(Note: To people who don't know about or follow Australian politics - the ALP, our party in government, have a national conference where members decide on policy. This policy is binding for members. This story evaporated in the weekly news cycle almost as soon as it appeared a couple of weeks ago, but is still worth following, if it ever resurfaces.)
When chasing polls means more than everything else
At the end of last week Lev Lafayette, a dude with whom I am acquainted, and a long-time member of the ALP's Victorian wing, served Julia Gillard. Sadly he didn't do this by busting some phat moves at her, to which she could only respond with a listless bit of badly strung together crumping. No, he served a letter charging the PM with violating ALP policy, specifically her handling of asylum seeker policy, a central plank of which is to support onshore processing.
Needless to say the few comments in response from the ALP have been of the 'Who is this guy?' or 'Well, we don't even know if he's a paid-up member...' variety.
I suppose we must give the federal ALP some measure of understanding and accept that off the cuff, no federal level member of a party will know every single member of their party across the country. Still, in the time it takes for a media outlet to ask for a written statement: 1) you could pretty quickly check, and 2) the familiarity in the letter with the intricacies of ALP policy, and the forms and cerements of following or violating that policy, would tend to indicate this isn't just some crank in a tin foil hat.
It's got to be obvious to anyone who's watched/listened to/read a TV, radio, newspaper or internet article, that the ALP are sinking in a mire of crap over their asylum seeker policies. On the one hand they are trying to out-Rambo the wingnut Coalition, and seek ever harsher ways of punishing starving, traumatised and tortured people to look tough, and on the other hand they are facing growing public outrage at their shamelessly cavalier approach to human rights.
We tend to forget that politicians, despite their big talk and bluster, are timid, frightened little creatures, easily shaken by a bad poll or headline, or even by a petal gently detaching from a wind-sullied daisy. After Emperor Palpatine... uh, sorry John Howard was deposed, we were left with a country that had shifted far to the right politically, a central feature of which was a drastic increase in racism and a more belligerent tone towards asylum seekers. With a right-wing media that's grown increasingly confident in the size of their cojones, and who feel emboldened to freely dismantle the process of democracy thrown into the mix, it's no wonder government gets scared.
Well, stiff bickies. Anyone who has followed the asylum seeker issue easily recognises that our government and opposition have long since detached themselves from the facts of the matter. Tony bleats 'stop the boats' like a mantra, while failing to notice that it is almost essentially meaningless. The government's approach meanwhile, seems to lack any sense or reasoning, evidenced by the High Court's slapdown of the Malaysia 'come back for a second helping of torture' Solution.
Enter Lev, and a letter that says 'We all agreed to do A, you've been doing B, and that's wrong'. The by-laws are pretty clear - if found guilty of breaking the rules, the PM could be given a rap on the knuckles or even expelled from the party.
While it has been played as 'crank story of the week', I think we should look at it as another symptom of how Bizarro-World politics in this country has become, particularly when it comes to asylum seekers. That a local party member feels compelled to call out the PM is not a small thing, and that no other more senior party member has felt possessed of enough spine to do the same is an embarassment.
There comes a time when a party in government must realise that engaging in the results of leading polls, that responding to biased headlines and that responding in kind to mindless buzzwords from your opposition is self-destructive. The Australian is never going to say a nice thing about you. The Coalition is never going to have anyone with an IQ above room temperature worth debating with. As Julia gets angrier and angrier, it's a bit like watching a rat in a maze, one that resolutely refuses to go down the one path that leads to the cheese. Instead of casting doubt on Lev's membership or credentials, maybe the ALP should stop engaging the idiot factor of this country, engage their consciences and return to the stance their party supports, and that is supported by an increasing number of people.
To put it more simply, when a growing number of the public are against your current stance, when the High Court is against your current stance, and finally when a member of your own party initiates internal disciplinary action against you, well shit, maybe you're on the wrong track you know?
The 'issue' of asylum seekers as it stands now is not an issue. There is no issue when both sides of Parliament agree on the same thing, but nitpick over how to handle it. Lev has reminded us all that there are two sides to this argument, and that the ALP are no longer handling their end, but instead splitting hairs with the Coalition's end.
I haven't spoken about asylum seekers themselves, and it's a bit outside the remit of what I wanted to point out here. This stupid debate about offshore processing only hurts people who are already vulnerable. The principal motivation - to act as a deterrent and to punish 'people smugglers' will not work. Once you remove that mask, the grinning skull of Howard era racism is found lurking underneath.
Come on Julia, even if you don't take Lev's charge seriously, take it as an opportunity to regain a moral high ground on this issue. Or you know, you gonna get served bee-yatch.
When chasing polls means more than everything else
At the end of last week Lev Lafayette, a dude with whom I am acquainted, and a long-time member of the ALP's Victorian wing, served Julia Gillard. Sadly he didn't do this by busting some phat moves at her, to which she could only respond with a listless bit of badly strung together crumping. No, he served a letter charging the PM with violating ALP policy, specifically her handling of asylum seeker policy, a central plank of which is to support onshore processing.
Needless to say the few comments in response from the ALP have been of the 'Who is this guy?' or 'Well, we don't even know if he's a paid-up member...' variety.
I suppose we must give the federal ALP some measure of understanding and accept that off the cuff, no federal level member of a party will know every single member of their party across the country. Still, in the time it takes for a media outlet to ask for a written statement: 1) you could pretty quickly check, and 2) the familiarity in the letter with the intricacies of ALP policy, and the forms and cerements of following or violating that policy, would tend to indicate this isn't just some crank in a tin foil hat.
It's got to be obvious to anyone who's watched/listened to/read a TV, radio, newspaper or internet article, that the ALP are sinking in a mire of crap over their asylum seeker policies. On the one hand they are trying to out-Rambo the wingnut Coalition, and seek ever harsher ways of punishing starving, traumatised and tortured people to look tough, and on the other hand they are facing growing public outrage at their shamelessly cavalier approach to human rights.
We tend to forget that politicians, despite their big talk and bluster, are timid, frightened little creatures, easily shaken by a bad poll or headline, or even by a petal gently detaching from a wind-sullied daisy. After Emperor Palpatine... uh, sorry John Howard was deposed, we were left with a country that had shifted far to the right politically, a central feature of which was a drastic increase in racism and a more belligerent tone towards asylum seekers. With a right-wing media that's grown increasingly confident in the size of their cojones, and who feel emboldened to freely dismantle the process of democracy thrown into the mix, it's no wonder government gets scared.
Well, stiff bickies. Anyone who has followed the asylum seeker issue easily recognises that our government and opposition have long since detached themselves from the facts of the matter. Tony bleats 'stop the boats' like a mantra, while failing to notice that it is almost essentially meaningless. The government's approach meanwhile, seems to lack any sense or reasoning, evidenced by the High Court's slapdown of the Malaysia 'come back for a second helping of torture' Solution.
Enter Lev, and a letter that says 'We all agreed to do A, you've been doing B, and that's wrong'. The by-laws are pretty clear - if found guilty of breaking the rules, the PM could be given a rap on the knuckles or even expelled from the party.
While it has been played as 'crank story of the week', I think we should look at it as another symptom of how Bizarro-World politics in this country has become, particularly when it comes to asylum seekers. That a local party member feels compelled to call out the PM is not a small thing, and that no other more senior party member has felt possessed of enough spine to do the same is an embarassment.
There comes a time when a party in government must realise that engaging in the results of leading polls, that responding to biased headlines and that responding in kind to mindless buzzwords from your opposition is self-destructive. The Australian is never going to say a nice thing about you. The Coalition is never going to have anyone with an IQ above room temperature worth debating with. As Julia gets angrier and angrier, it's a bit like watching a rat in a maze, one that resolutely refuses to go down the one path that leads to the cheese. Instead of casting doubt on Lev's membership or credentials, maybe the ALP should stop engaging the idiot factor of this country, engage their consciences and return to the stance their party supports, and that is supported by an increasing number of people.
To put it more simply, when a growing number of the public are against your current stance, when the High Court is against your current stance, and finally when a member of your own party initiates internal disciplinary action against you, well shit, maybe you're on the wrong track you know?
The 'issue' of asylum seekers as it stands now is not an issue. There is no issue when both sides of Parliament agree on the same thing, but nitpick over how to handle it. Lev has reminded us all that there are two sides to this argument, and that the ALP are no longer handling their end, but instead splitting hairs with the Coalition's end.
I haven't spoken about asylum seekers themselves, and it's a bit outside the remit of what I wanted to point out here. This stupid debate about offshore processing only hurts people who are already vulnerable. The principal motivation - to act as a deterrent and to punish 'people smugglers' will not work. Once you remove that mask, the grinning skull of Howard era racism is found lurking underneath.
Come on Julia, even if you don't take Lev's charge seriously, take it as an opportunity to regain a moral high ground on this issue. Or you know, you gonna get served bee-yatch.
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