Tag: federal election (Page 8 of 9)

Politics: Policy Party 2010 – The Australian Greens

August 8, 2010 / Catherine / 8 Comments

… and we’re up to The Australian Greens!

Full disclosure, here: I had already decided to hand out how to vote cards and possibly scrutineer for the Greens before reading their current policies (on the grounds that it is possible that there might be a smaller party that I prefer, but if so, they won’t be bothering with Wills, which is a very safe Labor seat). Having read their policies, I have not changed my mind. Senate preferences in Victoria flow to the Democrats, the Sex Party, the Radical Independents, the Secular Party, the people from Crikey.com, the Socialist Alliance (not the communists), and then to Labor. Which, of course, is where their preferences will end up, because none of the other parties before Labor are likely to get more votes than the Greens, and indeed, the preferences pretty much serve solely to demonstrate that they are Family First’s worst nightmare. Though the bottom of the ticket is reserved for the Citizens’ Electoral Council, the Climate Change Sceptics, and One Nation, with Family First occupying a positively friendly slots 50-54 out of 60. Incidentally, this pattern seems to have been followed more or less across all the other states, often with Labor placed directly above Liberal, just to show how dissimilar they find the two parties…

Politics: Federal Election – Meet Family First

August 3, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

So, we’ve had our (rather alarming) jump to the left – now let’s try a step to the right. Quite a few steps to the right, in fact, because group C on the Victorian ballot paper is about as close to the Christian Right as Australian politics gets while still being marginally electable – Family First.

Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

We believe Australia should be the best country in the world to raise a family.
* We are passionate about families and small businesses; two groups which do not have a strong voice in Parliament.
* We will promote family values and campaigns on the issues that really matter to families and small businesses. Issues like:
– Improving job security and workplace conditions
– Reducing unacceptably high petrol and grocery prices
– Helping Australians afford their own home
* We will lobby for sensible solutions to improve legislation and get the best outcomes for families and small businesses.

Politics: Federal Election – Meet the Independent Radicals

August 3, 2010 / Catherine / 1 Comment

Moving along in my donkey-vote, we come to Group B on Victoria’s Senate voting form, which is the ticket of ‘Independent Radicals’ Joseph Toscano, Jenny Warfe and Andrew Sadauskas. As none of them are affiliated with a registered political party, there is no political website for them as a group, but their Senate Voting ticket, which preferences the Greens, the Socialist Alliance (not to be confused with the Socialist Equality Party) and the Secular Party of Australia, suggests that this lot can be found on the not-too-insane borders of the left wing.

But who are these people really? Your intrepid reporter delved into the bowels of Google in order to find out…

Continue reading

Politics: Federal Election – Meet the Socialist Equality Party!

August 2, 2010 / Catherine / 4 Comments

One of the more enjoyable parts of election day for me is filling in my Upper House ballot paper. For those unfamiliar with the way Australia’s electoral system works, in the Lower House you vote for the one person who will be representing your area – which is usually several suburbs wide – and this is done simply by preferential voting; in the Upper House, you are voting for the five people who will represent the entire state you live in, which is much more complicated and is done by proportional representation (which I am not going to explain this time, unless someone really wants to know). The Upper House is therefore the place you are most likely to find representatives of smaller parties such as the Greens, the Democrats, or, heaven help us, Family First or One Nation, which means you get to decide exactly which nasty, mean-spirited little party deserves to be ranked dead last, and which tiny little party that you know perfectly well doesn’t have a hope in hell but you love anyway gets to go first..

The Upper House, or Senate, ballot paper tends to have a very large number of candidates – I think we have 60 in Victoria this year, and we sometimes have a hundred or more – and a fair number of political parties, too, most of which we have never heard of in our lives (which is where this series of posts comes in, but more of this later). Because most people sadly do not rejoice in numbering their entire ballot paper from 1-60, you can choose just to vote your party’s ticket, by selecting your preferred party’s box above the line. Your preferences then go wherever your party of choice decides to direct them, which is how Victoria got a Family First Senator in 2004, thank you so much The Australian Labor Party.

Anyway, since I do not, in fact, vote below the line solely to annoy the people counting the votes, I feel it behoves me to actually find out exactly what each party stands for, so that I can exercise my democratic rights in a well-educated, if slightly over-obsessive, fashion. To this end, I will be visiting the websites of as many different parties as have them over the next few weeks, reading their policies and their Senate Group Voting Tickets (often a very good way to find out what a party really stands for), and reporting back here. But, since one has to start somewhere, I am going to analyse the parties in donkey vote order, going from left to right on the Victorian Senate Form. Which means today we start with…

The Socialist Equality Party

Politics: Election Time!

July 17, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

The election was called today – the date will be August 21.

This means that the voting rolls close at 8pm on Monday.

I’ve checked that I’m enrolled to vote, and I am – are you?

Remember, if your name isn’t coming up as enrolled on this site, you need to update your details by Monday if you want to vote in this election (or even if you just want to avoid a $100 fine for not voting). You can update your details online, though if you have never voted before, you may need to go to a post office and show ID. On Monday.

Even if we can’t stand any of the candidates, this is our only way to influence the outcome – and the beauty of our electoral system is that, while it doesn’t always achieve the government everyone wants most, it’s pretty good at allowing us to avoid the government we want least (actually, with John Howard and George Bush out of the running, this becomes slightly simpler). Cold comfort, but still comfort of a sort…

… I have a feeling this journal is going to get quite political over the next few weeks…

Politics: A little reminder…

July 9, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

…that if you are Australian and have moved house or changed your name or other details recently, do make sure your electoral enrolment is up to date, OK?

Those silly laws about needing to be enrolled within 24 hours of an election being called are still on the books, and we really don’t know when Jules will call it, but the indications are that she will do so quite soon.

I won’t claim that I don’t care who you vote for, because that isn’t true, but I care much more that you are *able* to vote and that you *do* vote. If you aren’t sure about your enrolment, go here to check. If you know you aren’t up to date, you can download a form here, or get one from your local post office (which is also where you lodge them – very convenient!).

Our Electoral College – and indeed, our entire electoral system – is a national treasure. We should make the most of it.

Politics: It’s Time!

November 23, 2007 / Catherine / 0 Comments

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.

Politics: My first election day as a How To Vote Hander-Outer and Scrutineer

October 10, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

We’ve got Howard back. Worse, we’ve got him with an increased majority in the lower house, and an absolute majority in the senate. We don’t even have the Greens in Senate; due to the preferences of Labor and the Democrats, Family First is getting a seat instead. This is doubly annoying, because the Green vote was almost enough for a seat in their own right, whereas Family First were nowhere near the quota.

I’m not going into how disappointed I am. You can probably all guess this already. I do hope the US manages to get rid of Bush, though, or there is no hope for us.

Now for yesterday. Yesterday turned out to be a very long day indeed. While in the end someone else put up the signs at dawn, I was at the booth from 11:30am to 8:30 pm or thereabouts. I ended up handing out how to vote cards for nearly six hours straight – it would have been four, but one of our relievers didn’t show up, and the other one got a call from his workplace 20 minutes after he arrived and had to leave. So I was back on again. A sensible Catherine might have been less hyperactively manic in the first two hours, but I don’t know any of those…

Politics: One Day More!

October 8, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

(Sometimes, you just have to go with the Les Mis thing…)

This time tomorrow, I will be handing out how to vote cards for the Greens at Fawkner Primary. You probably know that already.

And I’d like Labor to win, with the Greens getting enough seats to have a chance of asserting a conscience. You probably know that too.

But this is the important thing. This is the thing I really, truly wish for about the election.

I wish everyone casting a vote in this election would cast it with thought, with intent, with an understanding of who they are voting for. No donkey votes. No voting what your friends or family or work say you should vote for. Consider, with your best mind and best heart, what it is you want most out of the options available, and vote for it.

If I had someone to pray to, that is what I would pray for. If I had the faintest idea how to focus magic in that direction, I would do so.

I don’t, so I’m just going to hope it as hard as I can, and ask others who read this to do likewise.

Of course, if everyone does this, we may still wind up with Howard. And I’ll really hate that. But that would be less important than the fact that we would have actually exercised democracy as it should be exercised. If we get Howard back because people aren’t thinking, or don’t care, or are lazy, that would be the ultimate failure.

If we get him back because the Australian people have really thought, really considered all their choices, really truly believe that he is the best option, then that is a victory. Even if I, personally, don’t like it.

Anyone who volunteers to hand out how-to-vote cards tomorrow is my friend. Regardless of what party they are working for. Because these are people who care about where this country is going to go for the next three years, and who are prepared to act on that caring.

And that is the most important thing of all.

Politics: Resources for Senate Voting

October 1, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I thought some people might be interested in this link:

You can click on your state, and find out who all the senate candidates are, including their political party, occupation and contact details (brave people!).

I find this very appealing, as a below-the-line voter; it’s always nice to know what people represent, and a certain amount can be gleaned about a person by their choice of occupation. In my case, for example, it is easily gleaned that I must be a raving lunatic – but I digress.

This is definitely much more useful than voting on the basis of people who have cool names – a tactic I have occasionally resorted to when unable to tell the difference between parties…

I’m also finding this page here a remarkably useful resource; all sorts of questions and answers about how Australian politics works, although I am mostly learning about how everyone else works… The organiser at the Greens meeting commented that the Australian Electoral Commission is a ‘national treasure’, and I’m beginning to understand what he means. I hadn’t realised today that not every country has a politically neutral group running the election – it would never have occurred to me that they wouldn’t. More and more about a certain election involving shrubbery of a dubious nature starts to become clear…