http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/06/1096949589173.html

Kennett for lord mayor? Maybe
By Royce Millar
City Reporter
October 7, 2004

http://theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/10/07/07n_kennett_ent-lead__200x157.jpg

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett.
Photo: Craig Abraham

Pundits have often tipped former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett as a candidate for federal politics, but few have suspected that his ambitions may lie closer to home.

Either way, Jeff Kennett was again a hot topic in political and media circles yesterday as rumours flew that he had his eye on the Melbourne lord mayor's job.

Well-placed political and business sources confirmed that Mr Kennett had recently expressed interest in contesting next month's Melbourne City Council elections.

The story gathered momentum when a Liberal source disclosed that a "Jeff Kennett" had recently turned up on the Melbourne city electoral roll.

But closer to home there was real doubt that Mr Kennett was on the comeback trail.

Wife Felicity yesterday made light of the likelihood of a "Jeff for Melbourne" campaign.

"It's highly unlikely. But you know my husband, I'd be the last to know," she said.

Ms Kennett said she doubted her husband would challenge for the Town Hall top job if Lord Mayor John So intended to stand again next month.
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Mrs Kennett said her husband believed Cr So was doing a good job. Mr Kennett publicly supported Cr So at the last election in 2001.

Asked if she would would like to be lady mayoress, Mrs Kennett said: "I've given up all my party frocks."

Mr Kennett, who was premier from 1992 to 1999, did not return calls yesterday. Since his surprise loss to Steve Bracks in the 1999 election, Mr Kennett has kept a low political profile, but is the public face for depression organisation beyondblue.

Cr So has not formally announced his intention to run next month but is expected to launch his bid for a second term next week. Last night he said he knew nothing about Mr Kennett's interest and would not comment on speculation.

"I'm not going to waste my time on all these presumptions. I've got better things to do," he said.

Another Liberal considering a tilt at the Town Hall next month is former Property Council chief Peter Clarke.

Yesterday Mr Clarke would not comment on the Kennett story, nor on his own intentions.

Other Liberal sources close to Mr Kennett seemed genuinely surprised that he might be considering a new career in local government. Mrs Kennett said she was relieved this year that her husband did not nominate to contest the federal election.

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And this from today's HUN:

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11045244%255E2862,00.html

Kennett on council roll

12oct04

JEFF Kennett's appearance on Melbourne City Council's electoral roll has fuelled rumours he'll stand for mayor.

First public inspections of the 2004 voter's roll yesterday showed Mr Kennett as a new addition.

The listing entitles the former premier to nominate for the November council poll when entries open on October 21.

Mr Kennett yesterday would not answer when asked if he would stand.

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Wonder what Mr. Costello & Mr. Kroger think of this? *tee hee*

hahaha - so many rumours about him coming back and doing something. Doubt it though.

MG2

I think he would make an excellent Lord Mayor of Melbourne. I am glad we kicked him out as premier but the guy really loves Melbourne and did great thing for inner Melbourne (unfortunately ignoring the outer suburbs and regional Victoria in the process :-).

Yeah, he would do a great job.
But so is the current guy, so eh, maybe later?

Bring it on ! LM SO is a total embarrasment I cringe every time I hear him try to speak.
Melbourne needs a high profile LM like Kennett remember that Ron Walker did a great job when he held the office.

I think he would make an excellent Lord Mayor of Melbourne. I am glad we kicked him out as premier but the guy really loves Melbourne and did great thing for inner Melbourne (unfortunately ignoring the outer suburbs and regional Victoria in the process :-).

yer, when you look at it in that respect, you're dead set right, Jeff could just slip into the role quite easily.

The HUN would love it, being the Kennett fanboy paper that it is (was).

he might pull something shifty on Livinia though, well, So probably already has... who wouldn't?

I'll shut up now. :)

he might pull something shifty on Livinia though, well, So probably already has... who wouldn't?

I'll shut up now. :)

:rofl: :rofl:

Yeah, .... bring it on!
He'll make a great Lord Mayor with Blabbyboy as his deputy. :)

I agree, that Mr So, is such a bad person to lead Australia's second largest city. He needs to go ASAP!

He's been good for a few cheap laughs though.
"So what"?

Kennett for PM!!!

Kennet for President of Hawthorn Football Club. Things would get done then.

:rofl: :rofl:

Yeah, .... bring it on!
He'll make a great Lord Mayor with Blabbyboy as his deputy. :)
I'll be Livinia's deputy any day, mate. I reckon I'd work pretty well with her... :runaway:

He would be great LM. He had changed melbourne landscape since being office. He quite passionate about the city melbourne. When Mr So goes, well miss his voice and funny slip fall on Teltra Dome (when tried to kick a goal).

Kennet for President of Hawthorn Football Club. Things would get done then.

I'll second that !

Bring it on ! LM SO is a total embarrasment I cringe every time I hear him try to speak.
Melbourne needs a high profile LM like Kennett remember that Ron Walker did a great job when he held the office.

That's a bit precious ....

good on Councillor So having a go at being Lord Mayor; I don't like his politics much but I applaud a person who is not PLU to the white anglo establishment going about his business regardless and without relying on the cheesy grin coiffured look. Unfortunately he is prone to using the "best in the world" type hype but no-one does that better than Jeff Kennett.

If Jeff wants to play the role of local councillor he would be as entitled as any one to be Lord Mayor.

I know it might be a bit off topic, but if Kennett takes this up then there's no chance of being LM as well.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11133091%255E11088,00.html

Hawks want Jeff Kennett to be president
Damian Barrett
21oct04

FORMER Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has been head-hunted as Hawthorn's next president.

The Kennett push has been made in a bid to reach a compromise between Hawk president Ian Dicker and challenger Don Scott.
Scott said last night director Bruce Growcott had put the Kennett proposal to his 10-man group, which endorsed it.

Under the plan, Kennett would be seconded to the board immediately as vice-president, with Dicker resigning his post by or before mid-March next year.

"We signed off on it and that meant we would have walked away from it all (the challenge against Dicker)," Scott said.









"Operation Recovery would have absolutely, irrevocably and publicly withdrawn from any board challenge of the Hawthorn Football Club and would have endorsed all the rearrangements in a positive manner."

Other conditions attached to the proposal included the immediate secondment to the board of businessman and former premiership player Ray Wilson and installing an off-field infrastructure outlined by the Scott group.

Dicker last night admitted Kennett had been raised as a presidency option in one of several proposals recently put forward.

"I won't comment on that (Kennett becoming involved) – that is part of a major proposal, not just one issue," Dicker said.

The Scott group yesterday responded to the failure of the Kennett plan by officially submitting a no-confidence petition in the club's directors.

"You can always withdraw a petition," Scott said when asked if his group would be open to more discussion on the Kennett plan.

When the proposal was put to him by the Herald Sun last night, long-time Hawks supporter Kennett said: "I have got no comment on what is happening at Hawthorn, I just wish they would get it resolved.

"Thank you very much. If I can, at any stage, speak in a constructive way, I will, but at this stage there is nothing I can say publicly about what is going on there.

"I appreciate your call."

Growcott refused to comment yesterday when asked about his involvement in the Kennett proposal, referring the matter to acting Hawthorn chief executive Jason Dunstall.

"We wouldn't comment on that – that's Don's decision if he wants to discuss it publicly," Dunstall said.

"We will just go about our business as usual and we will deal with the aftermath if we have to at the AGM."

Other facets of the Kennett proposal would have seen the Scott group choose one director from a pool of four candidates put to it by the board, and the retention of incumbents Dermott Brereton and Dunstall.

Another director was to have resigned immediately.

Scott said his group, after a close vote, had agreed to the Kennett deal and to walk away from the Hawks election battle because its main goal would have been achieved.

"A lot has happened in the past three months and you can tend to lose sight of what you set out to achieve," he said.

"We set out to have Ian Dicker removed as president – when we set out, that was not negotiable – and this would have done that.

"This proposal was driven by the directors of the club.

"The board is not united, very far from it.

"This is the second challenge within the board to remove Dicker and we will elaborate further on that on our website in the coming days."

Dicker is elected to the Hawthorn board until the end of 2005.

This year's AGM is scheduled for December 20.

Going back to Cr So, I can't stand the way people denigrate him for his not speaking in perfect English. As Lord Mayor, he may or may not be any good, I wouldn't exactly know (I don't much follow my own council either), but I hate it when people claim his voice is an "embarrassment" to Melbourne - so what, I say. When I saw a newspoll the other day asking whether the above was true, the only embarrasment to the city were the 60% who voted yes!

I'd be proud to have an asian guy as mayor - seing that a huge proportion of Melb residents are Asian students it makes a lot of sense. The bigot who attacked him in the media is just a racist pig.

They're having Elections for Geelong Council soon too because I've started to receive all sorts of stuff in the mail, I'm going to e-mail all of the candidates and ask them where they stand on High-Rise development, see what response I get?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Greens-propose-congestion-tax/2004/11/19/1100838223501.html

Greens propose congestion tax
By Dan Silkstone
Transport Reporter
November 20, 2004

A London-style congestion tax for Melbourne's central business district is being proposed by one candidate in the city's lord mayoral race.

Greens mayoral candidate Richard Di Natale this week said that if elected, he would begin a study to investigate a congestion charge for Melbourne's CBD.

"We strongly support the idea of a congestion tax and we'd like to see the work done to see whether it would work in Melbourne," he said.

Such a tax would operate similarly to the charge successfully introduced in London in 2002 by Mayor Ken Livingstone, and comes amid claims that it has been a startling success. A paper written about the scheme by sustainable transport research group Transport 2000 says it has been widely accepted. "The transport and environmental benefits are beyond doubt and the predicted social drawbacks have not materialised," it said.

Under the scheme motorists are charged £5 ($A11.90) to drive in central London between 7.30am and 6.30pm. The charge was aimed at reducing congestion by 10 to 15 per cent but succeeded in lessening the traffic by 18 per cent in its first year.

All money raised by the London charge is used to fund public transport. About 29,000 extra bus passengers are entering central London in the morning peak period but bus services have been increased and are also running faster and on schedule because of the reduced road traffic, it said.

Transport Minister Peter Batchelor last week said he thought there would eventually be a debate about introducing a congestion charge in Melbourne.

Any congestion charge would need to be negotiated between the City of Melbourne and the State Government.

Environment Victoria spokeswoman Cathy McNaughton said the London experiment could be worthwhile locally, but that poorer people in the outer suburbs would suffer if a charge was not linked to dramatic improvements to public transport.

Of the other mayoral candidates, pollster Gary Morgan is known to oppose a congestion tax. Lord Mayor John So said he had spoken to Mr Livingstone previously about the London charge but did not think it was yet necessary in Melbourne. "We need to look at improving the public transport we have in place," he said.
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they'd get my vote if I was living in MCC.

pfft congestion tax.
Its just not needed, traffic flows fine through the cbd.

Going back to Cr So, I can't stand the way people denigrate him for his not speaking in perfect English. As Lord Mayor, he may or may not be any good, I wouldn't exactly know (I don't much follow my own council either), but I hate it when people claim his voice is an "embarrassment" to Melbourne - so what, I say. When I saw a newspoll the other day asking whether the above was true, the only embarrasment to the city were the 60% who voted yes!


It's not an embarrassment, but surely they could send him to some class where he can learn to moderate the accent?, as it IS hard to understand him when you see him on the TV news.

This gem from the Herald Sun

Calls for possum cull and a car park
By Fiona Hudson
23nov04

A LEADING candidate for lord mayor supports a possum cull and an underground car park for the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne.

Pollster Gary Morgan believes fewer possums and more cars would improve one of Melbourne's most loved parks.
Possums had overrun the home of Cooks' Cottage and Fairies' Tree, and the rogue animals should be killed or moved, he said yesterday.

"I don't think we can shoot them but we'll get rid of them somehow," he said. "I think they are protected . . . but we'll do something."

Ringtail possums are fully protected under the Victorian Wildlife Act. Brushtail possums in some municipal parks can be trapped, not killed, by registered catchers.

Mr Morgan said if elected, he would also lobby for a multi-level car park under land beside Cooks' Cottage, now used as a council depot.

"It would be perfect for the football traffic, and it would ease city congestion," he said, adding that builders could raze the works depot, which fronts Wellington Pde, and dig underneath.

"If we turn it into a car park it'll bring in revenue. We could fit in hundreds or even thousands of cars.

"We would have to be careful with the elm trees, of course."

The Fitzroy Gardens are home to many majestic elms that line the pathways.

Mr Morgan hatched his radical plans on his regular walks through the Fitzroy Gardens to his city office.

An East Melbourne resident who lives near the gardens, he denied he was looking after his own front yard.

"These gardens are the greatest asset we have. The icon of Melbourne is our gardens," he said.

"We are going to make them better than what is there now. John So has done nothing about this. A new lord mayor comes in with new ideas."

A Heritage Victoria spokeswoman said any major changes to Fitzroy Gardens would require approval.

They are visited by more than two million people a year, and in 2000 were listed on the Heritage Victoria register.

A council spokeswoman said the works depot housed Cooks' Cottage administration staff, park rangers and contractors.

Let's spend millions of dollars building a multi level car park under the Fitzroy garaden to ease traffic congestion, what a wanker!

Don't morons like this realise that if provide more parking more people drive to the city and traffic congestion gets worse.

oh no - if we get a greens lord mayor, i'll seriously consider moving!

Blabby.

Just think of all the frustrated Uni students in Carlton who'll have voted for Dr di Natale...

I was very surprised to get a ballot paper - apparently owning a property in Melbourne gets you on the electoral roll even if you don't live there. Having studied all the statements I started numbering the candidates from the bottom and from the top then ended up with 2 number 12's! So it may be the corrections mean my paper is disqualified anyway. Being used to a first past the post system, it is very interesting to see how each candidate has to rate their competitors in order, instead of just slagging them off as here in the UK.

Can someone remind me which nut is the one who wants to demolish Fed Square because he doesn't like it and raze the Hilton on the Park because it overshadows his mansion? Not that he could get away with it, though I still hope no-one takes him seriously. And not that I can vote in Melbourne anyway, or anywhere else; in my ward in Boroondara, there's only one candidate! The system works. :)