I’ve lived in Australia for over 60 years (my whole life, on fact). In that time it’s been an interesting emotional ride when looking at Australian politics.
Overall, I’m pretty laid back (almost to the point of being comatose) when it comes to interest in politics. For me it’s a case of ‘no matter who you vote for you get a politician.’ I’ve just read Mungo MacCallum’s ‘The good, The Bad and the Unlikely’. It’s a short history of all the Prime Ministers from Federation to Julia Gillard. His book has largely tended to reinforce this position. However, there have been a few highlights.
I can remember being excited by the Whitlam years and despair when the elected government was thrown out by the Governor General. The cause of the despair wasn’t the actions of the GG but the fact that the Liberal party, led by Malcolm Fraser won the election by offering tax cuts. To my mind we were in the middle of a constitutional crisis and the hip pocket won out.
I was embarrassed (as an Australian and a sailor) when ‘little Johnny’ Howard (so called due to his lack of vision rather than a reference to his height) refused to allow the Tampa to land after saving a group of people from a sinking boat.
I was saddened by John Howard’s encouragement of xenophobia and his refusal to distance himself from Pauline Hanson.
I was proud when Kevin Rudd gave the “Sorry” speach as one of his first actions on becoming Prime Minister and I even wrote an astrological analysis of the two speeches (Rudd’s & Dr Brendan Nelson’s) – you can download it here.
I was excited by Australia’s leading role in stepping up on the issue of the environment: Franklin River being saved, Barrier Reef declared a World Heritage site, ratifying Kyoto, declaring Australian waters to be a whaling free zone and taking Japan to the international court on this issue and lots more.
As you can see there’ve been good and bad times and emotions. But I’ve never been afraid… until now.
As I wrote a few weeks ago (Congratulations Australia!) I feel like we’ve gone backwards in many areas. One example is that our government now has less women than that of Afghanistan – not really a country known for it’s great treatment of women.
But that wasn’t what sparked the fear.
That occurred this week when I received an email from GetUp! (GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations.)
While their main point is the destruction of the environmental, scientific and women’s portfolios, I had expected that. What concerns me is an article published in The Australian on Sept 23rd, 2013 entitled “Companies
to get protection from activists’ boycotts.
The article starts: “Conservation groups seeking boycotts of products linked to alleged poor environmental practices may soon be liable for prosecution under consumer law.
The move, which could severely hamper market-based campaigns by
groups such as Markets for Change and GetUp!, is to be pursued by the
Abbott government.”
This, to me is a significant threat to the democratic process. No longer will you be able to object to organisations (or governments) behaving in a way which you believe to be destructive.
We are already seeing this in the Victorian town of Temora where the townspeople are trying to have a McDonald’s stopped from building across the road from a school. The activists have been threatened with substantial law suits by Maccas. Based on the article mentioned above no one will be able to voice concerns or objections through fear of being sued and financially ruined.
One of the great things about Australia is that it an open and free country. You are free to express your opinions so long as you’re not advocating violence. If this continues to develop the way it’s currently going, the only ones who will be able to express an opinion will be those with HUGE budgets. That’s why I’m afraid.
Does this concern you? Am I over reacting? What do you think?