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elfinblazeA friend asked for my thoughts on current Australian politics, so here they are:
I'm sad Julia Gillard's gone, but I'm aware that had she stayed on as Prime Minister, she would not have won the next election. I didn't agree with her on everything, notably her stance on marriage equality, and I'll get to that in a minute, but I have a lot of respect for her. She managed to hold onto a tough position for three years and pass over 500 pieces of legislation with a hung parliament. That's not only unheard of, that's nigh on impossible. It proves what a skilled negotiator and politician she was. Most importantly, I think she's right in this: she has given young girls someone to look up to, and made the path a tiny bit smoother for any women coming through parliament after her. Being first is always the hardest, and politics is full of sharks at the best of times, not to mention the media, and I have a lot of respect for her standing up to face them every day, despite everything they threw at her. That took guts, and I highly respect that.
I don't mind Kevin Rudd, so I can't feel too bad. He's harmless, and I certainly appreciate his now reformed stance on marriage equality. Having said that, I don't think it will change anything any time soon. He's only got a few months to do anything before the next general election, so I'm not holding my breath hoping for change right now.
I do think it will become an election issue though. The Greens are pushing for that, and Rudd will probably run with that because it'll be an easy issue to hold against Tony Abbott.
Whether the Labor Party under Rudd can now win the election again, I don't know. I hope, but don't want to hope, because at the same time I don't want to get my hopes up only to have them squashed again if Abbott wins. Too used to getting stepped on has that effect.
And this one issue is such a big issue to me. When I studied international human rights law at university, I left the class with the very clear knowledge that if freedom to marry who you wanted was a human right (as it says in the Universal Declaration) that every human on Earth should have access to, and most of the world agreed, but if I wasn't allowed to do the same, then at best I didn't exist and at worst I didn't count as human. That feeling has never really gone away since. That's why it's always nice to feel like I exist in fictional worlds. And maybe one day I'll be considered human in this one.
So on the one hand there's my respect for how much Gillard has done for women, most of which will only be seen eventually in hindsight. On the other hand is this other issue, which won't change if Abbott wins the election anyway. So I'm not exactly glad that Rudd's replaced Gillard yet, because I'm not even cautiously optimistic at this point.
In short, everything is multi-sided and feelings are complicated.
I'm sad Julia Gillard's gone, but I'm aware that had she stayed on as Prime Minister, she would not have won the next election. I didn't agree with her on everything, notably her stance on marriage equality, and I'll get to that in a minute, but I have a lot of respect for her. She managed to hold onto a tough position for three years and pass over 500 pieces of legislation with a hung parliament. That's not only unheard of, that's nigh on impossible. It proves what a skilled negotiator and politician she was. Most importantly, I think she's right in this: she has given young girls someone to look up to, and made the path a tiny bit smoother for any women coming through parliament after her. Being first is always the hardest, and politics is full of sharks at the best of times, not to mention the media, and I have a lot of respect for her standing up to face them every day, despite everything they threw at her. That took guts, and I highly respect that.
I don't mind Kevin Rudd, so I can't feel too bad. He's harmless, and I certainly appreciate his now reformed stance on marriage equality. Having said that, I don't think it will change anything any time soon. He's only got a few months to do anything before the next general election, so I'm not holding my breath hoping for change right now.
I do think it will become an election issue though. The Greens are pushing for that, and Rudd will probably run with that because it'll be an easy issue to hold against Tony Abbott.
Whether the Labor Party under Rudd can now win the election again, I don't know. I hope, but don't want to hope, because at the same time I don't want to get my hopes up only to have them squashed again if Abbott wins. Too used to getting stepped on has that effect.
And this one issue is such a big issue to me. When I studied international human rights law at university, I left the class with the very clear knowledge that if freedom to marry who you wanted was a human right (as it says in the Universal Declaration) that every human on Earth should have access to, and most of the world agreed, but if I wasn't allowed to do the same, then at best I didn't exist and at worst I didn't count as human. That feeling has never really gone away since. That's why it's always nice to feel like I exist in fictional worlds. And maybe one day I'll be considered human in this one.
So on the one hand there's my respect for how much Gillard has done for women, most of which will only be seen eventually in hindsight. On the other hand is this other issue, which won't change if Abbott wins the election anyway. So I'm not exactly glad that Rudd's replaced Gillard yet, because I'm not even cautiously optimistic at this point.
In short, everything is multi-sided and feelings are complicated.
