Posts tagged ausvotes
Dear Julia
Letters to the Prime Minister
I am getting so much spam from The Libs, Julia — it’s gross.
This came today from Steve Irons — currently member for Swan (that’s my marge electorate).
Apparently he is a ‘single custodian father’ (as @MisterShuffles would say: What The Quack?!), which qualifies him to talk about paid parental leave.
Also, apparently I am the only person in my household of three who is qualified to get spam about paid parental leave.
I live with my boyfriend and my brother and while usually get two copies of everything* I was the only one blessed with this particular marvel.
Apparently I might be planning to have a family and might care about PPL…. but my definitely boyfriend isn’t ………
I heard Andrew Robb being interviewed by Lyndal Curtis this morning and was GOBSMACKED by their whole father-at-the-mother’s-wage thing.
Wow. Not only are they ADMITTING that women get paid less (let’s leave THAT issue for later!)… They are punishing dads AND families at the same time?!
And then ARobb JUSTIFIED IT (ignoring the pay gap, but continuing the sexism) by saying the whole point of the policy was to let MOTHERS BOND WITH THEIR KIDS even though they are begrudgingly letting the ladies back to work because we need more cogs in the machines so we need to keep them in the workforce….
Wow. I honestly didn’t think it’d be possible to get SO MUCH SEXISM INTO A SINGLE POLICY!!!
You cannot let this slide, Julia! This is atrocious!!
Now… I heard about Laurie Oakes’ cabinet leak scoop thingy… And I don’t really care whether or not you supported it or not or if you didn’t what your reasons were.
It’s been a few weeks now and I realise that we probably have different views on what colour the sky is, so, frankly, your opinions mean jack to me any more.
What I still have a tendril of hope / faith / whatever in is your consultative approach (and hey — PPL eventually got through so hurrah).
Maybe you’ll listen to me on just one thing, eh?
Anyway, so yeah, if you do, it’s this: fight back on the bullshit sexism crap from the bastard Tories, ok?
Call them out on absolute crap like this, and those bloody journos asking about Tim’s involvement in campaigning and all that crap.
Tell them to get stuffed. Diplomatically, of course. But do it.
Point out that we’re not in the fifties any more and that neither women NOR MEN in this country will put up with this rubbish any longer.
Thanks in advance,
Sunili
PS: I just glanced at the comparison table on the back of this letter… Is it true that the ALP policy doesn’t pay dads? Because, ok, that is effing lame. Fix that You might as well call it Paid Maternal Leave. There is no way women can have careers AND kids without society normalising the dual role that is needed by both parents (no matter what gender…… I will also leave THAT issue til later…) in order to even have a shot at making it work. So fix it. Don’t punish dads. Because that’s sexism too.
* Two copies of all addressed campaign spam: apparently the AEC think my brother and are married due to the common surname, cause we get joint mail — though, strangely it’s addressed to ‘Mr & Miss’… It’s clearly not for paper saving purposes cause why would the boyf ges his own… again: WTQ?)
By the way: the Leaders[‘] Debate tonight was lame. This campaign has been lame. You have been also rather unimpressive. I’m in a marginal electorate, you know.
Where’s the love, Julia?
Heehee @firstdogonmoon’s @DanceBandicoot may be the best thing about the election :)
I’m having a crappy day — I decided to post this instead of complaining about stuff and getting even more sooky.
Hope you’re going alright (see — I know I keep whinging, but I still like you and stuff).
Are you coming to Perth any time soon?
I hope we can catch up sometime.
Cheers Sunili
7 Deadly Things
It’s @AIMEmentoring’s National Hoodie Day today. They’re supporting indigenous kids to achieve things lots of non-indigenous Australians take for granted.
There are some bloody amazing non-profits out there doing bloody amazing things with reconciliation projects.
I love NGOs — they focus so much energy (and time and money) on so many good things.
But they can’t do it all on their own. I know we’d share views on the importance of government action on a fair few things.
In relation to indigenous social justice, the list of things you need to address that is in this article from The Drum may seem controversial … But you know what?
I don’t actually think they’re controversial at all:
- Reparations for the Stolen Generations
- Closing the Gap
- Stolen Wages
- NT intervention
- Constitutional Recognition
- UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People
- Moving Australia Day
They are gosh-darn basic. No argument.
What’ll be more controversial is if you don’t act (or get it wrong).
Let me know what you think.
Cheers
Sunili
Stop making the link
This is 100% spot-on Julia. You have just GOT to refute the ridiculous idea that immigration is causing the overcrowding in cities/schools/trains.
I’ve seen fairly prominent articles in The Australian about all those “anxious” voters in Lindsay and those other outer-metro marginals. The comments from these “anxious” voters are worrying.
There are people out there who seem to be freaking out about immigration when they have absolutely no reason to be upset.
In the Weekend Aus from 10 July (p11) there was a quote from a Hywel Blake saying “we don’t have the infrastructure or the jobs or the transport to support a big population here at the moment”. And yeah, I reckon Hywie’s right. There probably is really bad infrastructure out there — I would confidently say that’s the result of the poor planning mentioned in the groupthink article I’ve linked to. But this was in an article about immigration and asylum seekers and border protection. Not an article about infrastructure.
Then then there was this other quote, from another “anxious” Lindsay voter that was in The Oz yesterday — the Monday after your Regional Cities / roads and drains speech — and the quote that they printed was (… and, Julia, gosh, did I read this correctly? I would be glad to be corrected here …) that she didn’t want “more Islamic schools built” in her neighbourhood.
Well … That’s what I think she said. I don’t have it in front of me … And I didn’t read it again so that I could remember it better because I was so upset that I had to walk away from the paper to avoid scrunching it up (it was the café’s paper so it would’ve been bad to scrunch it up).
So if that’s not the right quote or the right context then please correct me.
But if it was the right quote… Well. Damn. And, well… There really isn’t a right context for that kinda thing, either — is there?
As I said the other week: I think you’re totally right that we can’t call people names for being “anxious”.
But, reallytrulyhonestly, Julia: you need to correct their misunderstandings — not bow to their ignorance.
You need to. You HAVE TO.
The best way to attack TAbbott and his “4. stop the boats” business is to prove it wrong. Not try to go lower to beat it.
You mentioned your optimism for this country last night on The 7.30 Report: you need to be optimistic about the welcoming, understanding, warm and caring nature of Australians. Not give the benefit of the doubt to the mean-hearted and selfish ones.
Give the benefit of the doubt to the ones who misunderstand — look to their capacity to understand and accept by getting out there and pointing put the facts and explaining the real situation.
Obviously there’s a right and a wrong way of clearing up the misunderstanding, but I know you’ve got the tact to not be snobby or condescending about it. And I think people have the humility and wisdom to understand.
I honestly can’t believe that the majority of Aussies would be “anxious” if they knew the facts. Sure, there are always going to be horrible people who will put “FOWF” bumperstickers on their utes. But the mums and dads in Lindsay and elsewhere surely can’t all be like that.
And once they understand that refugees aren’t the reason why the peak hour traffic jams are getting longer (that’s because of the shitty public transport) and that’s it’s not international students who’re causing unemployment (they’re the ones cleaning our offices and attending our petrol stations because no one else wants to…), that it is PERFECTLY LEGAL to seek asylum in this country even if you came on a boat (and that then you can go and own a fruit shop and be a tops citizen) and that more migrants come from England and New Zealand (than other you know… Brown places)…
Surely once they understand these things they won’t be “anxious”, right?
Right?
Oh, Julia, I’m not sure I can handle being corrected on this point…
Hey Julia — Kate from Triple J’s Hack interviewed me today about my letters to you. I’m on about 15mins in. The rest of the show is good to, though, so if you have time, you should totally listen to it.
The theme is ‘does this election really matter’? And it’s a bit sad to hear so many you people say they couldn’t care less — or that they’re just going to do a blank vote.
You’re able to keep this from being a contest between a ‘douchebag and a turd sandwich’, you know. It’s not too late to start listening…
Cheers
Sunili
[Hi to all my new readers! And for the ones who’ve been here from the start: love ya, team! Thank you for your support!!]
What do you mean by ‘sustainability’, Julia?
Cause I think we’re on different pages here. I heard you gave a talk this morning about building a “sustainable Australia”, and I thought that you were going to make a tops announcement.
Turned out you were unveiling something about drainage in country towns.
Now, I don’t have anything against country towns. I mean, really, I freaking LOVE going to the Bunbury Forum: I makes me feel like I’m at Fountain Gate and I keep hoping I might see Kath or Kim.
The thing is, right — I don’t think this “Building Better Regional Cities” business is really gonna Help Keep Australia Sustainable.
Sure, you help set up some satellite city out in “The Regions” somewhere, but isn’t what this policy will really do is making it ok to keep letting people have their massive darn McMansions with huge water-sucking lawns and massive pools, without thinking about more efficient ways of living. Isn’t it just gonna encourage urban sprawl in a different way by just urbanising the regions?
Plus, won’t all those people with their big comfy houses in “The Regions” still just drive their cars back to the real city for pretty much everything…? Basically, I just don’t see how any of this is about sustainability.
It’s not sustainability if you’re just making it easier for people to keep living they way they’re living without facing up to the fact their consumption-driven lifestyles are wasteful.
If you don’t believe in a ‘big Australia’, Julia, don’t go about unlocking more land so that people can live just as large as they always have been.
Encourage people to live simpler lives that leave a smaller footprint — tax breaks for apartments or something? Funding for better public transport in the cities we’ve already got?? Banning families of 4 having a three storey houses with seven plasmas and a pool???
Now, I actually think the region stuff you put out is pretty good. I just think you’ve got it wrong by saying this is about sustainability. It’s really not. It’s about supporting the continuing growth of Australia’s population.
Frankly, Julia, this is all about ‘Big Australia’.
There’s a lot more stuff that has to go into making that growth ‘sustainable’ than just building a few more housing developments in “The Regions”.
And some of that stuff is undoubtedly going to involve encouraging a serious attitude shift in this country.
The question is, are we, as a country, ready & willing to make that shift?
Cheers
Sunili
An election already?
Wow, Julia — for some reason I thought you were going to settle in for a while and run the government. And I (wrongly, I see now) assumed all the election date speculation was just the Press Gallery smoking more crack than usual to keep warm over the chilly Canberran winter.
I guess I can understand you wanting to have some sort of mandate from being ‘elected as PM’ but that just irks me because I know I can’t vote for you: I don’t live in Laylor.
Whatever.
The main reason why I was surprised is because there’s a similar vibe to the 2008 vote in WA — you know the un-losable election that the Libs won even through Colin Barney-Rubble had to scurry back from retirement because they were (still are!) such a mess.
And look at the guy now — he’s bloody Mr Popular!!
I was also reminded of the shitness of the ALP that led to the 2008 WA loss through an article Professor Malcolm Farnsworth wrote yesterday about the new Labor Connect thingo… especially this bit:
Will the online forum ever see the light of day in the byzantine innards of the party where decisions are really made? Is this slick technology, replete with pictures of “Julia” smiling down on doting hospital patients, designed to empower its users or merely occupy them? When a user comments on the policy statements posted on Labor Connect, who will ever read it, let alone act on it?
And will Labor Connect permit genuine, authentic debate? Will it tolerate full-throated disputation on asylum seekers, climate change policies or an internet filter?
The way the ALP approaches Twitter and Facebook is not encouraging. Communication is one-way. Broadcasting, preaching and lecturing dominate. Gillard’s 11 tweets since July 4 do not contain a single interaction with a real person.
Your Twitter is rather embarrassing. As the LOL-Cats catch phrase goes: you’re doing it wrong.
And I certainly haven’t seen any of that ‘consultative’ politics business you mentioned on Day 1. It just been preach, preach, preach; non-stop.
Well, Julia: yawn, yawn, yawn.
Frankly, you’re just as bad as the other guy (I won’t go on at length about you being worse than him on the asylum seeker thing, but, honestly: offshore processing? Were you high, Julia???).
Anyway, I hope you guys remember all the wise words that came out from the Ray Review about the Great WA Election Debacle of 2008 and don’t get caught short on 21 August.
Now that you’ve called the election, I will try harder to write every day. Even if you’re not responding.
Because this way, if I do make the effort, and you still don’t care, I won’t have to feel guilty for voting against the ALP come 21 August.
Cheers
Sunili
