STRAYA DAY IN STRAYA

[Alkaloid]

Nah, people like Abbott are a symptom, not a cause. The problem lies in the fact that there is a racist undercurrent that underlies much of Australian society that no one is willing to address. The commentators and politicians on the right can exploit that, and often do, but the left in this country has always been focused on the group, not the individual, so there are no real leaders or characters to rally around like the right gets Bolt or Alan Jones. Say what you like about them as individuals, they are people that have captured the attention and inform the opinion of a considerable number of people.

It's easiest to see in the way Gillard is presented in the media. We are always told that she is a tough negotiator and leader, and given that she is a female athiest who rose to the leadership of her party by striking when the current leader was weak (and the few times I've seen her laying into someone in question time, but not enough people watch that to matter) I'm willing to believe it, but all the party allows her is this 'real Julia' bullshit that just listens to the opinion polls.

If we could get an actual leader from the left rather than a leadership commitie, we might get someone who could say "yes, we have this problem, we can be racist, but that is OK as long as we try to fix it, and this is how we should start" but we don't have anyone who can offer that comfort to the people that need to see themselves as good people, so they gravitate to people offering them the comfort of "you're fine, everything's fine" instead.

[bobalot]

Apparently a staffer of Gilliard told mentioned where Tony Abbott was to somebody who then in turn told the Aboriginal protesters.

The Coalition is already crying about a "government coverup". Are these fuckwits for real? Someone mentions that Tony Abbott was up the road to an acquaintance, who then passes it onto protesters and this is watergate?

[tim31]

Of course they are. It's the Coalition MO. Shout loud, throw mud and see if any sticks. Doesn't matter if it does or not, because it's the same brand of crap as the whole Obama birth certificate thing; trying to keep the people in charge from doing their job.

As Alkaloid said, the inherint problem in federal politics is that the party control is under the surface, and under the surface the parties aren't much different.

[Zablorg]

I was watching the tennis game with my (50 year old) father when a brief news thingie of the protesters burning and spitting on an Australian flag came up.

"That'll win them friends"

uggggh shut up

[bobalot]

This is amazing.

Gillard’s staffer (Tony Hodges) told a acquaintance where Tony Abbott was going to be with the PM later (Keep in mind, Tony Abbott’s whereabouts are not a state secret, he often tweets them on his twitter account). Plenty of people knew where they would be, including many journalists. This acquaintance told somebody in the crowd of protesters and they descended upon Gillard and Abbott and harassed them.

And this is somehow Julia Gillard's fault? I'm honestly not following this.

[Stark]

I was watching the tennis game with my (50 year old) father when a brief news thingie of the protesters burning and spitting on an Australian flag came up.

"That'll win them friends"

uggggh shut up

Zab they should just get over it ok? Move on already. Change the channel.

Just like the Israelis. Right? :V

[Zablorg]

What's interesting to me is that people don't understand this as being part of a broader sentiment that maybe should be listened to? Nah, it's just a riot that happened because brown people