Soybean Stew

Industrial Relations Protest!

2005-11-15T02:54:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I have updated in ages. The basic reason being that it is exam time for me – and it’s really the crunch this time. I’ve had to pull out of the Fabians’ inaugural conference, Magic tournaments and virtually every other extra-curricular activity to prepare for perhaps the most important exams in my life. The next two weeks will decide whether I am indeed going to be a doctor in a couple of years time or destined to go to the scrapheap.

I should have stayed home and studied, but today’s industrial relations protest was just too important to miss – as an activist for fairness and equity it was an overriding priority. It was perhaps the largest single organized protest in Australian history with turnout for the Melbourne demonstration nudging a quarter of a million – far higher than even the ACTU had expected. The crowds stretched through dozens of blocks along the mile-long route from Federation Square to the Exhibition Gardens which are next to my house.

My comrades from Young Labor Left and I marched with the LHMU and I was pleasantly surprised to see the teachers at my old primary school marching too. Most of them from when I went to school have retired, but it was gratifying to see that those who were still there kept the red flag flying.

The Reactionary Forces, of course, dismissed the protests, saying that over 95 percent of workers chose to remain at work. I’m sure that they can offer any kind of wording manipulation to spin the situation in their favour. What cannot be argued with is that time and time and time and time again every single opinion poll about the industrial relations issue shows that the vast majority of the Australian population are against the changes. I believe that even less people will be impressed with their spending tens of millions of taxpayer money on a deceptive advertising campaign of propaganda and deliberate moves to gag debate while rushing through the laws in the shortest possible time.

People from a non-English speaking background will be even more vulnerable as employers will have more scope, through Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) to exploit those who have migrated and have less knowledge about the legal system as it pertains to employment and industrial relations.

The Howard Government will PAY at the next election. I have plenty of confidence that this issue will continue to hurt them. In New Zealand, when similar moves were introduced in 1990 by the National government, the incumbents suffered a 13 percent swing against them in 1993, even in the face of an ineffectual opposition and virtually no union resistance. This is more than enough to throw out the present regime.

Our mission now is to maintain the pressure on the Government, to maintain the pressure on Barnaby Joyce to water down the changes, keep the IR “reforms” a big issue in the media, perhaps by mounting a high court challenge, give the regime as little time away from it as possible before the next election. More importantly, our mission is to remind the Labor Party, especially its darker factions, that the only way to winning is to vehemently differentiate ourselves from the evil, inequitable and sadistic regime of the Howard Government!

VSU - Possible temporary reprieve

2005-10-12T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today's newspapers have mentioned that Senator Barnaby Joyce of Queensland intends to cross the floor in regard to the Howard Government's Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) laws unless there was some kind of compromise to ensure that essential services such as sporting facilities and childcare were maintained. It was also raised that legislation to deprive the student body of their political voice may not come into effect next year, in effect giving the students a one year reprieve.

I remain skeptical, although Senator Joyce did cross the floor last night, the first government senator to do so since the 80s. After all, he's still a card-carrying member of Evil and like Telstra, it could be easy for Howard, Sophie P et al to stitch up a crummy deal that would see the VSU legislation passed virtually intact. It does seem like the Reactionary Forces do want the IR "reforms" as a priority rather than VSU though, so there is a chance that compulsory student unionism may survive in 2006.

On the other hand, it would be wrong for any of us to go off our guard just because we might be handed this temporary stay of disembowelment. We must continue to lobby Senator Joyce to support the existing system to the fullest extent possible; while he is a foul and beastly dinosaur when it comes to social issues, we cannot afford to let our own ideologies and dogma get in the way of negotiating with the tiger for our very lives. We are on hard times and unpalatable liaisons are a fact of life.

NZ Final Election Results

2005-10-01T04:17:00.000-07:00

This morning, the final results for the New Zealand election were released after the special votes originating from university campuses and overseas were counted. The final distribution of seats:

Labour 50
National 48
NZ First 7
Greens 6
Maori 4
United Future 3
ACT 2
Progressives 1

Opposition Leader Don Brash finally conceded defeat, after two weeks of suspense following election night where neither the Left nor the Right could conjure up a majority and the nation hung in the balance to see where the postal votes would take them. In the end, the National Party lost a seat, leaving the Clark Government in control to start negotiations with the minor parties to form a minority government.

This year's campaign was difficult, with the Labour Party's mission hampered significantly by internal troubles caused by members of the Right faction. The National Party shamelessly attempted to appeal to a populist theme, campaigning on wholesale tax cuts which were obviously going to benefit the nation's most wealthy. Notably missing from their campaign advertising to the people was their nefarious and sinister Industrial Relations agenda of scrapping four weeks' leave, overtime, Voluntary Student Unionism and reintroduction of individual workplace agreements which the Left-dominated Clark Government repealed when they were elected in 1999. Typical of the deceptive and gutless nature of all Conservative organisations in the multiverse. And in Aotearoa there is no Upper House with which to moderate legislation!

The mostly likely outcome will be a Labour-Progressive minority government relying on the Greens, NZF, UF and the Maori Party on confidence and supply. The new government will be unable to push through socially progressive agendas, such as gay rights and legislation for the betterment of feminist causes, as support from the Greens alone are not sufficient for a minority and the other minor parties all show fairly regressive social manifestos. Economically, the minor parties will push for a fairer agenda, including raising the minimum wage from $9.50 to $12 an hour, better affordability for university education and better income support for the elderly. The Clark Government will need to work very closely with the minor parties to last through this term but their aptitude for economic management and negotiation will put the in good stead to secure a fourth term in 2008.

I would like to thank Denise MacKenzie, the candidate for the seat of Wairarapa and her campaign team, including campaign manager Roger Beson and IR officer Jills Angus Burney for allowing me to participate in the 2005 election campaign. I would also like to thank J.T. Carter, former president of NZ Young Labour who introduced me to NZ politics on the internet and helping me make the appropriate connections. And congratulations to everyone who did the canvassing and the data chumping and all the hard work which secured the land of Hobbits from the Grim Reaper for another three years.

Petrol prices and inflation

2005-09-30T04:51:00.000-07:00

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has called for a round of "decent" tax cuts to counter the influence of rising oil prices on Australian families.

In the last round of tax cuts delivered by the Howard Reactionary Forces, the lion's share of benefit went to the top 3-5% of income earners which included massively raising the top rate threshold and scrapping the superannuation surcharge. People earning less than $58K per annum got a measly $6 a week, which has long since been more than wiped out by escalating fuel costs. The vast majority of Australian families are now worse off than they were a year ago. The only people who stand to benefit are oil companies and the tiny minority of very successful businesspeople and "higher professionals" lucky enough to register six- and seven-figure incomes.

Further, this is having a flow-on effect on the wider market. From next week, the cost of milk, to many a nutritional necessity, will rise by 8%. Lucky I'm lactose intolerant! Inflation is already rising, and this in turn will lead to higher interest rates and higher repayments in an era where home affordability is already at an all time low!

Rather than making wholesale tax cuts which will only make the rich get richer and accentuate inequality, the ALP needs to target tax relief to those who need it most - low- and middle-income families and low-wage single workers. This could be achived with targeted relief in the form of means-tested tax deductions or raising the tax-free threshold to say $14,ooo (from $6000). While it will reduce tax for everyone, the greatest percentage of tax burden reduced will go to those who need it most. Any such move could easily be paid for by removing the provision for Family Tax Benefits for millionaires' housewives by introducing a slowly progressive means test.

There should also be further incentive to develop the nation's skeletal public transport network. It's a crying shame that the outer suburbs of Melbourne have next to no public transport, with many localities getting only three or four buses a day on weekdays. A whole lot of votes are there in the marginals for the taking if funding could be provided for a workable, integrated PT system which would enable families to no longer need to waste petrol money on their 25-mile trek to the CBD daily.

Saving Middle-Earth from the Dark Lord

2005-07-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday the Prime Minister of Aotearoa-NZ, Ms Helen Clark, came to visit this electorate of Wairarapa. She received a rousing reception at Masterton Town Hall to give an address to 500+ elderly people and handled their questions, including an unwelcome blast about moral values from the Tory campaign manager, with great finesse. Policy to retain a universal age pension with relief for lower-income pensioners with regard to council rates and caring for lifelong partners was explained clearly and reiterated.

Later that night, the official launch for our candidate in Wairarapa, Mrs Denise MacKenzie, was held at the Tin Hut Pub in the southern town of Featherston. The PM was again the compere giving the main address and it was the major highlight of my trip to have my photo taken with Ms Clark and Ms Georgina Beyer, the current sitting MP for Wairarapa, who is also the first transgender MP in the world.

From there it was back to canvassing and fiddling around with the temperamental electioral roll software and working out how to print labels for a mass mailout to all the teachers in the electorate. Meanwhile, the big issue here in this country is the meningococcal epidemic; a public meeting was held on Monday night at the town hall with Labour committing its unqualified support to the vaccination program; the minor parties seem to have embarrassed themselves in speaking out against the vaccine in a spate of unscientific babble and blatant lies.

Across the Tasman, back in the land of Munchkins, my comrades are keeping up the fight against the Evil Wizard's industrial relations "reforms". The people of New Zealand know all too well about the disastrous changes brought about by Ruth Richardson, the Wicked Witch of the East, in the 1990s National Government, with the introduction of individual contracts and the wholesale abolition of awards. To their credit the Clark Government was able to restore some of the rights of workers in its present tenure.

Today the Palmer Enquiry on the wrongful detention and deportation of Rau and Solon released its report and Howard was forced to apologize to these two women, but clearly there was no commitment to real change and the regime refused to offer a royal commission or a full public enquiry. Just one day earlier Philip Ruddock, the attorney general, claimed that these two women were at least partially to blame for their deplorable fate. Much more work needs to be, and will be, done by refugee advocate groups in Oz to keep the pressure on the evil rulers of this once fertile utopia.

I shall be returning to Melbourne on Sunday after a brief pause in Wellington on the weekend, as I will commence my next rotation in Neurosurgery on Monday. Don't expect me to cure your brain tumour though. I have learnt a lot from my self-imposed exile and will utilize my gains in future endeavours, and will focus my energy on the policy committees in which I am involved. However it remains my intention to obtain a career and experience in clinical practice before I embark on any personal political moves. However, those of you who think I have a chance of sociopolitical or factional realignment during that time in which I gain my life experience might wish to take up marbles or crochet instead.

Niceties and Nuances of the NZ electoral system

2005-07-09T00:50:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night I heard the terrible news from London where a number of explosions have occurred, presumably a work of terrorists. My most sincere condolences go to those who have lost family members in the incidents and I certainly hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice quickly. The Prime Minister of Aotearoa, Miss Helen Clark, has signalled that NZ will not tighten its border security policies in response to the blasts, quoting that both NZ and the UK are well prepared for such incidents. I assume that John Howard is doing his best to make as much political capital out of these blasts as he possibly can, again pandering to the fear and xenophobia of the people of Oz.
Yesterday, our plans for a barbeque in the middle of Masterton were thrown out of plumb after our LEC (FEA) secretary drove her car down a ditch in the morning. Luckily, she was virtually uninjured, but her car did not survive and she was badly shaken mentally. The event was rescheduled for today.
In terms of campaign issues, child care is now in the headlines. The National Party are introducing a tax break for one third of child care costs up to $5000 for working families. On the other hand, Labour has budgeted 20 hours of free child care per child aged between 3 and 5 if they go to a not-for-profit community childcare centre. The National’s Policy will remove the free child care to pay for its tax breaks and the net effect will be for private operators to yank up their charges, negating any benefit to parents who can afford to use them. It offers nothing for low and middle income families, especially the many Maori families in this electorate of Wairarapa, many of whom are on sole-parent benefits. It will deny their children a head start on early learning and jeopardise their educational and employment prospects well into the future.
Now a little about Aotearoa’s electoral system. For many years, Aotearoa was divided up into 99 electorates. Voting is optional and MPs were elected on a first-past-the-post (one vote only) basis. This system favoured the two major parties and strong majorities were often obtained. The Senate was abolished in the 1950s and now there is only one Chamber (the House of Representatives). Therefore there is no house of review.
In 1993, the ruling National government passed a referendum to introduce a proportional representation system known as Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). Under the system, the number of electorates was reduced from 99 to 69 and the number of MPs increased to 120. This system allows for representation of minor parties and the provision of non-electorate MPs voted under a list system. Electors are now given two votes: an electorate vote (for their local member, under the old rules) and a Party Vote (a vote for a single party – there are no preferences given). Each party must also publicly release their LIST RANKINGS for their candidates as members who are not successful for winning their electorate may still obtain a LIST SEAT (see below).
Note that there are 62 general electorates and 7 Maori electorates. All Maori persons have the option of going on the General Roll or the Maori Roll.
To qualify for proportional representation a party must win either 5% of the Party Vote or win an electorate seat.
The 120 seats are then distributed according to the relative proportions of Party Vote for all parties who QUALIFY FOR PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. Then, for each party, the seats are first filled by candidates who won their electorates. The remaining seats for that party are then allocated by LIST ORDER. This means, that if a minor party get 10% for the Party Vote they are entitled to a minimum of 12 seats, even if they do not win any electorates. Also there is no obligation for any electoral candidate to have a list ranking; a safe Labour seat member can have no list ranking if they are confident of re-election based on their demographic position.
Generally, under MMP, a party will rarely garner enough Party Votes to obtain 50% of the seats in Parliament. They will inevitably have to form a coalition agreement with one or more of the minor parties. United Future has said that they will support the major party with the higher proportion of total votes. The Greens will traditionally support the Left, while New Zealand First and ACT will almost certainly support the Right. It is not known which party the Maori Party would support.

Wairarapa Campaign Continues

2005-07-08T00:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent the morning fiddling around with the EMS computer software that’s used for canvassing and analysing voter data. A major problem is that the machines here are so slow compared to the ones in inner city Oz. But we’ll find a way round everything, I’m sure of that!
At lunchtime, it was onto Masterton, the main town of the electorate, to present a laptop to a school. As we needed the MP to do this, I was able to meet Georgina Beyer MP for Wairarapa for the first time. Ms Beyer is the world’s first transsexual member of Parliament. Having worked in the oldest profession in Sydney many years ago, she was once the mayor of Carterton before vaulting into Parliament. She recently appeared on Dancing with the Stars to promote her campaign this year, and she certainly had more than a substantial sense of fashion. In many ways, politically and socially, she is a mirror image of Pauline Hanson.
In the afternoon I went canvassing for the first time on my own. This is essentially doorknocking, but you carry a clipboard with you, and you have to ask the people who they’re going to vote for. You’ve also got to try to then convince them to vote Labour, and if they were solid Labour voters, you’ve got to attempt to get them to put up a sign in their yard. I remember when I first went doorknocking in Gippsland last year I felt quite daunted and not up to the task. This was many times more involved. Luckily we got some good support in the area I did today.
I’m going to talk about the main parties in New Zealand; next post I’ll talk about the way the electoral system works here.
The Labour Party (NZLP) are a centre-left, social democratic party. Its voter base are traditionally the working-class and the poor, but they also attract a lot of votes from the Maori community (ca. 18% of the population) and the "intellectual left" (or "chardonnay socialists"). The NZLP were dominated by its Right faction in the 1980s under Treasurer Roger Douglas who introduced "Rogernomics" which amounted to Thatcher-like economic rationalism and a spate of privatisation. Douglas’ subfaction later broke away under ACT (see below). Presently, there is about a 65-35 split in National caucus amongst the Left and Right factions. Helen Clark, the Prime Minister, belongs to the former, while Michael Cullen, the Treasurer, belongs to the latter. The Labour Party are progressive socially, and were largely responsible for the passing of the Civil Unions Bill for all New Zealanders. The present Clark Government was elected in 1999 after a National-New Zealand First coalition collapsed.
The NZLP is now as united as it has been in living memory. It includes a number of "sectors" which debate and propose policy on issues relevant to particular groups of the population: a Women’s Sector, Rainbow Sector, Maori Sector, and Ethnic Sector, as examples. The Labour Party is often accused by right-wing parties of pandering to the interests of special interest groups and minorities whilst overlooking "mainstream society".
The New Zealand National Party (NP) or "Tories" are the main centre-right party; their policies benefit the wealthy ruling-class and big businesses. They are campaigning on a platform of tax cuts and industrial relations "reforms", including reintroducing individual contracts (those introduced by the previous National Government were scrapped by the Clark Government in 1999), making it harder for unions to enter workplaces, and the gutting of holiday pay and overtime as well as unfair dismissal laws. It all sounds too familiar for most Australians, but the NZ Tories are not quite as socially regressive as John Howard or Tony Abbott. The leader of the NP, Dr Donald Brash, was formerly the governor of the NZ reserve bank.
United Future (UF) are a self-professed "centrist" party advocating family values and a social conservative agenda, but are centrist ("a wet blanket") economically. The Labour Party rely on them for confidence and supply for issues which the Greens (see below) will not support. Their policy is to support the party with the most seats if they ever hold the balance of power.
New Zealand First (NZF) are a breakaway from the social-conservative wing of the Tories. Their leader Winston Peters has held the party together very much on the sole basis of his own personality. They are a xenophobic, homophobic party with a lot of support amongst the older age groups. However they are not quite as bad and have somewhat greater political nous than Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. The Tories need them to form a coalition if they are ever to form government, which is very worrying, as NZF will use social conservatism as conditions for which to form a coalition with National. This would presumably include repealing the Civil Unions Bill, the Prostitution Reform Bill (which allowed for brothels to operate under a legal framework), and more anti-choice policies for women.
The Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (ACT) are an economically ultra-right party formed as a breakaway of the Labour Right in the 1980s. They advocate wholesale tax cuts, a flat 25% tax rate for all persons, slashing welfare and public spending, removal of union rights and the minimum wage, increased penalties for crimes and are nominally socially liberal (but not in practice). Their politicians are amongst the most unpopular in the country. Somewhat oddly, they have a strong Asian presence.
The Green Party of Aotearoa (Greens) are similar to the Australian Greens; they are economically and socially to the left of Labour. Labour needs to form an agreement with them to govern either as a minority or a coalition government; the political effect may be to drag Labour’s policies somewhat to the left. While this is good, the danger is that National may move to the centre and steal the political limelight.
The Maori Party (MP) are a splinter group from Labour who are only concerned about the interests of the Maori population (currently 18% of the total). They have consistently embarrassed themselves and are totally devoid of political ability and cohesion, and many of their policies would do their ethnic group more harm than good.

Hello from Cloudy Carterton

2005-07-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

After a rather drawn-out trip from Auckland to Wellington by bus and train (thanks to Aotearoa's mismanaged and moribund rail system) I found myself in the national capital, the night before the rugby Test between the All Blacks and the British Lions. Luckily I had my accommodation pre-arranged as I would have had no chance booking myself - the hotels were charging in the thousands of dollars a night! I did some leafletting and "jaffa donating" in the crowded streets of the city centre, successfully convincing a Chinese family to vote Labour after educating them about the consequences of not doing so (they were previously oblivious to the positions of the major players).

Wellington is small, about the size of Canberra, but the city centre is much more vibrant with a wonderful selection of cafes and liberal-left bookshops and department stores, whereas when I was last in Canberra last August I found it quite staid and lifeless. So far I have also found NZ less cold than I imagined - temperatures are on a par with Melbourne's. Anyhow, the All Blacks won in a landslide which was all too predictable - prompting wild celebrations in the windy city with copious amouts of EtOH.

My hosts in Wellington consisted of some quite prominent names in Young Labour, notably the immediate ex-President and the current Vice President who is a refugee advocate. The candidate for the seat of Rakaia in the south island and his partner also lived in the same house it made me feel somewhat privileged to be staying with these bigwigs. On Saturday night I went with them to a farewell party for one of their comrades who is heading to New York University on a Fulbright scholarship to study constitutional policy.

Today I am staying with the campaign manager for the seat of Wairarapa where I am working. I was able to meet the candidate for the first time. I figured out a little abit about what campigning in NZ involves. An integral part of campaigning, especially in a marginal like Wairarapa, is "canvassing" which is an extended form of doorknocking. It involves asking the residents their intended voting intention and this is recorded on a database. I don't recall doing this for the federal election in Oz last year. Anyway I am also learning to use "canvassing software" which provides electoral analysis. It all seems quite tech.

I also learnt that the Prime Minister of Aotearoa, Ms Helen Clark, will be visiting the new Masterton Hospital which is our local base health facility, under construction, on Tuesday week, and I will have the opportunity to meet her which I am quite looking forward to. I had one opportunity to meet my own Prime Minister when he came to visit during my last year of secondary school at Newcastle Grammar in 1997, but I decided against taking that opportunity.

In the City of Sails

2005-06-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

I am writing from Auckland on a mild and clear evening...... Did almost nothing today after sleeping thru most of the morning.

My flight (Air New Zealand) was originally scheduled for 9.30am yesterday - and I spent the whole night before packing and watching the tennis. I had prepared for not getting any sleep that night. But when I got to the airport and checked in, fog prevented my flight by running and everyone had to go back into the entry section with our luggage returned when my flight was cancelled and I had to spend three hours queuing to rebook for the evening flight, which was scheduled at 6.30pm and which eventuated an hour late. The service was amongst the most shabby I have ever experienced - a quarter-size portion of bland cold pasta and a pittance of pork was what amounted to dinner after starving for more than an hour after the attendants announced that our meal was about to be served. So I didn't get in to Aotearoa until one in the morning.

I'm travelling by train to the capital tomorrow where I'm meant to have tea with some Young Labour personalities here. NZ is a unicameral parliament of 120 MPs elected on a modified proportional representation - more on that later. Basically seats are allocated on the proportion of votes cast, not by the number of electorates or ridings won.

While at the airport yesterday I was unable to get a copy of Latham's vindictive book, but I was able to get a few snippets in the media. I believe that Latham was unelectable for the beginning; the day where he was chosen as Labor leader was one of the most depressing days of my life. He had no excuse to not make a statement about the tsunami when he was ill: in my first eight weeks of school this year I saw dozens of people with life-threatening pancreatitis. Now he retorts by saying "do you expect me to reverse the waves?". Wanker. And now he seeks to do as much damage to what remains of the ALP as possible. We are lucky that he is gone, even if Sleazeby hasn't done as much as we would like.

As you probably know the dark forces gain control of the Senate tomorrow and it was very good to see 100000+ people march on the streets of Melbourne against the proposed industrial relations "reforms".

In better news, the Canadian parliament has passed legislation to legalize same sex marriages (although already permitted in eight of ten provincs), although the Conservative Party has vowed to use this issue during the next election.

Get the Met over the Town!!!!!

2005-06-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

In the last few days, Kim Beazley reshuffled his front bench, a move that has been long overdue. The key moves are the demotion of Immigration Spokesperson Laurie Ferguson who handled the disunity within the enemy and the Peter Qasim case with suboptimal performance, and the return of my local member Lindsay Tanner. Overall, I was reasonably satisfied with the new shadow cabinet. As the dark forces get control of the Senate on July 1, Labor needs real policy differentiation and vigilance in holding the regime to account.

Today I attended a Public Transport forum organized by the North Fitzroy Branch of the ALP, held at Fitzroy High School, the spot where I once learned the program "Logo" and drew polygons when I was in third grade. Keynote speakers included Professor Brian Russell chair of the Transport Forum and union secretary Trevor Dobbyn. I was surprised and disappointed to find that Victoria had the second-worst performance in terms of innovation and investment in public transport over the last 20 years of all the states. Whilst Perth, Sydney and Brisbane have all seen the construction of new rail lines, Melbourne's rail network has seen no improvement since the opening of the City Loop in '82 and the Altona-Laverton link in '85.

I believe that the south-east, and especially the outer regions of new suburbs, needs to be the focus for improving public transport. In many new development areas where a lot of lower-middle income families live (the so-called "Howard Battlers"), public transport is next to non-existent. Often only three or four bus services are available all day that go to the nearest train station. Average transit times to Melbourne are longer than from Ballarat or Bendigo. Moreover, bus-train times are often seemingly deliberately designed to non-connect, causing long layovers at the train station. The Frankston and Dandenong lines are chronically mismanaged with an unacceptably high rate of cancellations and delays. I catch the Frankston Line to and from work, and have had to wait up to 90 minutes on occasions following three consective cancelled trains and when one finally came it resembled a Shanghai bus.

In these areas, public transport frequency needs to be greatly improved and co-ordinated to existing trains into the city. More express limited-stop services from Dandenong and Frankston are also a good idea, perhaps only stopping at Clayton/Huntingdale and Caulfield.

It is a crying shame that if these areas had a viable PT system, commuters would save huge amounts of money for not needing to buy two cars and in terms of fuel costs in comparison to rail fares. The amounts saved would amount to infinitely more than the measly $6pw tax cuts offered by the Howard Government which will be more than obliterated by petrol price increases due to oil.

And these areas just happen to be in the marginal seats the ALP need to win, both in state and federal elections! It would be a political goldmine wasted.

I hope all my comrades are having an enjoyable time at Ed Conference in Perth.

On Wednesday, I head to Auckland for two days from where I will make my way to Wellington to see some New Zealand YL figures before starting next week in the Wairarapa.

Detention centre "concessions"

2005-06-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

On Friday last, the Prime Minister was forced to accept a number of "concessions" in response to demands from Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou and a few of his colleagues. In return, they would agree to withdraw their proposed private members' bills.

These concessions included giving the Immigration Minister discretion to release families from detention centres into "community detention" (effectively indefinite house arrest without charge), the processing of all TPV (Temporary Protection Visa) holders by October 31 and reviewing all long-term detainees (2 years or more) every six months.

It should be noted that were it not for activism in the community these Liberal backbenchers would never have demanded these changes. Also, these concessions amount to little more than window-dressing. Amanda Vanstone is one of the most uncaring individuals in the present regime and there is nothing to compel her to release families from detention centres, only the discretion is there for her to do so now. Even two years is far, far too long and more than enough time for people to lose their minds - permanently. These "changes" amount to, in effect, nothing more than a carefully orchestrated attempt to gain electoral leverage. Sadly, Kim Beazley's response to the whole issue has been sloppy-to-nonexistent. Therefore, the ruling regime seems to have wedged Labor on this issue again, and, playing both government and opposition, the ALP were excluded from the debate. Eventually, the dissidents can always be punished by sidelining them when it comes to pre-selection time.

Yesterday I attended a rally on World Refugee Day where I was pleased to see several of my comrades turn up. What was disappointing though, was that most of the marchers seemed to be from a rag-tag of nominally "ultra-left" groups who were unwilling to consider the ideas of the wider community and hence do more harm than good in the quest to bring immigration matters more transparently into the general public. The turnout amongst ordinary community members was disappointingly small, even in the demographically liberal area in which this was held.

I believe that while regrettably, the majority of Australians still support mandatory detention, there is some change in sentiment in the community. A recent SkyNews poll showed 47% believed the present system is too punitive. Asylum seekers face risks to their physical and mental health whilst in detention and, when freed, have no access to public health services or legal employment and face prolonged poverty. The progressives of this country need to engage the general community more with the facts of the matter and understand that it will take much more than the abolition of mandatory detention, mostly in terms of social, health services and a cultural change within the immigration service, to achieve positive outcomes for these oppressed people who genuinely seek refuge here and are willing to contribute to their new nation.

Holidays

2005-06-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I had my one and only written exam for the semester. Even though I did much less study than I had intended, the paper was surprisingly easy. And although I have to admit that I made some stupid slip-ups, I'll be all right. So there you have it. Another two and a half years and I'll be at your nearest hospital screwing up your stitches and disfiguring you - at taxpayers' expense.

I received a pleasant surprise when I heard that a prominent Magic player who has had a personal vendetta against me for the past six years got banned for at least two years for cheating. Perhaps that's why he's dominated the scene for so long. Good riddance. I won't be playing as much Magic this year though because I want to concentrate on Magic and politics.

My plans for the break: work for the first week and a half to improve from my state of near insolvency, and then head to Aotearoa in what seems like an increasingly bitter and ugly election campaign. I shall be working in the seat of Wairarapa, an hour north of the national capital Wellington where the sitting member Georgina Beyer, the world's first transsexual MP, is retiring from her electorate seat to sit as a List (proportional) representative. More on the niceties and nuances of Aotearoa politics later.

What a great result for the two hundred thousand residents of the Northern Territory: in yesterday's elections Labor has secured 17 of 25 seats and the Country Liberal Party reduced to a rag-tag rump with its leader Denis Burke losing his job. Thanks to affirmative action and Emily's List, the NT now has an array of female indigenous people to represent the interests of women and the Aboriginal community. The swing of +12% certainly exceeded my own expectations and those of my comrades.

I'll have more to say about the Government flop on refugees tomorrow.

Newspoll today

2005-05-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

The latest newspoll, released today and surveyed on the weekend, has the Coalition ahead 53-47 on two-party preferred and widening its lead on primaries by 47 to 37%. This is in spite of the disunity within the Liberal Party regarding the asylum seeker issue and the announcement of industrial relations changes.

My interpretation is that neither issue has had traction within the general electorate. In terms of the former, the electorate has become so disengaged with worker's rights and so preoccupied with mortgage interest rates that people think it's a non-issue. In any case the changes would not affect the ordinary worker until next year at the earliest. As far as asylum seekers go, I believe that the majority of Australians believe in mandatory detention and would probably prefer a more hardline and less humane approach to their treatment. The issue of the Prime Minister standing his ground and refusing to allow children into the community would have increased his standing. This is disturbing as it presumes the nation has become shorn of its compassion and humanity, and it makes the task even harder for Labor to gain any moral ground on this issue without risking an electoral backlash. We must now campaign on two fronts: adopting a more humane approach on principle, and guiding the general public towards a stance of more compassion, equity and humanity, just as the Coalition has been so successful in manipulating the electorate in the opposite direction.

O what a week - Political commentary (long)

2005-05-29T01:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, the Howard Government introduced a plethora of industrial relations reforms that will alter the fabric of Australian society. Businesses with less than a hundred employees (excluding artificially made sub-contractors or sole traders) will be exempt from unfair dismissal laws, making 99% of workers in private enterprises subject to termination without recourse to judicial arbitration. Superannuation will be removed from awards, effectively diminishing the compulsory real rate of pay in a wages package. Award rates will be adjusted by a "fair pay" commission, made up of representatives from the business community (read: exploitative capitalists), academics (read: those in the Flint and Windschuttle league), and the token malleable union official.

I believe that wages will not fall in absolute terms immediately. It would be electoral suicide for the Howard Government to allow an absolute reduction of the minimum award rate. Rather, future adjustments by the "Fair Pay Commission" will not keep up with inflation, hence resulting in a fall in real wages long-term. Many workers will be able to absorb the impact for a while, before massive increases in poverty lead to social disaster and eventually the loss of civil liberties. For the average worker, it will be like being subject to daily venesection: there will be a latent period before clinical poverty develops. And this suits the reactionary forces best: for they are less subject to immediate electoral damage in the short term.

Today, a poll issued by ACTU found that 70% of those surveyed did not support the Howard Government's IR "reforms". 600 people were polled with a margin of error of under 5%. This is the first significant litmus test for these regressive changes, but any partisan survey needs to be treated with skepticism. With the IR changes, Schapelle Corby's conviction and the ongoing immigration bungles included, it will be interesting how the next Newspoll (due on Tuesday) pans out. The last poll had the Coalition in front 51-49 on a 2pp basis. At this stage I am predicting little change.

Today's news indicated that Tony Abbott has mentioned that humanity, rather than Christianity, guided his political views, including opposition to abortion from a sanctity of life viewpoint. Today he also stood by Vanstone and the present system of mandatory detention. I find it perplexing to think that to lock up children for their entire short lives in electric-wire prisons with little or no stimulation or to deny funding to stem cell research which could save many people from the scourges of degenerative diseases is guided by humanity. The most disturbing thing is I predict he will become the next Prime Minister.

*******

Last night (Saturday) I had the prievlege of attending the New Internationalist Bookshop's annual Quiz Night. NIBS is situated in the Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets, Melbourne. Sebastian Prowse-Left-Focus and associates have provided a valuable resource for all progressive people in Melbourne. It was a fun night and it was good to see a number of my ALP Socialist Left turn up. The questions were, in general, quite difficult but this wasn't surprising considering the general intellect of the audience!

Afterwards I had a chat to some of the people involved with Socialist Alternative at Melbourne University, which constitute the "ultra-left" in terms of student politics. I found it disappointing that they considered the ALP, which objectively provides a much better alternative than the present regime, on a par with the Coalition to be opposed. I found theirs to be a vision of an unattainable utopia which, by their own admission, has not been achieved in any one country on the planet to date. Some of these people were apparently unwilling to consider the merits of other people's viewpoints, even when it seems a laydown misere that the general population do not share their specific model of society. By inciting extremist, unrealistic, unelectable and dogmatic views, they can only serve to split the progressive vote and hence unwittingly help the reactionary forces.

Under Australia's electoral system, the only party in the "nominal left" that is capable of forming a government is the ALP. Current factional alignments and breakdowns have made many policy positions of the ALP less than optimal (although still always far more amenable than the Liberal Party). I believe that if people yearn for real change, they should, like myself, get involved with the progressive wing of the ALP and campaign from within to move the party in a leftward direction and further differentiate itself from the Coalition as a moderate, compassionate, humane and electable social democratic party. While the Greens can take some credit as a force to keep leftist initiatives on the agenda, they also serve to split the left vote with 30% leakage of preferences to the Liberals. Only a major party has any hope of forming a government and hence only a major party has a hope of making any difference to this nation.

To join the Labor Party please go to: www.alp.org.au

Naomi Leong and the neighbours in Mongolia

2005-05-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Howard Reactionary Forces have been forced to release 3-year-old detainee Naomi Leong and her mother Virginia into the community, albeit only in the limbo-like state of a bridging visa, without access to the right to work or welfare benefits. The poor girl has spent her whole short life incarcerated in barbed wire, unable to get a glimpse of the butterflies or taste a Nasi Goreng.

Most deploringly of all, this token gesture came only over the back of Malaysia offering the Leongs a permanent haven, although Virginia rejected this for she would not able to see her other child who is living with his father in Sydney. Malaysia is, among other nations, not a place noted for its liberal civil rights, the then Mahathir Government having jailed the reformist Amwar Ibrahim only seven years ago and a nation where homosexual acts are still punished by custodial sentences. For a first-world country like Australia to stoop so low to only wake up when its human rights might be seen as inferior to Malaysia's just shows how bereft of fundamental humanity the present regime is.

Petro Georgiou, the Liberal Member of Georgiou and perhaps less evil than most of the others, has tabled a bill to release women and children (and men after 1 year if they no longer posed a threat to harm) from the detention centres but Howard has said he remains opposed and strongly supported Vanstone's administration of her portfolio, despite the bunglings of the Rau and Solon affairs.

Many thousands of miles away, the long-suffering people of Mongolia, a proud state who once ruled most of East Asia and neighbours of my kinspeople, finally had something to cheer about as the wild geese flew and the red sun shone brightly on a warm spring day in Ulan Bator - the City of Red Heroes. Last year's legislative elections there ended in deadlock with the ex-communist and now social-democratic Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and the conservative Democratic Coalition failed to gain majorities and entered into a tenuous power-sharing agreement. After seven decades of authoritarian, but stable, communist rule, privatisation and capitalism left the mostly nomadic nation a most unequal society. Wealthy people chat away on their Smartphones and Treos whilst orphans take refuge in the city sewers during the long, dark winter. In this week's presidential elections, the MPRP won with a clear mandate getting 53.4% of the vote and providing a socialist President with power to veto legislature and shift the nation's focus to social spending notably health and education.

I hope to do the Trans Mongolian railway from Beijing to UB one day in the not-too-distant future!

Budget, Hollingworth, Thornley

2005-05-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

I read today that the appalling tax cuts delivered squarely at the wealthiest sections of Australia are to be opposed by the ALP. The reactionary media are already reporting it as a blunder and a lost opportunity to exploit disunity by Labor and yesterday's front page of the Sydney telegraph hailed Costello as a hero to low-paid workers. What crap! Pay the zillionaires ten times the amount and you don't have to have a PhD to work out how inequitable it is.

Last night, I attended the Evan Thornley lecture on the economy delivered by the Fabian Society. The main theme was Australia's myopic and consumption/debt driven management of the economy. We all know this is unsustainable in the long run and we have one of the worst indicators of economic performance in the developed world. However, I think selling the long-term, visionary statements to the public will be much harder than the current short-sighted, hip-pocket agendas of the reactionary forces. Mr Thornley is an intelligent person and would be an asset to the party, in my view, if he took up federal politics.

Yesterday's Murdoch media reported that the former Governer General of Australia, Peter Hollingworth, was suffering from "severe clinical depression" and that the child abuse affair has clouded his life, with organisations no longer willing to have him as patron or speaker. He categorically denied covering up child abuse within the clergy, but as a religious leader, he should clearly have known when these incidents occurred if they did. He was reported to lament a shift towards a "secular, anti-religious, unforgiving" society. Let's just put that in perspective and consider how forgiving religion has been in the world since antiquity. Countless people have been persecuted to their deaths for not adhering to the prevailing religious dogma. Religion continues to be a vehicle for the reactionary forces to persecute minority groups such as non-heterosexuals through interpreting the Bible in their own way and to impede revolutionary, life-saving research on stem cells and other topics. This clearly shows that Hollingworth is not in a state of genuine remorse but rather simply going into victim-complex as a defence mechanism for his own inadequacies.

And might I just mention, that he continues to leech from taxpayers a generous life pension greater than the average Australian's pay packet with a myriad of fringe benefits such as an exclusive apartment in Melbourne's CBD and multiple first-class international and domestic flights per annum.

I have been diagnosed with clinical depression before myself, and I wish it upon no-one. But in the context of the above information I've no sympathy at all. Maybe going to visit Baxter Detention Centre might go some way to treating his numbness to the issues of the real world.

Costello's appalling 10th budget

2005-05-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

The Treasurer, Peter Costello, has handed down his budget for the next financial year.

And what a deplorable budget it is. Tax cuts purportedly to all, with a miniscule reduction in the lowest tax rate (from 17% to 15%), but a huge increase in the threshold for the highest two rates. The top rate of 47% will now apply only to those earning above $125K per annum - something that three percent of the population reaches at the moment.

The net result is a huge boon for the wealthy and precious little for the poor and the middle-income masses. Single mothers will now be forced into work, making their already difficult lives even more hard. Rules for the unemployed will be tightened with more draconian penalties - and people with disabilities will be forced into part-time work for next to nil net gain in income.

The taper rate for welfare recipients will be reduced from 70% to 60% - which, combined with existing tax rates, equates to an effective marginal tax rate of 66% (compared to 81.9% earlier). This is of course still a grossly unacceptable figure and an absolute insult on the unemployed (often involuntary), the disabled and the student community. It is nothing short of an international disgrace that university students now face astronomical fee debts and higher marginal tax rates than millionaires who actually pay tax legitimately without evading the system.

The scrapping of the superannuation surcharge will benefit only the most wealthy of those employed (income of 100K and over), including very successful businessmen, and perhaps some doctors and lawyers.

Mr Costello's tenth, and unlikely to be last, budget has failed middle Australia and more importantly the sections of the community that are most vulnerable whilst pouring vasts sums of dough into those who don't need it. Shame!

The latest AC Nielsen Poll has Labor in front on 2pp by 51% to 49%. Costello is garnering little support as PM compared to Howard, but this is to be expected as the public have not had Costello as PM to compare. And after this shameful budget, this is perhaps hardly surprising.

UK election: Labour wins

2005-05-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, the United Kingdom went to the polls. The Labour Party were given an unprecedented third term in office, albeit with a reduced majority.

With 645 of 646 seats declared, the Labour Party has captured 355 seats, giving it a majority of 64 in the new parliament. This means that it can no longer assume the Commons to be a rubber-stamp chamber and will have to watch very carefully for rebellion within its own ranks. The progressive factions of the party were not pleased with the decision by Blair (or rather the more technically correct spelling, Bliar) to go to war or impose top-up fees for university students. Many of their members decided to vote on their conscience on these issues, and Labour with a much reduced majority must now listen to all sides of their own spectrum.

The Conservative Party are on 195 seats, five short of Michael Howard's declared "minimum goal" of 200. They have made little inroads with the electorate and their vote is the third-worst on record in a century, after 1997 and 2001. They may have won back a few seats but it was mainly because Labor's votes leaked into the Liberal Democrats rather than the Tories picking up much ground themselves. They still need to pick up well over a hundred seats to get anywhere near a working majority next time, and I don't like their chances. M. Howard has quite rightly decided to step down as leader, and good riddance to a Thatcherite rodent who was happy to pander to the electioneering strategy of the Tampa architect Lynton Crosby. For both of you, the message is you have FAILED!!!!!!!!!

The Liberal Democrats increased their share of the vote to its highest level since the days when they were a major party in the nineteenth century, and picked up eleven seats net compared to last time. I wish them well in contributing positively in the battle to bring Britain forward, not back.

Overall, the election is a wonderful victory for the parties of light and the British people have staved off darkness, we hope, for another four or five years. The fact that a more "normal" majority and make-up has materialized this time round will mean that Bliar no longer has absolute power in terms of his party policy and must consult more often with his colleagues and the British people, as well as needing to maintain better working relations with the Liberal Democrats and the minor progressive parties, if they are to be ensured a fourth term. It will also shorten the tenure this time before he passes the baton onward to the more socially amenable Gordon Brown. And with the "nominal left" (Labour, Whigs and other small social-democrat parties) holding more than 420 seats, the mother country is in good hands and the sun will shine a bit more brightly in the land of Australia's forefathers.

Long live social democracy in the land of hope and glory!

Polls and portents

2005-05-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

The latest polls have come out in their usual fortnightly procession. Newspoll shows the Coalition in front 52-48 on two party preferred (36-48 on primaries). Morgan poll has the forces of Evil ahead 42 to 40 on primaries, but Good maintained the barest of leads when preferences were taken into account.

Today's Herald Sun shows a less-than-flattering drawing of the fugitive businessperson Andrew Landeryou who was once president of MUSU and who has been an eminent figure in annals of the Labor Right. He has vowed to reveal shocking information into the doings of Solomon Lew whom he and his family are now in a financial mess to. It seems from the paper that the blog by "Andrew Landeryou" on andrewlanderyou.blogspot.com is genuine. From my own personal point of you I have no compunctions with Mr Landeryou revealing the supposed sins of Mr Lew. Mr Lew was personally responsible for the failed rescue of a zillion Ansett Workers who were duped into believing he might be a saviour for their dying jobs and as such I have little sympathy for him. I would happily gloat if they simply disemboweled each other on the legal battlefield.

Yesterday I attended the Ben Chifley Memorial Lecture, delivered at Melbourne University and organised by MU's ALP club. The keynote speaker was Peter Garrett, the federal MP for the seat of Kingsford-Smith. In a well-written speech he was able to reach out to the audience in a number of ways: to summarise the achievements of Ben Chifley as a historical figure of democratic principles in the ALP and Australian politics generally, and the current state of affairs where the reactionary forces are actively seeking to manipulate and deceive the people of Oz shamelessly for political gain, in the process undermining the democratic processes. Dissenting voices are silenced through withdrawal of funds and even the more liberal elements of the Liberal Party are being continually expunged.

This weekend has been overshadowed by speculation regarding Liberal Party leadership. Howard has effectively signified that he will stay on indefinitely as PM. To me this comes as no surprise and is a move to sideline Costello from the potential future leadership as within the Liberal Party he is considered a moderate. Howard would like to continue through the next election with a long-term goal to install someone who is as socially regressive as he to continue his legacy of turning Oz into a extreme free-market, user-pays, ultra-conservative, mysogynist, homophobic and racist dystopia, with all thoughts of reconciliation and republicanism banished. The best candidate for most, if not all of these would be the present Health Minister, Tony Abbott. If Mr Costello had any cerebral cortex, he should know that in the present state of affairs he has sweet f--k all chance of beating Howard in a challenge, and the opinion polls all indicate that Howard has vastly more electoral traction than Costello. He therefore needs to shut up and wait for Howard in the meantime to hand over the reins, even if this is a very long time. Doing the wrong thing could well result in political oblivion for him, which I believe is Howard's real goal.

I have been most fortunate to be able to join the campaign team for the seat of Wairarapa in the upcoming federal election in Aotearoa (NZ). I would like to thank Mrs Denise Mackenzie, the candidate, and Miss Georgina Beyer, the sitting member and NZ's "reverse Pauline Hanson" (she appeared on Dancing with the Stars!) for their gracious permission for me to be involved in the upcoming battle and I am sure for me it will be a most cherished learning experience and a step (made out of Aotearoa Giant Kauri wood!) on the Ladder of Opportunity.

Happy Birthday to Me

2005-04-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

I am 25, but I am still an unemployable, impoverished and partnerless piece of protoplasm.

Last night I went to a forum with Barry Jones, national ALP president, who performed a wonderful and objective treatise of the federal party's many woes. I was very informed, but left the event feeling rather despondent and bereft of hope. Perhaps when I get my degree, I will sail off to the uttermost East, to a far green country where the flowers of modern socialism still bloom in a swift red sunrise.

Spent my birthday fighting with Centrelink over back payment and their own idiotic incompetence and having to do a summative viva voce exam with three hours' notice. I hence wasn't able to go to the big anti-VSU march, but I did make an appearance at the subsequent culture festival.

And now I have a stupid stats assignment due tomorrow......

Newspoll and other morsels

2005-04-18T22:44:00.000-07:00

The latest Newspoll as published in the right-wing Australian showed that John Howard's approval rating has dropped to the lowest level in months, and is now under 50% for the first time in a long while. However, in party terms, the news is not so good: the Coalition leads Labor 45/39 on primaries and by 51/49 on two party preferred. I believe that there has been some variation recently within the margin of error and that the Coalition has not genuinely improved its position over the last two weeks, but that the fourth-term honeymoon is definitely over for the Government. However, these figures show that voters are by no means convinced that they should change sides, and, much work needs to be done in both putting forward Labor's own policies and providing more than a modicum of accountability in a rubber stamp senate.

In other news, Erik Locke has resigned as the state secretary of the ALP, most likely to be replaced by the deputy Stephen Newnham, with whom I have only ever had one interaction and well, on whose morals and ethics I shall abstain from commenting. Meanwhile, the reactionary forces' Herald Sun today showed a picture of Kimberley Kitching, ex-President of Carlton Branch who has publicly declared herself bankrupt and admitted she would lose her $3M parkville mansion due to the gigantic sum that she now owes to businessman Solomon Lew.

Indian Giver!

2005-04-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

So the Howard Government cuts the Medicare Safety Net that they said in an "iron-clad guarantee" that it would not be touched during the election. The costs have blown out and Tony Abbott knew! Indian Giver! And now the interest rates are more than likely to rise again next month!

The latest polls have shown a favourable move in the figures with the latest Newspoll, Morgan and Nielsen Poll all with ALP in front on 2pp. But this is two and a half years from an election and I'm sure the Howard Government can fool the wretched people when the time comes with simple bribes.

There will be a huge demonstration beginning at 2pm outside the State Library against Voluntary Student Unionism on Thursday week, 28 April - my birthday. Make sure as many of you as possible are there.

A time of reflection

2005-04-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

During the Easter Break, I went to Dinner Plain to do some hiking. Unfortunately, on the first morning I woke up with a severe malaise that turned out to be a virus. I spent most of the rest of the week that we had off from uni, in bed. :(

I was, however, able to attend the anti-branch stacking meeting outside the ALP's head office in King Street. Later that night I went to Richard Wynne's fundraiser where for the first time, I met Premier Stacks! Shaking his hand felt as though years of depression, anxiety, apathy and pessimism were washed away. I have become exalted and cleansed!

On the weekend I went to the Anti Cancer Council's 24-hour relay walk to raise money for cancer research. As a future health professional I felt it was fitting for me to participate in this annual event for the first time, and under the ALP umbrella with Moonee Ponds branch. It was certainly good to see a number of comrades from the student body turn up too.

This week has been overshadowed by the death of Pope John Paul II. He was a person who made great strides at international diplomacy and was instrumental in liberating many of Eastern Europe's people from dictatorship and autocracy. However, his views on many social issues, such as abortion, contraception, the ordination of female priests and queer rights, leave much to be desired and in many parts of his domain developments in these areas have regressed. Soybean Stew recognises the third-longest serving pope as a great elder statesman and regrets to hear the news of his passing.

As some of you probably know, I will be going to Aotearoa (New Zealand) this July to help the NZLP's campaign for a third term. The National Opposition has so far not shown any appreciable momentum and the latest polls are showing things travelling well. However, I was saddened to hear that John Tamihere, who was Youth Affairs Minister, gave an interview to Investigate magazine denouncing PM Helen Clark as "emotionally unstable, falls apart" and fellow comrades as variously "smarmy", "tosser" and "queer". He also said that the New Zealand Labour Party was too politically correct and anti-men, "sucking to the unions" and in the interview also praised National Party members.

This shows that one must never waver to complacency or brashness and the extent of damage that disunity, however "minor", can cause. Mr Tamihere was chosen as a minister for his contributions to the Maori community and his supposed economic credentials as a leading (though sometimes controversial) member of the NZLP's "right faction" (although they are nowhere near as factionalized as the ALP). However, his outburst has clearly shown that he does not espouse real Labour values and there is no place for him in a progressive party like the NZLP. He should promptly apologize for his actions and resign.

I'm getting a new PDA - the Asus A730W with 128mb of RAM with 1.3MP cam and Bluetooth and Wifi - woohoo! A far cry from my family's first computer - a compact Mac that served us faithfully for the better part of a decade.

US Schiavo case; refugees

2005-03-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

The latest Newspoll has the Howard Government ahead 54-46 on 2 party preferred, equalling the ALP's lowest result since the last Election. Coalition is ahead 47% to 36% on primaries.

A federal judge has refused to order a feeding-tube be replaced to keep Terri Schiavo, a 41-year-old woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990, alive. Court-appointed doctors have consistently pointed out that there is absolutely no chance for recovery, as her cerebral cortex, the area most vulnerable to hypoxia, has been destroyed. Even though she may make noises or even grasp someone's hand on contact, these are primitive reflexes and are not indicative of any awareness on the patient's past.

Conservative Christian right-to-life groups and Republican politicians have been relentless in attempting to draft legislation aimed at keeping Ms. Schiavo alive. The fact remains that Schiavo herself has mentioned in the past not to keep herself alive if her quality of life was deemed unacceptable and that this kind of politicking amounts quite simply to forcing one's own religious views on another. In a survey carried out today 67% of respondents believed that the aforementioned groups carried out their actions for political gain while only 19% (misguidedly) thought that they moved for Schiavo's benefit.

I belive that it would be an extremely difficult time for Ms. Schiavo's parents. In this kind of situation it would be an overwhelming anguish to accept that your daughter was not going to recover; however, she has been in this state with no improvement for the last fifteen years, and, the resources that have been used to keep a lady in an unrecoverable position alive could well have been used to save the lives of many others (with an acceptable quality of life). Also, Ms. Schiavo's husband, who has long advocated that his wife be allowed to expire painlessly, has been designated as the next of kin and it seems logical and right for someone entrusted by the patient to carry out her wishes rather than have her parents interfere against them.

Back at home, the Howard Government has finally caved in, being forced, in part by its own constituency, to free 100-120 refugees incarcerated in detention centres who are unable to be repatriated to their previous homelands. These are limited to those asylum seekers who have been in detention for over three years. This amounts to a minimal concession after years of lobbying by progressive comrades in the ALP and humanitarian groups, the concession designed to invoke maximum political leverage to portray themselves as an entity of "compassion and humanity" when the real facts are that they will still be deported when the present regime deems it viable for them to be sent home (there is of course no guarantee that it will be really safe for them). Countless autocracies have made a habit of releasing certain prisoners for political reasons and this seems to be no exception.

My own family spent three years wrangling with the Immigration Department following the Tian'anmen Massacre of '89 in residency limbo with profound physical and psychological damage to my parents' health. The reality is that unless these asylum seekers obtain a genuine avenue to permanent residency that their, and their children's, health will continue to be grossly affected. And not to mention even 3 months in a detention centre is an unacceptably long period, let alone 3 years.

I will be away at Mt Hotham for the Easter Weekend and hopefully, away from the news too.

Woo-hoo for Werriwa

2005-03-20T02:38:00.000-08:00

In the gastrointestinal department of the Alfred I've certainly seen more than my fair share of pancreatitis.... So on that note I'll begin.

The by-election for Werriwa, the seat the the former Labor leader Mark Latham held, was held on Saturday (yesterday) with the ALP's Chris Hayes notching up a healthy 55.5% of the primary vote - more than two percent higher than at last year's election. Mr Young, the Liberal party member who ran as an independent, only managed a miserable 8%. However the high combined vote of the far right (AAFI, FF, CDP, ON) - in the high teens, is definitely a sobering reminder. Still, one must remember that at the last election this was the party leader's seat and to improve on a party leader's figures is a marvellous achievement. Well done!

Today's Sunday Age reported that the Howard Government might be finally forced to free 120 refugees who have been locked up for over three years! This would be, of course, a purely political ploy as an attempt to neutralise the compassionate arguments of the snivelling latte left. Apparently three of the Liberal's more moderate (relative) MPs have visited Baxter Detention Centre over the last few months and have attempted to make their party aware of the inhumanities that are concealed within. To incarcerate asylum seekers - effectively stateless persons with no place to go to except persecution in their own homeland - in one of the most inhospitable locations in the globe (Woomera has one of the largest temperature ranges in Australia, from -10C in winter to 50C in summer) for more than three years is an abomination of evil at its very core and an absolute disgrace. Later this afternoon Howard mentioned that there would be "no major changes" to asylum policy but the matter was "under review". We shall have to wait and see. No doubt this possible concession would not even be remotely conceivable were it not for the efforts of the ALP's Socialist Left and community refugee advocate organisations. I would like to say a special thank you to Anne Horrigan-Dixon and the Fitzroy Learning Network.

Australian Labor Students are having a tour of Parliament House at 6.30pm on Wednesday evening. All interested are encouraged to attend.