The X Factor in this Election
That’s not a vision. This is a vision.
Moving forward is like looking back. It doesn’t matter how many times you say it. As a mantra for Labor’s 2010 election campaign it simply mirrored the Liberal’s backward-looking policies. Forward and back. Back and forward. Neither of them was happy being where they were. Neither of them was happy to be themselves.
Stop the Boats, Moving Forward, Great Big New Tax, Yes We Will. When repeated over and over again in advertising, policy speeches and even general conversation it represents a blatant attempt to brainwash people. At the core of this appalling sloganeering has been an assumption on both sides of politics that the Australian people needed to be brainwashed. It’s patronising and dangerous. It borders on dictatorship-style politics and is devoid of any vision.
Welcome to machine politics in Australia. The 2010 election has seen the worst of this style of campaigning and it’ll get a lot worse before it gets better.
Tony Abbott said on Radio National that his vision for Australia was wrapped up in people being able to be their ‘best self’ and to have a competent government that was courteous and considerate to its citizens.
Competent government is not a vision. It’s an expectation that the garbage will be collected and taxes will be paid. Julia Gillard talked about maintaining health and education standards. The status quo is not a vision either. The nearest thing that either of them got to it was Labor’s broadband proposal which really did have a ‘vision’ attached to it. But then they took the vision side of it away with a sinister censorship plan to filter the internet.
So here’s a vision for Australia.
What if we aim to become the most socially progressive country in the world? A country that stands for cultural and sexual diversity. For openness and friendliness. A country fuelled by ideas and science and not by religious bigotry or moral agendas from another age.
A country looking to create agreement out of diversity. Not a righteous country but questioning and flexible. A country that is prepared to re-write its laws so that they reflect both the realities of society and its aspirations.
A country of travellers who understand that we have much to learn from others. Compassion. Reason, Self-expression.
Let’s get rid of most of ‘official’ censorship. Most of it is morally-based and on the assumption that its ok for the ruling elites to see something (government officers) but just not you and me.
Let’s legalise abortion and voluntary euthanasia. Australia’s religious institutions only maintain these prohibitions through flawed understandings of life anyway.
And how come a government can afford to spend $222 million on religious instruction in Australian schools and fail to come up with a simple national curriculum on sex education?
Love and marriage go together like the horse and carriage says the old song. In Australian law, love is not recognised as part of the equation. What matters are notions of religion, propriety and what has been before. We need to change this so that love and the expression of love are the main factors in defining marriage.
Lets end this brinkmanship on drugs. Drug use is a health matter not a criminal one. For too long now politicians have tried to tell us The war on drugs has failed and we a need a new and brave approach.
Religion is like big business. It should be taxed the same way and it should be accountable for its failings in the same way. The failure to investigate organised religion’s 1,000 paedophile priests and how that came to pass is a terrible indictment of the hold religion has on the political and enforcement agencies in this country.
The Australian Sex Party is radical in its name and visionary in its nature. We want to grab your attention and then hold it.
We are the party of the outsiders. Our candidates will never be found on the Queens Birthday honours list or at the PM’s cocktail party. We are the Village People of Australian politics. Colourful. Engaging. Challenging. Intelligent.
No guts no glory. No vision no story.
Fiona Patten
Convenor
Australian Sex Party
0413 734 613
www.sexparty.org.au
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