sydney journals :: latest entry
Following on from my blimey, my London journals, and strewth, my original Australian travel blog, I'm back in Sydney. Far out!
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Saturday, August 21 2010, 10:43
Election day: between uninspiring choices
It feels like it's been winter forever, but Thursday was a tasty 23C hint of summer in a week of 11s. But the grass is always greener; in the Northern Hemisphere, it's been too hot to handle; wildfires raged in Russia, 54C in Pakistan was a record-breaking high for Asia, and overall it's been the warmest six months in the warmest year in the warmest decade on record.
Here in Australia, it's the election that's hotting up, but the issue of climate change has been kicked into the long grass. Liberal Opposition leader Tony Abbott famously described anthropogenic climate change as 'crap', but confronted with public concern has managed to scrape together a climate policy which he clearly doesn't believe in. New PM Julia Gillard has proposed some kind of cop-out 'citizens' assembly' to come up with ideas following the shelving of former PM Rudd's scheme for trading carbon credits in the face of parliament earlier this year.
As with many issues in this election campaign, there is little vision or leadership offered by either party on any but the most parochial of issues. Consequently voters are turning to the Green Party which may double its vote this year and hold the balance of power in the Senate.
Another cause that the Greens support is same-sex marriage; and while Labor and the Coalition have avoided the issue where possible, voters have questioned Gillard and Abbott directly on the issue.
No-one would expect a conservative party to champion social equality, and former priest-in-training Abbott isn't one to challenge stereotypes. But many expected more from Julia Gillard; she is an out of the closet atheist (gasp), childless (gasp), and has an unmarried (gasp) de-facto spouse. She is clearly not a traditionalist, but it's clear that she has no intention of letting same-sex marriage become a potential vote-losing point of difference between Labor and the Coalition - even though polls suggest 60% of Australians are totally down with the gays getting hitched.
Instead, Gillard and Abbott are falling over themselves to pander to John Howard-inspired ignorant marginal voters who believe Australia is under siege from asylum-seeking boat people.
It's polling day today, and I can already see facebook updates from all my friends who've been queuing in the cool sunshine to vote, or who are wading through the 80-odd parties for the Senate. By this time tomorrow, the election will be in the bag.
Election summary from the Guardian: Australian election is a farce with much at stake
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