Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Remember a few years back when that journalist threw his shoes at Bush in a traditional gesture of contempt?  The scene was replicated by one of Howard's questioners, who hurled his shoes in Howard's direction, yelling "That is for the Iraqi dead"

"We need to do better in providing information to the Australian people, to help them understand that asylum-seekers are not to be feared, and that their numbers are small compared to the 50,000 overseas visitors who overstay their visas every year,'

This victory has proved that when we mobilise in numbers, we can demand far more from unsustainable Australian companies. Right now we're considering what more GetUp could achieve in the next few years.

Australia is a small country and we cannot afford to waste lives or resources. We have growing threats much closer to home than Afghanistan and we should be concentrating on these threats. We should be fighting real terrorists, not chasing ghosts or nation building in distant countries that are no threat to Australia.

A new dawn in Australian politics?

If, as expected, the conservative indies indicate in public and solid form whom they support very shortly, who will have the better chance of forming stable government and what will be the results?

"So what the committee is recommending to Australia is not only we completely remove the suspension - which we haven't yet done - but we entrench in the constitution a provision so that never again can race discrimination law be suspended in Australia." (Graeme Innes)

Had ALP policy allowed Julia Gillard to publicly and passionately slam Tony Abbott to the canvas on this issue, we may not be in the political deadlock we now find ourselves locked into until we go to the polls again.

The twenty first century is about collaboration. Unfortunately, our system actually works against collaboration. We demand differences in policies. We demand an entertaining circus, with each party at each others’ throats.

By the time I reached the front of the queue and received my ballot papers, I was finally convinced of what was the right thing to do.  Steeling myself, I walked straight to the slots and lodged my vote.

It never ceases to amaze me that people who should know better, criticise the NBN because it is not going to generate the sort of returns that private investors would be seeking. I wonder if Charles Todd’s Overland Telegraph suffered the same criticisms. If you recall it cost £480,000. But it was decades before the Overland Telegraph generated a positive return on investment. Annual revenues from telegraph traffic during the first decade of operation were only £12,000. (Mike Quigley, CEO of NBN Co.)

I do have a vision for Australia. And I won't be consulting the telephone book to refine it, and I won't be asking you to suspend belief unless it is written down. The Greens are the smaller party with the big ideas for Australia, up against the bigger parties with the small ideas. That's why, next Saturday, Australians who seek an assured, secure and exciting future, should go to the ballot box with a new purpose in mind and vote Greens! (Senator Bob Brown)

If everything  from a political leader's mouth comes from an arsehole, why not vote for an egg? Get a giggle from the Sunny The Egg campaign ad on Youtube and you'll be in the mood for Jessica Rudd's Campaign Ruby.

A special Election 2010 update from the Democratic Audit program at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

While Halliburton (name-morphing into subsidiary KBR) was co-ordinating worldwide infrastructure projects from Adelaide and assisting the Coalition of the Willing to invade Iraq, our State Government's leader Premier Mike Rann was taking advice from a prominent US Homeland Security Advisor named Scott Bates. Bates, a prominent architect in the implementation of democracy into post-war Kosovo, was rumoured to be Hillary Clinton's intended successor as U.S. President.

Democracy must be a constructive working partnership between citizens and the politicians they vote to represent them. Despite the cynical attitude of many, politicians are not installed by themselves. The quality of the politician ultimately depends on the quality of the vote. It’s up to us to ensure the political candidates we vote for are good enough to represent us.

The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, on how our democracy is working.

Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming - reviewed by Robin McKie of The Observer.

Laurie Oakes: "You told Malcolm Turnbull once that you were a weathervane. Does Australia need a weathervane as a Prime Minister?"

Is it possible to have prosperity that isn’t about rising income? A prosperity that would give us health and security, at the same time allowing us to participate socially with hope for the future – a life that gives us the ability to flourish as human beings on a finite planet?... We are social beings, not isolates. To be complete we need to free our imagination: our prosperity should be about caring for others – a prosperity of hope.

Well, Fat and Rude has finally done it: MALCOLM BRUCE DUNCAN INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE FOR WENTWORTH

An email from GetUp: Two days ago I wrote to you with a question: should we pursue legal action to defend Australians' right to vote? An overwhelming 86% of GetUp members voted yes - so just moments ago, GetUp filed our case for online enrolment in the Federal Court. In addition to this, we're filing a related case in the High Court of Australia challenging the constitutionality of the Howard Government's 2006 Amendments to the Electoral Act. This is the piece of legislation that led to the situation we faced early week, where people had only one business day to enrol to vote.

Taking a firm stand on one’s position with regards to their religious beliefs has, for the past generation or so, been an area where political attacks are generally considered to be a no go zone. This is a good thing. Australia has developed into a tolerant society, where people’s beliefs are respected. Why then should atheism be any different?

From the Other Side, in that great kitty litter tray in the sky, Claude comments on the 2010 Federal Election. Read on ...

The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, on how our democracy is working.

My first blog ever was a damp squib; deservedly so given the amount of effort I put into it. I've decided to give it another go for the reasons that there's a growing awareness of the subject and that next to climate change and sustainable population this is the most important issue facing us.

"Today, guided by my values, I want to share with you how I intend to move Australia forward to a stronger economy, with sustainable growth that delivers for hard-working Australians." - The Hon Julia Gillard MP, Prime Minister for Australia

Gandhi used non-violent actions to bring freedom to India. Maybe if we want to fight for a future for our grandchildren or bring equity to the children unfortunate enough to have been born in the third world we too will have to resort to non-violent action.

We were all glad to see the back of Howard at one stage, but now the People are calling on Rudd Labor, in no uncertain terms, to unpack its alternative and fulfill its promises to Australians, rather than just slumming with those interests whos aims are contrary to the ordinary Australian.

In the US, Britain and Europe, people who are the subject of an adverse security assessment are at least given the outline of the case against them, so explanations can be given to correct mistakes or confusions relating to the case against them, or even to dispel false allegations given by hostile governments."- Dale Mills