Category: politics (Page 39 of 42)

Politics: Federal Election – Meet the Socialist Equality Party!

August 2, 2010 / Catherine / 4 Comments

One of the more enjoyable parts of election day for me is filling in my Upper House ballot paper. For those unfamiliar with the way Australia’s electoral system works, in the Lower House you vote for the one person who will be representing your area – which is usually several suburbs wide – and this is done simply by preferential voting; in the Upper House, you are voting for the five people who will represent the entire state you live in, which is much more complicated and is done by proportional representation (which I am not going to explain this time, unless someone really wants to know). The Upper House is therefore the place you are most likely to find representatives of smaller parties such as the Greens, the Democrats, or, heaven help us, Family First or One Nation, which means you get to decide exactly which nasty, mean-spirited little party deserves to be ranked dead last, and which tiny little party that you know perfectly well doesn’t have a hope in hell but you love anyway gets to go first..

The Upper House, or Senate, ballot paper tends to have a very large number of candidates – I think we have 60 in Victoria this year, and we sometimes have a hundred or more – and a fair number of political parties, too, most of which we have never heard of in our lives (which is where this series of posts comes in, but more of this later). Because most people sadly do not rejoice in numbering their entire ballot paper from 1-60, you can choose just to vote your party’s ticket, by selecting your preferred party’s box above the line. Your preferences then go wherever your party of choice decides to direct them, which is how Victoria got a Family First Senator in 2004, thank you so much The Australian Labor Party.

Anyway, since I do not, in fact, vote below the line solely to annoy the people counting the votes, I feel it behoves me to actually find out exactly what each party stands for, so that I can exercise my democratic rights in a well-educated, if slightly over-obsessive, fashion. To this end, I will be visiting the websites of as many different parties as have them over the next few weeks, reading their policies and their Senate Group Voting Tickets (often a very good way to find out what a party really stands for), and reporting back here. But, since one has to start somewhere, I am going to analyse the parties in donkey vote order, going from left to right on the Victorian Senate Form. Which means today we start with…

The Socialist Equality Party

Politics: Election Time!

July 17, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

The election was called today – the date will be August 21.

This means that the voting rolls close at 8pm on Monday.

I’ve checked that I’m enrolled to vote, and I am – are you?

Remember, if your name isn’t coming up as enrolled on this site, you need to update your details by Monday if you want to vote in this election (or even if you just want to avoid a $100 fine for not voting). You can update your details online, though if you have never voted before, you may need to go to a post office and show ID. On Monday.

Even if we can’t stand any of the candidates, this is our only way to influence the outcome – and the beauty of our electoral system is that, while it doesn’t always achieve the government everyone wants most, it’s pretty good at allowing us to avoid the government we want least (actually, with John Howard and George Bush out of the running, this becomes slightly simpler). Cold comfort, but still comfort of a sort…

… I have a feeling this journal is going to get quite political over the next few weeks…

Politics: A little reminder…

July 9, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

…that if you are Australian and have moved house or changed your name or other details recently, do make sure your electoral enrolment is up to date, OK?

Those silly laws about needing to be enrolled within 24 hours of an election being called are still on the books, and we really don’t know when Jules will call it, but the indications are that she will do so quite soon.

I won’t claim that I don’t care who you vote for, because that isn’t true, but I care much more that you are *able* to vote and that you *do* vote. If you aren’t sure about your enrolment, go here to check. If you know you aren’t up to date, you can download a form here, or get one from your local post office (which is also where you lodge them – very convenient!).

Our Electoral College – and indeed, our entire electoral system – is a national treasure. We should make the most of it.

Politics: First Female Prime Minister!

June 25, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Just a brief post to note that Australia now has its first ever female Prime Minister.

Congratulations and good luck, Ms Gillard – I suspect you will need them.

(rumour has it that Gillard is also Australia’s first ever red-headed Prime Minister, though this is slightly less likely to be politicised as an issue…)

Politics: Asylum Seekers – this is not what I had hoped for from the ALP

April 15, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

So, apparently our spineless excuse for a government has decided that we shouldn’t process applications for residency from Afghani and Sri Lankan refugees. Because clearly when we all voted against John Howard and he lost both the election and his seat in Parliemtn, what we really meant was that we wanted more of the same.

I am absolutely livid. Admittedly, I’ve been cranky all day, but this really infuriates me beyond belief.

Anyway, I’ve just channelled an entire day’s worth of bad temper into an email to Chris Evans, via Getup. If you’re an Australian resident and feel at all strongly about refugees, I urge you to do the same.

My (probably incoherent, since I was and still am furious) email is below. It doesn’t cover any of the suggested talking points. Sod the talking points. Our entire immigration policy is filled with racism, xenophobia and a complete lack of compassion and it’s an utter shame, which I, for one, have had enough of. Anyway, if you find anything in it useful, please feel free.

Politics: Replies from MPs

October 13, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

In my inbox this morning, a brief email from one of the MPs I wrote to, thanking me for me email, and saying it meant a lot. I sent emails to 23 MPs, all of them brief (three sentences), and only a few of them individualised except by name, just saying thank you for their support of the bill. I didn’t expect a response from any of them, they were just quick emails to hopefully counteract some of the nasty ones that I hear were sent to the MPs voting in favour of decriminalisation.

I’ve checked, and Ms Coote got one of my very generic ones, so I’m doubly touched at her response.

(also, I think this is the first time I’ve ever got mail of any kind from someone in the Liberal Party (since the Liberals don’t even bother letterboxing in my electorate)! Soon, I shall collect the whole set!)

It’s really good to know that even a short, generic thank you email is something that will be read and will apparently make someone’s day a little better. I’m sort of feeling guilty that I didn’t write more individualised emails to everyone – but reading all that Hansard takes a long time, so I really only wrote more specific thanks to people whose speeches stood out for me.

Guilt aside though, it means that it *is* worth taking the time to write to politicians, even if I only have time to be brief. Which means I am more likely to do so.

(Do they know what they have started? Bwah ha ha ha!!)

It’s a time-consuming business, though. I want to do more of this, but I’m clearly going to have to choose my issues carefully. There must be a faster way to learn when legislation that I might be interested in is being discussed than going through Hansard page by page…

Politics: Decriminalisation! And why I think this is so important

October 11, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I’m sorry to be so one-track minded at present, but it’s rare that something so interesting is happening in our local politics.

Oh and for those who don’t know, not only did the bill pass, but I’ve just had an email saying it passed without amendments, which is definitely a good thing. I’ll have another go-round with Hansard shortly and find out if I need to send any more appreciative emails. One should always encourage politicians who have done good things!

Given how I’ve been going on and on and on about this, it seems important to talk about why I feel so strongly about decriminalising abortion. Continue reading

Politics: Why we need more women in Parliament

October 11, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I promise this is absolutely my last post about abortion decriminalisation. Promise.

But I just did the head count of who voted for what. I shouldn’t do this, because it always annoys me, but there you have it.

There are 16 women and 24 men in the Upper House. Of the women, 13 voted to decriminalise abortion. Of the men – 10 did.

I think the feminist rant about men who want to impose their morals on women in situations that they will never personally have to face is kind of implied. I’m not going there. You can take it as read that I am annoyed by this, however.

I will merely remark that this is precisely why we need more women in Parliament. There are certain issues in which women generally have a greater vested interest than men (paid maternity leave, childcare, child support etc), and the above figures suggest, at least to me, that if we want to do something about them, women will need to do it ourselves – because it seems that the majority of men will not.

As in the case of the RU 486 bill a couple of years back, women brought this bill to the table. Women were the first speakers on this bill. A majority of women from all sides of politics voted in favour of it.

We have some excellent women in politics in Australia (we have some excellent men, too, but they are not who I am currently talking about), and this is a good thing. But it seems to me that we need more – especially if so-called women’s issues are to be adequately addressed in legislation.

Politics: More on Legalisation and Letter-Writing

October 9, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

One really delightful result of sending my letter to senators is that Greens Senator, Colleen Hartland, sends us daily updates on the debate in the Senate, with links to speeches by other MPs that she thinks we will find of interest.

And, I’m delighted to say, she doesn’t care which party they come from.

So. Here are two speeches from Labor Senators in favour of this Bill. I haven’t had a chance to read them yet, but I’ll be going through Hansard in detail later.

Jenny Mikakos

Shaune Leane, I think. This one is confusing me, because his name does not come up at the start.

And, for those who are interested, here is the email, with a few more details about what is going on.

Politics: And this is why writing to politicians can actually be important…

October 8, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I just received an email from the Greens Upper House MP for my electorate. The email was sent to all the people who had sent letters of support for the decriminalisation of abortion bill. In it, she included a link to her speech

http://www.electedgreensvictoria.org.au/speech.php?speech=495&filter=CH

Either she read my letter and actually used some of what I said (a couple of sentences are almost word for word) or we agree so entirely that… well that I don’t know what. I don’t think I’ve ever read a political speech on any subject where I can agree with absolutely every nuance of what she says. My faith in the Greens is much revived…

Whichever it is, I am so very happy. All that remains now is for the bill to get passed in the Upper House… The temptation to go and sit in the visitors’ gallery this week is strong. I think I’m about to become a Hansard addict again…

I’m sure there was something else I wanted to post about, but I’m just so excited by the notion that perhaps my letter actually got used by someone that I can’t think straight about anything else. I am part of the political process!