I’ve hesitated to write this post, because there’s an old-fashioned part of me that warns me never to speak about politics (or money or religion) in polite company. But I figure this isn’t polite company necessarily, and I do so want to say a few things.
I’m an ALP voter. I like their whole social justice, spend-money-on-education ethos, even if sometimes they are a bit dodgy about holding strong on those things. I hate the Coalition, like, with a passion. Rich people moaning, that’s what they are to me. (By the way, I’m not going to publish any comments from Coalition supporters, so don’t bother posting them. It’s my blog and I’ll do as I damn well please).
So then we had this election and WTF? W? T? F?
I know there was a lot of shit going down, but I have a horrible sinking feeling that gender played a big part in the WTF-ness that was Saturday’s election. First, when J-Gill took over, everyone was all like, “oh the union heavies put her in there”. Implication: women are always men’s pawns. Then, the media were all like, “this is what she’ll look like old!”, “this is what she looks like glamorous!”, “she has red hair!” Or, if they weren’t talking about her appearance, they were all like, “she’s going to move her boyfriend into the Lodge!”, “she’s setting a bad example for women on marriage!”, “she’s only got one piece of fruit in her fruit bowl!” I mean, FFS, people. F. F. S.
And then, because she knew she was already pushing shit uphill with a pointed stick cos she is a lady, she took such a conservative line on everything. Boat people? Really, Julia? Those 1500 or so poor, sad bastards that struggle into our country every year because they would rather spend weeks on a leaky stinking boat than stay where they live because shit is THAT BAD for them? And gay marriage? Really, Julia? As a defacto-living aetheist, like you give a shit about marriage-is-an-institution and God and whatever. I reckon she knew these were dumb, conservative things to say. But when you’re trying to get elected while in the possession of a vajayjay, I guess you try to appear as unthreatening as possible.
And then there’s Tony Abbott with his misogynist bullshit about virginity being a “gift” for the right guy. When do the ladies get their gift in the bedroom, Tones? Oh, by the way, I don’t want my gift from you. Unsexiest man EVER. (And yes, I can say that cos it’s MY FRICKIN BLOG).
And amongst it all “working families” “working families” “working families”. I work. I have a family. Is that me? Cos I don’t recognise myself in your anti-boat, anti-gay, let’s-just-wait-and-see-on-climate-change bumwank.
So now we’ve got what they deserved, a hung parliament. I kinda think WE deserved better. We deserved a viable alternative to the Tweedledee/Tweedledum BS that is the two-party lockdown. If God had meant for us to vote, he would’ve given us candidates.
Hexebart's Well 
Tony Abbott: mouth breather.
There is a very correlation between mouth-breathing and being a KKK member. We should have known when we first saw him speak. (mouthbreath) Ladies, your virginity (mouthbreath) is a (mouthbreath) gift to the lads (fap fap fap).
Oh, you said it so well. I’d cheer except I’m too depressed to cheer anything at the moment.
Pleased to see that good sense prevailed in our electorate and a seat that was won by the conservatives by 31 votes last election (after some votes we ‘forgot to count’ appeared from nowhere) is now back where it should be.
I couldn’t agree more with everything you say, Kim. My dad was a ‘boat person’ who came to Australia from Austria to get away from Hitler, only luckily for him, his boat wasn’t leaky. How short are people’s memories? Where is our humanity, our compassion?
And I hesitate to say this, being a woman, but I wonder how many women didn’t vote for Julia because of the way she dresses or does her hair or the fact that she has chosen not to have children? I wish she had been more assertive and not toed the conservative line on asylum seekers and the environment, but I can see how totally hamstrung she was. Like you say, she had to battle the opposition, the media and people who made judgements on how she looked and her anatomical make up.
Had to say I was particularly impressed with Mr Rabbit’s post election speech where he had to be patted on the back by his wife to be prompted to thank her…and then he thanked his “angel wife and his other children.” To me, the whole thing summed up his ‘respect’ for women, and particularly the ones in his own life.
We watched the entire election coverage with our 12 and 14 year-old’s who have been following the whole political process and it gives me a sense of relief to know that the future voters of Australia are compassionate, thinking people with an interest in what’s happening outside their own backyards.
Kim, you rock.
Awesome! Thanks for this – I’ve been feeling like shite most of the weekend, and you’ve pretty much summed up why.
2 days before the election I received a Spam email entitled something like “Does this make you angry?” – and it made me very effing angry – but not for the reasons intended. It was complete garbage claiming refugees were receiving 3 times more than the aged pension and vets etc, providing completely bogus figures – obviously circulated to incite more hatred against boat people with an imminent election. Grrr! Why do people feel threatened by refugees? Why? I just don’t understand!!!!
Now I am going to eat cake. Need comfort food.
Awesome post, Kim. You really summed up how I feel…shit! I still can’t express how angry and sick I feel. I want some of Julie’s cake as I have no comfort food 😦
Had 3 slices!!!! So now I get feel sick and fat along with bloody depressed!!!
send cake electronically, jules
Go, Kim! Love the anger in your blog post, Kim. Another great post by a woman who speaks her mind. Views held by many. This has been one dud of an election although it’s been good for the Greens which is a good thing. BTW, Kim, can you believe this–I heard a man interviewed off the street on the news in Caboolture a couple of weeks ago. He said, ‘Australia’s not ready for a female prime minister’. Vomit. Can’t believe the idiotic morons out there. This was the seat taken over by the youngest MP in the country–the 20-year-old LNP’s candidate. I think there was way too much of a big deal made about Julia being a redhead (derogatively, a ‘ranga’) too. Either way, a lose-lose situation now with a hung parliament. A minority government will be totally ineffective.
Well said Kim. I think we certainly got the election result that the Parliament deserved. This race to the middle made us victims of transitory reactionary issue-beating, where those least willing to stop for a minute and analyse spin ended up determining the result.
I voted Green (and I’d do it again!), and I think I did it partly in response to what you described as Labor’s (and/or Julia’s?) tactics for neutralising, as you observed, the extra (and clearly real) difficulty of winning office with a vagina. If they hadn’t decided to try to offend as few as possible in the centre-right, they wouldn’t have lost so many of us on the left.
The only positive I’m seeing so far is the evidence that there’s still (again?) a substantial left-leaning vote in Australia — a group of people who are willing to vote for compassion and/or the environment first, who don’t believe that 4% annual growth in GDP is the sole benchmark for national success. Maybe it isn’t a big enough group to win you a lot of seats, but it’s demonstrably big enough to lose you some. So, yay for that, I guess.
PS many extra points for use of the word ‘bumwank’ in a serious blog post.
Hear hear.
Hear, hear! Thank you Kim for putting every thought in my head (plus ones I hadn’t even figured out yet) onto your blog.
Heaven help us all if this misogynistic, arrogant, bottom-feeder gets in to power.
My poor mother was stuck at dinner on election night with a bunch of NLP voters. She had to leave early after comments like: ‘Look at the way she dresses. She can’t be our PM – she looks like a dyke.’ I kid you not. Wish I’d been at the table to poke one of those tossers in the eye with my dessert fork.
PS: Love Mirko’s comment about the mouth breather.
Well said, Kim! Your blog post is definitely written to be read out aloud. I too, take comfort in the fact that 50% of people in this country think Tony Abbott and his narrow-minded cronies would be a pox on this country. The other 50% of Australians who voted conservative? Mostly morons, uneducated, unthinking and/or those who get their information from the Courier Mail/Australian.
Hear Hear again Kim, god fricken forbid a woman *gasp*, who is not married *double gasp* and doesn’t believe in god *GASP* get into the top job. I also hate the Coalition with a passion, so glad you put this up here!!!
If the xenophobic, homophobic, technophobic sexist becomes PM, I may just leave the country.
And you have no idea how many of my friends are saying the same thing.
Both sides campaigned badly (responsively to perceived hatreds rather than like principled parties & damn-the-consequences), while the media (and social forum members too) seemed obsessed by celebrity-style details and arguments: neither Julia’s red hair nor Tony’s red speedos deserved the attention they diverted away from issues. Nor did we voters need political hacks from both sides waving placards beside our roads like they were pizza offers. I feel like I paid $9.99 online and my democracy (thin-crust please) still hasn’t arrived.
But then, this means we need to look at ourselves . . . we are the petri dish and culture that nurtured the growth of this organism. And we must do better next time.
beautifully said, ross
I love you Kim. Kim Wilkins for PM!!
I still can’t believe people didn’t vote for Julia because of the “backstabbing” of Kevin Rudd.
Um…what?
The man who said women going to universities were using that as an excuse to not have babies? The man who gave out a couple hundred dollars to lots of stupid people instead of investing it into something sustainable and that will provide for the future, not just the now? The man who went and did whatever he wanted because he was an autocratic, dictatorial dickhead? The man who was involved in the absolutely appalling Goss cabinet here in Queensland when they personally took an interest in the “Heiner Affair” and deliberately perverted the truth to cover the blatant inadequecies of the Department of Corrective Services?
Yeeeeeah.
On the other hand, how the fuck can you vote for the liberals? Tony Abbott, the monkey who thinks men should control the state of their women/chattel’s virginity and who is responsible (or who I’m personally holding responsible because of his opposition to RU487) for abortion becoming illegal in Queensland, even for medical reasons. Or Barnaby Joyce, who wants to ban A cup sized women from porn magazines because paedophiles might get off on them.
Gah…I need to stop talking about this. Just makes me pissed off >_<
Awesome post Kim, so well put.
I don’t follow the politics over there–I can hardly distinguish between left and right in my own country–but I do hope that you will never hesitate to write like this again. It’s unladylike to hold your tongue.
HERE HERE! well said Kim.
I have but one thing to add to Abbott’s flaws and that is his obvious ignorance about economic matters. I don’t understand how anyone from a financial background could have voted for the man. He doesn’t seem to know that the only way for interest rates to get lower is if the economy is not doing well, they decrease in response to less spending and borrowing, and then increase in response to how much is borrowed. You simply cannot have a low interest rate and a strong economy. douche.
To me the whole situation is sad.
This post just made my day (and made me laugh at an inappropriate volume at work). This election is a perfect illustration of the massive downsides of a two party system. I’m actually relieved that I’m not allowed to vote.
I voted for the first time. Whee. I didn’t recognise any other names, but that didn’t stop me from putting them before Scabbott.
His, Palin’s, and that Netherlands Shitbag’s followers can all fuck the hell off.
Lovely vent, Kim. I want to comment on the role the media had in this election farce. The Murdoch media has spearheaded a concerted anti-govt campaign for at least two years, and pretty much all the other media outlets have obligingly followed. This has left people with the presumption that the Labor govt was a disaster, when it was actually a pretty competent regime.
Waste, you say? Show me a program, public or private sector, that does not have waste. (Plus the private sector is better at hiding it because they are not as accountable.) As a public servant, I can tell you that the programs were some of the least wasteful I have seen. They absolutely (although not solely) did save us from a recession, and saved hundreds of thousands of jobs.
But to hear the press, you’d think they were spending like teen boys in a porn shop. As for blaming the govt for the workplace deaths installing insulation, exactly how is a govt *responsible* for a corrupt employer breaking the law and breaching OH&S guidelines, which are state matters in any case?
To paraphrase Goebbels, if you tell a lie often enough, however implausible it is, people will believe it
I would call Abbott the biggest fool in politics, except Fred Nile and Barnaby Joyce beat him to the punch years ago. Notice that the press almost never called him on his blatant lies? Rarely pushed him to explain policies? Constantly showed him as some kind of sporting hero? Liberal males (I know a few) have this strange misconception that he is *attractive* to women!!!! He reminds me of that creepy uncle with too many hands you were always fending off at family parties when you were a teenager.
But in the end, the media, while they toppled the most popular PM EVER, and have nearly toppled the most popular govt EVER, failed to convince enough people, but personally I think that is only because of the general unpalatability of Abbott. If the Libs had run Turnbull, I expect they would be in govt now. It goes to show the power of the pen.
beautifully said
Best rant I’ve heard in ages. Its great to hear someone voicing exactly what I’ve been thinking. I really enjoy reading your posts Kim, you’ve got a cracking sense of humour! Cheers!
Bit late to be commenting on this post, but I just was browsing through your blog after clicking on a link from Ian Irvine’s website, and your posts are fantastic!
What I found frustrating in this election was that my ALP friends ragged on me for voting Green because my electorate actually got a Green candidate in and they blamed people like me for Labor having difficulty! Forgive me, but when there is an election for which I have only three real choices (sorry Australian Sex Party, you were never in my list of possibilities), I went with the only party that wasn’t saying that I shouldn’t be allowed to ever have a child. So much talk about families, and just because I don’t fit the narrowly define standard “family”, I was left behind in much of the policy.
I actually think J-Gill is great, and have high hopes that now that she is actually in power she will do amazing things. After an election campaign which was appallingly lacking in any real grunt, I am happy to have the socially conscious ALP in power, and even more happy that the representative from my electorate actually seems like a person who will represent my opinions!
welcome to the blog, marcus
That’s just the funniest thing I’ve read in ages!
(better get back to my homework for this week and stop trawling blogs…)