BTW ACT Politics have taught me a new thing, that is respect for a position, people and intentions count a good deal with me.
Yep and I have a new respect for Katy Gallagher and not so much for "Zed" Seselja and I do feel I wasted a vote, and will consider more carefully in September this year.
I love The West Wing I love the writing, I love the characters and I love the way some complex political issues are shown with the non partisan negotiations that seem to be allowable in the United States of America's system. Another thing I have learned is as we lend an affiliation to the characters we start to think all Republicans are complete nut bars.
I'm starting to really like The Newsroom and the main character is a Republican who makes equal sense and is able to show the perception of the Republican Party and point out that there is in fact a perception of having to be a certain narrow mind set to fit in either camp. I particularly like the dialog "I am a registered Republican, I just seem Liberal because I believe hurricanes are caused but high barometric pressure, not gay marriage"
So why mention all this?
I think I'm getting both older and hopefully wiser, either way I am looking at the things I have said and stood for in the past and am wondering if they still apply. One of the many things I'm considering is my politics and I thought I'd take this opportunity to free flow my thoughts, without too much focus on structure of the argument or clearly grammar.
How have I gotten here??
I was raised in a family that voted liberal, and just like church, you get your values from your family.
I joined the Navy after year 10 in high school and of course the Australian Labor Party are the guys who slash Defence every chance they get and yes that does sound a little selfish, but this is how I got here, leave comments if you feel strongly.
I own a small business in the Information Technology Sector and I get paid quite well for what I do in the scheme of things, but I work REALLY HARD to keep that happening and I'm sure if I were to add in the commitment to staying on top of my game I'd be on an hourly rate basis way behind the 9 to 5ers who seem to be coasting in this world. I will remain unapologetic for wanting to have a Government who doesn't hate me for living up to my potential. I'm the one who measures me as having not met my own benchmarks...
I live in Canberra a safe Labor (ALP) seat and I can't phantom why. I ask people why they vote Labor and they almost universally say "because the Liberals will slash the Public Service" have they noticed how many Departments lost between 500 and more than 1000 positions in the last budget?? I can only say why would you vote for people who hate you? Most of the people I speak with are at the EL1 level and largely seem to be married to other EL1s ... Wow well over the 'we hate you because you are rich' ALP benchmark AND are also looking to make you redundant. That's amazing.
We have a hung Parliament this is not an excuse to be negative, I understand it is the job of the Opposition Leader to make the Government look bad... Awesome, job done but I think they mostly did it to themselves and sure I can't trust Julia Gillard to keep commitments or deliver things competently but really Tony Abbott has one thing that he has delivered from opposition and that is hold the line on Asylum seekers and get the Government to adopt his policy. Imagine what would be possible if you spent your time running around the country saying "I know we have a car industry that is struggling and those workers need a new thing to build, does metal fabrication and electric motors, look a lot like a lot like towers and electric generators? How about we build windmills in enough scale that the economics works and refocus a whole industry" now I'm not saying we should do THAT thing but how about something that says if I were PM I'd do THIS thing instead of I WON'T do this or I'll REPEAL that.
I remember when I first moved to Canberra I watched the local news every night and at that time almost every night the Leader of the ACT Legislative Assembly Opposition was on TV saying the ACT Government dropped the ball today on this issue or that AND if I were Chief Minister this is what we would have done. See what she did there if I were Chief Minister this is what I would do ... I fondly recall that as a time when we had real debate about what was good the the people of the ACT. Yes as Chief Minister Kate Carnell had her issues and I'm trying to say she was awesome in office but certainly less bad than the stream of super stars we have had since. I'm NOT really trying to use Kate Carnell as an example of positive opposition from which perhaps our Federal Leaders AND ACT Leaders could learn a thing or three.
Okay around to my point...
- I think the Australia Labor Party has some really talented people who I would happily vote for Kate Lundy, Kate Ellis, Tanya Pilbersek and Penny Wong from what I see of their performance in public they seem to legitimately believe what they say and care about the outcomes. Pity is I cant vote for people who represent a party line that shows at every turn that they hate me which is a real shame. EVERY male ALP member makes me want to puke and their whole demeanor drips with toxicity. I did like Kevin Rudd before he got a sniff of actual power and became the same tosser as the others.
- I can only think of one Liberal female member I would feed and only if she could get out of the attack and let us see what she would do if she led the party and of course it is Julie Bishop. This does not let me hold great hope for equality in the Parliament because given the difficulty of getting elected as a woman if the current Liberal Party Gene Pool gives us ones I can't name as competent representatives, then having more of them presumably lower quality for inclusiveness sake god help us. Liberal Party male members are also scarce to name in similarly complimentary terms as the ALP women but I think Joe Hockey really does want to do well for the whole country.
Where does leave us? well not with the Independents and Greens just look at the self serving clueless situation we are in over the term of this Parliament, I really hope the desire for a decisive win for one or other of the major parties will wipe out the whole bunch from the political landscape.
So what do I want?
- I want no voting on party lines
- I want every vote to be a conscience vote
- I want legislation on issues to be written and negotiated on grounds of the greater good, if the issue of Carbon was agreed by people who wanted an outcome I'd have no problem supporting it, but it is about politics right now and I'm tired of paying a greater share of more every time. How about a scheme that only taxes carbon from profits by disallowing deductions for polluting inputs (again not an answer just a question).
- I know that having a system where individual politicians horse trade to get legislation passed leads to bad outcomes but how about a my politician website where we see how they vote on EVERYTHING right there for all to see. If it is good enough for schools then it is good enough for our elected members.
- More productive campaigning...
I saw an ACT Liberals Ad a month or two ago I suspect aired by accident it was a disgusting attack ad. There was no this is how we will fix the issue, it was personal and unhelpful. If this ad runs again you will lose my vote.I'm going to keep a tally of every ad I see without a solution or that is negative and the loser will be the party that is negative with no policy position (yep I'll track that too)Same apples Federally,while I'd struggle to vote Labor I will vote informal and sign the ballot in case it is illegal and you want to fine me. I will not vote for people who hate me, nor will I vote for people with no answers or school yard bullies.
Can anyone deliver that?
I hope we can but I suspect it's just a little bit hard. Here is hoping.
NB the ACT Liberals did not run the ad I was talking about at least not that I saw.
