Speakers and crowd at the Equal Love National Day of Action
Yesterday I attended the Equal Love National Day of Action in Brisbane. I estimate that around 200-300 people attended, although I’m prone to overestimating when counting people. (For the record, I’m also prone to overestimating when catering for a party, so you’ll never go hungry at my place.) A number of my friends from Twitter were these as well and it was great to be involved in something that is very important and very now.
Something I feel needs to be shouted from the rooftop is that despite some media reports, the protesters were not all gay and lesbian people. Australians everywhere need to realise that straight Australians also support this movement and the right for same sex couples to get married.
Either: marriage is a religious rite, held exclusively by clergy; or: marriage is between two consenting adults. That is all.
I had never really thought about it this way until I read it yesterday. If it is the former, then as an Atheist my marriage is a sham and a fraud. If marriage is a religious rite, as the churches and other interest groups are quick to proclaim, then we shouldn’t have gotten married.
Natalie and I got married because we love each other and we wanted to proclaim that love to the world. We also wanted to officially record that we were committed to each other. We had a civil ceremony held by a marriage celebrant (Natalie’s godmother actually) and it was beautiful. It had nothing to do with God, Allah, Jehovah or any other deity.
If we are allowed to have a wedding and be atheists, then why can’t same sex couples (regardless of their religious beliefs) have this option too. We live in a secular world. Marriage must be between two consenting adults of any sex, any race, and any creed.
It’s a shame Kevin Rudd doesn’t see it that way, but there is something you can to do help.
There is currently a Senate Enquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009, the bill being recently introduced into the Senate by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young. (Readers will know that I don’t agree with the Greens on everything, but this is something I can get behind.) Make a submission to the enquiry and make your voice heard. Tell other people you know about this.
Let the rest of Australia know that this isn’t fair and cannot stand the way it is. Let those who think they are alone in their support know that they are not, so that we can all come together as one voice. Together, we can beat this oppression and bring about a monumental change to the rights of all Australians.
Let’s do this now. It’s the 21st century after all!
The Federal Government has announced the winner of the National Broadband Network tender process. Nobody wins! Yay! I’m sure you’re thinking WTF? right about now, so lets get into some of the details.
The current tender process has been ended and the Government will create a new private-public owned company to spend $43 billion on fibre to the premises. That’s significantly better than fibre to the node. Kevin Rudd calls it “Nation building”. I call it bloody awesome.
The company structure will be such that the Government is majority shareholder and the company will provide wholesale services only. No more monopoly held by Telstra – that surely has to be a good thing. Well worth $43 billion I’d say.
90% of premises in Australia are to receive this new fibre to the premises service, which offers speeds of up to 100Mbps. That is just amazing to think about, considering most of us can get 1Mbps at the most with current infrastructure. The other 10% of Australia receives broadband through “next generation” wireless and satelite services. Speeds will only be 12 Mbps. Only.
It stinks of Nationalism. I don’t care though. Years of neglect of the country’s broadband networks by the current big players means that I’ll happily have the Government own the new network. They intend to sell down their stake-holding in the company within five years (market conditions may vary this) so I’m not to concerned at all. Just give me good Internet.
The low point of the announcement was having Senator Stephen Conroy drone on about the benefits of the package. It seems Kevin Rudd has sidelined him yet again so that he can take the glory. We didn’t need him here now and we don’t need him to filter the Internet.
I wonder whether this will be a way the Government gets their filter into our homes. If they are the wholesaler, they can say “Hey, we decide what you can access. So here, have our filtered feed. Guaranteed to be free of smut and free speech.” That is one worry, but hopefully they will work out the filter isn’t going to work anyway.
The Government also announced immediate funding to get fibre optic backbones developed into major regional centres, such as Darwin, Broken Hill, Mount Gambier and Mount Isa. This is to be done as soon as possible, so hopefully these regional centres will get some competitive broadband services soon.
Perhaps Senator Conroy could use a fibre optic backbone. Might make backflipping easier for him when it comes time to back down from the filter plan.
(Thanks to definatalie for salvaging this blog post that I accidentally deleted – Nicholas)
Newly elected Premier Anna Bligh has come out fighting today in an attempt to crack down on the evil scourge of Australia, the Bikie Gangs! Reports of her announcement should ring alarm bells for any ordinary Queenslander with news that the new laws will strike “to the heart of the right of association.” This should worry you deeply.
“Why”? I hear you ask? “Won’t this just affect the criminal bikie gangs and not little ol’ me?” Wrong!
You’ve never heard of scope creep, have you?
Scope creep is where you have laws in place for one thing but through small changes in laws they morph into something else. Look at the internet censorship laws as a case in point. The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 brought into law that any content held overseas that was either Restricted Content or X18+ was prohibited (note: not illegal). Anything R18+ was fine – the ACMA could not add these sites to any blacklist.
Thanks to the Communications Legislation Amendment (Content Services) Act 2007, R18+ content now falls into this ‘prohibited’ category. Did you hear Kevin Rudd and Stephen Conroy running around mentioning that during the election? No. Did they even mention it during the Senate Committee inquiry/report for the bill? No. What about in the Explanatory Notes? No! (Graham 2009)
So what is to stop similar things happening with the new Bikie Gang laws? I don’t imagine Anna Bligh as a tyrant but what if someone else gets in who is? We have a unicameral legislature – that means we don’t have an upper house to play the important role of checking what happens in the lower house. We have just one legislature and what they pass is law. (Well, the Governor’s accent is needed, but that’s not really a problem if you can select your own Governor).
We need to crack down on the crimes that these Bikie Gangs are committing, not on stopping groups from congregating. So perhaps I could get into power and add the CWA to the list? If in a powerful enough position, any premier could do such a preposterous thing so easily with these laws in place.
That is far fetched, but lets extend it to terror groups. Should we ban groups of Muslim men from gathering together? What about Christian men who are considered a threat? Could we see political groups or other hardcore political groups sidelined through these laws? All it takes is another ‘crisis’ and we have the need to modify the legislation oh so slightly.
Once passed, it’s harder to get them off the books. We must stand up now – our rights are on the line. Together as a state and say NO to restricting our right to associate. You cannot nanny us, Anna Bligh and the ALP.
So it’s time for Election ‘09! ALP v NLP. Bligh v Springborg. The electors of Queensland, sick of the tired Labor government will do the only thing it can. Re-elect Anna Bligh.
Does that sound a little strange to you? Well it should.
You see I have always been a staunch conservative when it comes to my politics. I have voted Liberal federally every election since I turned 18 – except the last election. I just had to vote for Kevin Rudd. Was it my politics that had changed? No, I felt the government was tired. We needed change.
Public Transport is a major issue in Election (Source: mythoto@flickr)
The state government is tired too. Public transport is overrun and underwhelming to say the least, there have been a number of scandals involving ministers, nine retirements in the last few weeks and the economic ‘meltdown’ (which isn’t as bad as it could be) has thrown the budget into a spin. So why do I think they will win?
Look at the Opposition. They couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag. No one seems to take Lawrence Springborg seriously. Who goes around calling themselves “The Borg” for crying out loud? Yes I know we need a change of government badly, but can Lawrence do the job?
I’m really not sure and that makes me sad. So what can you do?
Get into the ears of your friends and neighbours. Talk about the real issues of the election, not the politicking and the pork barrelling that will come from the Federal Government’s stimulus package. Think about the schools, the public transport, jobs, housing affordability, climate change.
Think about health, dental plans for all, giving our kids the best chance of success. Why do we have to pick and choose just because the parties are always at two opposite ends of the scale? Why can’t we just pick the best people for the job and be done with it.
Vote for the best person to be your local member. If they are from the Greens, an Independent, Democrat (if they come out of the woodwork) or whatever – elect them on their ability. Even if you don’t agree with the party politics, vote for the best person with the best plan for your area.
If we all did that for a change, perhaps we would have a parliament that leads, rather than a parliament that squabbles and fights.
