This here is a picture of perhaps the biggest political rabbit in the country. Introducing Ron Humphrey.
Ron blew into town about five years ago and started complaining. Every week he would write a letter to the editor moaning about the local council. "Zealot" would be a good term. "Inaccurate zealot" is a better one.
He joined the local ratepayer's association which was basically a group of angry pensioners.
Ron kept telling them they had a right to be angry because the council was dominated by Labor politicians. Seven of the nine councilors were from the ALP Ron yelled, and council was no place for major parties. Ron was asked to name them but he couldn't because zero is a more accurate figure.
Ron bitched and moaned about the council's finances and he had a point because it was $9-12 million in debt. What Ron didn't tell his angry pensioner fans was that the current council found the debt that had accumulated over a decade. And he certainly didn't mention that the current council had implemented a plan to solve the debt problem.
Ron was angry so he decided to run for council because the debt was all Labor's (the previous council's) fault.
Ron teamed up with the "Save the Surf Coast" team, spent a hell of a lot of cash (where did it come from?) on the election, and managed to scrape in on the back of his daughter, a god-botherer, and a local football club stalwart. With only 425 votes out of 20,000+, you would think Ron would realise he wasn't that popular.
The vast majority of people realised that Ron's promise of increased services, capped rates, increased infrastructure, and reduced debt, was somewhat fraudulent.
But nothing seems to stop Ron. After bitching and moaning about council spending for years, Ron's first action as a councilor was to lobby for $12,000 mayoral robes and chains. "It's not that much" declared Ron. I shit you not.
Soon afterwards, Ron joined the Liberal Party despite his winge about party politicians in council.
He was on a roll and started to tell the other councilors that he would destroy them in the media. Luckily for the other councilors, most people realise that the only thing Ron could destroy is a large ham sandwich.
Ron managed to become deputy mayor, largely because the previous mayor got caught up in a land scandal in which he put his significant farm on a property list to be exempted from State planning laws. That, and nobody else wanted the job. But he was on his way.
Ron was a man of the people and they urged him to stand for pre-selection for the state seat of South Barwon. See Ron talks about local government being the first step to the top. Prime Minister Ron Humphrey!! Ha.
Unfortunately for Ron, he is not the brightest pollie and doesn't understand that it is a game of numbers. If my spies in the Liberal party are accurate, Ron lost preselction to an undertaker by 55-5. For ever person that voted for Ron, eleven would rather have a bloke who buries people as their candidate.
But that didn't deter Ron. He is now a loyal servant of the Liberal party and complains as much as he can about Labor. His particular bugbear being planning. Ron recently claimed that he couldn't see the seachange phenomenon. Errr Ron, that would be all the subdivisions being erected all over the coast. You really don't want this guy anywhere near the planning department.


I defy anyone to come up with a bigger political rabbit.