Dear Australians

[thebitterguy]

Hi. I understand you've undergone a bit of a political shift recently.

Anyone wanna give me a quick note on what's happened, and how you're reacting? I saw a couple posts already (artbroken most recently) but would like to hear how things are going for our Commonwealth brothers.

Plus, I hear the guy who got turfed was Harper's political forefather, so that's just awesome news.

Comments

[anidada.livejournal.com]

I've an Australian on my flist -- she's overjoyed. :)

[lab-brat.livejournal.com]

My reaction... is good. Not delirious with happiness, but good. I think it will be a good change. I think we needed a change. Fresh ideas and all that. But I, like many other aussies, feel that this is less of a "win" and more like a "lesser of two evils". I honestly think most of us are just glad to be rid of Howard. I've actually only heard one person say we have just fucked ourselves.

But hey, we now have our first ever FEMALE deputy PM. -That's- a win.

[eynowd.livejournal.com]

A bit of a political shift? That's something of an understatement - about 1/3 of the sitting government lost their seats. That number looks like it might even include the incumbent Prime Minister, who is in real danger of losing his seat to a first time candidate. If that happens, it'll be the first time a PM has lost his seat since 1929.

Personally, I'm quite happy with the result at the moment. Howard, the former PM had become to much of a yes-man to Bush for my liking and had been putting in place laws which I felt had been screwing with the Australian way of life, something that he seemed to like to trumpet about. His hubris was starting to get far to hard to swallow.

I hope the incoming government dismantles some of the crap that's been installed and start listening to what the general populace wants.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Sounds all too painfully familiar to my mind. Here's to better days in Australia!

[thebitterguy]

Hopefully that does get done. I know it's been easy for governments to get kind of wacky in the last few years and start doing stuff that's out of national interest and character.

[-auntiesocial-.livejournal.com]

I did read that Peter Garrett,formally of Midnight Oil, one of my favorite bands, will most likely be given a cabinet position.

[thebitterguy]

That would be totally awesome.

[umario.livejournal.com]

He got it... kind of - he's one of two Ministers with environmental portfolios (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/garrett-stripped-of-climate-change-role/2007/11/29/1196037074839.html). Interesting spin on this one - Kevin Rudd's been saying that environment is too big for one person, and climate change needs to be highlighted separately. I'd agree with him.

[thebitterguy]

Do you think he's sold out, or are those the kinds of sacrifices someone needs to make to get change happening in the real world, and boy howdy who'd know that better than you?

[umario.livejournal.com]

Is it selling out if an environmentalist gains the perspective of the industrialist and realises that the world is a lot more complex and requires some work and some compromise and some costs borne by our countries and our industries to move towards lower greenhouse gas emissions?

If the answer is yes, then Peter and I have both sold out. But I believe that these sacrifices are necessary to get into positions of power, especially in the colonies (and even more so in that more rebellious ex-colony to the south of us). The question is if he is corrupted or just more realistic. I think it'll be the latter with him.

There are some things one has to accept as necessary and ugly compromises. Like - I've had to accept that it's gonna cost Canada a lot to reduce emissions, probably a lot more than the Germans, because we produce oil, and they don't (they only have brown coal), and about 7% of our economy is based on that industry (if I recall correctly). That doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything, but we have to accept that meeting long-term targets requires some changes to the way we do things, and accept higher costs for energy.

Check out what I wrote on the Beige today.