Straws. Clutching.

JOHN Howard has warned Australians they risk electing a Labor-Greens alliance that would impose a new national direction and conduct radical experiments with their values and institutions.

[....]

Mr Howard warned that a Labor victory would mean a Labor-Greens Senate majority and an era of social re-engineering, with policy changes on drugs, education, social issues and political correctness in conflict with his social conservatism.

GG

Ohhhhh. Not *gasp* policy changes! On drugs! Social issues! Political correctness (I'm not even sure what that is - maybe LGBT? Since when is that PC? I would have thought common sense.)

Unbelievable.

"There will be a return of political correctness. There will be a softening in relation to things like drugs. You will get a less socially conservative country at the very least.

A less socially conservative country would be good. The conservatism in this country gives me the shits. Not to mention that I believe it is code for racist, sexist, homophobic policies and laws which allow for people to indulge themselves in those kinds of behaviours and beliefs because they know it is acceptable at the highest level of government.

Asked about the future under the Coalition, Mr Howard said Peter Costello "will be elected unopposed" as his successor.

Yeah, "elected unopposed" by the Liberal Party. NOT the Australian people. Sure, you can say people who vote for Howard to continue as PM are giving the green light to Costello. But really, given Howard's previous behaviour, do people really believe that he would step down for Costello? I have no doubt that if he was returned, something dramatic (real or imagined or engineered) would occur and Howard would declare that it is in the best interests of the country for him to remain as leader.

By his own admission, Howard will be using this week to push forward a negative view of the ALP. Be prepared for the next three days to be nothing but bitching and moaning and the government on its knees begging the electorate to ignore WorkChoices, AWB, children overboard, an illegal war, the systematic eroding of the rights of pretty much everyone except business, VSU, and the regular bending over and taking every which way from the US.

Yeah John Howard. You hold the interests of the entire country at heart. Excuse me while I go and ROTFLMAO at this claim.

Dear Readers!

Having been absolutely blown away by the sheer numbers of people madly clicking the contribute link and sending their thoughts our way, we've decided to do something different.

Take five minutes to think about the last election. Who did you vote for? Why did you vote for them? How about now? Who will you vote for? Why will you vote for them? Click on the contribute link and email us your thoughts. You can remain anonymous if you like and your email address won't be posted anywhere, scouts' honour!

Last election I voted Labor and preferenced the Greens, putting me among a group of about 12 people who were impressed by Latham's lack of bullshit and relative honesty. I couldn't care less that he got into fights and drank lots (wholly un-Australian activities if I ever heard of any). I liked his policies and it wasn't as if I was going to be inviting him over for dinner.

This time around I'll probably vote Green because job 1 is making sure no single party controls the senate. Also the Greens are the party least likely to restrict my freedoms, probably because they don't have any power but I'll cross that bridge if we ever get to a Greens government.

Your turn.

ps thanks to those that have posted comments, it's always good to get feedback.

Australian Christian Lobby

From today's Crikey email:



Greens turn their back on a moralising Christ. Greens win

David MacCormack writes:



Another week, another bout of common sense from the Greens. This is becoming disturbing. The influential Australian Christian Lobby sent a list of 25 questions to political parties demanding to know their stance on various issues, and today garnered some publicity for the responses.

The ACL is committed to seeing "Christian principles and ethics accepted and influencing the way we are governed". When Muslims talk like that, of course, there are dark mutterings about "Sharia Law". All the major, and a few minor, parties replied to the ACL survey. But the Greens told them to get stuffed.

On environmental issues, the ACL and the Greens are actually not that far apart. "What policies and /or targets will you put in place to reduce Australia's greenhouse pollution and make the switch to clean energy?" ACL asked, focussing not merely on the environmental impact of climate change, but the effect on the world's poor.

But a quick check of the rest of the survey shows why the Greens were right to have nothing to do with it. What is the big issue of the 2007 election campaign? The economy? Industrial relations? Tax reform? Education? The worm?

Wrong. For the ACL, it's s-x. Eleven of the ACL's 25 questions are about s-x or reproduction, including the usual religious fixations with controlling women's bodies, homos-xuality and p-rnography. No wonder ACL likes the Family First Party, which in recent days has taken its obsession with p-rn to new, erm, lengths.

The survey actively pushes the concept that only "unreasonable discrimination" against gays should be addressed (although, credit where it's due, even this places the ACL in a more reasonable position than the Howard Government). The survey also proposes that single women should be discriminated against in IVF, adoption and surrogacy.

Actual real world issues are not totally absent, but ACL offers its own devout take on them. Industrial relations is confined to the issue of whether WorkChoices affects Sunday as a "day of rest". The survey asks candidates whether they support a specific refugee program for Christians, and how to stop foreign aid being used for abortions. As for declining Parliamentary oversight of government – well, the ACL is focussed on the only oversight that matters: they want the Lord's Prayer retained before each day's Parliamentary sittings.

The Greens could have taken the approach of the rugged individualists at the Liberty and Democracy Party, who used the survey to fire back a pithy libertarian response stating that religious faith was irrelevant. Instead, correctly, they refused.

The ACL survey isn't some neutral list of political positions to help those with monotheistic delusions to make up their minds how to vote.

Instead, it pushes a nasty agenda focussed on s-x and discrimination.

The Greens are the only party to see it for what it is - or to have the moral courage to act accordingly.

Greens Queensland Campaign Launch

Gam and I made a bit of a mad scramble to get to the Greens' Queensland campaign launch today. Gam had clinic, so he caught the train to Ipswich at 7:30am and returned early at around 12pm so we could ride to Ahimsa House at West End for the launch. We'd originally planned on catching the City Cat there, but upon finding we'd have to wait half an hour, Gam said it would be faster to ride there over the William Jolly bridge. And so it would have been if the route from the Coronation St riverside bike path over the bridge and to Ahimsa House hadn't been a veritable obstacle course filled with death traps and what seemed like a total lack of pedestrian crossings and traffic lights. It must have been the least pedestrian and cyclist-friendly part of Brisbane we've ever been to.

Consequently, we were late.



We arrived about 5 minutes before Bob Brown finished his speech and crept around trying to find good spots to take photos from without trampling on or blocking the views of the roughly 50 or so people who attended. The light inside was pretty terrible and after the speech Bob Brown headed outside for a chat to the media.



On his way out he was accosted by several people including Gam, who asked him to pose for a photo with me- Gam said we were nobodies and would he mind having his photo taken with me, and of course Bob Brown said that wasn't at all true and happily posed for a photo. Classic photo position with his hand behind my back, which I realised was all sweaty and gross because we'd ridden there and I had been wearing a backpack. Sorry about that, Bob! He had the good grace not to look disgusted :)



I later told Gam he should have introduced himself as 'the inventor of lolhowards'. Which isn't strictly true given that one blogger did one back in May and Gam's first one was in July, but it still would have sounded good!

Gam snapped about a million pictures while Bob Brown did his speech outside- the idea is that you've got a better chance of getting a good one if you snap loads, and I suppose it's true to some extent. He also tried hard to get a nice photo of the Greens' Queensland senate candidate Larissa Waters- we think she looks a tad manic and scary in her campaign photos and we figured we could do better:





Gam also snapped a nice picture or two of the media:





We also caught up with the Greens' candidate for the federal seat of Brisbane, Elizabeth Guthrie, who we first met by chance at Southbank a couple of weeks ago. In the same vein as the Facebook group 'I wish I lived in Bennelong so I could vote for Maxine' I almost wish we lived in the seat of Brisbane so I could vote for Elizabeth. She seems lovely. Guess I'll have to settle for Dr Evan Jones, our local Greens candidate (Ryan).



All in all an interesting experience. Not particularly exciting (unless you count the near death experiences trying to cross the roads where there were no pedestrian crossings for miles... and we were near a primary school and a park!). There was a nice moment when a bunch of kids doing what looked like a gym class in the school hall across the road started cheering and waving at Bob Brown. Gam wondered if they even knew who he was, but then some of them started yelling 'go the Greens!', so I suppose they did. It was terribly cute and would have been a great photo opportunity if there hadn't been the stupid business of having to have the kids' parents sign release forms before any photographs could be used, so no photos were taken. You can bet your arse John Howard or Kevin Rudd would have sprinted across the road to take advantage of an opportunity like that, traffic not withstanding.

A new approach for The Greens

Jeremy has figured out a new campaign approach for The Greens. It's pretty damn good and would certainly make people think about what the party really stands for rather than all the crap that other political parties (and "interested observers" who don't even vote) like to say they represent.

Check it out.

Watch Out For Those Vikings

Niall writes:

Greens candidate Boccabella got 33% of primary in the Brisbane by-election last night [sat]; although she probably captured a fair few little L liberals who didn't have any other options and probably some QLP semi-protest voters, this close to a federal election those sort of numbers suggests to me a solid greens platform in the wealthy centre of Brisbane, which I expect will transform into a wider acceptance of the Greens as a legitimate choice in the inner Brisbane seats both by voters but importantly by other parties. This result (which it must be pointed out was somewhat higher than some pollsters suggest could be possible) provides greater leverage for preference deals.

From these numbers, I was impressed at the Viking vote is larger than the ONP vote, even if this is an inner city seat - although admittedly due mostly, I suspect, to old Erik have place number one on the list, as despite my searching around I still can't find out who he is or what he stands for, aside from the fact he once worked as a historiographer (and because he was out polled by the informal). Anyhow, go Saxons!

Election 2007: Bennelong Time, Prime Minister

Our friend Niall sent us the link to this YouTube video, saying it's so good it even beats the Chaser's Stairway to Kevin, and he was right. Awesome video. If I get to have my 'Howard Loses' party I'll be playing the Led Zepplin song in honour of the occasion.

Larissa Waters Responds

Dear Gameli,

As I said to a recent forum hosted by the Ethnic Communities Council of Qld,
I think recent comments by Kevin Andrews, Pauline Hanson and Gary Hardgraves
are racist and ignore the real facts, which show very low levels of crime in
the Sudanese community.

I have publicly apologised to Sudanese Australians on behalf of Kevin
Andrews. The 6,000 Sudanese Australians in Queensland are all welcome here,
along with their families. I hope they can forgive us for individuals like
Pauline Hanson and Kevin Andrews, who do not represent the bulk of warm,
generous Australians.

On more formal policy matters, The Greens do not support the use of
'integration' concerns as a reason to adjust immigration quotas. It is not a
relevant criteria when assessing humanitarian refugees. Increased support
services for newly arrived refugees is the obvious answer to any settlement
problems not a knee jerk, politically suspect decision to ban African
refugees.

A full copy of the speech I gave at the ECCQ event is attached for your
information.

Kind regards, and thanks for seeking my comment,
Larissa

Larissa Waters

B.Sc (Envt), LLB (Hons), Grad Dip (LP), Solicitor

Greens Lead Senate Candidate for Queensland

North Brisbane Branch Convenor

www.larissawaters.net


Don't forget to suggest a question for Ross Daniels!

Our Saturday bike ride- and how Bob Brown got away

On Saturday we went for a bike ride. Intending to go to New Farm, we first rode over the Eleanor Schonell bridge to the Mrs Flannery's at Woolloongabba to buy coffee beans. Because we haven't ridden anywhere in ages I've lost all my 'cycling muscles', so we stopped on the ES bridge to take some photos before heading to Mrs F's. Nice to see the view of the river down toward Indooroopilly and Sherwood for a change.



Gam took some pictures of the Dutton Park cemetery. We have fond memories of the place thanks to an 'adventure' where we caught the wrong train and hopped off there, unsure of our Brisbane geography, only to be caught in a storm and having to walk through the cemetery to the Ferry in the pouring rain, with thunder and lightning all around us- and me barefoot thanks to one of my sandals breaking!



By the time we'd got to Mrs Flannery's, Gam had pity on me and said we could always do New Farm next weekend, so we rode to Southbank for a New Zealand Natural ice cream. Normally we shy away from visiting Southbank on the weekend, because it's chock-full of smoking bogans and their spawn. Thanks to the refurbishment of the fake beach it was much quieter. Still a high proportion of smokers among the people there, but because there were far fewer people than usual it wasn't anywhere near as bad. Gam (as always) had Cookies and Cream ice cream, while I had an Orange Choc-chip ice cream. I couldn't remember if I liked the orange choc-chip or mint better- I think the orange and chocolate ice cream I was thinking fondly of was the Haagen Daasz in the City (which is usually an awful ice cream experience thanks again to all the goddamned smokers that pollute the place). The New Zealand Natural Orange Choc-Chip flavour isn't really orange-y or tangy at all. But it is a really attractive fluoro orange colour! Come to think of it, the photo below doesn't really do justice to the colour- it seems to look more of a peachy colour...



As we were about to leave Southbank we spied a small group of people with Greens flags attached to their bikes and wearing Greens t-shirts, so we asked them if we could take a couple of photos. It turned out that Bob Brown had been in New Farm that morning and they had been to see him speak (d'oh!!!). The guy in the photo is Wally Guthrie, membership secretary for the Mount Cootha branch of the Queensland Greens, while his wife Elizabeth Guthrie is the Greens candidate for the seat of Brisbane!

Elizabeth Guthrie, candidate for the federal seat of Brisbane, with husband Wally.

Wally has asked us to help hand out Greens how-to-vote cards on election day. I've always considered myself an open-minded voter, but I said to Gam the other day that with this federal election being the third I'll have voted in, and my fundamental disagreements with the principles (or lack of) espoused by the major parties, I can see myself unwittingly ending up a lifelong Greens voter. So perhaps we'll be taking Mikey's advice and joining up in the near future, as long as the Greens don't have clauses in their charter that prevent us from mouthing off whenever we feel like it. At the very least we'll likely be doing the HTV thing on election day. And signing up for email updates to better keep our eye on Bob Brown's whereabouts. Curse my weak legs and our Saturday morning sleep-in!

Wally Guthrie and some friends.

Evan Jones Responds

Evan Jones

This weekend we sent the following email to several candidates in our electorate, Ryan, as well as several other QLD politicians from all parties.

Dear Mr Jones

We'd like to get in touch with you to ask for your comment on Mr Kevin
Andrews' recent comments regarding African migrants to Australia. As a
candidate in the upcoming election and as an individual, how do you feel
about his comments?

Evan Jones, Greens candidate for Ryan responds thusly:

Dear Gameli,

I hope you are well.

In regards to your question, I am appalled and sickened by Mr Andrews racist comments regarding the conduct of the Sudanese community in Australia.

I work in Stones Corner where there are a relatively large number of Sudanese refugees. I have never noticed any antisocial behaviour and, unless you count the kids playing football, I have certainty never seen any gangs.

Further more, police reports in the media have vindicated the Sudanese community from any abnormal trends.

I am also perplexed at the introduction the non-humanitarian consideration of 'integration' to the refugee intake process.

There is a humanitarian disaster in Darfur, and the plight of the refugees coming from that region is extreme. This is reason to commit more strongly to assisting in what ways we can, not a reason to pull back from our human responsibility.

Australia is a wealthy country, well able to afford to be more compassionate. We also have a rich tradition of multi-culturalism. What ever political gains the government thinks it can get by selling xenophobia I trust that the majority of Australia will not buy into it.

Yours,
Evan Jones

Australian Greens
Ryan