Backfire for Belated Bigot?

What an appalling abuse of section 122 of our crusty and out-of-date constitution.

The question I pose is this: will Costello's reincarnation as a bigot, obviously a calculated calibration in the quest for leadership, backfire and lose him as many votes from the actually-a-bit-liberal wing as it wins from the duelling banjo faction?

I apologise, I'm back and I'll stay

I passed through a nadir. As Splatts pointed out, this isn't the first time I've ditched a blog during a tight spot. I will give more explanations as time unfolds (some of you have guessed and emailed), but meantime please keep your links and feeds.

I enjoyed my first foray onto Crikey, and intend to take more shots at the 'old' media, but I'm kidding myself to either (a) blame blogging for any lack of output or (b) think I can last long without this particular incurable addiction.

Hang in here, and after I post my final pain-in-the-butt international relations essay this Friday I promise you consistent lefty-contrarian analysis to complement (and sometimes curdle) your coffee each morning.

With love, apologies, and a double measure of something smooth...

Au Revoir, I'm off to chase dreams...

Today I missed out on my dream job.

The big hole in my CV was a lack of media experience. Get some articles published and you might have a better chance they said. It was the same story with another exciting job about 2 months ago.

I have enjoyed political blogging, but there is something about getting your work past an editor that gives you an edge over self published opinion, however incisive or relevant. Before I blogged, I had things published, and if I had not been putting my spare writing time into my blogs I would probably have several more pieces out there.

Possibly, I would have landed one of these jobs.

Legal Journo and Political Advisor, respectively, in case you're curious.

So I'm going to make a renewed effort to get published, and end my poliblogging for the time being. I will keep visiting my favourite blogs via my feedreader and comment sometimes. I may even do some more personal blogging, from time to time, somewhere out there.

Wish me luck, because I am about to chase a few dreams.

And stay in touch, and drink with me when you pass through sunny Melba.

Au Revoir Armagnac'd.

UPDATE: Better balance struck, see the next post up!

Top Terrace Tumor Terror

Not so good:

The top floors of one of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's (RMIT) buildings in Melbourne are set to be closed after seven staff were diagnosed with brain tumours. The staff work in the Tivoli building in Bourke Street, with five of them on the top floor where the business faculty is based.

It is believed there is a mobile phone transmitter on the roof of the building.

Adding to the injury already caused by horrific ring tones.

Budget response isn't Beazley's Guadalcanal

Predictably they're saying this is his big test, a kind of final chance to show his wares. I'm very much in the Beazley doubter camp but I think that's simply setting him up, unfairly, for failure.

This is weak ground for Labor, unfortunately. It isn't Labor or Beazley's fault that people don't like to have money taken back out of their pockets, so any argument for redirecting these tax cuts into more responsible social investment is going to be difficult to put. The strongest potential for attack is at the periphery; too much to the very wealthy perhaps, not enough for the needy.

Going in hard for young singletons and asking how many waves of additional 'family' benefits they must pay for is unfashionable in marginal seats. I'm married and on the cusp of considering the family thing, yet I think it's palpably unfair that they get continually snubbed because they don't form a significant enough voting bloc.

Not only that, it makes no sense to keep giving them incentive to head offshore. We aren't there yet, and to take up from my previous post Gen Xers and Ys haven't done all that badly, but society is in a transition which if it keeps going could leave the young professional class feeling that their role is to pay huge student debts, rents and taxes and work themselves to the bone for the more influential family and grey votes.

If I was just starting out and had the kind of debts Ys are now being saddled with, the temptation to spend a decade somewhere with lower taxes coupled with a stronger currency would be very strong.

However...

Realistically for Labor, any attacks on this budget, a product of largess that is likely to be overwhelmingly popular among key voters, need to be modest and well-targetted. Certainly Beazley's ability to mount any sort of attack on it would reflect well on him. But he shouldn't be expected to pull a flame out of his arse- he needs to do that attacking the IR laws, or working up stronger health and education policies. That's where Labor can win, that's where he needs to prove himself.

UPDATE: Two comments in a row that sum up my concerns about this budget, and the ongoing saga of the generations, on an Age blog.

MEGAN:

This budget totally leaves out young professional people, it is Australia's loss though, UK/Europe, Asia and USA's gain.Not to worry, i am joining many of my friends and younger sister in Europe to work permanently. There is no future in a little known country that cares not for young people who stive for excellence and work hard and is only a parochial quarry with a view. Ciao.

ROD:

By the time anyone under 55 gets to drawn down super I will bet that the economic conditions will have changed and the newly abolished 15% withdrawal tax will be re-instated.

Given what happened to Higher Ed fees that's not an unrealistic fear...

Free education, houses, now a gold-encrusted retirement

Imre, arrogant slob that he is, sums up the baby boomers' budget in a nutshell:

..by encouraging the over-60s to combine super with an income stream, he is making it easier for boomers to do what they do best - hog all the best jobs and drive generations X and Y nuts in the process.

Why do the rest of us even bother?

"The Network" - Labor's Opus Dei...

Or not? Does it even really exist?

I have only ever encountered cryptic references to this group. I picture Silas in King Gee slacks, photo of 'BS' Santamaria taped to his chest, quietly taking out social progressives in the hours before an important conscience vote.

Sounds like a blockbuster in the making, though The Boyd Code just doesn't have the same ring....

More West Wing than Cavenagh QC

Over the weekend I made a decision, which I acted on today, that will significantly shape my future for better or worse.

For the past couple of years I've toyed with the idea of becoming a criminal lawyer. I even applied for a couple of prosecution and defence positions, but wasn't offered anything serious so the idea remained hypothetical. The appeal of criminal law is that it is the most advocacy driven area of law; you spend most of your time in court, not behind a desk, and there is far more arguing than paperwork. Also it is undeniably interesting and dominated by issues affecting real people. It is the best area to work in if you are contemplating a smooth transition to Barristerhood.

Last week I got two offers: an interview (to be held today at lunchtime) with a prosecution service and a job offer with a leading criminal defence firm.

This morning I turned both down.

Despite the appeal, I realised the entire field is not me. For a lefty I'm quite law and order when it comes to violent criminals, but on the other hand have loads of sympathy for property and drug offenders who appear as driven by desperation as anything. I don't really suit either side of this heated and passionate area.

Life goes on. We continue to look at houses, and consider bumping up to Preston (but not Sydney thanks SB!). Warne canoodles. Miners languish behind walls of rock. Dozens more die in Iraq. Beazley has a halfway decent week, perhaps fired up by talk of his demise. Life goes on.

Sex and Sporting Performance

Clearly the old requirement that athletes abstain wasn't based on science. Warne takes 7 for 99 despite bowling two maidens over with his omniprescent leg stump:

"Shane's a stallion and very willing to experiment. He loved playing around with the inflatable and was up for anything."

What a nice compliment to receive from a lady!

What grump lies beneath?

Mao and I have been taking it in turns to slip into depression. It could be a virus, maybe I've caught cat flu or feline aids, that would explain the strange drawn out minor cough that yesterday turned into a sore throat. I've never had a cold with this 'pattern' before, but I suppose they mutate frequently.

Interviewed for two jobs, a third lined up next week. Another may come through with an interview shortly after that. They involve big choices that twist around my brain like earthworms. Having options seems good when you don't, but it ramps up your blood pressure when you don't exactly know which one you'd rather take. It's a policy versus court thing, I won't go further as I've whinged about this in previous navel gazing posts. I have found that staring down the barrel of a job in criminal defence law has made me aware of all the ways I don't fit the stereotype small-l liberal when it comes to law and order.

I think repeat violent offenders should be locked in a psychiatric institution until they are safe. That sort of thing.

Beloved and I have strained at little things, pointless arguments erupt through the surface expressing the magma underneath. Not about us, I'm pretty sure of that. We're both just a little over the house search, the endless disappointments and almost-not-quites. The people taking loans five times their salaries in order to pip those of us who try to cling to a modicum of common sense. And maybe it's an Autumn thing, who knows?

At least, while Mao and the two of us are by turns grumpy, little Minh-Minh is a ball of up-beat, big-eyed fluffy love. Just watching her jumping around on the lawn warms my soul.

Please don't touch the Kelpie...

Only in Queensland can you say this without feeling self conscious:

He has to be the leader. He's so safe you could leave your girlfriend or your kelpie with him.

Or your Kelpie. Glad he won't do to Kelpies what he also won't do to girlfriends.

Meanwhile Beazley potters on. There's a fire in that belly I'm sure, but whether it fires over policy or just the seat inhabited by Johnny is another matter. How many chances do you get before you accept that maybe you're not leadership material. Maybe you don't even believe in anything worth fighting for.

I started reading the Latham diatribe again the other day, got about 3 pages further in and retired it again. Why are there so many people in my party with such strong beliefs that accord so precisely with the dry wing of the Liberal party? People who probably sit to the right of Amanda Vandstone or Petro Georgiou?

I would like to see a Rudd-Gillard team sweep in now, but my fear is that they wouldn't make enough headway before the next election, lose, and get dumped prematurely by the party in its hand-wringing uncertainty as people muttered about what a mistake it was to ditch Beazley.

If the party has little chance of winning next time, wouldn't that be a good opportunity to run a few strong policies up the flag, road test them, see where the public might actually tolerate or even warm to something progressive? Sometimes we are so conservative that I wonder if Labor winning with Beazley and the roosters at the helm would be an improvement at all...

Time for a timor-sea change on Indonesia policy?

There are a set of core beliefs that underpin our consistently one-sided relationship with Indonesia, a relationship I've generally supported but am now starting to question on a fundamental level. We need Indonesia more than they need us, any breakup of Indonesia would be bad for us, we can't deal with a defence threat from Indonesia, we have to seek a strong relationship with them due to geography, and underpinning it all an optimism that if we do enough to please them; teach Indonesian in schools, visit in droves and spend money, assist with disasters and give money, and train their vile paramilitary terrorists, they will eventually come to like us.

All of these are clearly up for debate. There is something to be said for 'keeping your enemies closer'. There is also no point in seeking a hostile relationship- Indonesia may be disorganised and relatively poor but with 200 million people we aren't in a position to engage it in military conflict. But would we be best of going totally cold, seeking no benefit or closeness from the relationship, warning tourists and businesses who go there that they accept their own risk, and politely telling them we mind our own business when they get shirty about our accepting refugees from whichever of their colonial provinces they start oppressing next?

Indonesia, the political entity, is for all intents and purposes a Javanese empire, a failure in decolonisation supported by the myopic racism of the UN. Rather than distinct entities like Flores, Sumba, Bali and distinct 'nations' within Sulawesi getting to 'self determine' in accordance with what is supposed to be a 'right of erga omnes' (see the Roman Gold case, ICJ) they go from one master to another. To be fair, most are not agitating for independence and self determination includes the right to stay within a wider national entity, but in considering the plight of those who aren't happy, and in weighing up the alternatives, we need to bear in mind that it is not a homogenous nation. And in the East, the bit closest to us, much of the sparsely populated land is christian or even animist.

I would never argue that we should disengage from Asia, but are we excessively obsessed with being close to our nearest neighbours? Due to history, geopolitical interests, and even just relative similarities in culture we will find some countries much easier to get along with than others. We have good relationships with Singapore, Thailand, China and ironically Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Not too bad with the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. But the Malays constantly elude us, and maybe they will continue to do so in Malaysia, Indonesia and any other malay-islamic nation that should spring up in the future.

We are equally part of the South Pacific, but have less focus there due to perceived economic advantages to an Asia focus. We walk a fine line with interventions such as that in the Solomons, but we are there because we've been asked, and I think generally we are seen as benign and reasonably friendly in that region.

PNG is the one country so close we can't afford to be hated by, and we get along pretty well. They need us, especially with the Indonesian army patrolling along their border.

Maybe we can trade, holiday and generally interact with the rest of the world around Indonesia. Maybe we don't need them any more than they seem to (not) need us.

And maybe if they did break up, and we ended up with little island nations like Sumba and Flores on our doorstep, this would not be the recipe for endless horror we've always assumed.
I'm not there yet, I think we should pursue firm diplomacy that continues to place importance on the relationship (while telling them they can dictate our migration policy when we can write their criminal laws), but it is clearly time for serious academic and policy consideration of the alternatives.

(Sorry about the long sparse posts, hoping normality will resume asap, I'm not on the verge of giving this site up or anything!)

Can you have a baby and go on living?

Married. Looking for house. Admit we may be open to kidlets in the
near future. But the barrage of hectoring opinion and judgement has
already started, and it's throwing me headlong into the kind of
questions that have left so many in our generation prevaricating when,
deep down, they'd love to start a family.

The most aggressive bit of judgement was a conservative middle-aged
woman at work accusing us and other young couples of being selfish
because we don't move to the outer suburbs when considering having
kids. We could get more space for the kids to play in for the same
money, so therefore anything less is pure selfishness. This is based
on a pretty pissy factual analysis; I was brought up in a medium sized
town (Darwin) where we had loads of room but nothing to do, and
violence, drugs, depression and apathy were rampant.

But suppose it is, there will certainly be other decisions that will
pit the child's most optimum option against things that are important
to us as adults. The prevailing view seems to be that a parent must
put their child first, almost to the point that the parent becomes a
vessel, like a uterine wall there purely to provide sustenance and
support for the child, their own role in the world shunted aside.

Why is it that we take this view? Is the balance- where the children
and both parents are all able to grow, and where decisions weigh
benefits and downsides as relating to all family members, impossible?

Forget politics, no issue attracts the amount of smug, self righteous
lecturing as child raising. This may be appropriate at one extreme-
child abuse and chronic neglect upset decent people at a fundamental
level. But in genuine cases of abuse or neglect the child is being put
last, and notably so. Have we gone so far in our expectations and
lecturing that it is understandable that so many people who would make
excellent parents just baulk, and put the process off and off until it
is too late?

Is 'Epoch Times' legit, or a cult rag?

Something called Epoch Times is handed out occasionally at my train station. It seems to have pretty benign stories, but, though I admit I haven't perused it closely, something about it, the feel, the pretentious name, gives me a creepy twinge.

Anyone know more?

Message in a Bottle

My home 'broadband' has decided to slow to a virtual standstill. Work internet is currently limited due to some perceived threat or another. And I have struggled to find a good time spot to blog in. So I'm conducting an experiment. It took me ages that may well have been better spent posting, but last night I filled in the boxes in blogger that, allegedly, allow you to email posts in.

Will it work? Will the email heading transfer to the blog post format? This is a tester, but while I'm here you deserve something worth reading.

We had Minh desexed. She was incredibly well behaved, and everyone at the Vet's fell in love with her. They said she would sleep the first night, and throw up if she ate more than a modicum, but instead as soon as she got home she launched at Mao and the chase-wrestle-bite-hindkick game continued where it had left off. 3 days of that and her stitch area was bloated, but a further inspection by the Vet left us assured she's ok.

She is indestructable, indefatiguable, and utterly irresistable. And I'm finding evenings lying on the couch under a dooner with both cats curled up on top a significant disincentive to doing anything more productive....