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New Year’s Eve in Ostraylia

By Jennifer Meyer-Smith

It’s now 10pm and there’s only two hours left of 2016. Thank goodness for that! At midnight, it will be 2017 and I’m willing to hope that there will be more to thank for in 2017. I know, I know; it might be just wishful thinking but if we don’t have hope, we don’t have much else.

So this is what I hope will happen.

I hope the Greens and Labor do what comes naturally and see that electoral survival means that different parties must come together to form the strongest force in order to win back government from the current bunch of traitors that Australia has even seen. I like to call them the LNP Degenerates.

I want the Greens and Labor to kiss and make up because it is the best chance for the Australian People and our Environmental responsibilities to have both parties in control. What one party lacks in policy prioritisation and philosophical principles, the other party makes up for in strategic numbers and political advocacy.

This means The ALLiance will be something to support and not fear by the Labor and/or Greens faithful determined to stay insular and non-collaborative with political allies. Those party faithful in either party must come to see that forming a working alliance between both parties and any other collaborative progressive party and independent, will be the best result for the Australian People and for their own political survival despite what political apparatchiks in either party might be attempting to build into party guidelines.

Once we have a Political Force working for us within Parliament and going in the same direction, we will see further cracks open wide in the LNP Degenerates in 2017, as they continue to panic as they see their political power diminish.

But before we allow the Greens and Labor to hope for our support, we must expect that all policies they choose, prioritise and then design represent a staunch opposition and reversal to any neoliberalist elements that have been allowed to creep into our socio-economic-political culture for 30 plus years under the Lib/Lab duopoly.

It’s Time for an Australian renaissance of renewed hope and progressive reform. I want a true socialist democracy again which is what we had for a brief but beautiful time under Gough.

Therefore, I want the following (in no particular order of importance) from my government which will be The ALLiance of independent and collaborative parties, namely the Greens, Labor, assorted upcoming progressive parties and sane independents:

• Universal education with better than Gonski expectations, so that all students are equitably equipped and all teachers are fully recognised and paid respectably according to their highly important input;

• Universal healthcare so that Medicare is reinstated to its best ever status (including dental care) without any cuts implemented by this LNP Degenerate government;

• Free university education for all students from no, low and middle income families (and high income families on a case by case basis);

• Microfinance incentives of Micro Finance Grants (MFGs) and Micro Credit Loans (MCLs) to unemployed and under-employed people on Newstart or Disability Benefits so they can escape unemployment and poverty by developing their own self-employment in their micro businesses based on their ingenuity, skills, experience and qualifications. The MFGs ($10-15k) and MCLs ($20-30k) must be government-backed, fully accessible, and over and above Newstart or the DSP so that recipients can establish their small enterprises AND feed and house themselves at the same time;

• Climate Change is a growing danger and any appropriate policy must reflect heightened priority to combat it, which includes active and immediate fading out of traditional dirty energy sources. Renewable energy industries throughout Australia need promotion and financial resources to become immediately operational, so their emphasis is on saving the environment and providing many, diverse local employment opportunities for Australians. The Adani project proposed in Queensland is a baptism of fire for the fledgling ALLiance and must be seen to be a false prophet to the People of Queensland and a poor choice by Queensland Labor for which they will come to repent;

• Environment Protections must also be fully supported by The ALLiance. Such protections that come to my mind immediately are the old growth forests of Victoria and Tasmania; the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland; the Great Australian Bight; farmlands throughout Australia needing protection from coal seam gas companies wanting to exploit it; fisheries throughout Australian waters threatened by deep dredging and over-fishing; our river systems such as the great Murray which are hostage to nutcases like Barnaby Joyce and his constituents to the detriment of others downstream; and the list goes on;

• New industry innovations that will provide regional, rural and remote industry incentives that will meet the needs of diverse people in outlying areas where dissatisfaction has grown because of the sense of disenfranchisement which of course has helped Pauline Hanson to rise to stardom as the false prophet for disillusioned people.

The ALLiance in 2017 can start to provide the conversations that will get constituents believing again. When such party collaboration changes become apparent, I guarantee that there will be a groundswell of hope that will lift us out of these desperate times under the LNP Degenerates and into a renaissance time of greater political expectations with The ALLiance.

62 comments

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  1. Jaquix

    Hope beats eternal in the human breast. Vive la revolution. Next year in Jerusalem. With a bit of luck 2017 might be a year of change.

  2. Sean Stinson

    I’d like to see Abbott become PM again, then go to an election and LOSE, and then for the Liberal factions to split into two parties, conservative and centre-right, and to also split from the Nationals, who really belong with the Greens anyway, especially if they give a rats about about things like WATER, which is essential for agriculture. Then I’d like to see the Labor left split from the governing right-wing faction (and also ditch the Americanisation of the name by putting the “u” back where it belongs.) Then I’d like for Xenophon to pick up a few lower house seats. By then we would have at least 7 or 8 parties, and something resembling a European styled parliamentary democracy, rather than the 2PP farce we currently suffer under. Then maybe we could have some real DEBATE around some of the other issues you mention.

    Like you Jennifer, I’m aware this is wishful thinking.

  3. Miriam English

    The people’s desire for politicians to actually do good is there. Jeremy Corbyn in UK has shown that. Now we need a politician in Labor to actually stop listening to the cynical spin-doctors and do the right thing, not just once or twice to appear good if the market research says it’s smart, but again and again, all the way through because it is the good and moral thing to do.

    The reason for massive disillusionment with politicians backfiring into electing awful pieces of shit like Trump, Hanson, and possibly Jean‐Marie Le Pen is because politicians try to play non-committal “safe” games, listen to advisers who aren’t interested in what’s best for the country, but only in getting them elected, and say whatever people want to hear (meaning they lie at the drop of a hat).

    They need to stop listening to the bean counters and start being real. They need to start caring for all the people of their country, not just the rich ones who they think can get them elected. Those rich puppet-masters are beginning to be a real liability for politicians and they need to wake up and realise it.

  4. Miriam English

    Wow. The end of the world must be coming. 🙂 I find myself in total agreement with Sean.

    Well, almost total. Abbott, like a bull in a china shop, could do a horrifying amount of damage in a short time.

  5. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    So far, I’m in total agreement with all of youse. Well done!

  6. Sean Stinson

    Marine le Pen has promised to withdraw France from both the EU and NATO. We could not hope for much better in 2017, other than that Mr Trump makes it safely to the oval office in time to affect rapprochement with Russia, and before Obama and his neocon puppet masters can sabotage the relationship any further. This will seal the fate of US globalist hegemony. The US and its billionaire elites can spend the next century or so happily minding their own business. They have a population of 300 million odd and all the resources they need, and will be better off than trying to maintain a military which they can’t afford. Trying to run an empire from a remote island was never a good idea anyway. Bring on the Asian century I say.

  7. Sean Stinson

    Since we’re talking pipe dreams, maybe Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal could split from the EU and form their own federation.

  8. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Sean,

    they are not pipe dreams and yes, I particularly like that proposal for Greece, Spain and Portugal (not sure about Italy).

  9. Matters Not

    Sean Stinson at 11:11 pm

    other than that Mr Trump makes it safely to the oval office in time to affect (effect?) rapprochement with Russia, and before Obama and his neocon puppet masters can sabotage the relationship any

    Intellectual skirts now on public display? Out of the closet and all that? A partisan player? Who would have thought?

    I am shocked. Totally shocked. But maybe not. The right wing agenda has so much to offer.

  10. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Sean has been upfront about his support for Trump’s America building bridges with Putin’s Russia, in my estimation.

    (I don’t agree with that marriage of convenience and would have preferred Sanders or Stein over Trump and any true democratic-socialist Russian to Putin, but I must observe from the sidelines.)

  11. Andreas Bimba

    Well said Jennifer.

    The sooner the LNP degenerates are booted from office the better. Labor winning an absolute majority next federal election looks unlikely with that bad joke One Nation likely to do well. A Labor Greens government is possible but both parties must do better. Both parties could offer a more progressive and job creating policy platform like Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn have offered and build some momentum.

    Labor should not preference the LNP over the Greens even if this means losing some inner city seats and should devote their resources to Coalition seats they could win.

    Even with the mass media and all that corporate money and power supporting the LNP, the undeniable fact that they destroying the economy, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs and wrecking most government services as well as destroying the environment means they will likely lose.

    The fireworks is about to start. Happy new year all at AIMN.

  12. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Thanks Andreas!

    Your input is always welcome.

    There’s fireworks happening here in Gippsland, too.

    Happy New Year, All (not RWNJs unless you see the errors of your ways)!

  13. Sean Stinson

    MN, I most certainly do not have a right wing agenda.

    The US has been a virtual one party state for at least the last 5 administrations. In that time the neo-lib-con war party has gone almost entirely unchallenged, up until now. Trump’s America-first party represent the first real change of direction in US foreign policy in decades.

    Also observing from the sidelines, the US can sink or swim for all I care. Foreign policy is all that matters, and Trump’s call for an end to interventions, ‘regime change’ and ‘nation building’ should be taken seriously.

  14. Ella

    As the fireworks started to explode ,my hope was that one of those sparks would light up the knowledge that we are all inhabitants of our beautiful Earth. That we need to treat it and each other with more respect and care. My hope, that however tiny the spark, that the politics of greed and power will fade with the fireworks.

    Sean Stinson;
    Sadly if we look at Julia Gillard’s demise we can see that no matter what a leader wants …it is not only up to the leader.
    The US interventions over time have been based on greed and power….Trump will not be able to change that unless the vested interest ability to influence policy are nullified….not much hope there! I see Trump becoming a puppet for vested interests …judging by the caliber of the people he has chosen for his administration.

    As for Russia they play a deceitful and dangerous game. Having lived under their rule for the first part of my life and seeing how they at first
    tried to charm farmers to join the collective farms ……When they refused they shot them and buried them on their land then took their land ….I see no reason to trust them. When I look at the non existent human rights in Russia today I see not much has changed.

  15. Keitha Granville

    the wonderful thing about commentators on AIMN is the range of views where one can find agreements between quite disparate points of the political spectrum – something that would be a welcome relief in our parliament – instead of the current state of two opposing teams simply disagreeing because the other side is the enemy and must therefore be wrong.

    My wish is that politicians can make a real effort to find the common ground for the good of the electorate, the country and most importantly the planet

  16. townsvilleblog

    JMS This is only my personal opinion but I feel that The Greens under The Doctor have swung to the right severely, in occasionally pulling the fescist LNP out of political trouble. We already have Labor and Liberal on the side of business but the politicians who concentrate on the low income majority of working Australians surviving on the Australian median wage of $43,000 p.a, is almost an empty room. I welcome the NSW Greens creation of a formal Left wing to make an attempt to assist these millions of Australian families.

  17. townsvilleblog

    Keitha, opposing teams simply disagreeing because the other side is the enemy and must therefore be wrong.This is more often than not the reality, one side is almost perpetually wrong.

  18. nurses1968

    Andreas Bimba
    “Labor should not preference the LNP over the Greens ”
    You start the New Year with a bit of flim flam
    2016 Election
    Labor to preference Greens ahead of Liberals across the nation
    {with one renegade exception}

    The Greens will be recommending to voters that they put Labor ahead of the Liberals and Nationals in 139 of the 150 electorates across the country — including in all Labor/Liberal marginal seats and in the Senate,” said Penny Allman-Payne, Australian Greens Co-Convenor. The other 11 electorates will be ‘open tickets’.f those open tickets
    “Greens defends Fred Nile preference deal
    The NSW greens decision to preference the Christian Democratic Party is about ‘sending a strong statement,’ says Greens Leader Ricard Di Natale.

    “There was a slight fall in the flow of Green preferences to Labor”,Antony Green

    Ultimately, the decision of which party to preference was the sole choice of individual voters,so what do the Greens do about”Figures produced by ABC election analyst Anthony Green support this view. They reveal that between 20% and 25% of Greens votes have always allocated second preference to the Liberal Party.”

  19. nurses1968

    Jennifer Major-Smythe
    “I want the Greens and Labor to kiss and make up”
    There goes your first New Year resolution down the spout and it isn’t even lunch time

  20. Steve Laing

    TB – having had the opportunity to listen to RdN present at Curtin University, I think you are well off the mark and are reflecting on anti-Green sentiment/propaganda which appears to emanate from portions of Labor whom I think despise the Greens more than the Coalition. Odd, but true. RdN is a conviction politician who realised from working as a doctor in remote communities that the real solution to their health problems was through politics, not medecine. Don’t let the haters trick you.

    Personally I’d welcome a truly diverse government where a members loyalty was first to the electorate, not the party, because strong, capable government that reflects the majority of the electorate and that doesn’t have to resort to spin and lies, is the only bastion against the “market” which has been set up in a way that removes key checks and balances and thus is set on a collision course to eat itself (and unfortunately us with them). Government IS the only external guiding principal that can regulate it. Weakening government, as the right want, is definitely not in the public interest.

    We are moving toward a defining moment where if drastic action is not soon taken on climate change we are pretty much all f*cked. Now is the time for progressives to temporarily put aside their petty squabbles and stand shoulder-to-shoulder against the 0.1% and the Coalition puppets that do their bidding. This shit is now deadly serious, and if progressive politicians don’t start acting collectively Australians will end up doing what the Brits and Yanks have done – tying their flag to false hopes.

  21. nurses1968

    I was a bit gob smacked to check out Xmas and New Years eve comments to find so many commenting at these times.
    I have visions of people hunched over keyboards with the warm glow of a screen to brighten their season and commenting on whats happening in the real world,
    Could I be so bold as to suggest you make a New Years resolution to suffer the withdrawal of the keyboard and venture outside,see the sunshine mingle with real Aussies and enjoy life.
    I realise you may feel tht your comment could change history but surely waiting day or two wouldn’t hurt.There is a wonderful great big world out there, for all it’s faults but a midnight keyboard attack won’t change much
    Just sayin’

  22. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Steve Laing speaks much sense.

    Relax 1984 and take off your blinkers to the plain truth of what he and I are saying.

  23. mark

    To be a morally upright,outstanding member of the community.That resolution didn’t last long.Back to the porn.mark

  24. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Did you read my article, mark?

    I’m not asking for your personal fetishes; I’m asking for your insights into how the LNP will be defeated and how good governance and great policies will be delivered by a formidable alliance of the Greens (even under Di Natale), Left Labor (preferably not under Shorten) and assorted Progressive and Reformist parties and Independents.

    Go The ALLiance!

  25. nurses1968

    Jennifer Majoe -Smythe
    You always use these fluffy mean nothing comments
    “Left Labor (preferably not under Shorten) and assorted Progressive and Reformist parties and Independents.”
    As at this time you and you alone make up the Alliance.
    Could you name which Progressives would be invited into the fold?
    Who are the Reformist Parties?
    Which Independents would get the welcome mat?
    After you single handedly remove Shorten which Labor Mps {from the flip plop Lib/Lab scoundrel neoliberalists} would be invited. remembering, if all Labor MPS were not included you’d never get the numbers?
    This shemozzle Alliance has been your hobby horse for years now so could you update on progress, who is committed, who chooses who is in or out or is the simple fact NOTHING has happened and isn’t likely to.
    Are you taking me up on my New Year resolution?
    I promise, no mention of alliances or coalitions if you don’t
    Start 2017 with some answers

  26. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    In answer to 1984’s questions, I invite those parties to put themselves forward.

    It’s not my ALLiance. It’s my offer of a winning formula to any groups of people from assorted parties, who want to defeat the LNP and neoliberalism in whatever form it takes while providing alternative, progressive policies and approaches to politics and socio-economic reforms that will meet our immediate challenges of Climate Change, growing unemployment, social injustices, the needs for innovative nation-building to name but a few for starters.

    I agree with Sean. I eventually want a multi-party European-style governing parliament to replace the dinosaur duopoly. it is in Labor’s and the Greens’ best interests to build those bridges now.

  27. nurses1968

    Jen May-Sym
    “I invite those parties to put themselves forward.”
    In your yearsof ranting on about this how many have?

  28. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    It gets your attention and some supportive comments, as you have seen. That’s how it starts, 84.

  29. wam

    dear steven even the rabbott entered parliament with ideals like all the diludbransims but situations change and the leader and his boys have been convicted for pragmatic shelving of any semblance of feminism.
    The usual strategy for labor is to wait for a charismatic leader who will take it up to the libs. In the meantime take a strong moral stance with leaders who smile knowingly like shorten and what’s her name?
    Oops looks like labor seems to have shut their woman down like the loonies? Leaving the stage to the second bishop.
    This government will live till labor does something???

  30. nurses1968

    JUM
    “That’s how it starts, 84.”
    But after years of trying it never did,never will.
    Have you trued hitting yourself in the head with a hammer?
    They say it feels good when you stop, so give up on coalitions, ut may well help your condition

  31. corvus boreus

    nurses1968 @ 12:00pm,
    Good suggestion.
    I recommend you do likewise.

  32. nurses1968

    corvus boreus
    no need for any suggestions, I’m always out and about
    Now you wouldn’t be ine alone at the keyboard as the clock strikes midnight on NYE would you
    or too busy worrying about Trump on Xmas day?

  33. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Nice of you to care, 84,

    no need to worry your poor old head about what we were doing on NYE.

    Nonetheless, you are welcome into the fold of The ALLiance once you shed your neoliberalist Labor factional cloak.

  34. nurses1968

    It is with concern that I raise the notion of pallid lonely souls with nothing better to do than bathe in the glow of a midnight screen and sweat and worry about the worlds ills over a keyboard. It does funny things to some people as easily witnessed.Against that I guess we may be keeping the streets safe

  35. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Just ask for tickets when you’re ready, 84

  36. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Yep,

    and I’m sad for the passing as well.

    I’m also angry that 84/corny and biggie and Trish and others have not yet worked out the next gameplay which dictates alliances of similar perspectives to be made.

    Hence The ALLiance calls for agreements to be made now so that we can start preparatory planning for kicking out the LNP parasites and divorcing neoliberalism from Australia.

    New, fantastic, energetic, innnovative and explorative enterprises need to be encouraged and supported and this will help to rid ourselves of the LNP disease and their neoliberalist puppet-masters, which will also leave Labor and Greens pansies alone where the case may be.

  37. nurses1968

    Steve Laing – makeourvoiceheard.com,Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Never heard so much codswollop rolled into 2 comments before
    “Your money is tied up in a system whose purpose is to maximise returns,”
    And collecting Centrelink benefits from these sources?
    Steve, you know absolutely nothing about me.I got out of a system {NSW Health} that I could no longer participate in and am quite gainfully and ethically employed knowing exactly where my income comes from and goes to and you are light years off the mark
    “Hence The ALLiance calls for agreements to be made now”
    damn you’re becoming delusional !!

  38. corvus boreus

    Nurses1968 @ 6:22pm,
    In answer to your (no doubt well meaning) question, no, I was doing other things.
    However, please feel free to continue your indulgence in whatever fantastical ‘visions’ and projected assumptions you wish to conjure up regarding the personal lives and appearance of other posters on this forum.

  39. Kaye Lee

    Am I to feel somehow inadequate because I went to bed at about 9pm on NYE? Is there some party rule I have broken?

  40. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Not you, Kaye.

    Those of us who dared to be still up and communicating at midnight on New Year’s Eve were being disparaged for being keyboard warriors. I suspect you would be in the clear in the estimation of that person.

    Strange huh, that we would be criticised for trying to communicate about a topic intended to bring together a winning alliance that will defeat the LNP arseholes and deliver sustainable and effective governance!

  41. Deanna Jones

    The holiday period is a lonely time for many people, with spikes in depression and suicide ideation/completion. The ‘happy families’ narrative is simply not the reality for everyone and in fact it is often the people who neatly conform to this narrative who make holidays more depressing for others than they need to be. The insider/outsider rhetoric posted here by nurses is just a little bit sickening. Taunting people about loneliness? Seriously?

    Otherwise, thanks for a forward thinking and hopeful article, JMS.

  42. helvityni

    Jennifer has written a perfectly good article and I thank her for that.

    After reading it, I started on the comments. When I saw her name changed to May-Sym, Majoe-Smythe, Major-Smythe, I stopped reading…..

    Like Deanna, I found it rather childish and totally uncalled for…

  43. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Thanks Deanna.

  44. nurses1968

    helvityni
    a tad hypocritical I think,
    Back up and see just how many changes to MY SIGN IN there is made by JMS , usually ” 84/corny ” but more often than not more insinuations about me over ages.
    I don’t really care but. pot- kettle

  45. Miriam English

    I don’t understand why those infatuated with Labor would not want to increase their party’s power and enhance its ability to repair Australia. I guess the desire for purity, and tendency to see enemies in every shadow, overwhelms all else for them.

    It’s a pity. Nurses1968, Trish, Cornie, and Bighead are good people, just perhaps a little over-zealous and defensive about their party. Constructive discussion of some topics sadly becomes difficult when they pour scorn on others for what appear to be perfectly reasonable statements, as it is a natural reflex to return it… and that doesn’t help either. (And I speak as one guilty of doing that too.)

    The reason Labor didn’t easily win the previous election is that they’ve become untrustworthy in the eyes of a large fraction of the population — partly because of Murdoch’s torrent of propaganda, but also because of Labor themselves. It should have been easy to obliterate the LNP at the previous election. Labor was competing against a party that has done absolutely nothing except tear up the fabric of Australian society and its social contracts. Tony Abbott is perhaps the most despised Prime Minister in Australian history, and Malcolm Turnbull’s reputation has been nearly in free-fall since he took over. The rest of the LNP government are the biggest pack of despicable weevils almost in living memory.

    If Labor doesn’t learn from people like Jeremy Corbin, Bernie Sanders, and Justin Trudeau then it is unlikely to see office in the near future. People, in their desperation for someone appearing to be different from the same old evasive, bullshitting politicians will increasingly drift toward awful choices like Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump who are wrong, but at least speak their minds plainly.

    Labor needs other progressives. The Liberals and Nationals almost hate each other, but cooperating has given them far more power than they could have ever had alone. Labor, the Greens, the Sex Party, and other progressive parties and independents could easily defeat the LNP if they understand the power of an alliance.

  46. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Thanks Helvi. I confess I called nurses 1984 and 84 for short.

    Sadly I see the similarity between nurses’ blinkered party politics to Orwell’s description of dystopia in the world of Big Brother.

    Both political worlds neglect what is best for the socio-economic needs of grassroots people when they prioritise what the Party wants over their needs.

    nurses seeks to sabotage the birth of The ALLiance between the Greens, Left Labor, Progressives and sane Independents.

    For what purpose one has to ask? Is life in the wilderness of Opposition too cushy and lucrative to bother about actually winning back government and delivering Australia from this degenerate LNP Mal-governance?

    The ALLiance is the next natural step which is already recognised. The Australian Capital Territory is a forerunner with something similar because ACT Labor rightly saw they needed the Greens to help them form government.

    A strong, mixed government optimises the delivery of effective and progressive reforms that will enhance the diverse needs and wants of all our people and the environment.

  47. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    I wrote my response before I read Miriam’s enlightened response.

    Thank goodness, somebody gets how beneficial The ALLiance or any other similar such alliance, would be for all of us, who want rid of the LNP Degenerates before they destroy everything worth keeping in Australia.

  48. nurses1968

    Miriam English
    I am just pointing out the blatantly obvious, Labor are quite prepared to go it alone State and Federally
    The Greens have their own constitution and Party rules and they to are an independent Party.
    It is obvious some on here don’t like the “flip flop lib/lab Labor degenerates/neoliberals etc
    SO, don’t vote for them and why you would want them in an alliance if they are so disgusting leaves me wondering.
    It is simply to try to build up the power base of the Greens isn’t it as they are incapable of doing it alone

  49. Harquebus

    Miriam English
    The Labor Party has contributed just as much to destroying our world as The Coalition has. Why would anyone vote for either?
    How anyone can call for change by voting Labor I do not know. It will only be more of the same just as it always has with no benefit.

  50. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    H,

    if Labor gets over its self-delusion of being the only little people’s heroes, they would find new vitality and longevity in forming progressive alliances.

    That would be good for everyone, even you and your concerns about the depletion of our finite resources because there would be more listening and responsive ears to such concerns.

  51. Steve Laing - makeourvoiceheard.com

    Nurses – I only alluded to your Super. Unfortunately our Super funds (and I include mine) own a significant part of the stock market, supporting companies hellbent on profit maximisation, usually against the interest of many working people and the planet we live on. I made no comment or insinuation about how you live your life and make decisions otherwise, and given I don’t know you, would not deign to do so.

  52. Miriam English

    Weird. Both Jennifer and nurses have each others’ motives wrong. Jennifer seems to think nurses motive is that being in opposition is preferable to being in government. And nurses thinks proposing the alliance is a sneaky move to get more power to the Greens (the enemy!).

    Actually, nurses really does think Labor can win power by themselves. I can understand the desire to think this. Labor has done it before. Of course, they haven’t had such a concerted campaign of propaganda aimed at them before. Murdoch managed to bring down possibly the most productive and effective PM Australia has seen in decades. He should not be underestimated, and he needs to be neutered.

    Jennifer wants the LNP out of office. If a coalition that didn’t include the Greens could do it then I think she’d be just as much in favor of that. As I read her replies she has no particular allegiance to any individual party; just a desire to see progressive policies undo the damage by this corrosive government.

    Speaking for myself, I want the LNP and its toxic policies out of government. I’d like to see them trounced so badly that they discard their broken, neo-liberal, tea-party garbage and give the IPA the boot. Just so long as we have a truly progressive party replace them I’ll be happy. If we have a repeat of the same sort of faux progressives as QLD Labor who have given Adani’s Carmichael mine the go-ahead then I’d prefer they are replaced by something else — something that’s genuinely progressive. Unfortunately Labor, in blocking investigations into corruption (Federal ICAC), and in cozying up to big business, are becoming tainted. An alliance might help to undo that, or at least ameliorate it.

  53. nurses1968

    Miriam English
    I’ll say it again, don’t vote Labor then and can’t you see my point that I find it hypocritical that you would be ok with the “flip flop lib/lab Labor degenerates/neoliberals etc” as long as, at present a solitary Green was included to gain your coalition?

  54. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Miriam,

    9/10 correct about me. Not sure you’re correct about nurse’s motives especially with nurse’/cornlegend’s laissez-faire attitude after the July 2 election.

    My absolute No 1 priority is for Australians and the Environment to have the best government that will deliver multiple lasting, reformist policies and procedures that will revitalise our sense of well being and exploration of what life has to offer.

    My No 2 priority is that the talons of neoliberalism that have inflicted our Australian way of life for 30+ years with constriction, restriction, meanness, prejudice and lack of opportunity, should be severed immediately. Every political policy and procedure must be revised and revitalised to engender a socialist democratic guideline instead of the neoliberalist pervasion inflicted 30+ years ago and sustained by the Lib/Lab duopoly.

    My No 3 priority is that that government is made up of a selection of committed, representative, equitable parties which I would identify as left and centre-left. The Greens and some surviving Left Labor, alternative Progressive parties like the Pirate Party and sane Independents are identified as likely participants. (I would want to see who the make-up was, before I would consider one without the Greens in it.)

    I love your paragraph 4. Speaks for me beautifully.

    The ALLiance that I advocate represents my current political allegiances.

  55. nurses1968

    So this Alliance is of your choosing and your alone?
    “The Greens and some surviving Left Labor, alternative Progressive parties like the Pirate Party and sane Independents are identified as likely participants. (I would want to see who the make-up was, before I would consider one without the Greens in it.)”
    Can you name the members of the ALP acceptable to you. or the “sane Independents” , Who are the “left Labor you would accept?
    You have said it yourself in this comment.
    It is a front to get the Greens some clout which they are incapable on their own .
    What a bloody fraud, time to put some names to the included ones.
    p.s
    It seems like you may have silenced me for a bit,
    this “nurse’/cornlegend’s ” rubbish has cornlegend about to email Michael Taylor to have this IP blocked so there can be no doubt about his non involvement and any question on anyone logging in from his residence

  56. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    You don’t learn do you, nurses/cornlegend?

    Instead of finding fault with me and my ALLiance proposal, look in your own backyard and see how you could promote winning solutions to wipe out the LNP Degenerates.

    No one Party deserves the honour of government. Labor might have commanded that honour once, but it doesn’t now and probably should not either going by its performance in recent decades.

  57. corvus boreus

    Nurses1968,
    I think it will probably be a good thing if you no longer use your boss’ computer to post repeated exhortations for people not to vote for the Labor party.

  58. nurses1968

    Why are you so totally incapable of answering simple questions as to the coalition you want
    Is it because you have none,
    After a couple of years of spin surely you have ONE politician who has shown an interest,
    Your failure to answer questions makes this coalition even more fishy and you still haven’t told me the ALP left pollies you would grudgingly accept.
    Just think of the number of fairy tales you could have written beside this one in all that time.
    I think it is having a negative affect on you

  59. Kaye Lee

    Geeze Louise,

    Why must people get so personal?

    I agree that a multi-party executive would be a damn sight better than this winner-takes-all situation we currently have which has led to a great deal of self-serving dishonesty in politics from all sides.

    No need to form any alliances, just have some form of proportional representation in the executive.

  60. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Quite right, corvus.

    Kaye,

    If there were elective government political reform, I like your proportionate multi-party executive idea.

    My ALLiance idea applies to the current parliamentary setup.

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