GoonanismA Sporadic mix of the personal, political and programming

(here’s my first mandatory election post, please excuse me, I’m quite jet lagged.)

(an informative graphic from Indexed).

As we all know, 3 weeks ago Julia the Great became leader of the Labor Party. At the time I experienced the familiar wave of excitement I experience every time we get a new leader of the Labor Party. I become so full of hope and optimism. She’s from the Left, she’s done the hard yards, has important links to the Union movement and is Australia’s first female prime minister. How could this go wrong?

This time I really tried to ‘curb my enthusiasm’. I reminded myself of the ongoing disappointment that the Labor Party has left me with and that I’m sure to be disappointed again, but I can’t help myself, I got a little excited. I was even telling some German friends that I met up with how Gillard’s rise was great for Australia. I rushed to revise my position a few days later though as the policies rolled out: we will still be getting an Internet filter; an increasingly inhumane approach to asylum seekers; a absurd population policy; poor response to Climate Change and so on.

I began to get that other familiar feeling… betrayal.

At times I’ve heard myself say: ‘If Malcolm Turnbul was leader of the opposition I would consider putting the Libs above the ALP on my ballot paper’. That’s utter crap of course. Whilst I’m attracted to the progressive liberalism of the Liberal Party’s ‘Wet’ faction, the reality is that with the Libs in power there will be less spending on Health and Education, not to mention a further regression of Industrial Relations. My comment is really intended to point out that there isn’t much difference between the two major parties.

So how can I support a party that conforms to the popularist crap that the ALP does? I can’t. The problem is, that unless the ALP does conform to said popularist crap then they won’t be re-elected, which means having Abbott as PM which means I’m leaving the country (actually, I’ll be doing that anyway, but I’ll blame Abbott if I can).

Being the inner-city intellectual type, I’ve actually got a pretty good local (ALP) member (Kevin Thompson). There’s another dilemma: if the ALP lose Thompson there will be one less moderating voice in the ALP.

So once again, I’ll be voting Green’s this election and I’d encourage you to do the same. Not because I’m a particularly big fan of the Greens, I actually think they are conservative on a few issues, but because they are the party that most closely represent my views. In fact they are often the only ones that speak with any sense.

I’m depressed.

(On a slightly more encouraging note, it is good news for all that the Greens and the ALP have done a preference deal. I may also have a small crush on Bob Brown.)