lizbee | Entries tagged with politics

I'm presently a bit bemused by the planned Occupy [insert Australian city here] movement. Judging by the quotes in that link, it appears to have no specific goals beyond standing in solidarity with the American protests, ~~appropriating~~ drawing inspiration from the African and Middle Eastern movements of earlier this year, and generally taking a stand against corporate greed and power.

I'm puzzled because ... well, this is Australia. We already have public health care, welfare, banking regulation and a mostly-functional tax system. All of those things have vast room for improvement, but it seems to me that vague and open-ended protests are not the way to lobby for those improvements.

Now, I'm not one to protest myself (it involves a great deal of standing and walking, and also being in a crowd, none of which are things I enjoy or am good at), so my two cents is pretty much worthless, and maybe I'm just too cynical. But honestly, I'd rather be picketing SERCO over their treatment of refugees in detention, or better, the Immigration Department, which is rejecting refugee applications through error or malice. (I transcribe a lot of immigration hearings. I can't say this news came as a shock.)

Anyway, that's just my vague puzzlement of the moment. In other news, I'm increasingly fascinated by Sophia Mirabella. It's not that Australia needed its own Sarah Palin, but we seem to have acquired one.

ETA: Tumblr put it better than I could.

Current Mood: cynical
Crossposts: http://lizbee.livejournal.com/1201262.html

The first Indigenous Australian Member of Parliament wears a traditional kangaroo skin cloak as he delivers his maiden speech, in which he thanks Kevin Rudd for his apology to the Stolen Generation.

Especially noteworthy because Wyatt is a Liberal, and it's barely six months since Tony Abbott was taking a shot at the welcome to country ceremonies, which acknowledge that events take place on tribal lands. One presumes that, when Wyatt participated in Parliament's ceremony, Abbott didn't suggest he was doing it for money.

Crossposts: http://lizbee.livejournal.com/1146734.html

Prediction: now that Australia has a proper, constitutionally-valid Government, and it's not the Coalition, the Right is going to achive new heights of vicious batshittery. Or batshit viciousness. Already, the hashtags are running hot with predictions of free Government-issue heroin and death panels and "Can't someone shut the fucking ranga bitch up already?"

Myself, I'm relieved but not surprised, and pleased but sort of meh. Let me break this down:

Relieved: because a Liberal Government on its own is not so bad, but a Liberal Government headed by Tony "I wouldn't want my daughters to get the HPV vaccine" Abbott would be terrible.

Unsurprised: because I moved to a semi-rural town in the same year the Howard Government was elected, so I got to watch firsthand as the Liberals screwed their National brethren, and the bush, and the Nationals, most of them, said, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" at every blow. (Caboolture was, however, just urban enough to really appreciate a nice blend of Fear Of The Other, which is why its population (a) keeps voting LIberal and (b) is not a place famed for having a racially and sexually diverse population. Um, bless.) In short: I suspected Katter would go with the Coalition -- his hatred of them is outweighed only by his homophobia -- but I was pretty sure the other rural independents could be swayed by the ALP, provided no one did anything really stupid.

Pleased: with the Greens controlling the Senate, and the House controlled by Everyone Who Isn't Liberal Or Bob Katter, some interesting things might happen now. Also, now that we finally have a Government, maybe people will stop acting like it's some kind of crime against democracy to not vote for one of the major parties, yes, Tony Abbott, I'm looking at you, and you, NewsCorp, and everyone else who seemed to think the Greens only got the largest swing because people thought that "Liberal" is spelled G-r-e-e-n. Democracy: it happens.

Meh: no disrespect to the Independents Who Aren't Bob Katter, but I'm pretty sure we can abandon any hope of marriage reform in the next three years. I'd like to be pleasantly surprised (and then invited to many weddings), but ... yeah.

The cat is climbing my bookshelf in search of a certain squid he loves. This is going to end in disaster, but I can't bring myself to make it stop, because it is hilarious.

Also hilarious: the way, in the wake of the election, the mainstream media has magically decided that rural Australia's interests are newsworthy. I bet the National Party is really regretting letting their Liberal brethren screw over the bush for 13 years.

Because right now, I'm ready for the insect life of Australia to crawl back under its rocks.

Did you know we have our own Sarah Palin? We do! Here are some now-deleted highlights from her Twitter account:

The former editor of Cosmo, of all people, provides a handy round-up of Family First And Why They Are Evil. I'm even on the verge of unfollowing @fakefielding, because his jokes at the moment are things that people say in seriousness.

And while I'm calling out fail, "Wendy Francis = Crazy Person" is no one's idea of a clever headline, Crikey. I know plenty of crazy people, and most of them are too damn sensible to harbour such stupidity in their heads.

We also have the Victorian state president of One Nation promoting gay bashings, and generally failing to have good manners. (I made the mistake of reading the front page of his Twitter, which was a triggery mixture of Violent Reactions To Rapists and Ugly Misogyny. Good times! I totally don't recommend it!)

On the subject of ... well, more fail, here is a handy collection of Tony Abbott's thoughts on race, poverty, abortion, sex, homosexuality and a woman's right to refuse sex (he thinks it should be moderated).

In conclusion:

DEAR AUSTRALIA, DON'T BLINK.

I don't know about anyone else, but I've been kind of mourning the lack of batshit in this election. Aside from the now-disendorsed Liberal candidate who declared himself the voice of God, there's been a general reluctance to break out the crazy sauce. Or even the interesting sauce.

But tonight, that all changed. As I left the station this evening, a smiling middle-aged man thrust a leaflet into my hand. The front looked like this:

With a beginning like that, I knew it had to be good, so I accepted it with thanks, quickly skimmed it, then rushed home to share it with the internet.

(...that was a couple of hours ago. I had to shower! And eat!)

( The following scan features some pure grade batshit, several boldfaced lies, and a warning about the most sinister organisation currently operating in Australia: the Anglican Church... )

THE political party founded by firebrand Pauline Hanson has called for two dedicated seats in federal parliament for indigenous people.

To put this in context for non-Australians, that's a bit like the BNP turning around and saying, "Actually, we really appreciate the benefits of immigration and a multi-ethnic society." Or the Tea ... Bag ... Party ... Whosits ... Things going, "Yeah, we're proud to have an African-American president, but there's still a lot of work to be done on America's attitudes towards race. Also, health care!"

In short:

This is Tony Abbott, leader of the Federal Opposition, possibly Australia's next Prime Minister:

This is Lord Voldemort, Dark Lord:

I KNOW, RIGHT? IT'S UNCANNY!

I apologise for inflicting a picture of the Dark Lord on people without warning. As compensation, here is a recent photo of a being infinitely more evil, yet somehow more fun to be around:

That's what I wake up to most days. Although on the weekdays it's still dark when I wake up.

We are actually thinking of getting another cat, as Harvey's behavioural problems haven't really settled down since we moved, and the vet says it's because he's unsocialised, lonely and still traumatised by the deaths of his kitty-siblings. (If you don't know the story, he was found abandoned in a carpark near a river or creek. He was only about four weeks old, and there were no other cats or kittens in the area. Now, he carries around small stuffed animals and cries, and when we asked the vet, he said Harvey was probably remembering his futile attempts to save his siblings' lives. OUR CAT HAS POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, GUYS.)

Anyway,

sajee and

dear_prudence recently got a lovely kitten from a local no-kill shelter, and that brought the issue into clearer focus for us. So we're thinking, unless Harvey makes some very sudden changes in the next few weeks, we're going to contact the woman who runs the shelter and see if she has a cat who would be appropriate as a housemate for Harvey. Possibly an older cat who has had kittens of her own. Certainly not a tiny kitten on whom he would be a bad influence.

Poor old Harvey. He swaggers around the house like he's a lion, but he spotted another cat outside the front window and didn't know if he should panic or attack. He settled for maintaining a hypervigilant presence at all the front doors and windows.

SRS CAT BUSINESS, Y'ALL!

TONY Abbott has proposed banning the dole for people under 30 in a bid to entice the unemployed to head west and fill massive skill shortages in the booming resources sector.

1. Being under thirty, and having been on the dole, I can only imagine how badly I would have coped in a mining town.

2. I presume the mining towns would be THRILLED to have an influx of resentful, undertrained young people coming in.

3. Somehow, sending women out west against their will seems like a particularly bad idea.

4. Too bad if you can't drive, or want to stay close to your family!

5. At least in ye olde England, you had to commit a crime before you were transported as forced labour.

6. Abbott doesn't actually want to win the election, does he? Which is fine by me, I just think there's more to being Opposition Leader than trolling.