Or: 2010 Australian Federal election notes (August 13, 2010). Well, brief notes, anyway, and relating only to the seat of Melbourne.
So, last time I checked (July 19), in the race between Adam Bandt (Greens) and Cath Bowtell (Labor), Bandt had 895 followers on Twitter, while Cath Bowtell had 162; 2,540 people liked Adam Bandt on Facebook, while 265 people liked Cath Bowtell. A month later, Bandt has 1,475 followers on Twitter, while Bowtell has 370. 3,299 people like Bandt on Facebook, while 493 people like Bowtell.
More worryingly, for Labor, are the odds on Centrebet:
On the other hand, Greens candidate’s old law firm backs Labor’s Bowtell (David Rood, The Age, August 13, 2010). And if the law-talking guys put their money where their mouth is, the odds are sure to shift decisively in the ALP’s favour.
You say you’ll fight
Against me and mine
Against ours and we
Against all we could ever hope to achieve
You say you’ll stand
Against freedoms and rights
Against all this country supposedly stands
You say a lot – but I say
With a little more respect we
Could have a lot more
Then you could ever, ever hope to achieve
You say you’ll stand
You’ll stand alone
You’ll stand alone
Darrin Hodges (above) is Grand Poobah of the NSW branch of the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’, a micro-party on the far right that models itself upon the ‘British National Party’ (BNP). Hodges is standing in NSW for the Australian Senate, along with Nick Folkes (aka Nicholas Hunter-Folkes). The photo above was taken while Hodges participated in a ‘black bloc’ organised by neo-Nazis belonging to a group called the ‘New Right’. The perhaps 20 or so fascists who assembled on September 8, 2007 to form the group were drawn from a range of tiny, far-right political formations (see: All Heil the New Reich*, September 18, 2007).
The ‘New Right’ still ekes out an existence, but the ‘national anarchists’ who gathered alongside of Hodges have almost completely disappeared. Thus on the one hand, their chief ideologue, Welf Herfurth, is still active, organising the local franchise of US-based neo-Nazi group Volksfront: in September, Herfurth will be welcoming Canadian Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm to Australia to speak at the annual fascist gathering known as the Sydney Forum. On the other hand, Herfurth’s most excitable follower — a teenage boy from Geelong called Scott Harrison — has abandoned him and ‘national anarchism’ to become a Creatard and a Reverend in a nutty white supremacist cult called Creativity. Others who gathered together in Sydney on that day have gone in different, if similar, directions, including into APP and their arch-rivals the ‘Australia First Party’ (APP blames Muslims for the world’s problems, AF, the Jews; both despise leftists, homosexuals, and all the usual suspects).
Folkes (pictured above with climate change denialist Lord Monckton — His Lordship thinks global warmening is part of a plot to destroy the world economy and establish a communist world government) is an extremely abrasive fellow, and would make a fine Tory — if he had the bRanes. Sadly for Nicholas, he doesn’t, and is thus stuck with the APP, and must content himself with bemoaning the presence of “muslim rapists” in Australia, greedy Filipinos in the UK, and denouncing me as a “Marxist Nazi turd”, an “anti-Semite” and so on.
Chances are, neither will be addressing the Australian Parliament any time soon.
Update : Clarification of comments by Wendy Francis: “I do not believe that upholding marriage or preventing children being raised in homosexual families is discrimination. We can’t govern Australia by legislation based on pleasing each group who wants things their way. I believe we must stand firm on principles and values that are the best for the good of the nation…”
“Strange that I can be called a bigot for standing up for values that many people believe in yet others can deride my beliefs & that’s ok” (August 7, 2010).
Update : Following the publication of the article by SBS about his desire to assault gays, John has now protected his tweets. D’oh!
OK. So. Like… just as nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition, so nobody — in their right mind — expects political subtlety, or nuanced economic or social analysis, from the remnants of the One Nation Party. So I wasn’t terribly surprised when, in response to Family First Queensland Senate candidate Wendy Francis’ recent homophobic outburst, John Groves, president of One Nation in Victoria, expressed his support. As in, his preparedness — “love” even — for “Phoofter Bashing”. Looking at some of his other, earlier tweets, however, revealed some other, rather disturbing sentiment:
Stormfront, eat your heart out!
Bonus ONE NATION TAX POLICY!
“Only by reforming the Nation[‘]s finances & taxation can we save Australia from the control of the CFR. [Council on Foreign Relations] moneymen… One Nation is ashamed of our Government Ministers who travel around the world with begging bowls, cringing at the feet of the CFR (Zionist Bankers) for their cut from the IMF slush funds, & borrowing money to pay for our imports, foreign aid & fund their economic mis-management of our economy, defying the Australian Constitution & abrogating their elected responsibility to the Australian people.”
If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination: let them be put to death. Their blood be upon them.
Leaving aside the fact that the passage has been subject to quite different interpretations, the most accepted appears to be encapsulated in the title of a song the Queensland-based neo-Nazi band ‘Open Season’ will be performing in Melbourne on September 25: ‘Kill the Poofs’.
One indication of the general shift in social attitudes towards homosexuality in Australia is the fact that such invocations to (deadly) violence, discipline and punishment are no longer enshrined in law; in fact — or rather, in theory — they actually run counter to anti-vilification legislation. Beyond this, such views are repudiated by a large majority, receive no (or very little) support in major social institutions, and are typically regarded as simply barbaric (as well as er, crackpot). On the other hand, full equality before the law remains somewhat elusive, and recent attempts to bring about legislative change have met with considerable opposition.
See also : Coming Forward – The underreporting of heterosexist violence and same sex partner abuse in Victoria, William Leonard, Anne Mitchell, Sunil Patel, Christopher Fox, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS), 2008 (PDF).
In this context, the decision by the Liberal National Party in Queensland to preference Family First ahead of every other candidate for the Australian Senate is remarkable. The lead candidate for Family First is Wendy Francis. Wendy has stated that “Children in homosexual relationships are subject to emotional abuse and legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse” (on Twitter), and later compared a so-called “parentless” generation with the “stolen generations” — a highly questionable framework in which to place such family arrangements (to put it mildly).
In 2004, Victorian ALP preferences ensured Family First Senator Steve Fielding was elected to Parliament. In 2010, it may be that the public has the Queensland LNP to thank for the election of another Christian fundamentalist to high office.
See also : Lib holds on to his candidacy, Dan Oakes, The Age, August 10, 2010 (“A COALITION candidate for an ultra-marginal seat has retained his preselection despite being accused of anti-Semitism, homophobia and misogyny.”) | One Nation in gay vilification complaint, AAP, August 9, 2010 (“Gay rights activist Gary Burns has lodged an anti-discrimination complaint against a One Nation candidate in the federal election.”) | One Nation member ‘promoting gay bashing’, SBS, August 9, 2010 (“The incident began when 30-year old computer programmer Nicholas Perkins criticised Ms Francis’ comments on homosexuality via [Twitter]”).
North Korea has reportedly executed a former cabinet minister who was in charge of talks with South Korea…
2004
14th Inter-Korean Ministerial Talks Open
Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) — The 14th north-south ministerial talks were opened here today. At the talks Kwon Ho Ung, chief councilor of the DPRK Cabinet, who is the head of the north side’s delegation and Jong Se Hyon, minister of Unification, who is chief delegate of the south side made keynote speeches. Kwon Ho Ung elaborated that the joint military exercises the south side stages with the U.S. are a main factor of straining the overall situation on the Korean peninsula and jeopardizing the inter-Korean relations…
Reiterating the unshakable stand of the north not to compromise with such attitude of the south side, Kwon strongly demanded the south side take a corresponding measure to prevent the recurrence of what happened…
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
