It's Election time (again!)

Photo source

It's on!

2nd July 2016 Australia will vote for a new government. In a relatively peaceful way we will be all asked to choose which political party we want to lead the country for the next three years. 

Part of me can't believe I started this blog nearly 3 years ago because I wanted to have a place to keep various information on politics. Strangely enough, the issues I had back there don't seem to have resolved themselves much since 2013 and you do kinda wonder what all the fuss was about.

Australia has changed since 2013. The politics has, in most parts, moved away from the name calling and the outright hate language that we see in some other countries. But then again, the election was only officially called today. 

I've changed! I live in a margin Liberal seat now. Though still a mum of two children. With the last one heading to school next year, education and stuff like that seems to be more on my radar. But, as I spend more time at work now days, I also have one eye to what is happening in my industry. Thankfully I am still married to The Man, Peppa and George are still kicking on growing and I still live in a big Australian city.

I haven't read much (how do other people get the time to read this stuff to make an informed choice?!) but I have put links below of a few places I have read. 

I am still unsure what the policies I will be focusing on in this election. Since I started this blog, I have come to realise my views are maybe more left than some people. Please don't take that as an insult.

I know that the key policies for me will be around:

* The Environment - be that climate change/carbon tax/ renewable energy

* Cities - planning, development, housing affordability and infrastructure (slightly swayed by my work but also nearly 90% of Australians live in an urban area now. It needs some national focus!).

* Family - education /healthcare

* Refugees

Links to things I have read:

ABC News

The Guardian

Property Council of Australia

Fifth Estate

School of Life (Ok, a bit out there but its a fun animation that helps you think big picture)

The Project (on affordable housing)

What policies are others focusing on? What do you think is important for this 2016 election? What are you reading to get informed?

Hopefully, over the next 8 weeks, I can feel what PM Turnball said at the start of this election "It's the most exciting time to be an Australian!" 

(and yes, new layout.)

Writing again

The more and more I hear about the asylum seekers, this week about people smugglers getting paid by two connective Government to stop coming, I just have the First Dog on the Moon's amazed face!

So I decided I had to write again.

I must state, my local member has responded to my previous letters with a phone call and/or a phone message and asked to meet. I am a busy working mum and have no idea how I have time to meet, though I probably should. However, at the moment, I think I will have to rely on the form of communication I have available, which is email.

To the XXXX

I know that we have tried to contact each other in the past, beyond email and letter correspondence. However, with the current government’s position on asylum seekers, I do not think I could speak to you in a reasonable fashion. It is awful, inhumane and torturous what is being done to those seeking refuge here, all “lawfully” by the Australian government. It’s not lawful.

I don’t care which government started off shore processing. And I don’t care which government started paying people smugglers to turn boats back to Indonesia. But a good, right and just government would stand up and say, enough is enough. A good government would put an end to the secrecy, the hiding and the ugly acts of violence and torture that is detaining any human, especially children, in desolated and disgusting conditions as those on Nauru island. A good government would seek to stop the issue without torture, or illegal bribes but take a leadership position with our neighbouring countries to look at a regional solution to the asylum seekers. 

There are awful accounts coming out of the offshore detentions centres that even if 1% of it is true, it is still awful. As an Australian, I cannot stand by and let my government feel this is a right response to asylum seekers. It is not! I do not want my country’s  government torturing people in my name. I do not want my country’s government treating asylum seekers as less than human. I especially do not want my country’s government hurting children the same age or younger than my own children for the sake of national security.

This is not right. And there must be a better way.

Regards

Just how I feel

Hello blog world! It has been a while.

I will blame busyness again  but I will also blame the fact that it appears that the current government seems to be trying to destroy each of the three (only three) policy issues I have like I am some rorting double dipping mother. (which I am).

I am not that eloquent so I will let this cartoon from First Dog on the moon sum up my current feelings....



Amazed face! (needs an emoticon)

STOP

 March 2015 - children telling us to stop

Yesterday, this beautifully written piece by Australian author Tim Winton on Palm Sunday eloquently expressed all I feel on the issue of asylum seekers in Australia. My favourite section (and there were so many to choose from) was:

To those in power who say they're exiling and caging children for their own good, I say we've heard that nonsense before. So, don't do it in my name.

To those who say they're prolonging misery to save life, I say I've heard that nonsense before. You don't speak for me; I don't recognise your perverse accountancy. 

To those in power who say the means will justify the end, I say I've heard that nonsense before. It's the tyrant's lie. Don't you dare utter it in my name. [my emphasis]

To those who say this matter is resolved, I say no. For pity's sake, no. For the love of God, no. A settlement built on suffering will never be settled. An economy built on cruelty is a swindle. A sense of comfort built upon the crushed spirits of children is but a delusion that feeds ghosts and unleashes fresh terrors.

If current refugee policy is common sense, then I refuse to accept it. I dissent. And many of my countrymen and women dissent alongside me. I don't pretend to have a geopolitical answer to the worldwide problem of asylum seekers. Fifty million people are currently displaced by war and famine and persecution. I don't envy those who make the decisions in these matters, those who've sought and gained the power to make decisions in this matter. I'm no expert, no politician. But I know when something's wrong. And what my country is doing is wrong. [my emphasis]

And just like above, I really don't have any idea what the best political solution is but I really want this inhumane, unjust, foul, brutal and dishonest treatment of vulnerable people to stop NOW!

NSW election funny

Tomorrow is election day. Not sure about you but I have really struggled to have time for this election. With work to do, sick kids, Easter to plan and life in general, an election, particularly an election where the government hasn't really annoyed me much, or more that the opposition seems rather invisible, feels like a nuisance.

But participating in the democratic right to vote is still something we all should but some thought into!

(said with a very mummy voice!)

One of the biggest issues I can glean in my brief moments reading news, is that sale of electricity infrastructure.  The current Liberal government is planning to LEASE them with the promise of the money going into more infrastructure, like what they have been doing already. The opposition are opposed to it. Energy infrastructure isn't one of my biggest priorities but public transport is. So, with that in mind, I thought this image was particularly funny.

24 hours to decide who to vote for! Thank God for the internet (and hopefully kids who will sleep so I can read up)

Election happening in NSW soon!!

A lot of this blog has been about Federal politics.  Issues of immigration, environment and parental leave are federal issues.

State and Federal politics are two very different beasts.  Each state have their unique cultural, environmental, demographic and financial situations.  There are some states, like QLD, that have favoured one side of government more than the other.  State politics use to be considered less volatile to change, however the recent QLD election shows that anything can happen. I was amazingly fascinated with the results in QLD because they were so close and the result was surprising. I strangely started getting a little bit excited about the NSW election.

I have been thinking about this post for over a month, but struggled to have time to think and read.

It's important to realise that State Politics has very different issues they can control and to be wise about which ones you will vote about. State government control a lot of things that we touch, see and have to deal with each day.  Transport. Healthcare. Schools. The main ones that I am interested in are:

• Infrastructure- namely transport and the increase of public transport;
• Education - namely provision of public education in my area (not many co-ed comprehensive public high schools around here);
• Healthcare - namely funding for hospitals and area healthcare services; and
• Environment - mainly mining and mining licences.

I live in an electorate that has been historically Labour, by a slim margin. In the last election, it had a swing of over 20% against Labour to give the Liberal Party victory for the first time in over 20 years.  I don't think it was the candidate. I think it was more the perception of the party at the time.

In this election period, I have not see hardly ANY poster boards for anyone else except my sitting Liberal MP. Are there any other options? I have seen a few posters for these guys. Not sure if I am all for one-issue parties. I have received one hand out in the post for Labour and just received a letter, addressed to me, with my current MPs "plan".

To try to find out what options I have, since neighborhood light posts are not helping, I have gone to this electoral NSW website, which tells me what my other options are. Appears I have 5 other options (which is nice).

Even though my seat has been a swinging seat, I suspect that it will stay Liberal as the local member is very popular. I also think, that on the issues above, all bar one favour the current government than the the one who is challenging.

But I haven't read enough.

What you are thinking about in regards to this State election? Thoughts on one-issue parties? Or other minor parties?

Keep writing!!

(Instagram March 2014)

Not just leaving it to one MP this time, I also decided to write to the two closest Opposition MPs, form the Labour Party, in regards to the Australian Human Rights Commission's investigation into children in detention. I wanted them to realise that this was an important issue for my electorate so maybe theirs as well. These other electorates are only 1 - 2 suburbs away from mine.

See below....

To the Honourable XXXX and the XXXX,

I am writing to you as the closest Labour MPs to my suburb in XXX. I write to ask that the Labour Party please response to the Government’s appalling response to the Australian Human Rights Commission into children in detention centres.

Their views do not represent my views nor, I am sure, many in my electorate or in yours.  This issue is not an attack on any particular government but about how sequential Australian governments are institutionally torturing children who have not had the chance to gain justice in their situation. As an Australian citizen,  I feel the guilt and the weight of the system that I have indirectly supported by voting in governments like yours and the current one. The blood of these children’s lives are in our hands.

I believe that the treatment of refugees, especially children, has to change.  These children are the same like mine and yours.  The only difference is that they were born in a different country.  They have human rights, and the right to justice and a real childhood. It can change! And last week, the Coalition government could of responded with more compassion, more empathy, more humility and more openness.

But it appears Prime Minister Tony Abbott, decided to respond with a misinformed, heartless and callous response to the Commission’s findings. His views do not represent mine, nor, I believe, many other Australians on these children in detention.

I have written to my local MP about this.  I am writing to you because I, as well as many other Australians, are wanting to hear an alternative, compassionate voice to this Government’s opinion.

I look forward to your response.  

Regards