2010_awards_crop

Three state elections, one UK election, one federal election, one interregnum, a Prime Minister deposed, a World Cup humiliation, our first female Prime Minister, several global WikiLeaks exposes, a midterms massacre, a wayward Icelandic volcano, a tied grand final, a News Ltd phone tapping scandal, a Royal engagement, James Packer’s return to TV and the death of Paul the Octopus.

There was no such thing as a slow news day in 2010.

But who were the heroes, the villains and the just plain boring-if-sexy people of 2010? We have our thoughts, but in the interests of participatory democracy we thought we’d ask you, gentle Crikey readers.

Nominate now in our time-honoured end of year categories:

  • Crikey’s person of the year (a nice award)
  • Australia’s sexiest politician (boy and girl divisions)
  • We also have, for their third year, the Crikey Arsehat Awards, a range of key categories climaxing in what is destined to become a landmark in Australian public life, Crikey’s Golden Arsehat for the most appalling person of the year.
  • And, as a special treat, in a nod to our tenth birthday and to mark the end of the first decade of the not so new millennium, we introduce two special one off categories: the Person of the Decade and — gasp — the Platinum Arsehat for Most Appalling Person of the Decade.

Cast your minds back dear readers, to a time before September 11, before Bush won two consecutive terms, before Iraq, before Afghanistan, before global warming really hotted up — so to speak — a time when Michael Jackson was still alive, when the iPad still sounded like an online feminine hygiene product, before — wait — before iPods let alone iPhones! (this is blowing your mind isn’t it?.. let’s keep going)… A time when Barack Obama still seemed like an impossibly unelectable name, a time when Mark Latham seemed like a viable alternative Prime Minister, a time when email was the fastest way to communicate and we tittered at the word twitter, a time before the letters GFC meant anything at all…

Contemplate all that and then please proceed to fill out the nominations form and in some categories, supply a brief supporting statement. We’d be ever so grateful.

On Friday we will run a briefer survey bringing the top nominations together for the actual voting. Then, next Wednesday, just before we adjourn for our summer break, we’ll name this year’s winners.

So nominate now. In the survey that follows you’ll find space to enter a single name in each category.

Think carefully and nominate wisely: their arsehats are in your hands.