What I want for my name-day is a new government. By which I mean one NOT headed by the Coalition for Mediocrity and Selfishness.

Australia, do you think you could manage that? My name day is this Sunday, just so you know. As it happens, there will be an election between now and then, so…

All flippancy aside, I do hope we can get the Liberals out tomorrow. I don’t think the ALP is perfect, but the Coalition has shown itself to be purely destructive – paranoid, self-centred, xenophobic, consistently supporting the strong against the weak whether it be in healthcare, employee relations, or in their (our) treatment of the Aboriginal community, of migrants, and of refugees.

This government has made Australia less. Not less than what it could be – which would be forgiveable – but less than what it has been. Than the bare minimum of what it should be. I am angry about this. I feel shamed by our government. But most of all, I want to weep for what has happened to us. Perhaps the thing that makes me the saddest is that I have lost my idealism about government. I never expected government to be completely altruistic, but I did, for many years, believe that the majority of people on all sides of politics were acting in what they genuinely believed to be the best interests of the country.

I can no longer believe that any more. Not about Howard. Not about the Liberal Party. And I’m not at all sure about the other parties, either.

We don’t know what the ALP will do if they get into government. But we do know, we must know by now, what Howard will do if he gets another term: the same, and more.

Please, let’s not give him another chance.