I discovered, quite by chance, that I'm on the front page of http://youdecide2007.org/

Gemma Snowden, one of the citizen journalists registered with the site, recorded the Politics in the Pub I spoke at last Tuesday, and they've posted my speech on this page.

Here's the video - again reinforcing the burning need for me to get a haircut. Preferably before I speak at the Brisbane Inner West Chamber of Commerce function tomorrow night.

I've added the Testimonials page - available on the sidebar or click here.

And updated the Campaign Videos section.

Don

Tomorrow I will be taking part in the Human Rights Torch Relay in Brisbane to protest the ongoing human rights abuses in China - in spite of the undertakings that China made in order to secure their Olympic bid.

I first mentioned the relay in my blog post about a Chinese human rights lawyer disappearing shortly after I'd gotten his book (here)

I will be carrying the torch along Adelaide Street at about 1pm or thereabouts. At 2pm there is a ceremony at Suncorp Piazza, South Bank.

On Thursday morning we launched our Indigenous policy platform at Mt Coot-tha.
In keeping with our call for all political parties to make Indigenous Affairs a top priority, this was our first policy launch for the campaign.

The last handful of years has seen many major upheavals in Indigenous Affairs - with more and more momentous changes being made - each involving less consultation than the last. From the abolition of ATSIC, to the Intervention into the Northern Territory, to John Howard's recent talk of a referendum on adding a recognition of Australia's First People into the Constitution - Indigenous Affairs seems to be the arena where policy is most likely to be made on the run, and least likely to be run past those it will directly affect.

Here is a video of the launch statement - I'm visible in the background -

Our campaign page with more detail, can be found here.

In celebration of the International Day of Peace on September the 21st, the International Day of Peace Alliance hosted the second Youth Parliament for Peace in Qld State Parliament from the 24th to the 26th of September. Eighty young people between 14 and 17 gathered in the school holidays to discuss peace issues and debate strategies to promote the peaceful resolution of conflicts worldwide.

Amnesty called a snap action in Brisbane Square (and others around the country) this afternoon in response to the worsening violence in Myanmar (previously Burma), to allow people to give voice to their opposition to the military junta’s continuing and escalating efforts to shut down the pro-democracy movement.

Here's a link to amnesty's article, recently posted to their website: http://web.amnesty.org/pages/mmr-260907-news-eng

As a hastily convened event, it was pretty small, but quite effective, and was the leaping off point to organise another one for tomorrow

In order to get out and mix it with the kindly folks of the Brisbane electorate, our erstwhile candidate - Don Sinnamon - will be drinking coffee for democracy and to hear views & answer questions.

This event is scheduled for:

Saturday the 22nd of September from 2-4pm

at the Blu Grotto Bar and Cafe
4/155 Baroona Rd, Rosalie

I'm going to be trekking around the hills of Paddington over the next evening or so delivering some flyers to promote the event.

There'll be no need to visit the gym for a while after that effort...

September 2nd saw the official launch of Don's campaign for the seat of Brisbane, and was marked by appearances from other Brisbane democrats.

...including Senator Andrew Bartlett.

Don's speech from the day has been available from here for some time - read the full text.

A rough movie of the speech is available here:
speech video.

As an invited speaker Don will be talking about the Democrats and his own views on Climate Change.

The details are:

Time/Date: 7pm, Wednesday, 26 September, 2007
Venue: at St Michael's Catholic Church Hall,
Banks Street, Ashgrove

The event is hosted by The Ashgrove Climate Action Group (ACAG) as part of their Candidate Forums series, and is supported by the Big Switch.

There's been some interest from those helping Don with his campaign on how to add content to this, the campaign website.

I have created a helpful page with several screenshots, showing step-by-step how to do just that.

Here's a thumbnail of one of the screenshots:

To start adding your input to donsparty.org just visit the comprehensive how-to and follow the steps.

Any questions, contact me: sarah_donsparty@storybridge.org