The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

Hang on, what's this?
JH has discovered that gay folk have been discriminated against! Hmmmm, perhaps his pollsters are telling him there are votes to be gained here? I can't imagine that justice is the sole motive. Or perhaps it's to appease those pesky, revolting backbenchers? I mean they might get out of hand if they don't have the occasional win!:

Howard backs reform of gay laws
Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
October 21, 2006/the Australian

JOHN Howard has pledged to tackle legal discrimination against gays and lesbians, after a quiet campaign by an alliance of Liberal backbenchers.

The Prime Minister's review will focus on eight areas where the Liberal MPs contend homosexuals are subject to legal discrimination. ... <cont>

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20618670-601,00.html

Distraction No. 74

<sigh>




But perhaps, lezzles, we are getting a tad too cynical, a wee bit too bitter & twisted? I mean, gosh, he may have seen a wrong that he wants to put right! Did that ever occur to you, hmmmmm ...?

Bound to be a non core pledge.

You could be right, you know!

Guess who I saw (in the flesh! :wink: ) at Readings bookshop in Carlton this morning? Barry Jones. He looked exactly like ... well, Barry Jones! I was so tempted to rush up & shake his hand. I have a lot of admiration for ol' Barry. But I didn't. He looked so earnest & preoccupied I didn't want to intrude.
But small world, hey?

... & from today's AGE:

Natasha Stott Despoja is retiring. That sucks. I always liked her and the Democrats will be buggered without her.

Will the Democrats ever be a real force again? I can't see how they would manage it. Their traditional supporters have mostly gone to the Greens. Bloody Meg Lees...

Me too. Whos gonna keep the barstrds honest now!

I've never voted for the Democrats but have always thought that Natasha was an important contributor to the bigger political picture in Oz politics. A real shame to see her bow out so early. It's really sad what a diminished force the democrats are these days ..... they appear to have never recovered from the Kernot defection to the ALP & Meg Lees' disgraceful support of the GST, against the wishes of most Democrats members.

One of the few time I've ever written to a politician off my own bat, as opposed to as part of a campaign, was to write to Meg Lees and condemn her for that GST vote and to predict that it would be the death knell for the Democrats as a force in Oz politics. Got that one right.

As for keeping the bastards honest: vote Green, vote early, vote often.


While I'm skiting about predictions, here's a new one. Natasha will be back in 5-15 years. She's still young and I suspect she hasn't lost her taste for it. Maybe as an independent, Labour or Green.

(Hinge! Hooray, you're back! )

You are the font of wisdom, because I agree 100%with everything you've said! :wink:

Meg Lees betrayed all working & low income people by going along with the gST. Not just the Democrats. Appalling!

Yep, Green is the way to go for us folk who've sadly (& with considerable anger!) watched the light on the hill flicker & fade.
The ALP had better clean up it's act if it wants us back!

... & of course Natasha will return! Far too much political nous there for her to just fade away forever. She's going to do something BIG one day. Later, when the circumstances are right.

I've been feeling decidedly green myself lately. However the local greens candiate is a dipstick.

I can see a donkey vote coming.

... or perhaps you could encourage a worthy independent with your vote, dp? That is, if there is one!

Me, I refuse to vote for candidates or parties that don't advocate the things that I consider of primary importance anymore .... close enough to the mark is not good enough, these days! .... even if I have traditionally voted for that party & that's were my heart used to be located (when they were up to scratch!).

I was just thinking ....

& remembered another A2K thread about the most respected politicians. I think it was a poll.

So, I thought, which current, or at least living Oz politicians could I say I really respect?

Tough question! The best I could come up with was Bob Brown & then Julia Guillard, though BB was quite a way ahead. After that, A blank .....

Apart from Barry Jones, but then he's out of the game & an enduring living treasure.

Gough, until his denials about East Timor. Disappointing

Any that you could name?

That's a hard one!

I agree with you on all counts except one - and I cannot even justify it. There is just something about Bob Brown that starts my internal 'red Alert' buzzer sounding.

This is a personal aside, but of the many I knew, my two favourites (and I stress as people, not necessarily politicians) were Sir William McMahon and Andrew Peacock. Both wonderful men. Both perfect gentlemen. Both loved this country. Both were crucified by the press.

Interesting choices, lezzles.
Politically, as well as personally?

Graham Stoney. (state upper house)

But even he went the way of the politician. Its the nature of the beast. You want to get your ideas accepted so you need support. To get that support you do deals, you suppot my policies, I'll support yours... what ever they might be.

I sincerly believe that most people enter parliment with good intententions and get sucked down by the party system. If they refuse to "do deals" they reside forever on the back bench having little influence on policy making.

I also believe in voting for a candiate regrdless of which party. I generally chose the candidate who I believe can best represent the electorate he/she stands in.

I've got a feeling that donkey will control the Senate majority.

Pity about the dipstick, but you are right - the vote for the individual not the party. But it's hard these days to know the individual, they're surrounded by PR people and spin doctors, and they're terrified of displaying any attitudes or thoughts that are considered 'electorally unfriendly' so we just get blah.

Which is one of the reasons I liked Keating - at least he'd express an opinion without worrying about how the polls or Jones/Laws would see it, and have some sort of intelligent discourse on why it was his opinion.

Current pollies? Bob Brown - just for being the only one to stick his head up when 30 years ago then entire parliament would have been protesting things like children overboard, the Howard's ongoing Bush fellatio, et al.

Sadly, that's about it. I had hopes that with the increasing number of women MPs things would get saner - but the only one I have any personal experience of is Jackie Kelly - and she's a nutbag (well, if I was kinder: woefully out of place). Howard's method of threatening back benchers with losing their preselection if they don't tow the line is only now starting to lose its power. At least Labor separates leadership from that stuff - although they have enough problems with branch stacking and left/right squabbles.

What i'd give to have the original US non party system, just a bunch of independents. They managed it for over half a century before parties became the norm.