Voters in the election will have approximately 175 A5 sheets of paper to read. These are all very good, but they tell you what the candidate wants you to know. In my case, there's half a dozen ways to contact me to ask questions, and I might casually mention in passing that I'm that Scottish blog woman.
The awesome Jennie Rigg has decided that there should be a mechanism to scrutinise candidates more carefully.
She has come up with a comprehensive list of well-thought out questions for candidates to Federal Policy Committee and Federal Conference Committee. She has sent them to as many candidates as she can find contact details for and the replies are coming in thick and fast. FPC candidates are asked to give their opinion of the riskiest activity - an advanced motorcycle test, giving birth, or taking one ecstasy tablet, and to say which law they'd repeal and which law they would create.
FCC candidates are quizzed on accessibility, affordability and accreditation.
Nobody has yet done the same for any of the other Committees, and Jennie more than has her hands full with the massive job she's taken on.
If you're a voting rep, there's no better place for you to be online than Jennie's blog,. No doubt once the ballot papers hit, Jennie will be able to contact many of the candidates they've missed so more answers will appear next week.
She's created a valuable resource which has made these elections more meaningful and allows the electorate to learn far more about the candidates. For that she deserves lots of thanks and beer and gin.
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