What is the matter with Australians?

[Matilda]

I know we're politically apathetic as a nation, but I've waited in
vain for the outcry against Howard's anti-terror legislation. Sure,
people aren't happy about the shoot-to-kill provisions, but what
about the section dealing with who can be told if a person is taken
away on suspicion? It's ludicrous to suppose that someone can
disappear from their home, their job or even, in the case of minors,
their school, and no-one's told, and life will just go on.

I'm particularly disgusted and furious that the Opposition - if you
can call it that - hasn't targeted the provision that only one
parent can be told if a child between 16 and 18 is held in custody.
To think that one parent whose child disappears can be left in
worry and grief over their fate, and the parent who knows can't tell
or they'll face five years' jail, is something that every parent,
and every thinking person, should be up in arms about. But I've
seen only about two letters to the Herald, and heard nothing from
Beazley and Co. on this. It's inhuman and monstrous, and I really
cannot understand why Australians don't seem to care. Have they
not thought it through, or have we become totally callous?

I'm starting to feel that I don't recognise my country any more.

[Violet_Crumble]

1. We're becoming more apathetic and greedy...

If it doesn't directly affect us or the interest rates on our own patch of suburbia, then it's ignored....

I heard tonight that the govt is starting to backpedal a little bit on the draft legislation and isn't going to rush it through as quickly as they were originally going to. Not that I think that's any sort of concession, as they'll just push it through a few weeks later now than they were originally going to...


Violet...

[Matilda]

2. Just saw Tony Jones interview Nicola Roxon (Shadow A-G) on Lateline.

She put the case against the Government's proposed legislation very
well (although nobody has yet seen the final draft). Her arguments
were balanced and reasonable - but it needs Beazley to really run
hard with it in Parliament.

It's times like this you miss Paul Keating.

[Sapphocrat]

3. I mean this with absolutely NO sarcasm whatsoever...

Dear 51st (Experimental) State:

Welcome to America.

Sign me,

Yank Who Thought I'd Seen It All Until Now, Just Eleven Days Back in the U.S. After Six Weeks Down Under, and Still Too Shell-Shocked to Articulate My Abject Dismay and Shock at the State of the Current Australian Political Climate

P.S. I repeat, no sarcasm.

P.P.S. I swear on my father's grave, NO sarcasm.

P.P.P.S. Really.

[foreigncorrespondent]

4. The majority have fallen...

...for the feat tactics used in order to get their draconian dictator laws passed!

I know how you feel mate. I don't recognize this as the country I was born in anymore.

All the diggers who fought for our freedom in WWI and WWII would be spinning in their graves now.

[oscarmitre]

5. If I didn't know better

I would say the "shoot to kill" brouhaha (one could hardly call it a "debate") was a distractor. Now that's apparently been conceded by the PM the Premiers/Chief Ministers (with the honourable exception of Stanhope) the rest of this repressive legislation can be passed. I am disgusted at Labor, disgusted at the Premiers, disgusted at the media...but totally unsurprised.

[Matilda]

6. "With the honourable exception of Stanhope" ...

I sent him an email suggesting he should run for Federal politics,
because we need people like him. I'll take him over Beazley any
day.

The other gutless wonders wouldn't have made a squeak about it if
he hadn't made the running first.

[Matilda]

7. Ruddock lowers the bar on legal terror tactics.

A good piece in today's SMH from two barristers:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/ruddock-lowers-the-bar-on-legal-terror-tactics/2005/10/31/1130720479003.html

Ruddock is such a bloodless character, he really makes me squirm -
I'm sure he's not fully human. No wonder his daughter left home in
disgust.