Friday, August 16, 2013

Abbott and Morrison find a deeper part of the barrel to scrape.

Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison today announced a new draconian and cruel asylum seeker policy. Rudd's leap to the right on this issue has allowed Abbott and Morrison to go even further to the right than they would originally have. Read the following from the SMH and it's painfully clear it's not about "saving people from drowning at sea" and all about using desperate people fleeing for their lives for cheap political points,

The Coalition has ramped up its hardline stance on refugees, announcing on Friday that almost 32,000 asylum seekers who have already arrived in Australia by boat will never get permanent settlement as well as stripping them of the right to appeal to the courts. 
The Coalition would also introduce indefinite work-for-the-dole obligations for those found to be refugees.


            ''The essential point is, this is is our country and we determine who comes here,'' Mr Abbott said.  
As part of the toughened policy, a Coalition government will scrap the right of asylum seekers to appeal to the courts, which in the March quarter brought the number of asylum seekers who were granted refugee status from 65.3 per cent to more than 90 per cent. 
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the Coalition would return to a ''non-statutory'' process, in which a single caseworker would decide the fate of asylum seekers.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/tony-abbott-evokes-john-howard-in-slamming-doors-in-asylum-seekers-20130815-2rzzy.html#ixzz2c5p2h8KT

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

AustraliaVotes 2013 | The Diaz Trainwreck

Monday, August 12, 2013

Why Labor's marriage equality stance is a con job.

At the end of the leader's "debate" PM Kevin Rudd pledged to introduce a marriage equality bill within 100 days days if re-elected. The ALP left and Rainbow Labor will try to spin this as a win for the equality campaign, especially now that Rudd is in favour but allowing a conscience vote will doom the bill.

Labor has a policy of binding their MPs to vote one way or another on a bill with threatened punishments ranging from a stern warning to expulsion from the party depending on if the policy is in the ALP National Platform and how strongly the National Executive feel about said bill. A conscience vote allows Labor (just as it did when Gillard was PM) to straddle both sides of the fence at once. Labor MPs in progressive seats can vote yes and say it's not their fault when it fails while Labor MPs in socially conservative seats can vote no.

Let's not forget in the past they've made an openly gay Minister (Penny Wong) vote NO to marriage equality because it was a binding no. They don't really care about equality, it's all about the politics and the politics of this makes sense but it's a disgusting way to handle it, especially with 70%+ of the country supporting marriage equality. The Government should NOT have the right to discriminate with anything it does. If they want discrimination when it comes to marriage they should leave marriages under the control of churches and only officially recognise de-facto/civil unions/whatever they decide to call it which recognises relationships whether same-sex or opposite-sex. 
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