more politix

[darren_stranger]

In case anyone hasn't read it, Thorfinn's rant of this morning is worth a read:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/thorfinn/30137.html

and on a more positive note, gothsuck pointed this out:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=15535

Labor Reveals Integrity Plan

'..Announcing their plan for integrity in office, Opposition Leader Mark Latham and the party's Senate leader John Faulkner said they were determined to improve on what they called the poor ministerial standards of the Howard government. "Labor is ready to govern and we will do so with high standards of integrity and accountability as our guiding principles," they said in a statement.'

You know, i hadn't thought of it before, but if the ALP is going to go for the kill on the issue of honesty and integrity as Howard's weak spot, then that is going to put pressure on them to act with those qualities themselves. That'd be nice for a change (and hopefully last longer than Honest John's supposed Code of Conduct).

Comments

[patchworkkid.livejournal.com]

- Strict guidelines on government advertising to prevent it being used as political propaganda.

Nice. That might undo the current (new) situation in which political advertising doesn't need to be fact-checked, yeah?

[thorfinn]

Thanks. And to everyone reading this... Seriously, if you're an Australian Citizen, don't turn off on the issue. Politics matters. You can and do make a difference by participating in elections, even if you're in a "safe seat". Safe seats have been lost before, and have been destabilised before. Even if it's just the latter, it matters, because that's a clear signal to the party that the individual in that seat is unwelcome to even their staunch voters, which means that individual loses party influence. Your vote counts, no matter where it is. Use it.

[octobrianaoz.livejournal.com]

Hmm, maybe. I live in a "safe seat" -- it's safe for Labour, in the Newcastle/Lake Macquarie area. I really wish there were no such thing as "safe seats", because it tends to be the "unsafe" ones that get the attention.

Nowadays I tend to vote greens. I used to vote democrats until they enabled the GST.

[thorfinn]

Mmm, I agree with you on the "no safe seat" thing... The problem is, I'm not sure I can think of a good alternate two-tier system (where one is proportionally represented, i.e., the Senate, and the other is more geographically focused, i.e., the House of Representatives).