All Things Australia-ish

[cobl04]

Originally Posted by mysterious_jen

That's pretty much it. Also some bad accents . I think the first one was still the best.

Yeah I think the first one was the only one I actually enjoyed. Quality stuff.

This one... mean I love a bit of tit, but the show should still be decent.

Hope you're well jen... glad you are posting again every few days me you and cin should try and get coffee in gtown one day. I've put on 3 or 4 kilos since you last saw me like a year ago

[mysterious_jen]

Glad to hear you are bulking up! Should do a coffee, I will pm you

[Earnie Shavers]

Bloody hell. Australian politics is end to end drowning in complete fucktards at the moment, no? What a fucking mess.

[Axver]

Originally Posted by Earnie Shavers

Bloody hell. Australian politics is end to end drowning in complete fucktards at the moment, no? What a fucking mess.

Whenever I am in New Zealand, it's bliss compared to being in the thick of Australia's political climate.* Looking back across the Tasman is kind of horrifying ... it just makes you realise how utterly batshit a lot of it is, and how baffling it is that Australia has ridiculous hysteria about issues X, Y, and Z when the country frankly has it so fucking good and should be enjoying its prosperity. I presume you are having similar feelings looking down from the Northern Hemisphere?

*I can't believe I am saying that when the Prime Minister is easily the most bland in New Zealand history, a wanker like Gerry Brownlee is an important figure in the government, the opposition is led by a guy with the charisma of a mouldy cabbage, and despite the fact the sitting government is not full of any strong or memorable personalities, the opposition cannot seem to find anybody who can sell their policies even to the faithful.

[Vlad n U 2]

Originally Posted by Earnie Shavers

Bloody hell. Australian politics is end to end drowning in complete fucktards at the moment, no? What a fucking mess.

End to end? They're basically all the same. The two main parties are basically the same. I want to start a revolution.

[Earnie Shavers]

Originally Posted by Axver

Whenever I am in New Zealand, it's bliss compared to being in the thick of Australia's political climate.* Looking back across the Tasman is kind of horrifying ... it just makes you realise how utterly batshit a lot of it is, and how baffling it is that Australia has ridiculous hysteria about issues X, Y, and Z when the country frankly has it so fucking good and should be enjoying its prosperity. I presume you are having similar feelings looking down from the Northern Hemisphere?

Yeah, the view from 10,000 feet. The whole scene - politicians, media, public reaction - is like a kid with a bucket stuck on it's head, just quietly banging it against a wall. Dumb arguments. Dumb policies. Dumb commentary. Dumb people. Dumb public seemingly getting dumber by the minute. There's that, but also at the moment, no sense that there's going to be any way out, any time soon. Serious lack of talent to be found anywhere. And the immediate future is grim. There's absolutely no way there's not going to be a PM Abbott, most likely within the next 12 months.

Always also annoying that -ignoring the parties behind them for a moment- Australia has had a run of Howard/Rudd/Gillard/(Abbott), but avoided both Beazley and Turnbull. Beazley because he had no animal in him, and because he was too fat, and Turnbull because he fronted the wrong party, and because he's loaded. Both would have made far better PM's than what we've had, if they were isolated from the parties behind them somehow.

But yes, an unscheduled election no doubt looming, and a choice between Gillard and the current Labor party vs Abbott and the current Liberal party. Worst. Choice. Ever. Wish we had voluntary voting just to see what would no doubt be a record low turnout figure. I'll just be filing a 'couldn't be arsed voting' absentee form. I'm not lining up for over an hour at the Australian embassy just to scrawl a penis on the ballot, which is all it's worth.

Also, this is happening down the road from my place here: O2 Academy Islington | S.mouse! | Event information

[cobl04]

Originally Posted by Earnie Shavers

Also, this is happening down the road from my place here: O2 Academy Islington | S.mouse! | Event information

Ughhhh get fucked.

I liked Turnbull, I think he would have made a good PM.

[intedomine]

Turnbull's brilliant. A republican, and he doesn't get drawn into the bickering of most of his Liberal/National colleagues. He was on Q&A a few weeks back, and instead of attacking Labor for everything like all other Liberal politicians do when they're on there, he just spoke about the issues that he thought were important. He'd go off on all these impressive tangents, talking in depth about some of the most bland (but important) issues, which you could see was pissing off Tony Jones, who wanted a more lively debate, and Turnbull wasn't having a bar of getting sucked into that.

I still remain a fan of Gillard and her government, but I think the Labor party is monumentally fucking up they way they communicate policy and present themselves to the electorate. The damage is irreparable and it's a great shame that the populist shit media has convinced and held such command over their audiences, particularly in relation to the strong policy that is the Carbon Tax.

An alternative Abbott government is just the most repulsive thing I can think of. Will make it very hard to be an Australian.

[The Sad Punk]

I'm desperately trying to lay low with Australian politics as of late because it's so incredibly depressing.

So here's some rare good Adelaide news - The Glendi is back!!!!111111!11

[cobl04]

Rove has a new show. Ugh. Thank god it's on foxtel. So overrated

[Axver]

Originally Posted by Earnie Shavers

Yeah, the view from 10,000 feet. The whole scene - politicians, media, public reaction - is like a kid with a bucket stuck on it's head, just quietly banging it against a wall. Dumb arguments. Dumb policies. Dumb commentary. Dumb people. Dumb public seemingly getting dumber by the minute. There's that, but also at the moment, no sense that there's going to be any way out, any time soon. Serious lack of talent to be found anywhere. And the immediate future is grim. There's absolutely no way there's not going to be a PM Abbott, most likely within the next 12 months.

Always also annoying that -ignoring the parties behind them for a moment- Australia has had a run of Howard/Rudd/Gillard/(Abbott), but avoided both Beazley and Turnbull. Beazley because he had no animal in him, and because he was too fat, and Turnbull because he fronted the wrong party, and because he's loaded. Both would have made far better PM's than what we've had, if they were isolated from the parties behind them somehow.

But yes, an unscheduled election no doubt looming, and a choice between Gillard and the current Labor party vs Abbott and the current Liberal party. Worst. Choice. Ever. Wish we had voluntary voting just to see what would no doubt be a record low turnout figure. I'll just be filing a 'couldn't be arsed voting' absentee form. I'm not lining up for over an hour at the Australian embassy just to scrawl a penis on the ballot, which is all it's worth.

You've fucking nailed it. Well done.

I'll be honest - I am terrified of Abbott as PM. As in, I view it on the same level as if Sarah Palin became the president of the US. I could hack a Liberal electoral victory if almost anybody else led the party - and hell, I like Turnbull. I obviously don't always agree with him, but I don't think the country would massively go to shit with him as PM. Abbott? Honestly, when he was elevated to the leadership of the Libs, I laughed and said "well, Labour's safe until 2016, nobody will vote for this religious lunatic". How wrong I was. Thank christ the ALP and Greens have control of the Senate at least until 2014. If Abbott becomes/is still PM by then and the Greens lose the balance of power ... let's just say I may abandon the one city I truly love, Melbourne, and move back to New Zealand. I normally roll my eyes when people say shit like that, but a country where an Abbott-led Liberal Party holds both houses of parliament is not even worth thinking about. (Plus most people who say that don't have the means to do it. I obviously do.)

My hope is, if Abbott becomes PM, everybody will quickly realise how out-of-step he is with the 21st century and he'll quickly disappear (or at least the Greens will keep the balance of power in the Senate), or ... well, I keep waiting for there to be some wonderful scandal and Turnbull can successfully challenge him for the leadership. I'm amused that after so many years of both parties obsessing over opinion polls, they are now both ignoring the fact that Rudd and Turnbull are FAR more popular than Gillard and Abbott.

[Axver]

Withdrawal from Refugee Convention may be last resort

A truly reprehensible idea that worrisomely just might get traction.

[Axver]

And while I'm spamming the thread about Aussie politics ...

Argument over boats reveals the worst of us

What he said.

Especially this: "Perhaps it's some sort of unspoken national fear and loathing inherited from the Aboriginal people. I'll bet they wished they could have turned around the boats too."

[Earnie Shavers]

I don't even... where do you start?

Nothing will be sorted until policy is separated from politics. And I'm surprised that hasn't been someone's 'big plan'. Howard loved it (and fuck him for creating it - his creation of this 'issue' and the legitimisation of the emotions fuelling it, are specifically what I hate him for the most), but surely Labor would have loved to just kick it off to be someone else's problem, and surely Liberal now, even while loving the current mess, are well aware that the hot potato has turned into a grenade, and wouldn't mind such a risky thing just not being an issue for their inevitable government either.

So why not set up some independent committee or whatever, one that is rigged bipartisan enough that it's agreed that whatever they decide can just sail through parliament un-politicised? Once it's off the front pages, and policy isn't being determined by polls, it is at worst returned to being an issue that deserves serious weight, but is relatively minor, at least in it's impact on the average voter (ie absolutely none whatsoever). At best... if anyone even cares about this any more... you might actually get a decent solution.

As long as it's a BIG IMPORTANT ISSUE and decisions are made only for visual (front page) impact, then it's only going to get worse. And yeah, you'll end up with someone like Abbott doing something truly damaging and awful like pulling Australia out of the Refugee Convention, for headlines and votes and nothing else.

And fuck, in the end (and in the beginning) it's all about bogans and immigration, no? Man the fuck up and deal with that head on and stop pretending that locking up a boat of Afghan refugees = tough on immigration. That's fucking disgusting. And the bogans will figure it out at some point. They may be dumb, but at some point it will eventually dawn on them that not all immigrants are refugees. That is another hot potato that will soon enough turn into a grenade.

[cobl04]

Earnie, Ax, et al... it drives me to very close to tears the amount of hatred and lack of compassion from so many people in this country. It truly makes me ashamed to be Australian. I just came across this facebook group:

I AM NOT RACIST JUST SPEAK FUCKING ENGLISH IN MY COUNTRY YOU IMERGRANT FUCK | Facebook

That makes my blood boil, seriously. I just bought Go Back on DVD, I'd love to show it to all my racist, ignorant, bigoted friends but they won't watch it.

I seem to be pretty passionate about this sort of thing... maybe there's something I can get involved with, perhaps even as a career. It's definitely (aside from my crusade against Australian Shit-Hop) the thing I'm most passionate about in life.

[KhanadaRhodes]

it only makes your blood boil because you love imergrants.

[Vlad n U 2]

What's an "Imergant"?

Oh noes those foreigners are destroying our great, pure language!

[KhanadaRhodes]

bahahahaha that reminds me, i saw someone make a comment once that apparently the english, spanish, german, and french who way back when "started america" all spoke english.

silly me, i forgot english was the mother language on which all other languages were formed. i should inform my linguistics professor he's teaching it wrong.

[Vlad n U 2]

Such an imperialist language.

[The Sad Punk]

Should be noted that many white ~TRUE BLUE~ Australians would have had ancestors who wouldn't have spoken English when they first arrived here. I'm not just talking about post-war migrants, but those much earlier - German speakers, Dutch and a lot of folk from the British Isles. As far as family records are concerned, my greatxwhatever grandfather could only speak Manx Gaelic when he first came here.