The state of Australia 2013

[saithkar]

The commandments laying out how the 43rd Parliament of Australia would function were etched upon a stone tablet in the afternoon of September 7, 2010. This was when the ghastly blank of limbo that the inconclusive election result of August 21 produced ended. No sooner had Rob Oakeshott's epic and yawn-inducing speech finally lumbered to the (by

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[saithkar]

Thanks, this is sort of a brief summation of everything I've felt politically over the last three dismal years. Against the Liberal-Murdoch-IPA machine (good term, may have to pinch it) only those of strong will and firm conviction could stand, and if such an individual even exists in today's ALP they're either in hiding outside of the federal caucus.

And if one looks at how the campaign has further devolved since I penned this, Abbott has announced his admiration for Ronald Reagan and repeated the fiction about the Gipper "winning" the Cold War, the Coalition has announced that they will rapidly scale back oversight of religious charities and they've basically admitted that if they get in they'll cut anything they don't like politically (such as action on climate change) and blame it on the fake budget emergency which Australia doesn't have but they're insisting we do. If the Tories get in it will be goodbye to sound fiscal management and hello to middle and upper class welfare for the well off and harsh European-style austerity for the poor.

I guess we'll find out on Saturday night whether Joseph de Maistre is correct. Either way I'll be very, very dunk by then.