through-the-haze:

So on July 2nd we (Australia) are having our Federal Election, the course of our country for the next few years will be up to all of us.

I have been a scrutineer at polling stations before, I have seen the donkey votes, the dicks instead of numbers, and the manifestos written in the margins. When you do this, you are not being funny, or edgy, or alternative, you are being a blistering, raging, fucktrumpet and your actions have consequences.

This Federal Election is arguably one of the most important decisions we have to make as a country. There are many decisions that need to be made in the next few years that will have long term consequences, and cannot easily be reversed.

To quote the late, great Joan Kirner put it, “There is no such thing as being non-political. Just by making a decision to stay out of politics you are making the decision to allow others to shape politics and exert power over you. And if you are alienated from the current political system, then just by staying out of it you do nothing to change it, you simply entrench it.”

Or as Howard Zinn put it, “I don’t believe it’s possible to be neutral. The world is already moving in certain directions, and to be neutral, to be passive… is to collaborate with whatever is going on.”

The Coalition government are already setting us on a course towards a neoliberal nightmare, the likes of which Thatcher and Reagan would most certainly be proud. To defeat this party of the conservative, elitist, xenophobic, and homophobic requires all of us.

On July 2nd, do not piss away your vote, do not collaborate with what is going on. By failing to discharge your democratic duty, you are saying you are fine with what is going on, and what is going on IS. NOT. OKAY.