[GD]
Oh, and yes, I voted for One Nation. (In a way certain to be judged
informal.) Not because I think P Hanson is any brighter than a brick
(she isn't), or because I'm racist (I'm married to a Cambodian refugee)
or because I think ON's policies are wonderful (many are rubbish),
but because I'll vote for _anyone_ who stands the slightest chance of
toppling the Lab/Lib duopoly of power. Over the last ten years I've
become convinced that those two parties are actually two faces of one
mechanism of control; control of Australia, its people and resources
by foreign interests for their own ends.
[AL] I suspect many One Nation voters had the same motive.
Many ALP voters have a similar motive for voting against the Coalition.
When the ALP was in office many Coalition voters had a similar motive
for voting against the ALP. That approach doesn't make any sense to me.
It's a direct product of there not being much serious discussion of
actual
political issues in Australia.
[GD]
And also, because I've _never_ before seen such a concerted, totally
unified, well orchestrated, viscious and blatant campaign of character
assasination, distortion of facts, and propoganda as was used against
ON/PH by the media in the run-up to the last election. That was very
frightening, that such a campaign could be run here, with no observable
backlash (or any reaction at all, that I could see.) A very dark sign
indeed.
[AL] I agree, though I've seen such campaigns before, and am less easily
frightened :-)
It became slightly farcical rather than frightening when the entire
press corps held a sit
in at a One Nation media conference.
Also, my reaction to the viciousness of the propaganda could never lead
me to vote for a party whose policies I think are rubbish.
More disturbing than the propaganda campaign was the outright
anti-democratic
attempts to silence them by force.
I'm all for militant demonstrations and noisy harassment of political
opponents,
and I'm all for violent responses to violent racists, but trying to
prevent
people from listening to political views you oppose, (non-violent)
racist or otherwise,
is far more vicious than anything Pauline Hanson has openly advocated.
There certainly was a backlash and a substantial
part of their support can be attributed to it. (Just as a substantial
part of the
nearly 50,000 votes rejecting the ALP and Coalition in 1996 was a
backlash to me
being put in prison).
Also disturbing was the blatant role of the Electoral Commission and the
judiciary in mobilizing to crush opponents of the government.
In the Queensland State elections they actually ruled
that it was perfectly legal for the ALP to hand out fake One Nation How
to Vote cards
with ALP second preferences rather than risk a by-election disturbing
the fragile ALP majority won by electoral fraud.
In the Federal Election the AEC decided it had insufficient evidence to
prosecute One Nation for "bribery" in relation to the sale of candidate
kits, so they decided to issue a media release DURING THE CAMPAIGN
announcing that they had referred the matter to the police!
These are matters about which I believe Neither should take a clear
public stand as part of the fight against the two party state and for
democracy.
People who don't understand that are not being anti-racist but
anti-democratic.
