Finally, it is over and the results are in. The result of the same-sex postal survey is entirely predictable and mirrors polls taken over the last five years. The question remains, why has the will of a large majority of the people been ignored by the parliament for so long?
This has been an entirely unnecessary vox pop of the Australian people on a question so few are actually invested in. It has been ugly and divisive. The best thing we can say about it is at last it is done.
It should never have happened. The parliament should have acted or indeed it might not have acted and we would all be a lot better off than we are today. But the political needs of the Coalition had to be sated and so the Australian Bureau of Statistics was dragged into oversee a $122 million non-binding, voluntary postal survey that may yet come to little or nothing.
The cost of it has to be counted more than in simple dollar terms. It has to be measured somehow in more nebulous but more important ways. The loss of national unity, a lid lifted on bigotry and prejudice where discrimination against one group of people was openly countenanced by community leaders.
Full column here.
Oh dear. Looks like Mugabe thinks he can just repeat what has happened a few times in his reign. Dig in. Send out the thugs to beat up or kill dissenters – and carry on as before.
The men overseeing this are/were powerful Mugabe henchmen and have behaved no better in the past.
No wonder everyone is walking on eggshells around them.
And Morgan Tsvangarai is back! He got beaten to within an inch of his life after he won the first round of the election some 13 odd years ago – and fled before the second round – because he would certainly have been killed.
This could get ugly. Hope not.
And for the tightwads, we’ve wasted many millions on stuff we can’t remember, so I think the thimble of money spent to declare that the majority of us think that the minority of gays can be legally married is small beer.
As a Christian all I demand is that they (them!) have no sex before marriage.
And thank God we have the freedom to demand such things in this great nation.
Your main man Abbott must be seething dear Milton but looks like he’s outgunned this time around. Cheers P.S. are you signing up with Cory Bernadi’s Party my good fellow?
Apparently Tones rang up his sister to congratulate her on the result, Henry. I think he’s a decent chap with a good heart, it’s just that his lips can get him into trouble.
I bet he was seething on the inside.
I saw an interview once with Tones, from my understanding of physiognomy (not that Mormon stuff), giving a jolly good impression of someone seething on the inside. Not a great look.
What’s the bet he’s the first at the bar and then on the dance floor at his sisters wedding. Might even knock a few people out the way to catch the bouquet.
I suppose he would go to his sisters wedding too. Just to try and make the sinners feel uncomfortable.
…and the Mafia send flowers to the wedding Bald.
You know how it goes Milton. If your side wastes a lot of money, it’s an “investment in our Nation’s future™”, when the other side does it, it’s a shameless waste of the taxpayers’ hard-earned. No one is really interested in the deficit, or the debt, just political point scoring.
All this talk of Bancroft and goodness forbid S. Marsh again while young SACA opener J. Weatherald has already scored over 400 runs in the first 3 shield games including 152 and 143 in the SACA’s come back win over the WACA’s.
S Marsh has daddy Dismayed…….
They went and did it Dismayed! Bancroft and S Marsh! Bloody hell mate what have they done to us!!!
Bancroft I can live with. S. Marsh is a bad pick his brother has been batting just as well and is bowling again. this has T.Hohns idiocy all over it. No surprises.
some one tell me who the best keeper is please? Coz it aint Paine and never was wade
Godfrey Evans and Don Tallon
Wally Grout mate, your shout.
I love being on the receiving end of a Wally Grout Mack.
Talk of Tim Paine back in the Aussie XI good call but talk of S. Marsh FFS. There are half a dozen blokes who should be selected before him.
beats me
Last night’s win for the socceroos only marred by the inane Channel 9 commentary and the consolation goal conceded with almost the last kicks of the game.
This team is a lot less than world class but also better team than the sum of its parts (contra the Netherlands).
The lengthy qualifying programme may prove beneficial but it would be unrealistic to expect Australia to get out of its group – whoever may be in it.
Still, the gap in class has narrowed and upsets are possible: teams which all made it to respectable positions in the last couple of World Cups (Netherlands, Chile, Italy & USA) have failed to qualify while Iceland made it through this time directly by topping its European group.
The nature of a game in which goals are at such a premium is to increase the likelihood of upsets (and heart attacks among spectators)….. maybe the same parameters should be applied to the political scene 🙂 !?
cheers
Er, yes, thanks I think.
Let me know if they win the this “World Cup” thing (again?, ) and I’ll do my patriotic very best to try and get interested.
JB, you could always cheer for La belle France (unless they are in the same group as Oz) but their golden era has passed …as did the second republic…oh different century 🙂
Oh no! The French play soccer? Comment deplorable.
Now that our biggest threats, Italy and the Netherlands, are out of the way we’re a good chance to bring the Cup home, Voltaire! A very cunning plan of Ange’s to have us go in as underdogs.
And I see Peru has knocked NZ out.
still no real explanation
http://dragnews.com.au/news-all/local-news/4214-editorial-on-safety-and-risk-remembering-anita.html
An inquest in good time no doubt. As the writer points out, some parents let their children ride horses.
Just off on another tack briefly, Mr Insider, may I suggest searching your garage/garden shed for any Leonardo Da Vinci works given a painting of Christ by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci has sold for $US450 million ($591 million) at auction in New York, obliterating previous records. Strewth knew I should have continued with my “paint by numbers” Art lessons, bugger!
http://tinyurl.com/y7adntqr
Leonardo probably painted only a dozen or so paintings purely on his own in his life. He collaborated on quite a few more. He was a polymath and a true genius. This is not just understood now, Europeans in the 16th Century knew it, too. Almost 500 years after his death, he remains influential and loved.
Too right Jack, the man was a freak. I guess over the last couple of centuries dumbing down the population could be thought of as a success.
Imagine if we had highly intelligent people with vision in politics today, people the likes of Leo, Tom Jefferson, Socrates, Ben Franklin, Plato, Isaac Newton just to throw a few names around, they might even be worth their salaries! Sacre bleu! choc horreur!
It certainly is a gorgeous painting. I have visited the home of Leonardo da Vinci in Amboise, France. Fascinating place.
The man was truly a genius………. As Jack points out, painting was almost a sideline for him.
Not only a genius but a left-handed homosexual….
I prefer the right handed ones actually voltaire. Does that make a bigot?
If you listen to the documentary link I posted you will note he was not camp
Funny thing though about gays or ‘eccentrics’ as we used to say, back in the old Dart there were a few darlings in the family. Wonderful old uncles. When we visited it wasnt even commented on, accepted and moved on. I thought they were a delight, and they adored me, sadly gone now and missed. But then it has been my experience that’s a certain, lets say, level of society, where acceptance has long been the norm. The higher you go, the less fuss made.
.
However, it seems the further down the society ladder you go it changes, lower rungs less accepting. The servants always poo-poo. Then you get down to the real poverty types and its not accepted at all. Beat you to death ‘bloody poofta’ bashing types. Hard core salt of the earth, god and country. Closed minds never opened. Its also worth noting the further down the laddder you go the more likely to be religious they are, more subservient to authority, stuck in the past. .
.
Does this describe your postcode lol? Looks like its a big whack of Sydney. Time to move. Camping anyone?
Certainly not going to enrol at the University of Wooloomooloo
So Wraith, those hundreds of thousands of good burghers in a swath of western Sydney electorates and elsewhere who had the gall and effrontery to vote NO are in your view “bloody poofta bashing, religious, subservients” etc, etc ?
Says a lot for your bleats for moderation on here, eh?
Time to give it a rest I reckon.
Did you take it personally? lol. Wasnt aimed at anyone on here, and therefore, not an insult. Just observations on the strata of society.
.
Now, breathe in, and out, in and out,….. there you go. Do you want the paper bag or are you going to be okay?
.
🙂
“not an insult”? and also not like you to take such a feeble dive for cover Wraith.
Scornful broad-brush abuse lacking any semblance of finesse is still an insult dear.
Okay, coz you’re pushing it uphill, short answer, yes. now go chew on that.
No, but if you can tick more minority boxes your credibility (not to mention prospects of a government subsidy/grant) is increased…..
Since we are mixing so many topics including sports – would that make you a switch hitter?…
I’m not a believer in that thesis, Wraith. I doubt wealth is a big issue re peoples sexual proclivities and the response to others. Parenting, education , the hidden curriculum and an exposure to “the rich tapestry of life” via movies, books and a get out of your own comfort zone can do wonders. I can’t proscribe that for anybody but I believe taxpayers have a right to expect that our youth are literate, numerate and culturally aroused in history, philosophies (religions?) and the arts. Our only problem is paper wasters think providing these basics cost lots of money. Balls!
Homophobia and bigotry are not strictly defined by wealth. But if extreme wealth is involved hypocrisy gets more than a cameo.
Good to see the naysayers accepting the Yes result with good grace.
In my opinion the $100million outlay was worth every cent. Chickenfeed in the big picture anyway. And it got done – at last.
The amount of money that will flow into the economy as a result will more than pay for it.
The Turnbull government deserves some credit for running it through all the political games and sticking to their guns to achieve this.
Everyone seems happy which is good!
Bella,
November 15th 3.09pm
Interesting both those businessmen have skin in the renewable game……..