Aussie Politics

The comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, more in reference to those in the conservative parties that they put in the spotlight about their comments. However, yes, I do believe that The Age (and what I've read of SMH, considering they're essentially the same paper) is at the very least biased against the Howard government and has a tendency to cast federal Labor in a more positive light. State politics is another matter entirely, though, where incompetence reigns on both sides.

As for the Costello comments...it's rather hard not to agree with him, isn't it? Who of us wouldn't agree that those seeking to impose shari'a law on us in an undemocratic fashion should be booted out of this country? In fact, it's so obvious that stating it is rather pointless and only serves to put a demographic that makes up a whopping 1.5% of the country under even closer scrutiny than they already are. It's antagonistic and opportunistic, to be honest. I'm not sure if this is Costello's actual thoughts or whether he's just trying to pander to public opinion as the potential for a go at PM increases, but either way it was an unnecessary comment that's only serving to push the Muslim population even further from trusting this or any Australian government.

 

I don't know if it was, Hawk. You have to remember Costello is exceptionally little-L liberal on a variety of issues and I think this was more or less the government drawing a line should that kind of debate arise here. Frankly, it shouldn't alienate the Muslim community and the responses from Muslim leaders in Australia to his and the PM's comments have been nothing short of stupid.

Bear in mind, this is coming from someone who's been saying the cartoons have nothing to do with Islam and the riots nothing to do with the cartoon so much as politics...

E_S

 

So you'd rather I'd suggest that a newpaper that advocated voting for the Liberal Party was biased towards Labor?

 

Okay, so the biggest news story in Aussie politics at the moment after the train-wreck that is the Labor leadership and the AWB scandal is the fight over the ACT's proposed legislation covering same-sex civil unions.

Given that all the talk I get comes from here in the ACT, I'm interested to hear what people who live outside of here think on this issue.

 

That'll be the federal government throwing it's weight around again then? Like NT's euthanasia laws?

I thought the big news story would be the train wreck of the new industrial relations laws? Is there a collective noun for train wrecks?

EDIT: Wow, 4 questions and no answers! Go me.

 

Yes, Howard and Ruddock trying to sink anything that they don't personally agree with; yes, it's likely to end the same way since the Federal government can do whatever they want to our laws.; no, it's still too early in the piece for anything to have really happened yet (when you're the head of the ACTU do you say "We will fight" in a monotone with no passion? Seems the answer is yes these days); buggered if I know but you'd have thought we'd have heard what it was by now considering how Aussie politics works.

 

Well you already get to have porn, fireworks and marijuana. You can't get to have all the good stuff!

 

I'm not even following it at the moment. Politics has become interesting only when the ALP sinks to new depths of desperation, and they're at rock bottom now so it's not fun to watch.

Dingo, you're in the ACT? I may end up being there soon. Yay me.

E_S

 

Howard's response to the same-sex union was most telling to me, though rather unsurprising. I can't fault the man's mad skillz when it comes to running this country efficiently - given the global market, Australia's come through fairly well during the past ten years - but when he says "you don't equate a gay union with a traditional marriage" you pretty much know where he stands on the concept of homosexuality in general.

 

Fixed.

 

Dan, the vast majority of Australians supported the Howard government last election; clearly, overwhelmingly so. You may not like him, and would probably do things differently, but that doesn't undermine his broad successes in a variety of areas. You can't fault, for example, taking a stand against Indonesia whilst bringing us closer to China, as but one example. You may cite the "meanness" of Australians, but I think that was going to happen regardless as it's apparent in other countries. The IR laws, it's early so we can't tell. Certainly, they were broken before and needed to be fixed; and these laws step in that direction without quite getting there - but my point I guess is that most Australians, myself included, think John Howard has been a good leader and my main concern was posted here earlier in the form of an Economist piece.

Hawk; as regretable as the ruling is, I think the worst part is that it speaks for the wishes of Australians. I not only have no problem with gays marrying, I can't "cross the isle" in my head and understand an objection to it too. However, this doesn't prevent me from at least seeing most Aussies don't rate gay marriage as a huge issue and it didn't quite capture the public like it did in America, as we lack a "rights-based culture. (That is, most laws are framed in terms of what you can't do; America emphasises what you can do which creates a vastly different approach the notion of rights).

E_S

 

I guess my biggest issue over this is that if this legislation was being introduced in any of the states, Howard would be unable to block it. Civil unions are the states jurisdiction, and the only way that a Federal government could do anything would be to first state that a homosexual union actually is a "marriage" before it can use federal jurisdiction to outlaw it. But even though this was one of the issues on the table at our last election, because we are just a territory the Federal government can walk all over the wishes of Canberran residents.

 

I'm surprised the states haven't tried to legislate it yet, for that exact reason. I mean, I understand that Bracks doesn't have any real backbone to speak of when it comes to taking on the federal government, but with Labor still a dominant force in state politics I honestly thought they would have tried it by now.

 

I don't think that any of the other state leaders are confident enough to try it. I think most of the state leaders are too worried that a position on this could be detrimental to them at an election despite whatever data they'd end up getting if they polled on it.

Whatever else someone might say about Stanhope, he at least does believe in civil rights and equality. Admittedly he was also in an extremely strong position heading into the last election and thus could take controversial issues to the table and still win.

 

Ender, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the current leadership 'crisis'. From your perspective, what's going to happen, and what *should* happen?

 

Leadership "crisis"?

There are two people in this country who think they'd be awesome leaders, and nobody else agrees with them. One is Kevin Rudd, the other is Peter Costello.

Now, I like Costello, and I think he'd be a more moderate leader socially than Mr Howard, but he's someone who'd lose an election. Given the sorry, sorry, sorry state the ALP is in - they're not fit to run a cake stall, let alone a country - obviously Costello's timing was, at best, ill-opportune.

Costello does strike me as a bit of Prince Charles; he's waiting for someone to give him power on a silver plate.

Next election, the ALP will campaign on two issues; leadership (as in Liberal leadership, and sure as hell not their leadership) and the IR laws. Given that the former has been settled with Howard staying on and saying as much today on ABC's Insiders; and the latter will hurt the ALP because every instance they bring up as an IR "outrage" gets shown to be wildly exaggerated and inflated, I think the Coalition will return with a lesser margin.

E_S

 

Labor is no in a position to win the election, but the Liberals are sure in a position to lose it.

 

I would agree.

Polls from ACNielsen indicate most believe Costello's events of what happened, but want Howard to stay; and the consensus I got from peope on ABC's Insiders was that Costello just hurt his cause immeasurably.

E_S