Non-Australians, you may want to get a couple browser tabs open and Google some of this stuff, if you care. If not, skip this post, because it’s a mild rant about Australian politics, which are giving me the irrits at the moment.
I’m none too thrilled with Kevin Rudd. He’s backed down on a number of things which I think are pretty important. Not long ago, he was all fired up about a carbon emissions trading scheme, which I thought was a good plan, but now he’s decided that’s not really important. His government has screwed up several of their own initiatives, and, basically, they seem to be more fumble and mutter than anything else. I’m pretty fed up with them.
Unfortunately, the only other contender is Tony Abbott, whom I dislike with a fervor almost as profound as my dislike of former PM John Howard. If the Liberal party (and I happen to agree with Malcom Fraser on this one, the party is the opposite of liberal!) were to put someone in leadership that I could tolerate in the office of Prime Minister, I might consider voting for them, just to get Rudd out of office, but I’d rather have three more years of KRudd, as ineffectual and wishy washy as he is, than see Tony “Budgie Smuggler” Abbott (okay, admittedly, he does look pretty hot in the budgie smugglers, at least from the neck down, but that’s no reason to put a man in office) as Prime Minister. *shudder*
I think I may end up voting for the Greens in several key elections (though probably not on the Federal level).
I wish Australia had one decent centre progressive party. I’m a moderate social democrat, with slight progressive tendencies. It sucks to have to choose between Radically Conservative, Conservative, and Mostly Okay but A Little Too Left for My Taste.
