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It feels almost unfair to think of how much my country has changed in just a week - of how the faintest threads of hope have woven themselves through what was looking dire.
We have a centrist government that looks like it will govern by the thinnest thread of majority, and which - if they know what's good for them - will listen to the voices of the Greens and 'Teals' who took the bulk of the votes from them and who work with them for a climate-aware and energy-shifting Australia.
It's been such a relief to watch as our PM was welcomed on the world stage, as our non-white Foreign Minister (born in Malaysia of Chinese ancestry) took a trip around the Pacific to nations whose concerns regarding rising sea levels were laughed away by the former government, if not the former Minister for Foreign Affairs. As the Asia-Pacific region recognised that a Labor government in Australia won't treat them like savages and inferiors, but as people from different sides of the sea who can share concerns about the same things, and who can be wary of China's power and influence.
It's been an abject relief to know that the Muruguppan family from Biloela are going home. The parents are Tamils out of Sri Lanka, the daughters born here in Australia and knowing no other life, but (thanks to John Howard) no longer automatically given Australian citizenship. And given the Tamil situation in Sri Lanka, they are refugees and Australia should give them refuge. (Australia should give them refuge after spending over $1m per refugee - not just these four, but the hundreds of others who have been denied freedom simply so the government can look 'tough on boat-people'. At this point, whether or not they can go home, we owe them resettlement - either here, or somewhere else that will take them.)
And it's been heartbreaking to watch the US tear itself apart (again) over the question of gun responsibility and gun accountability, about the frustration and despair that nothing has changed in 10 years and the persisting perennial fear that nothing will change.
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I Don't Just Want Fewer Guns, I Want A Country That Cares For My Family
We have a centrist government that looks like it will govern by the thinnest thread of majority, and which - if they know what's good for them - will listen to the voices of the Greens and 'Teals' who took the bulk of the votes from them and who work with them for a climate-aware and energy-shifting Australia.
It's been such a relief to watch as our PM was welcomed on the world stage, as our non-white Foreign Minister (born in Malaysia of Chinese ancestry) took a trip around the Pacific to nations whose concerns regarding rising sea levels were laughed away by the former government, if not the former Minister for Foreign Affairs. As the Asia-Pacific region recognised that a Labor government in Australia won't treat them like savages and inferiors, but as people from different sides of the sea who can share concerns about the same things, and who can be wary of China's power and influence.
It's been an abject relief to know that the Muruguppan family from Biloela are going home. The parents are Tamils out of Sri Lanka, the daughters born here in Australia and knowing no other life, but (thanks to John Howard) no longer automatically given Australian citizenship. And given the Tamil situation in Sri Lanka, they are refugees and Australia should give them refuge. (Australia should give them refuge after spending over $1m per refugee - not just these four, but the hundreds of others who have been denied freedom simply so the government can look 'tough on boat-people'. At this point, whether or not they can go home, we owe them resettlement - either here, or somewhere else that will take them.)
And it's been heartbreaking to watch the US tear itself apart (again) over the question of gun responsibility and gun accountability, about the frustration and despair that nothing has changed in 10 years and the persisting perennial fear that nothing will change.
--
I Don't Just Want Fewer Guns, I Want A Country That Cares For My Family
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