December 4th, 2007 §
Okay, I know no-one comes here to read the news, and everyone has already heard this news, but I’m just happy about this one. On behalf of Australia, PM Rudd’s first official act has been to sign the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the Governor-General has approved it. It will go into force 90 days from the date it is received by the UN.
And I’m happy, happy, happy.
In fact, I probably won’t be able to resist including a little political commentary every now and then, so I’ve set up a new category called “Iced VoVos” to cover all things government related. I’m not crazy with optimism because government is what it is (ie; a completely illegitimate form of power based on older, completely illegitimate forms of power) but I do feel relieved that those long years of living “under a black hearted Howard government” (as Pomgirl puts it) are finally over.
And finally, Australia can stop being a global embarrassment. About one thing anyway. (I won’t mention who should be shame-faced now: They know who they are.)
Anyway, that’s my Yay for the day. Let the disillusionment begin.
Related Posts
November 25th, 2007 §
While you guys in the US are finishing turkey leftovers and are slowly returning to your blogs, Australians have gone to their polling booths and finally – finally! – said goodbye to Prime Minister John Howard.
To be honest, after so many news polls over the last year pointing to solid victory for Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, I was still sick to my stomach thinking there remained a small possibility no change would occur.
I thought the news of the victory would unleash my tongue and I would snarl and snipe at Howard, dancing gleefully on his political grave. Hilaire Belloc pretty much summed up where I stood.
Here, richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician’s corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintances sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.
[Quoted by Jeff Sparrow, the editor of Overland (the one journal I have been published in), as part of the final words from the commentariat at Crikey.]
Instead, I’m just relieved.
I can’t say I’m unhappy that the victory was so emphatic, even historic, and I can’t say I’m unhappy with the extra salt poured on the wound by the almost certain loss of the Howard’s own seat, Bennelong, which will make him only the 2nd sitting PM in Australia’s history to lose his seat in an election. I can’t say that I’m not drinking my champagne with a little bit of schadenfreude. But…
It’s over.
Perhaps it seems a little odd for a philosophical anarchist to have such an investment in the outcome of an election but as imperfect as the political system is, it is what we have. For years I did not vote on principle, in spite of Australia’s legal requirement for me to do so, but so much of the last 11 and a half years has been intolerable. Indeed, shameful.
So I welcome the change and hopefully we will see some of the social injustices perpetrated by the Howard government set to rights. I won’t say I expect the new government to live up to my standards – government is fundamentally incapable of that – but I am hopeful that the Ruddslide will give us some politics that are a little less regressive, a little more inclusive, a lot less destructive, and that exhibit at least a modicum of integrity, something which has been noticeably absent for too long.
That’s not a hard ask, considering.
And in Julia Gillard, we now have our very first female Deputy Prime Minister elect, the highest political office a woman has ever held in this country. With the exception of one doofus politician who called her “deliberately barren” and considered her unfit for her position because she was childless, her sex was a non-issue throughout the campaign. What more could a feminist want?
So…
Friends, tomorrow, the work begins…You can have a strong cup of tea if you want, even an Iced Vo-Vo on the way through. But the celebration stops there.
[Kevin Rudd's Acceptance Speech]
Er, actually… I’m still celebrating.
Related Posts
September 27th, 2007 §
I fumed for quite a while last night after hearing on a television news teaser that people were angry about children being used at the rally held in Melbourne yesterday protesting John Howard’s industrial relations law, WorkChoices.
Firstly, who the hell is angry? I’ve waited all day to see these supposedly outraged responses reported by reputable news outlets or discussed in the Australian blogosphere. I haven’t been surprised by the dead silence.
Why? Because no one of any consequence thinks the children were being used and the only person that’s angry is me.
I’m angry that news media are more interested in manufacturing false controversy than reportage. I’m angry that network producers think viewers are so empty-headed that all news has to be sexed-up in order for us to tune in. I’m angry that network producers are so empty-headed they don’t realise there are more important things – things already sexed-up and volatile – happening in the world and that, even if we did need to be teased into watching, they could just tell the truth.
Sure, “hundreds of children, many dressed in construction hats and anti-WorkChoices T-shirts, marched with their parents” but who in their right mind would have a problem with that? Parents include their children in their lives. They are supposed to. They are supposed to teach their children right from wrong, as they see it. They are supposed to teach them not to scratch or hit or bite, supposed to teach them patience and kindness and respect.
They are supposed to teach them to respect themselves, to know themselves, to be strong in themselves and to stand up for what they believe in. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together realises that seeing your parents do just that can only be a good example for a child.
Whether we agree with those parents or not.
Australia is an apathetic country politically. A good proportion of the population has no idea how the government works and doesn’t care much about it anyway. They’ve given up. Sam de Brito over at All Men Are Liars summed up the usual approach of an Australian to politics recently. His advice when confronted with a discussion about the Federal election? “Change the subject“.
I couldn’t disagree more. Parents should talk about politics and religion and whatever else is important in the societies they live in. Parents create those societies: They are part of them. And parents should talk about all of those things with their kids. Their kids live in those societies as well: They inherit those societies. Parents have a responsibility to do this.
Whether we agree with them or not.
Personally, I don’t have a lot of faith in this system we have called “democracy”. The idea that citizens have a voice which is responded to by the elected officials who supposedly serve them is obviously ludicrous. It just doesn’t work that way and Australians know it. That’s why politicians are always near the bottom of our list of the people we trust.
But that doesn’t mean Australian society doesn’t have democratic values and it doesn’t excuse “democratic” media when they abuse those values. That lie told on television last night is particularly egregious considering that people are dying in Burma right now for doing the same thing those children were able to do.
And I’m still fuming.
The rally might not have been a very sexy event – it wasn’t particularly large, nothing new was said, and there were no tight shots of half a dozen people in a scuffle to be had so it couldn’t be described as a violent protest – but I remember as a child watching a man stand in front of a tank.
News is important even when it’s not sexy. And politics is important even when it’s futile. The only people using those children yesterday was that commercial broadcaster, which seems to think news can be manipulated as though it were a reality TV show. That’s not news: It’s disinfotainment.
And that’s not good enough.
Related Posts
