Bearing in mind The Independent has examples of what is clearly Team Quirk campaign material and official City Council material where the blocks of blue and gold used down the left hand side of such material are indistinguishable in colour and shape, we once again request answers to the following:

1. Please explain how the pattern of blue and gold blocks used down the left-hand margin of Team Quirk election material in 2012 so differed from the City Council’s official cleat that your average voter would have known the difference?

2. For those who believe that the use of such material - the copycat cleat as The Independent has consistently called it - was done for no other reason than to link Team Quirk with City Council and to convey to voters that Team Quirk had some form of official council backing, please explain why they are wrong.

3. Do you accept that even if just one voter in Brisbane mistakenly came to the view that your LNP candidates in 2012 were in some ways City Council Team Quirk candidates with some form of official council blessing or support, then that would be one person too many?

4. Assuming you’ll be standing again as Lord Mayor in 2016, do you undertake that you and your LNP candidates will never again use in political campaign material any imagery that could be even remotely mistaken for the City Council’s official cleat as it is now or may be at the time?

STOP PRESS

Just as this edition went to press, we received the following email from Robert Lamberth, office manager for Vicki Howard: “Cr Howard said her priority was listening to local residents and focussing on getting things done for the local community.”