mugley
an unpleasant duty
It's federal election time in Australia again. Last time it was an easy decision to throw out a government that had been in power so long that it had gone to their heads, causing them to attack everybody with a job.
This time around, it's not so clear-cut. We've got a religious reactionary fossil for an opposition leader, and a prime minister so afraid of appearing to stand for anything that she'll happily join the fossil in dog-whistling about boat people. Pauline Hanson and John Howard would be so proud of their political children.
I can't separate them. In a campaign full of hollow slogans ("moving forward", "real action", "yes we will", "stop the boats", etc), it's pretty telling that the one that sums up the national mood most is "they're all fucked".
Since neither Labor nor Liberal seem to want to take climate change seriously (both going so far as to sack leaders who believed in doing something about it), a vote for the Greens looks to be a good way of telling them that we care about it even if they don't. And since the parliament has been poisoned for the last six years by the Labs and Libs pandering to the right-wing religious nutjobs represented by Fielding's Family Freaks, it's time to tell them enough is enough on that front. The civil liberty-minded minors like the Australian Sex Party and the Secular Party look like good options for a protest vote there.
So, onto how all this ties in with the photo above. One of the scariest pander-to-the-freaks policies to emerge so far is Conroy's proposal to censor the web for all Australians. It won't stop the material it claims to block (and Conroy's insistence that anybody opposing it is pro-kiddie-porn is the height of insulting, dishonest arrogance), but it will lay a nice foundation for future governments wanting to restrict what Australians read. Orwell understood the power of controlling all the information flowing to and from the home, as do the governments of internet-filtering countries like China, Iran and North Korea.
So my #1 mission tomorrow is to vote below the line in the Senate, and to put Conroy and Fielding last. Yeah, below the line takes longer, but the alternative is letting the parties decide where your preferences go. Fielding got in last time on the preferences of lazy Labor voters, and this time around the Libs have done a similar deal for their above-the-line preferences to go to the Family Freaks.
It's never been easier to research your Senate vote and direct it exactly where you want - try Below the Line for an easy drag-and-drop way of working out your Senate ticket before you go to the booth. Or if you're in Victoria and want to put Conroy last whether you vote Labor, Liberal or otherwise, have a look at filter-conroy.org.
Good luck tomorrow.
an unpleasant duty
It's federal election time in Australia again. Last time it was an easy decision to throw out a government that had been in power so long that it had gone to their heads, causing them to attack everybody with a job.
This time around, it's not so clear-cut. We've got a religious reactionary fossil for an opposition leader, and a prime minister so afraid of appearing to stand for anything that she'll happily join the fossil in dog-whistling about boat people. Pauline Hanson and John Howard would be so proud of their political children.
I can't separate them. In a campaign full of hollow slogans ("moving forward", "real action", "yes we will", "stop the boats", etc), it's pretty telling that the one that sums up the national mood most is "they're all fucked".
Since neither Labor nor Liberal seem to want to take climate change seriously (both going so far as to sack leaders who believed in doing something about it), a vote for the Greens looks to be a good way of telling them that we care about it even if they don't. And since the parliament has been poisoned for the last six years by the Labs and Libs pandering to the right-wing religious nutjobs represented by Fielding's Family Freaks, it's time to tell them enough is enough on that front. The civil liberty-minded minors like the Australian Sex Party and the Secular Party look like good options for a protest vote there.
So, onto how all this ties in with the photo above. One of the scariest pander-to-the-freaks policies to emerge so far is Conroy's proposal to censor the web for all Australians. It won't stop the material it claims to block (and Conroy's insistence that anybody opposing it is pro-kiddie-porn is the height of insulting, dishonest arrogance), but it will lay a nice foundation for future governments wanting to restrict what Australians read. Orwell understood the power of controlling all the information flowing to and from the home, as do the governments of internet-filtering countries like China, Iran and North Korea.
So my #1 mission tomorrow is to vote below the line in the Senate, and to put Conroy and Fielding last. Yeah, below the line takes longer, but the alternative is letting the parties decide where your preferences go. Fielding got in last time on the preferences of lazy Labor voters, and this time around the Libs have done a similar deal for their above-the-line preferences to go to the Family Freaks.
It's never been easier to research your Senate vote and direct it exactly where you want - try Below the Line for an easy drag-and-drop way of working out your Senate ticket before you go to the booth. Or if you're in Victoria and want to put Conroy last whether you vote Labor, Liberal or otherwise, have a look at filter-conroy.org.
Good luck tomorrow.