[Public-list] Australian Federal Election.

[David Fisher]

Hi All, sorry to soil this list with political banter, but for us aussies 
this is an important one.  We go to the polls on Saturday with the most 
serious implications that en election has had the possibility to deliver 
certainly in my lifetime.  If our conservative government wins again, it 
will be their fourth term.  Over this period, Australia has been faced with 
an increasing problem with illegal immigrants, uncertain economic movements 
due to our proximity to Asia while we try to ally ourselves with Europe and 
the "west" and the obvious and real threat of terrorism.  These are 
considerable difficulties for any government to overcome.  What has saddened 
me over this time is that our government has taken a consistently 
unhumanistic stance.  Refugees are locked up in the desert while their case 
is bogged down by bureucracy.  Our indigenous population enjoys the worst 
health standards in the first world.  Our SE Asian neighbours are snubbed 
because (I can only presume) of an old world mentality and, I'm sorry to say 
it, because of our relationship with the US.  Most dangerous of all, we're 
well and truly on the band wagon over terrorism.  Your president has been 
clever in painting a black and white picture of it all: he has convinced a 
fair percentage of your population from what I understand, and he has 
convinced our government as well.  Somewhere along the line our government 
has lost track of the fact that people born outside Australia, the US and 
Europe are still just that: people.  Not terrorists necessarily.  No very 
thorough consideration is given to the role of this attitude in 
exasserbating this problem.

If Labor wins on Saturday, maybe these problems will prevail, but I'm 
hopeful they won't.  If Howard stays in, they'll only get worse.  It is, I 
suspect, a similar situation to yours with Kerry.  We don't really know, but 
can we stand things going along the same path and can we continue to bear 
the consequences?

Maybe this weekend will be the first sign of a change in mentality where 
people begin to look around them and realize there are more important things 
in life than the lining of their own comfort zones.  Here's hoping.

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