With the Australian federal elections less than a week away, I decided to plot on a handy table the positions of the leading two parties and their leaders that matter to me. This way I can make a more informed decision, and ultimately help others.
Monday 16th August 2010
Monday 09th August 2010
Wendy Francis of the Orwellianly-titled Family First political party went online last night and blasted Australia’s homosexual community, so I’m standing on my own online soapbox to respond, as well as sending it through her website feedback form.
Monday 02nd August 2010
It’s time to start worrying.
Labor has lost its substantial two-party preferred lead against the coalition in just two weeks, the latest Newspoll has found. [...] The poll, taken between Friday and Sunday, found Labor and the coalition are split 50-50.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not a Labor fan (at least not any more), but the prospect of this guy being our PM is absolutely terrifying. We don’t need another anti-intellectial theocracy.
From a tech perspective I’m guessing we’re screwed either way, unless enough people vote below the line and oust Stephen Conroy, or enough Labor ministers grow spines to stand up against the filter, or enough Greens are elected to put pressure on Labor to straighten up and fly right, or a decent combination of all three.
We all suspected as much, but now it’s official: the readers of (uh, Zoo Weekly) have dubbed Stephen Conroy the dumbest politician in Australia.
Sunday 25th July 2010
For a brief period of time this evening, Australia watched Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott debate over who would best serve the country as PM by dodging questions, not proposing constructive steps towards any environmental action and expelling much hot air about boat people in a way Pauline Hanson would be proud. Third party candidates like Bob Brown or Fiona Patten who would have made the debate interesting (or even just useful) were not invited.
I watched by proxy through Twitter. Don’t think I missed much.
Wednesday 21st July 2010
At least it wasn’t Australian Idol or a Big Brother celebrity special, I suppose.
sbsnews: Abbott and Gillard’s debate will be moved to avoid clashing with #MasterChef on Sunday http://bit.ly/9CCxcW
In other news, this is the first post to showcase my brand new graphic to be displayed with pride on each of my Aussie election posts. It’s amazing what 5 minutes in The Gimp and a complete disregard for good design can do :).
Tuesday 20th July 2010
We’ve come so far in some ways, but tragically not so in others. I guess I’m just a little disillusioned at all the squandered potential.
Monday 12th July 2010
Some civil liberty groups are championing the news that Senator Conroy’s plan to filter Australian internet has been put "on hold", but personally I’m still just as jaded and pessimistic as I was before. Conroy and his cronies haven’t said they’re scrapping it which is the only sensible thing to do, they’ve simply pushed it to a time after the federal elections to spare themselves some embarrassment.
While we’re also talking about this, David Ramli of ARNNET is reporting that it seems Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce has also put his support behind the mandatory filter which leads us to one very important question: can we all stop calling Barnaby Joyce a maverick, rouge, super elite senator please? Yes he’s taken issue with a few things the coalition have proposed in the past, but reading these descriptions at the start of every single story about him starting to get a little long in the tooth.
Tuesday 29th June 2010
Decided to archive this news graphic here for posterity, might be funny to look back on in a few years. Was lifted from the ABC News website on the 25th, I’m assuming as a product of a publicly funded company I have permission to use it here, or barring that there’s some fair use clause in there somewhere.
Sheesh, I feel as though I need to drop economics as my minor and take legal studies instead. Copyright is perhaps one of the few things more broken than DRM and my old sandals.
Monday 28th June 2010
I predicted recently that having Julia Gillard as our new PM wasn’t going to affect the party’s plan for a mandatory internet filter, but that I wanted to be proven wrong.
zdnetaustralia: Conroy confims that the filter is still going ahead, despite a change of leader. http://bit.ly/dfEdou
First time I’m right about something, and it’s not something I wanted. Sh*t.
