HISTORY OF THE RYAN BRANCH:-

05/12/2001

The branch was formed on 26 September, 1997 at a meeting on 20 party members at the Masonic Hall in Sinnamon Park . At the next monthly meeting on October 17, 1997 a branch committee was elected . The executive then increased membership by letterboxing and personal contacts. The Ryan Branch has met monthly ever since. Pauline Hanson visited our branch on a very cold night in June 1999. The looney left turned up to demonstrate against her. People came out from their houses to see what all the noise was about and then started abusing the demonstrators. It was a night to remember.

In June 1998 the branch fielded a candidate, ALLAN GREGORY, in the seat of Mt.Ommaney in the State Election. He obtained 12% of the formal vote. As the labor candidate obtained only 39% of the vote preferences were allocated. The One Nation voter's preferences were the last to be distributed. This saw 615 votes go to Labor and 1871 go to the Liberals. Labor then won 11,348 over Liberals 10,497. This was a margin of 851 distributed votes.

In October 1998 the branch fielded a candidate, ALAN SMITH in the seat of Ryan in the federal election. He obtained 5.24% of the formal vote. As the Liberals John Moore saw a swing of 9.17% against him one can assume that the bulk of the One Nation voters were formerly Liberal voters. When the One Nation votes were distributed the Democrats got 10.84%, the ALP 31.47% and the Liberals 51.96%. John Moore resigned in 2001 . The ALP won the by-election by 255 votes after distribution of Green and Democrat preferences.

In February 2001 the branch fielded our secretary JOHN DREW in the seat of Indooroopilly in the state election.He obtained 4% of the formal vote in an area with lots of idealistic tertiary students and politically correct academics. The ALP won on anti GST protest votes from voters who normally would have contempt for the Labor Party and the values it espouses.

In August 2001 a huge letterboxing of the Ryan area started with a local recruitment leaflet . You can obtain a copy of this leaflet by contacting me at drewshock@ozemail.com.au or po box 6036 St.Lucia 4067 or 07 38760351 or 0405 499 018.

In October 2001 members assisted Barry Weedon , our candidate in the adjoining MORETON electorate, in his huge letterbox drop of a very comprehensive campaign leaflet which attracted new members to the Moreton Branch. The letterboxed leaflet attracted a large numbers of campaign volunteers to Barry, who has over 30 years of experience.

The Ryan Branch nominated JOHN DREW as the candidate in the 2001 national election. Letterboxing of ONE NATION how to vote cards commenced in late October. Our main ideological opponent in Ryan was the Green Party candidate Mike Stasse, so I have created a page in this web site where I detail a variety of Green Party policies. These can be seen in more detail at www.greens.org.au . Well worth having a look at it so you can see how far to the left they are. No wonder they they are paranoid about One Nation!

One Nation obtained 1.64% of the vote in Ryan, proving the difficulty of selling the Hansonist message to the affluent middle class. On a two party preferred basis the Liberals suffered a swing of 0.9% and had to go to preferences to win. A detailed analysis of the Ryan result is on the web page entitled 2001 national election.

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