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Political Me...
Apr. 17th, 2019 09:45 amA mid-week weekend... because our regular weekend guy is away inflicting himself on his family in Queensland, so I worked last Saturday & will be working this one. The Boss was silly enough to ask what days off in lieu I'd like &, quick as a flash, I said Wednesday 16th & Thursday 17th please... knowing that Friday 18th is Good Friday... Hello mid-week LONG weekend!!
Not that it won't be filled up with stuff, as usual. Today is domestic duties day, tomorrow I'm in town getting my 'Responsible Service of Alcohol' qualification updated - the liquor laws changed a few years ago & I never got 'round to updating... Then on Friday, L-SP & I have an Indian/Sri Lankan wedding to attend, starting at the very unfriendly time of 9.30am waay out in western Sydney. If you look carefully on the roads in Parramatta around that time, you'll see an extremely self-conscious white guy dressed in traditional Indian garb doing his best to not be seen... Especially to not be seen to be insensitively appropriating another culture. Then again, they did ask us to wear it... That will certainly be my excuse. No photos please!
Last night, at the local Bowling Club we've become entangled with, there was a meeting of the activist group 'Get Up', a left-leaning organisation who started on the 'net, but have grown to become much more personally interactive. Especially as the political landscape in Australia becomes more complacent about pressing issues & is starting to, if not actually become more right-wing, then certainly more tolerant of, & less inclined to counter, the rise of regressive, right-wing voices, both extreme & ignorant, in the political forum. It was unsurprising to hear that the lady who organises the Club's functions didn't realise who Get Up were, when she allowed them to book the room, nor that she rang the local Liberal State MP to apologise for politicising the Club - even though Get Up are more of a national concern & the meeting concerned Federal politics, not State issues... What WAS surprising was the amount of Gen X & Baby-Boomer white people who turned up to the meeting & were vocally supportive of the Get Up agenda - which on this occasion is to encourage people to not vote for the sitting Federal Liberal Party member - former Prime Minister & current national embarrassment Tony Abbott... a man who did his best to destabilise the government of his Liberal Party successor & also writes Brexit advice pieces to (I'm reluctant to say 'for'... because, honestly, who'd ask him?!?!) the British newspapers. He's a climate change denier, anti-renewable energy, anti-immigration... especially anti-refugees, borderline Islamophobic, possibly xenophobic, definitely anti-gay rights &, in general, has been in politics for so long, he's fallen out of touch with the social changes in not just his electorate, but the country as a whole... & is now only in Canberra to serve himself
I thought it was only me who held these views about him, but it seems, especially in the wake of the Same-Sex Marriage referendum 2 years ago, where he campaigned vocally against it, but his constituents were 76% in favour (one of the highest figures nationally, I'm proud to say...), that even the most rusted-on of aging Liberal supporters are getting sick of him... & possibly of the Party he belongs to. I mean, really... 6 Prime Ministers in a decade??!! Neither of the 2 preferred Parties have clean hands in that trashing of our national image, but when you have as your Federal member a man who proudly worked to undermine his own government, simply to settle a grudge, you have to wonder... & a lot of people finally are
I proudly wore my 'Time's Up Tony' t-shirt to the meeting, ready to debate politics with anyone who looked askance, but was surprised by not only the nods of approval, but the amount of people also wearing the shirt... It would be nice to think that Australian politics is being dragged reluctantly into the 21st century, but it must be said that the Labor Party are not the ideal replacement - they have factional issues of their own. Unfortunately we're saddled with the Westminster 2-party-preferred system, which means we can only have a Liberal or Labor government - albeit one which will hopefully have to rely on enough Green or independent MPs with a more progressive outlook to hold power & pass any legislation. Certainly the number of cross-bench unaffiliated MPs has been growing steadily over the last decade & has absolutely galloped along since the last Prime Ministerial bloodletting, so if we can't change the minds of the preferred parties, let's at least put a lot more checks, balances & roadblocks into the path of their prehistoric progress... or should that be regress...
Not that it won't be filled up with stuff, as usual. Today is domestic duties day, tomorrow I'm in town getting my 'Responsible Service of Alcohol' qualification updated - the liquor laws changed a few years ago & I never got 'round to updating... Then on Friday, L-SP & I have an Indian/Sri Lankan wedding to attend, starting at the very unfriendly time of 9.30am waay out in western Sydney. If you look carefully on the roads in Parramatta around that time, you'll see an extremely self-conscious white guy dressed in traditional Indian garb doing his best to not be seen... Especially to not be seen to be insensitively appropriating another culture. Then again, they did ask us to wear it... That will certainly be my excuse. No photos please!
Last night, at the local Bowling Club we've become entangled with, there was a meeting of the activist group 'Get Up', a left-leaning organisation who started on the 'net, but have grown to become much more personally interactive. Especially as the political landscape in Australia becomes more complacent about pressing issues & is starting to, if not actually become more right-wing, then certainly more tolerant of, & less inclined to counter, the rise of regressive, right-wing voices, both extreme & ignorant, in the political forum. It was unsurprising to hear that the lady who organises the Club's functions didn't realise who Get Up were, when she allowed them to book the room, nor that she rang the local Liberal State MP to apologise for politicising the Club - even though Get Up are more of a national concern & the meeting concerned Federal politics, not State issues... What WAS surprising was the amount of Gen X & Baby-Boomer white people who turned up to the meeting & were vocally supportive of the Get Up agenda - which on this occasion is to encourage people to not vote for the sitting Federal Liberal Party member - former Prime Minister & current national embarrassment Tony Abbott... a man who did his best to destabilise the government of his Liberal Party successor & also writes Brexit advice pieces to (I'm reluctant to say 'for'... because, honestly, who'd ask him?!?!) the British newspapers. He's a climate change denier, anti-renewable energy, anti-immigration... especially anti-refugees, borderline Islamophobic, possibly xenophobic, definitely anti-gay rights &, in general, has been in politics for so long, he's fallen out of touch with the social changes in not just his electorate, but the country as a whole... & is now only in Canberra to serve himself
I thought it was only me who held these views about him, but it seems, especially in the wake of the Same-Sex Marriage referendum 2 years ago, where he campaigned vocally against it, but his constituents were 76% in favour (one of the highest figures nationally, I'm proud to say...), that even the most rusted-on of aging Liberal supporters are getting sick of him... & possibly of the Party he belongs to. I mean, really... 6 Prime Ministers in a decade??!! Neither of the 2 preferred Parties have clean hands in that trashing of our national image, but when you have as your Federal member a man who proudly worked to undermine his own government, simply to settle a grudge, you have to wonder... & a lot of people finally are
I proudly wore my 'Time's Up Tony' t-shirt to the meeting, ready to debate politics with anyone who looked askance, but was surprised by not only the nods of approval, but the amount of people also wearing the shirt... It would be nice to think that Australian politics is being dragged reluctantly into the 21st century, but it must be said that the Labor Party are not the ideal replacement - they have factional issues of their own. Unfortunately we're saddled with the Westminster 2-party-preferred system, which means we can only have a Liberal or Labor government - albeit one which will hopefully have to rely on enough Green or independent MPs with a more progressive outlook to hold power & pass any legislation. Certainly the number of cross-bench unaffiliated MPs has been growing steadily over the last decade & has absolutely galloped along since the last Prime Ministerial bloodletting, so if we can't change the minds of the preferred parties, let's at least put a lot more checks, balances & roadblocks into the path of their prehistoric progress... or should that be regress...
