A friend sent me the link to this video - satirising the Federal Government’s domestic violence ad campaign.
Another reminder that a fairly simple idea, executed creatively can be so much more effective than screeds of well written information. And, of course, a telling reminder of how much damage the Coalition has done to our democracy.
I got home last night from a Walk Against Warming meeting, already damp from the light rain. Within 20 minutes of getting home, Chaman came out of his room, holding some broken pieces of perspex. His skylight had broken, leaving a gap about the size of a dinner plate.
So I scrabbled together a rudimentary emergency roofing kit, and climbed up onto the slick, dark, sloping roof, to somehow bind a bin bag over the hole. In the rain.
As I was perched up there, watching the lightning in the distance and trying not to fall off, I realised that our roof is just about the highest point in our area. I eventually got a patch in place, just as the rain hit it’s hardest (which wasn’t really all that bad) and scampered down.
I first met Chaman three and a half years ago, on the day he and a group of other Afghan refugees finally arrived on mainland Australia. Which was three years after he landed on Christmas Island. He’d spent the intervening years on Nauru, locked up to make the Coalition government look tough and resolute.About four months ago, his Temporary Protection Visa expired. He’s waiting for the Minister to decide what happens next – another TPV, permanent residency or even, although it’s unlikely, deportation back to Afghanistan.
The fiction behind the TPV regime is that people recognised as refugees might be able to return home in a few years. Once things settle down. Chaman is a member of the Hazara ethnic minority who have been persecuted for centuries. Even if the Taliban were no longer a threat, Chaman and other Hazaras would still face terrifying persecution if they returned. Despite being recognised as a refugee, Chaman has to wait on the whim of a minister to decide his fate.
So the first week of the campaign has come to a close.
Despite the election hanging over my head for most of the year, there were still a lot of things that couldn’t progress until the date was set, so Week One saw a lot of behind the scenes admin work.
But counting back over the week, this is a thumbnail sketch of what happened, with most of the boring bits removed.
Saturday 13th October: T-1, the day before the election was called – I spent a few hours as a polar bear trying to reclaim democracy – as I outlined in this post.
Sunday -from 10am it was pretty clear the PM was going to ruin my weekend – so I was putting some things together and making a slew of phone calls, before going across to the Multicultural Festival at Roma Street Parklands, much later than I hoped. I was a bit too on-edge to really appreciate it. Deborah Conway was great, though.
Monday – again, working for a Senator facing re-election, there were all the other things that needed to be locked into place, now we had an official date. After work, we had an emergency meeting at my house of my campaign team.
Tuesday – meetings about advertising, more drafting of ads for YouTube, trying to keep ahead of candidate’s surveys, on top of my day job.
Wednesday – carousing with the Australian Republican Movement (as described here).
Thursday – started off with the launch of our Indigenous policy (as outlined in this post),
– then had a lunchtime meeting about the Bill of Rights campaign, then bolted out of the office at about 5.45 to get to a meeting that I found had been postponed. So that was one early night – at least I was home home – but was up working until late.
Friday – finishing off a script for our Rights & Freedoms ad – and the first of our ads to be completed were released, which included this one about Andrew Bartlett, that I’m pretty happy with –
In keeping with the theme of our Indigenous Affairs policy platform (Putting Our First Peoples First) this was the first major policy launch of the campaign for the Democrats – launched on Thursday morning on Mt Coot-tha.
There is a short clip of the launch at the bottom of the page – I’m visible in the background behind Andrew Bartlett, and the campaign page can be found here.
I’ve been writing several of our YouTube ads for this election and the first few of them are being uploaded now. I’ll embed a few more as they come online, but I really had to put this one up now – both because it’s actually on Indigenous Affairs, and also because of its backstory.
From the start I’ve said that we should only use a narrator if they’re really good and well practised. If they’re just passable, or even poor, it will drag down the whole thing, so we should just put the text up onscreen.
At first the text onscreen was tried, but it was decided that this was too dull, so just to really rub it in I was pressganged into doing the narration myself.
You can judge for yourselves, but I think it’s safe to say “passable” would be a step up. I can hear every piece of punctuation in the script I wrote. I’m pretty sure that’s not the way to do it.
Enjoy -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OJ0sSxamTk
And here’s the launch clip (I’m over Senator Bartlett’s left shoulder at the start, in the black shirt)
There was a function for the Republican Movement at the Fox Hotel in South Brisbane featuring Sean Leahy, the cartoonist for the Courier Mail. The Republic Upstairs events are usually a bit low-key, and this one was even more so because the guest speaker was unavoidably detained until 2 hours after it was due to begin.
Which was fine with me, as it turned out.
There was an announcement just after the start at 5.30 that Sean was going to be about an hour late, so we just sat and talked amongst ourselves for a while. It was the kind of quiet, friendly social night you don’t get too many of during an election campaign. I was just getting ready to head off at 7.25pm when there was a second announcement that Sean was just parking his car and would be there shortly.
He soon rushed in, set up his computer for his slideshow and launched into a very engaging 20 minute or so spiel on some highlights of his work and some commentary on the events surrounding them, and then everyone had to go. Continue reading ‘Spending the night with Sean Leahy (and the ARM)’
The PM dropped into see Michael Jeffery for a spot of tea, a scone or two and a smidgen of proroguing Parliament for the election on November the 24th.
So finally the race is on, properly. I’ve always been in favour of fixed terms of government intellectually, but it has only been at this election, when I’m also a candidate, that I realise just how awful the current situation is.
Advantages for the incumbent
Timing – can call a snap election in response to favourable news for them, or unfavourable news for their opposition.
Enrolment – Howard has wisely chosen not to make the timeframes as brutally short as he can under his changes to the electoral act, giving people who have turned 18 have until Wednesday to enrol, or those who have just changed address since the last election have until next Monday to update their enrolment either at the AEC or at their local post office.
Planning – can have schedules meticulously laid out working up to the actual election date. Can find out, without tipping your hand, which venues are available for functions at key times. Can book advertising ahead of time – both official party advertising and the blatantly corrupt use of taxpayer-funded government ads – in some cases, like with billboards, you can kill two birds with one stone by advertising yourself and depriving your opponents of the site, too. Continue reading ‘A Date With John Howard – November 24th’
On Tuesday morning, I was woken to the great news that Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Robert McClelland had committed a future ALP government to not only opposing the death penalty in all circumstances and in all cases, but to going so far as to forming a regional coalition in Asia to lobby for the complete abolition of the death penalty in our region.
I actually couldn’t imagine a better policy coming out of the alternative government, and when I was contacted by various media (including the Brisbane Times here) as convenor of Australians Against Capital Punishment, I roundly congratulated the ALP on this principled stand.
Within an hour of giving the interview, I heard the news that Kevin Rudd had come down on McClelland, first claiming the timing of speech – so close to the anniversary of the Bali Bombing, was insensitive, then not only reversing McClelland’s laudable position that our government would actively oppose capital punishment in all cases, not just when Australians were involved, but actually claimed there was no difference between the Liberal Party and ALP policy (here).
Yes, it was close to the anniversary of that awful tragedy and some of the Bali Bombers’ cases were in a crucial point in the appeals process, but it was also a critical point for the appeals of some of the young Australians facing execution in Indonesia over drug smuggling charges. Continue reading ‘An Election’s No Time For Principle – Rudd’
Tuesday October 9th – 6.30 for a 7pm start. Lvl 2, Trades & Labour Council Building, Cnr Peel & Grey St, South Brisbane – parking at rear
Join us for a candlelight march before the forum
5.30pm at Brisbane Square, George St
Forum to be opened by a performance by Margret RoadKnight
Speakers include
Father Frank Brennan, AO – Jesuit Priest and social justice advocate
Paul Wilson – Chair of Criminology Bond University
Lee and Christine Rush – parents of Scott Rush, one of the young Australians facing the death sentence in Indonesia.
Join us to discuss the ongoing campaign for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. In any case, in any country, in any circumstances – Justice must not kill. For more information, call Tina on 0423 709 445
or email: justine.hampson@gmail.com
Other organisations supporting the campaign – Foreign Prisoners Support Service, GetUp! JustRights Qld, Qld Council for Civil Liberties, Sisters Inside.
The Howard Government is still casting around for some red button issue that might possibly knee-jerk them back into power, and to the surprise of all, chose refugees again.
Picking up on Pauline Hanson’s ruthlessly fact-checked mythology, the Immigration Minister announced the intake of Sudanese refugees was going to be slashed, based on anecdotal evidence that they weren’t fitting into Australian society.
Leaving aside the fact that while this government has been busy berating new migrants for not learning our language and fitting into our society, they have also cut $11 million out of English language classes for new migrants.
Steering a path right around the new citizenship test that’s designed as another stream of government advertising on their ability to keep us safe from “the other” – because no extremists could get past our challenging test unless they came equipped with a 2B pencil and half an hour of study time.
And not even mentioning for a second the ongoing primetime government attacks on refugees, migrants and the very idea of multiculturalism as some kind of effete left-wing treason, which obviously helped to paint Australia as a welcoming and inclusive society for all newcomers.
The simple fact remains that settlement services for migrants in Australia are in an awful state, and especially for those coming from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Instead of slashing migration numbers, they should be providing the services needed to help new Australians join our society properly.
Not that there needs to be another point about how ridiculous this ‘policy’ is, but one of the problems with our settlement services is, that there is not enough forward planning – seeing where the next wave of migration is likely to be coming from, and adapting our services to those needs. There is a long delay time in the existing services modifying themselves to new populations, so now that they have been geared up for the Sudanese, we’re cutting off the intake. Genius. Continue reading ‘How Dare You Call My Bigotry Racist?’
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