Q and A is over for the year and so is parliament. The beginning of christmas parties and meme’s with cat’s in santa hats are appearing all over the webbly net. On reflection I feel this year has been a struggle. I’ve dubbed 2012 Agro Year (for my over sea’s readers agro is slang for aggressive, as you may know Australian’s don’t like to pronounce entire words. See Arj Barker on you tube for further explanation). Everyone has been a been having a “What about me year” particularly in politics. I knew that Mr Tony Abbott was a disgrace but never in my wildest dreams did I think he was that low. The only thing Mr Abbott has proven this parliamentary season is that he is a poor sport and a dirty player.
The Prime Minister, Ms Julia Gillard has redeemed herself (somewhat) in my eyes. I think what she has faced and still achieved as PM is nothing short of phenomenal I was hoping for gay marriage rights to be passed for christmas, but something is better than nothing. Her speech in rebuttal to Mr Abbott’s motion re-kindled my long lost passion for women’s rights, so much so, I stopped calling myself a feminist (it’s such a dirty word) and referred to myself as a humanist. She re-lit that fire. I refer to myself as a feminist. I look at differently now of course. Back in my mid teen’s it was all Germaine Greer and co. I love them still, but now, I am not so impressionable. Now, I have learnt to think for myself. Which I believe was at the heart of the pioneer feminist teachings. To think for one’s self. To learn. The best thing about knowledge, is no one can take it away. Once you know something to be true (eg; The Theory of Gravity) no-one can make it untrue or make you un-learn it. Knowledge is true freedom because it leads to independent thought. I take this liberty to the extreme and cannot express to you enough, Dear Reader, how humbled I am to be a white, middle class Australian woman. Things aren’t perfect, but I can go to school, I can get a job, I can be PM is I try hard enough.
Ms Penny Wong has also redeemed herself in my eyes. I was shattered by her public statement that she would not support amendments to the Marriage Act to allow gay couples to be married. She was on the Pinky Shit List for a little while, but she won me back with her rationality (in all other area’s) and calm. That annoyed me too. 😉
The other big surprise for me is my sudden desire to see Mr Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the opposition even though that would probably spell and election defeat for the ALP. These feelings really bothered me. I am such a geek that the thought of actually being temped to vote Liberal kept me up at night. If he went independent, I would vote for him. Everyone keeps telling me he wants to PM-dome and while I know that’s true, there is a part of me that hopes he is bigger than the big seat, that he is an idealist and is in politics to actually do something for the people rather than arse kissing for the PM-ship. I know…I’m crazy. I have the paper work to prove it.
Then there is the behaviour of Mr Tony Abbott, Mr Joe Hockey, Mr Chris Pyne, Ms Julia Bishop and co. Early in the season, I was afraid of a Liberal landslide in the next election. Abbott was was amping up the witch-hunt on the sitting government and engaging all forms of muck-raking media that he could have at his disposal. One of his closest friends is the Editor-In-Chief of The Australian newspaper. So what a surprise that Abbott’s fear mongering rhetoric would be front page. When allegation’s of “The Wall Punching Incident” surfaced, Mr Abbott had political amnesia and claimed “I can’t remember what happened 20 years ago”. He wiggled and squirmed and he eventually bought out the family to somehow prove what a “good guy” he is. I laughed at Mrs Abbott’s statement and those of his daughters. What else would they say? A lot of commentator’s verbalised the same thoughts. Ms Bishop and Ms Sophie Mirabella backed up Mr Abbott’s claim’s even in the face of hard evidence of misogynistic and gender discrimination. I find it very hard to believe that these woman haven’t faced misogynistic and gender discriminatory behaviour. We all have. Maybe they don’t see it as that. Perception is everything after all.
The Alan Jones “Destroy The Joint ” comments and his repulsive comments about the PM (see earlier posts) lead to a national backlash against Mr Jones. Mr Abbott’s lacklustre response to these comments seemed, to this observer anyway, to confirm his bias to the conservative media that Mr Jones represents. My question for Mr Abbott remains unanswered. What if it were your father that Mr Jones was referring too?
Then the St John’s scandal broke, where several St John’s students were expelled from the university college because a young girl ended up in hospital after drinking poison at an initiation party. This behaviour didn’t seemed to surprise nor disgust Mr Abbott as he smirked through his comments on the situation.
Which pretty much brings us to the last day of parliament for the year. What did Mr Abbott and his side-kicks do? Use this time to ask the PM about a situation that occurred 18 years ago, which has already been through a judiciary enquiry in which the PM was cleared. Instead of actually being of service to this country he muddied the waters yet again.
My hope for 2013 is that Mr Abbott will be knifed by his own party and Mr Turnbull returns to front seat. I hope to see parliament return to a place of honest debate and less about trash media muck raking. I hope that Question Time will be about taking Australia from a white man’s paradise to everyone’s utopia. Where all are welcome and cared for…I know, I’m a dreamer.
Most of all, My Dearest Reader, I hope you are safe, content, and living what you want to see.
Lots of it
Pinky
The Mind and other confusions 