I’m going to a roe v wade solidarity protest today (I live in Australia) and it’s just exhausting. why do we have to fight for this, still?
over here, federal elections are two weeks away and the current prime minister has just promised to try to pass the religious discrimination bill without amendments if re-elected.
the religious discrimination bill, apparently, theoretically aims to strengthen protections for religious individuals and right to freedom of religion in australia. in practice, if passed, it removes anti-discrimination protections for minority groups (especially lgbt and women)
some examples of the bill’s potential effects:
-> the bill protects the people who make discriminatory statements (e.g. ‘homosexuality is a sin’ or 'menstruating women are unclean’) in the name of religion
-> it could make it easier to fire someone for being gay
-> it prioritises personal religious views over the needs of patients, so healthcare professionals could refuse to treat a gay person, for instance
dot point version of what’s happening for international followers:
back in february 2022, the bill passed in the house of representatives (the lower house of australian politics)
five liberal members of parliament (members of the party trying to pass the bill) crossed the floor to side with labor (the other major australian political party) and crossbenchers in support of independent MP Rebekah Sharkie’s amendment to abolish the right of religious schools to discriminate against gay and transgender students
prime minister scott morison then attempted to compromise by seeking a narrower amendment that prohibited schools from expelling gay students
this version wouldn’t stop schools from discriminating against gay students in other ways though, and doesn’t protect trans students at all
the bill was shelved and it hasn’t gone through the senate yet (where we’d see what would happen with the amendments and the bill overall)
given the upcoming election, christian lobby groups are pressing our two major parties (labor and liberal) to recommit to passing the bill, without the amendments that would protect lgbt students
anyway it’s just fucking miserable that we’re still protesting for basic human decency. even in some of the richest and most privileged countries in the world we’re still dealing with this shit. I am so exhausted at religion interfering the rights of women and gay people.
I don’t think what’s going on is known outside of australia (honestly most australians don’t even know what’s happening with it) so I wanted to write it out. I’ll let you guys know what happens after the elections.
good luck to anyone going to protests, especially americans.
The Coalition trying to bolster party support a week before the election by trying to instigate a mass panic about Chinese warships is so stupid and yet it wouldn’t surprise me if it actually works in this dumb ass conservative country
In response to the pandemic Morrison doubled Newstart - which finally meant welfare recipients could stop skipping meals just to make ends meet. It took a global pandemic for him to consider letting people on benefits live above the poverty line! But it’ll all be reverted back down in 6 months - or maybe even less! So he doesn’t really care about caring about the poor at all, he just didn’t want people who needed temporary assistance to hate him and lose votes! He’s also decided that the votes of the disabled community don’t matter because unlike other forms of support that were doubled - the Disability Support Pension remained low and instead got a one-off payment of $750 instead of a boost. In fact some people had their NDIS support cancelled and are unable to get essentials so Morrison has pointedly ignored vulnerable people and let them suffer!
Scott Morrison literally said Australia never had slavery. He just outright erased Australia’s colonial history - Indigenous people were stolen from their lands and community, forced to work, and were exploited and had their wages stolen - even up to the 60s and 70s. What an abhorrent denial and ignorance of Australia’s racist history.
When a female Minister was directly asked about her experiences with a culture of disrespect and sexism towards women Scott Morrison IMMEDIATELY INTERRUPTED HER and gave a completely pointless and rude addition to the conversation over the usage of the words “bonk ban.” Way to prove how much of a sexist dickhead you are Morrison!
Morrison chose to end JobKeeper and drive people on Centrelink payments under the poverty line BEFORE THE VACCINATION ROLLOUT EVEN BEGAN!
AND we’re also dead last on climate action OUT OF THE ENTIRE UN!! So it’s hard to find a country in the entire world with a worst climate action record than us - if that exists!
for those who don’t know shit about australian politics
Our current Prime Minister, Scott Morrison AKA ScoMo AKA Scotty from Marketing, best known for making the worst fucking tourism campaign in Australian history and for leaving on a Hawaiian vacation while our country burned (and then blaming it on his family), will not be Prime Minister any longer.
His party, the LNP, could win literally every remaining seat up for grabs and still not reach majority.
It’s currently unclear whether the other major party leader, Anthony “Albo” Albanese, will be able to form a clear majority. If not, this will result in a hung parliament.
In this case, Albo will have to form alliances with independents and smaller parties to form a minority government.
The “crossbench” (our name for seats held by anyone other than the major two parties) is looking heavily progressive, with the Greens and independent candidates running on policies of climate action doing well.
Fuck ScoMo, I hope the door hits his ass on the way out.
What a redneck wonderland footy has become. Every weekend, somewhere in Australia, Adam Goodes steps out onto a footy field. Simultaneously, an army of gutless drongos get ready to express their contempt for him, hiding anonymously in the choir of clowns who boo his every step.
Hey, bigots, don’t get me wrong.
I defend your right to express your unfathomable sense of outrage and injustice. It must burn long and deep. Probably over the spiralling price of a pie at the footy or the quality of the rubbish beer you force yourself to drink whilst acting like obnoxious school kids.
Your worries and concerns must weigh heavily on your poor benighted souls. So knock yourselves out. Boo away. At least have the courage though to admit what it is.
Racism.
Naked, loud, contemptible, pathetic and unashamed.
None of this crap about Goodes staging for free kicks, being a “sniper” or sweet talking the umpires as the reason for the booing.
Don’t use football as shield for your prejudice.
Adam Goodes has made it quite clear he hears those boos as a statement on his race and culture. Blokes like Goodes tend to have a finely tuned radar for racism. When you have been living with it all your life you learn to speak it’s many ugly languages.
So when he tells you what it means to him and you choose to boo, you’re confirming to him and every other indigenous footballer what you’re really about.
What you don’t like and can’t abide is that Adam Goodes won’t be the Aboriginal footballer you want him to be.
He refuses to simply be the smiling face of AFL Indigenous Round where the game’s self congratulation goes into over drive and Aboriginal people are celebrated in a set of proscribed rituals that say nothing about the true state of affairs and everything about our need to be absolved from responsibility.
A smoking ceremony here. A ceremonial dance there. A welcome to country and then goodbye, onto the next costume party.
No, Goodes wants to look you in the eye and talk about who we really are and where we’re really at. Goodes wants to confront racism and its uncomfortable truths. In the stands you sit in, the mines you work in, the boardrooms you meet in, the homes you live in.
He won’t simply be the Aboriginal man you want him to be.
And with your symphony of boos you’ve made it quite clear where you stand.
The fact that you fuel your own sense of outrage at Goodes and Lewis Jetta’s “war dance” shows how feeble minded and self righteous you are.
Where’s your sense of outrage at the appalling gap in life expectancy for indigenous people?
The massive over representation of indigenous people in jail?
The continuing scourge of deaths in custody?
Your silence is deafening on those issues. Your outrage reserved for a man who dances on the footy field.
And whilst you’re booing ever louder and ever longer you can try drown out the truth of these things.
You can’t. And you won’t.
Because Adam Goodes’ legacy will endure long after your hollow howls ring out.
A Greens motion to set up an independent inquire into Christian Porter was sunk in the Senate because of One Nation voting with the Government. Pauline Hanson also recently called the women’s march 4 justice “anti-men” because she’s got some serious internalised misogyny going on and habitually needs to be wrong to maintain her following. She has urged people to “stop demonising men” because of all this talk of actually investigating - just even TRYING to investigate - men to determine if they’re rapists or not. Furthermore: the Liberals just voted in support of One Nation’s transphobic motion to not use gender neutral language and undermine inclusivity because it “[distorts] biological and relational descriptors.”
Three in one absolute garbage piece of shit acts from Pauline Hanson and One Nation all in one. *slow clap*
May they all get fucking voted out next election.
This is the “transphobic motion” that you mentioned.
*1055 Senator Roberts: To move—That the Senate—
notes that:
our fundamental biology and relationships are represented through the following descriptors – mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, boy, girl, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, female, male, man, woman, lady, gentleman, Mr, Mrs, Ms, sir, madam, dad, mum, husband, wife,
broad scale genuine inclusion cannot be achieved through distortions of biological and relational descriptors,
an individual’s right to choose their descriptors and pronouns for personal use must not dehumanise the human race and undermine gender,
Dr Lyons from Logan (Queensland) reports incidences of young children feeling stressed and panicked about whether it is okay to use the words boy and girl, and
pushing gender-neutral language is no replacement for appropriate emotional and psychological support for children while growing up; and
calls on the Federal Government to:
reject the use of distorted language such as gestational/non-gestational parent, chest-feeding, human milk, lactating parent, menstruators, birthing/non-birthing parent, and
ensure all federal government and federal government funded agencies do not include these terms in their material, including legislation, websites, employee documentation and training materials.
I am so so incredibly happy and proud. Today the results came in for the Australian Marriage Equality postal vote, and the result was yes! I’m so grateful and relieved and surprised and thankful and you’ll probably hear more of this later but. Thank you Australia.
