No not Milan Kundera's early novel about communism in his home country of Czechoslovakia country but yesterday Tony Abbott after three years of poisonous politics and venomous character assassinations told us that he would respect everybody and expect the same. Who does he think he is kidding? Does he really believe that we have no memory and will wash the slate clean so that he can rape and pillage without a murmur? I don't think so.
Meanwhile it was interesting to hear Mark Latham interviewed today suggesting Mark Dreyfus as the new leader of the Parliamentary ALP. Not owned by anybody, honest, bright and capable, he is my choice as well. Now that Rudd has quit let us not have a business as usual choice of Shorten or Albanese but a complete break with the politics of yesterday.
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As I slowly get used to the departure of Julia Gillard and some of her formidable team the notion that we will have an Abbott led government is making it's way up my spine and into my cerebellum. And it hurts.
What are the positives? Dangerously running on "trust me" it won't take three years not to trust the whole crew. Meanwhile Rudd may have ;lost his seat and the ALP will have the time to reorganize it's base and constitution to make itself more transparent, accessible and open to all comers that sign on to the Labor platform. All this has been in reports and recommendations to the Caucus over the years and was rehearsed in the report that John Faulkener did. Time on. Groups like Getup are focused n making sure that the LNP don't hold majorities in both houses and therefore making it impossible for them to repeal the swags of Ms Gillard's nation building over the past six years. It will also make it harder for an inexperienced, arrogant lot to ignore the advice of Treasury and take a wrecking ball to the best managed economy in the world. At the same time the contracts for the NBN will be costly to get out of as will the repealing of the clean energy targets and fund. Who are these people and how have they (appeared) to get some much support from our voters? Obviously having the daily support of 70% of our print media helps. Add in the almost universal absence of journalists in all media that ask tough but informed questions and you begin to see the difficulty that the Gillard-led government had in getting it's message heard. So we may be faced with a number of issues for the next three years. Reform of the only reforming party, a campaign to undermine the Murdoch Press and to hold the rest of the media to account in the way they say (and don't) hold the politicians to account. And finally take back to citizen's the power to deal with the important issues even when the pollies won't. We should look to the courts as a way of keeping them honest but more than this we should initiate more of our own direct action campaigns issue by issue. While the global warming deniers saddle up there are people working directly with industry to make their processes more efficient and save them money at the same time as reducing their carbon footprint. On a local level more people are growing their own food and joining buying co-ops that deliver locally grown, in-season, organic food. I am surprised by the number of people I know that have embraced a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle over the last twelve months. I am now a vegan and it has given me lower body weight, more strength and stamina and I sleep better. Dear Kevin
just so there is no doubt, which is a condition you would favour, tell us once and for all time that you or anybody associated with you, didn't leak or feed to the Press anything about Julia Gillard or the government she led and to put it totally in the past perhaps as a sign of good faith allow all journalists to state that they did/didn't have you as a source. Dear Tony there has been much speculation about dirty tricks in relation to Peter Slipper (Mal Brough) and Craig Thomson. Can you say that nobody on your side of politics had a hand in the development of these stories or indeed planted false information for political gain as a judge noted in the Slipper case. Looking forward to your answers # We were fooled into thinking there was a leaders' debate on last night but what we got were two cardboard cutouts of two obvious and painful liars pretending, not very well, that they were who and what they said they were.
We Australians deserve a lot better than that - and up until recently we had it. Julia Gillard and her very dedicated and talented team governing for all Australians and not for their own egos. Sigh. Election in September and I am going away in October for family matters but it will also be a huge relief to get away from the onslaught of lies and fairy floss. COME BACK JULIA. Please. Matt writes as below - he is an author and has his own blog. He has published many books and has done a lot of work on re-vegetation of sites that were going to desert..
Hi Bob, often read when I have a minute. Where as i agree with most everything you say, I don't know how you do it. It would make me too bitter. The bigger picture is we get the pollies we want, and the press give us the stories we want to hear. I no longer blame the pollies or the media. I blame us. We don't want leaders. We want to be lead. The reason politics is so bitter and petty right now is that as soon as politicians started paying too much attention to the opinion polls, we were doomed. It put us in charge. Take the abolition of slavery, it was an unpopular move, but the leaders at the time lead. Now look at boat people. Everybody knows the lies are lies. The pollies are like parents pandering to the spoilt child. Our moral compas is like that of a spoilt child. I remember, as a kid, getting a cross line, and hearing two Italian mummas speaking in Italian to each other. I shouted "Speak English, wog!" My mum asked me why I was shouting. When I told her, she told me: "Don't be so small. If you had to move to Italy to save us from poverty, even if you loived Italy, would you speak Italian to your old Aussie mates, or English? Would you ever miss your old home?" I felt shame, and knew what was right. She was prepared to be unpopular with me if I dissagreed. Because she was the boss. Because she cared. Because there were more important things that sucking up to my lowest, base opinions. My easy hate. To get that vote, today, politicians would suck up to that child. It breaks my heart. Mahatma Gandhi said: "The most effective form of protest is to lead by example." I try to do this, succeed sometimes, fail others. But, big picture, have no answers. Thanks for your blog. Its energy, positive nature, and conviction. I should be such a force for good in this world. Peter Reith must be doing it hard - well at least for an ex-Howard Minister who is no longer in the limelight.
He has the gall to appear on the SBS program "Go Back to Where You Came From" and feign surprise at the horrendous situations in war torn countries - meanwhile ex-Rose Tattoo rock and roller Angry Anderson, is angry about desperate people who are in fear of their lives and want a safe place for their families daring to come here. He is in training to be a future Peter Reith and run for the Liberals and send the bastards all back. When Catherine Deveney asks Reith how he could have done what he did in the Tampa affair he shrugs and basically says "Shit happens" rather than taking responsibility for his actions. Meanwhile, walking home from the letterbox today i came across three people at the local cafe discussing the cruel new Labor policy and the disgusting race to the bottom of the major political parties. Note with my vote Kevin/Tony they agreed. As soon as we admit that everybody who came to this country after 1788 was an illegal immigrant and that we stole the land that was inhabited by an ancient culture AND that many post second world war migrants have made a huge contribution to Australia's culture, economy and status in the world we can begin to deal with the issues of now. Immigrants want to contribute and work hard to establish their families in a new land. Welcome them. Fix the problems of our indigenous brothers and sisters and don't pretend it will be easy or quick. Finally use your voice on whichever platform to let your MP and Senator know that they are not speaking or voting for you and you will not vote for them until you see change. As the pollies are fond of saying we will have the only election that really matters soon where we get, in our increasingly American style presidential elections, not a choice between two different parties with carefully considered electoral platforms, but two presidential styled figures who are playing fast and loose with the truth and unconcerned with the human costs.
For the past three years we have watched Abbott smiling and glad handing around the country predicting gloom and doom from the very sensible legislation put through a minority government. Now we have the return of the super-sized ego Kevin 07 who after three years of working covertly for the fall of a Labor PM, leaking to his mates in the press, and constantly undermining an elected government without having the courage to own his actions now playing the worst sort of politics and using the most vulnerable people as his pawns to play a game of dirty chess. Yes it is back to the future. "I am just going to play with his head" he said about John Howard and he did. Now he's playing with Tony's head but the stake he is using is our conscience and mine is not up for sale. So how to vote come the election? Nothing will convince me to vote Liberal and a vote for the Greens is a vote for Labor in my electorate so what to do? The choice is between two parties led by two nasty obvious liars who will do anything and say anything to get into the Lodge. For a much more balanced and intelligent piece on the role of the media in bringing down a PM read this piece in the Conversation by Dennis Muller who has been an Age person and used to work with Irving Saulwick on the Saulwick polls. Isn't it amazing how the media that were baying for the downfall of Julia Gillard and wanting to replace her with St Kevin suddenly have pieces about her great legacy and how dysfunctional he was and possibly still is.
Meanwhile for something much more uplifting and sane Google for President Obama's climate change speech at Georgetown University. Direct, factual and impassioned. "we don't have time for the flat earthers". So much has happened in such a short time politically speaking with a back to Kevin07 while we are assured that he has learnt his lessons and will be a more collegiate leader this time around. Time will tell. If all that comes out of this mess is that some Labor seats are saved from the landslide many were expecting then will it have been worth it? Not for me.
I read an ex Age scribe in the Conversation today continuing to heap vitriol on Ms Gillard - where has Mr Carney been hiding and who does he think he is fooling? As I have written o n numerous occasions Julia Gillard was one of the best PMs seen in this country post WWII and I thank her for all she achieved and managed under very difficult circumstances. Even if she had control of both Houses the achievements would have been outstanding and memorable. Now it is up to each and every on of us to make sure the landmark achievements of her time at the head of government are not filtered off and discarded. Getup have a campaign going on the issue of carbon pricing and letting the MP's and Senators know where we stand. Unlike what we read in our media, the fact is that the majority of Australians want carbon to be priced and want our government to have a policy that addresses climate change. It is up to us to make sure that our reps know this and know that it will inform the way we vote and act. Rudd dropped carbon trading last time around and in two speeches extolling the contributions that Ms Gillard made didn't mention the passage of either the carbon pricing or the minerals and resources rental tax. This made me uneasy. Come on Kevin - if you want to stay there get it right and soon. Something I thought was impossible has just happened. Kevin Rudd, the evil schemer, has just toppled Julia Gillard for leadership of the Federal ALP. I can understand why MPs nervous about the coming election swapped sides but do they imagine for a moment that the leopard has changed his spots or that being part of a historically important Julia Gillard led government was worth tossing in at the prospect of losing power?
Apparently so. I am not going to sit back and judge from this distance. I am tremendously proud of Ms Gillard and and what she has achieved in difficult circumstances with the Murdoch press printing and disseminating hateful lies about her on a day and night basis. Even so I am now waiting to see what happens next. A lot of the present Cabinet have gone on the public record about Rudd and his falseness and the impossibility of working with him. Presumably Swan will step down as deputy but rather than worry about the detail of a dying party we now have the prospect of a term at least of the mad monk gloating from Canberra with his insistence on failed ideas and looking after the big end of town while letting the rest of us sink or swim. Today will go down as a sad sad day. Mark it down 26th of June 2013, a day where Darwinian politics triumphed and decency was cast aside. |