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6:53AM Monday 08 September, 2008 Sunshine Coast weather Mostly sunny min 11° - max 23°

Johnson helps Tatton

Former Maroochy Shire councillor Paul Tatton will have to give fellow candidate Alexina Johnson a huge bouquet of flowers as her preferences should secure him a seat in the new regional council.

Mr Tatton secured less votes than his former council colleague Greg Rogerson, who had 35.3% of the primary votes, but with Ms Johnson’s preferences Mr Tatton, with 33.3% of the vote, should be on the home stretch.

Mr Tatton said the vote was too close for him to call, but state member Peter Wellington seemed confident he was ahead.

“It certainly surprised me that the vote was so close. Alexina and I worked on a couple of committees together and we’re also friends,” he said.

Mr Tatton was looking forward to working with mayor Bob Abbot as “he will be excellent for the Sunshine Coast region”.

He was also glad former colleague Christian Dickson was in.

For our election coverage, visit our election '08 page.

Recent Comments

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on 16 March, 2008 at 12:29 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Oh no, not Tatton again - pleeeeease!!! This is not fair, surely Greg Rogerson (Rogo) rightly won the seat as Councillor for Division 10 of the new SCRC.
on 16 March, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Oh yessssss, Tatton again, thank goodness and fingers crossed. Rogo gone for good is exactly what we need for Division 10 of the new SCRC.
on 16 March, 2008 at 9:53 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
well you see this is where Rogo shot himself in the foot, again

from yesterday's paper in regards to preference voting:

Paul Tatton: Alexina Johnson. “Alexina and I are good friends and we have worked well together, reason decided pref each other.”

Greg Rogerson: None. “I don’t think people realise if they give a preference you are basically giving a vote to each of those two people."



SunBus 610, 20.67% voted for Alexina Johnson, and 33.30% for Tatton- total of 53.97% of the division.

Rogo got 35.20% of the vote- more people preferred Johnson OR Tatton than Rogo- thats how preferences work.

Another example of Rogo's selfishness- he was obviously unwilling to work as a team, and it has been his undoing- perhaps if he had done a preference deal he might have got in.

Congratulations Paul on your narrow win, now is the time to the stand your ground and make yourself heard.
on 16 March, 2008 at 12:40 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Here here. Paul Tatton supported the town plan when it came to the Links Montville. He is a team player and respects the law and the community.

And on optional preferential voting: If you want your vote to count and keep on counting, ie if you believe in having a say long after the first option is no longer an option then you need to number all the boxes. It is the most democratic, inclusive, responsible form of voting.
on 16 March, 2008 at 6:44 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
The biggest disappointment and source of anger and sadness is that some ignorant individuals chose to let racism rear its ugly head and write racial slurs on their voting papers targeted at Anthony Beezley, the first indigenous person on the coast to ever run for council.

If they had bothered to find out anything about Anthony, either by speaking to him directly or anyone who knows him (including Rogo and Tatton) they would have found that he has a well deserved reputation as a man of integrity, compassion and community service. Their ignorant comments were gutless.
on 16 March, 2008 at 7:33 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Spot-on about preferential voting, savetherange.

The very best thing about preferential voting is that you can afford to give the underdog that you know won’t win support, and still direct where your vote will go when they drop out.

It actually helps small players, because it allows you to move away from parties and well funded candidates, without losing your influence over them.

Unfortunately very few people understand the implications of preferential voting.
on 16 March, 2008 at 10:27 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
How awful that low life's could write rubbish on any candidates voting papers, I'd like to bet Anthony wouldn't be the only victim of this type of behaviour in elections.

I met him once at one of the meet the candidate meetings and thought him a true gentleman. I'm sure Anthony can ignore this feral behaviour, rise above it and move on, dismissing it as being as irrelevant as the idiots who wrote whatever in the first place.
on 17 March, 2008 at 10:04 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I am very dissapointed in the result for this devision as i was hoping that Alexina would get to have a go. I am glad that it will be Tatton rather than Rogo though.

Rogo is a pigheaded individual who ignored the people who he was supposed to represent ie. the Montville Links saga.

On the other hand Tatton seemed to have his heart in the right place but failed to achieve any real results for his constituents for sometime.

I saw Alexina as a person with the right ideas and the work ethic and tenacity to back it up, thereby ensuring that she would achieve results for the people she represented.

I am gobsmacked that so many people voted for Rogo, a man with contempt for so many of the people he is supposed to represent.
on 17 March, 2008 at 10:36 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I hope Anthony runs again. Under different circumstances he might have been my choice, though I would need to know more about his vision, goals etc.

Sunshine Coast Council would be all the better with Aboriginal representation. Sharing those first cultural ties through weaving Indigenous history into the vision for the future of the coast will be another step on the path to reconcilation.

What an opportunity we have right now!

Isn't it great the majority of people on the coast have kicked prejudice in the backside.
on 17 March, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
With a non divisive council I think you'll see Paul Tatton come up trumps, he was sidelined and excluded by the bully boys of the last MSC council... do they need listing? Bob Abbott won't put up with the shenanigans that went on in the Natoli council, and we have a group of councillors prepared to work together with the same ethos alongside a strong leader they all respect. Paul has the support of the community, he's always done the 'right' thing by the community and in this new environment he'll have a strong voice. I agree, Rogo 's contempt for the community viewpoint is appalling, altho' I suspect he'd soon roll over and join the crowd without his old gang of bovver boys in council to run with.
on 27 March, 2008 at 4:34 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
perplexed your ignorance has always left me.. well.. perplexed.

'sidelined and excluded'. did you witness this? have you looked over all the minutes of all the meetings?

'rogos contempt for the community viewpoint is appalling' again, you check over all the minutes, research all of his decisions?

and as for 'strong leader they all respect' sorry buddy, but in fact there are a few of them that have stated previously their dislike for him. and a couple that have proved they find it difficult to work with him. of course.. none of that was mentioned by them in this election.

same goes for 'working together'. they've spoken out against each other in the past a lot.

This term is going to be rough. hopefully it'll smooth out soon enough though.

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