so anyway, upon taking a trek up to the australian consulate general office, i realized something imperative: most australians really don't know their rights! once i got to the office, the first thing some guy said to us (luke and me) was "haha oh. you guys don't want to get fined either huh?" okay. so yes NO we don't want to get fined. but more importantly! if you're overseas - you don't NEED to vote. so really, there he was, wasting a trip and voting for nothing - because really, if you're overseas and you get fined, you just send the fine back with a tick in the box saying that you were indeed overseas, and then you don't have to pay it! and no.. it doesn't go on your record either. LOL.
well, here's some quick snaps of the vacant office which they used to hold the election here in toronto:
*i am.... you are... we are AUSTRALIAN*. tear. getting all patriotic.
the ladies at the electoral roll desk... man... so snotty.
only two you ask? i guess tt's just a reflection of how many ppl they were expecting!
and alas... my pre-poll envelope.. sorry. had to blur out my address for the safety of my family...
now from the looks of the office - aren't you glad that taxpayers money ISN'T going towards making australians abroad feel at home? but hey. at least they could afford to get a flag! ;)
so anyway! when rach called me at 6:50am, and said two words which funnily enough - didn't really make me feel anything. "rudd won". lol. then for the next two hours i tossed and turned and dreamt about the severity and the implications of the electoral outcome.
-begin rant-
what really burns me is how so many people vote in elections without knowing the exact political consequence of where they're putting their vote! and not only that, but it seems that irrespective of political consequence are the pertinent social and economic consequences which people also disregard! and you know what, i don't blame them. i mean, it's not exactly a realistic wish nor expectation to have people research each candidate in their electorate as well as party platform/policies before heading into the election to cast their vote. instead, the australian public is largely reliant upon all of the bipartisan propaganda which infiltrates the mass media - just look at the net, tv, radio, newspapers - everywhere. believe what you hear? i think not.
so i'm really interested to see where the Labor government takes Australia in the next 3 years. coz i look back and realize... hell yeah, Labor has a really bad run with money. based on trend, they overcompensate on social policy and provisions so they lax it out by "improving" social conditions. just think back to the 1970s. we got so sick of mcmahon and the bad run of luck with the liberals that we kicked them out and voted in the whitlam govt, who face it - made so many promises that it was hard not to be attracted. bcoz of whitlam we made diplomatic relations with china, gave indigenous people mabo's title and claim to their own land, made university free, cut the voting age to 18 and most importantly abolished the white australian policy. then what happened with whitlam? it all went awry when he got booted out bcoz of crazy spending and a conniving opposition leader. the trend goes on too. after that little scare (aka. the constitutional crisis) we got sick of fraser, dumped him and voted in hawke who then got kicked out by his fellow-Labor mate keating. ah that's politics for you.
long story short, we may have gotten sick of howard... but it isn't all just roses and ice cream. just for the record, here's my prediction:
labor will stick to their social policy inclination. heck, you might even see a couple of tax cuts along the way (that's kevin rudd bribing us, but hey, i'm gonna pay less so i'm not complaining). and then since we're pulling out troops and signing the kyoto protocol, spending is bound to increase in social policy areas. we'll have cleaner water, "better" education, more free stuff and heck, probably an elevated welfare state. let's just wait for the eggs of income tax, IR and workplace reforms to hatch. but once all that is done, i can see a cloud of four letters = d.e.b.t.
after the hawke/keating government, we were left with a $96 billion dollar debt - which was left to the liberals to clean up. what do you think we'll be left with after rudd is through? but i don't want to forget to mention the risk of having voted for a dude who won the labor leadership at 49-39 (beazley) less than 12 months ago. because rudd could potentially meet a hiccup along the way - after all, we did elect him for a longer term as prime minister than he's actually been leader of the labor party. funny isn't it?
either way, when things lax out, everyone's gonna love it. but i'll say it now, 10 years from now when ppl in our generation are working in career type jobs with plus salaries and benefits? we'll feel the pinch then when we realize that the labour government has abhorrently increased expenditure, created a debt which needs to be cleaned up, and so we'll vote for liberals to come and work their magic. and let's not forget this: once we do this? face it - we'll be welcomed back into the world of complacency. we'll complain. we'll get affluent. and yup, it'll be howard all over again.
-end rant-
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