Who are you voting for?

The media seem to think they know who will win the election. The media and in particular the Murdoch press, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Australian think they can influence who will win.

But THEY do not decide who will be in Government.
                                                                 
                                          YOU DO!

YOUR democratic right to vote is a very big responsibility. Many communities throughout the world do not live in democracies and cannot choose who will run their country but you do. In this country, your opinion matters. In this country, you can choose who will lead us and who will make our laws.

This precious gift was given to you by people who fought for democracy here in Australia and who fought in wars for our freedom. Many died, so that each one of us would have the right to vote.

                         This is an unknown soldier who was killed fighting for democracy, in the First World War.

So don't take what you read in the Herald Sun or The Australian which are influenced by their conservative/right wing owner, Rupert Murdoch, on face value. Neither should you believe everything you hear and see on TV. The media is always trying to sell you something and the two big parties will try to sell you a lot of spin. So, voter beware!  Make sure you are well informed.

Where to start? 
What issues are important to you?

For many it is hard to think beyond job, schools and childcare. But when you vote for a party or candidate, you are also voting for a larger group of issues and if you look a little deeper you may find that those who appear to be saying what you want to hear, are in fact not giving you the whole picture!

Pauline Hanson is a good example of this. On the surface, she sounds patriotic but dig deeper and you find thinly disguised ignorance and bigotry. Pauline's policies are hollow, racist, sexist and very damaging to many Australians. Her policies look for quick fixes and ignore human rights and environmental concerns.

So what other issues concern you? If, like me you have a family, then you will be concerned about those top three issues: job, education and health and of course all the things associated with them such as home, transport and life style.

But these issues are very much influenced by a number of other more broad ranging concerns such as the state of the environment in which we all live, the economy and our relationships with other countries; whether or not our country is at war and who our trade partners are.

War
For a number of years Australia has been involved in conflicts overseas such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many Australians and many more Afghanis and Iraqis have been killed in these conflicts which have cost the country billions of dollars. Billions of dollars spent on wars could have been spent on your children's education, medicines, health, transport, on preserving our environment and helping asylum seekers. who are usually fleeing those very conflicts!
 
Asylum Seekers
And then there is the issue that is often sensationalized by the media and misrepresented by both sides of politics for political gain; asylum seekers on boats.

Recently Kevin Rudd announced measures to do with asylum seekers that he says will stop people dying at sea or 'stop the boats'. Sound familiar? Well it should because he has swiped Tony Abbott's catch cry...'Stop The Boats' which Abbott in turn stole from John Howard.

But most people who have done their research know that shunting asylum seekers off to New Guinea and Nauru is extremely expensive and of course doesn't actually stop the boats. Like you and me, a person who seeks asylum is concerned for their family's health and safety. An asylum seeker, by definition, faces extreme danger in her own country and so is willing to make a hazardous journey, if necessary by boat, to another country; any country that has signed the UN Convention on Refugees, that will hopefully, offer  safety. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html

Australia is a signatory to this agreement. http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/f/myth-long.php

The number of people arriving in Australia on boats to seek asylum is very low. http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/BoatArrivals

The journey is very dangerous and many have died but this is not a reason to renege on our obligation to the UNHCR agreement. http://www.rethinkrefugees.com.au/in-the-news/un-report-criticises-offshore-processing-plan/ 

People who have tried to come to Australia to escape persecution in their own countries, find that they and their children are imprisoned and further persecuted by the country they thought would offer them refuge. It is another case of our country's institutions enacting a double damage on innocent people. It is in the end, abusive and it is illegal. http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/asylum-seekers-and-refugees 

The Australian newspaper and some Coalition politicians are calling for our country to take it's name off the UN agreement. This is very concerning. These people want us to become a less humane country!

Labor and Liberal

Traditionally, Labor and Liberal have been on opposite sides of politics but over time the differences between them have become fewer and fewer.

Labor, as it's name suggests, originally had links to socialism and unionism and was once the party that supported Australian 'battlers' or the workers. Whereas the Liberal Party, whose name wrongly suggested it was broad minded and inclusive, had its origins in capitalism and industrialization, including, the industrialization of farming. It was the conservative party who sided with big business and the bosses.

These two originally small interest groups, have dominated Australian politics for the past sixty years.

It makes sense when you understand that once there were only two main classes of people: the workers and the bosses. These two classes always struggled against each other. The leaders of business and industry (the haves) were and still are driven to make as much money as possible for as little cost as possible and of course the workers (the have nots) fought and continue to fight for reasonable wages and fair work conditions.

The Australian Labor Party saw itself as building the country from the ground up and the Liberal Party saw itself as building it from the top down.

Labor and Liberal each had their place and together they maintained a fragile political balance which mostly helped our country to grow and prosper.

As Australia grew in population and prosperity so did the middle class. Sadly, few of us realized that prosperity came with a price. Mining, agriculture and industry have denigrated rivers, forests and tracts of land the size of Queensland, with the further denigration of our indigenous people.


With the growth of the middle class the boundaries between the two parties began to blur. Even the two logos now look remarkably similar!The Australian Labor Party has moved from socialist left to the conservative right, losing a substantial portion of it's original labour and union stronghold. Not surprisingly, the Liberal Party has continued moving ever further right, losing any connection it may have had to the meaning of its 'liberal' name. Both parties now have conservative policies. Both parties will deliver conservative outcomes, with Labor only marginally ahead of Liberal in its care for workers, human rights and the environment.

The growth of a new political alternative.

Meanwhile, in the 1970's many Australians were waking up to the flip side of Australia's prosperity and growing middle class. Large groups of Australians began to demand that we use our country's resources more wisely and preserve our wild places such as Lake Pedder and the Franklin River in Tasmania. These people were referred to as environmental groups.

They tried to stop the development of uranium mines in Kakadu National Park and stood in front of bulldozers in our ancient old growth forests, which scientists now tell us are the oldest, most carbon dense forests in the world. In other words, our forests keep a lot of the greenhouse gases, which cause human induced climate change, out of our atmosphere and replace it with clean air that we all need to breathe. They are also home to more species than we have been able to count.

Environmentalists began to demand that all urban, industrial, agricultural and mining developments should be safe for us and all other Australian species. During the fight to keep uranium mines out of Kakadu National Park, the environment movement joined forces with the aboriginal land rights and peace movements and began it's journey into Australian politics; eventually becoming the first Green party in the world.

This was the birth of the Australian Greens led by the famous environmental and human rights activist, Dr.Bob Brown.

Since then the Greens have become an alternative force in Australian politics next to the two almost indistinguishable, tired, old parties, LIBLAB.

The Greens now have a presence in parliaments throughout Australia as well as in many Councils with a number of Greens mayors. They have been able to negotiate some great outcomes for the Australian people. Free dental care for 3.4 million kids being one, a price on carbon being another and they are constantly advocating for public education, health, affordable housing, public transport, renewable energy, the arts, sustainable development, jobs and prosperity, marriage equality, asylum seekers and of course a clean and healthy environment.

All Australians are supported by the Greens whether they be here or overseas, our first Australians, new to our shores, religious or athiest, wealthy or poor, LGBT, single, married, parent or child. I have listed all those I could think of because the Greens support us all. More and more businesses, industrialists and farmers now vote Green because they want to grow their businesses in a successful and prosperous, renewable energy future. They see the old parties as dinosaurs.

Why is this information not in the media?

The media doesn't help. The Australian and the Herald Sun and other newspapers to a lesser degree and TV news and current affairs are only interested in selling a story and they most often report where the money is. Mining, big business and the fossil fuel industry largely support both Labor and Liberal.

LIBLAB are driven by their desire to be in Government. That's where the word 'spin' comes from. They will 'spin' a story in order to gain the greatest support from the Australian people. They will say what they think you want to hear.

LIBLAB rely on big business for campaign funds and this influences policy decisions. Why did Labor water down the mining tax which created a billion dollar short fall in the budget, prompting them to take money from the most vulnerable in our society, single parents? Have a guess.

But single parents were not the only ones to lose out. There were cuts to universities, the DSE, research, overseas aid and environmental bodies. Do you know that mining companies like those owned by Gina Rinehart pay less for petrol and for tax than you and I?  Do you know that coal mines and dirty, expensive coal fired power stations are subsidized by the government?

Let me make this clear. Single parents, universities, the arts, forests, the unemployed, hospitals and asylum seekers LOSE and the miners WIN.

What can you do about it?

So now is the time for YOU, the voter, to realize that there is a viable alternative to the two tired old parties!

Way back when the Greens were forming a political party, Clint Eastwood was catching bank robbers in Dirty Harry. Pardon the very big gun! It's a metaphor for climate change. Remember when he said,

 'Ask yourself, "Do I feel lucky?" Well do you, punk?'

As you probably know, scientists tell us that we have only a few short years to try and fix climate change. At the most it is ten years. They also tell us that if we don't, we can say goodbye to our homes, our cars, our life styles, our transport, our food, our water and what's left? Oh yes, the air we breathe.

Do you know what the Liberal Party under Tony Abbott, who until a few months ago said he didn't believe in human induced climate change, says they'll do about it? They say they will plant trees. Hey, planting trees is good, right? Yes it's good but how long do trees take to grow? We need to plant trees for the future but we also have to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases now, before it's too late.

In 2010 Tony Abbott was at a meeting in country Victoria where he was heard to say that human induced climate change is 'crap'. http://blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/2009/12/climate-change-is-crap-tony-abbot-said-to-the-pyrenees-advocate.html

Tony will repeal the price on carbon (emissions trading scheme) which has not significantly increased costs to the consumer and has managed to reduce carbon emissions in Australia by 15%! It has also helped to fund  the development of the renewable energy industry providing 24,000 new jobs.... 

Tony will support the fossil fuel industry which is the biggest contributor to greenhouse emissions next to agriculture.

Tony will increase taxes.

Tony will not help schools.

Tony will cut essential services to health and education.

Tony will help to chop down the last of our native forests and will allow loggers to further poison drinking water in many parts of Australia, not the least being in Victoria and Tasmania.

Tony will allow mining everywhere, especially in NSW and Queensland. EVEN UNDER YOUR HOUSE if needs be because Tony always says YES to mining companies. That's where his campaign money comes from!

Tony will allow industrial fishing fleets to deplete our seas of fish.

Tony says he will turn back the boats, full of people seeking asylum from persecution.

If you vote for Tony Abbott in this election, what will your kids say to you in ten years time when the world's temperature rises over two degrees and it becomes unlivable?

 

So, do you feel lucky? Do you want to take your chances with Labor or much worse, Liberal?

Don't rely on luck. Vote 1 Green in both the Senate and the Lower House. Your children will thank you and you'll be glad you did the right thing.

'Murdered woman loud and dominant'.

On May 30^th, ABC 1 reported that a man strangled his wife, Mandy Rahimzadegan, and buried her in his yard.  Then, on request his friends helped him to build a deck which was, unbeknownst to them, over her grave. 

It was followed by the comment that the woman’s neighbours said they had heard much loud fighting from Mandy's home and that they had thought she was the ‘dominant’ one. Since when has it been relevant to report on the personality or the loudness of the victim? And if it sounded so loud, why didn't Mandy's neighbours ring the police? Did they think the police would not be interested? Are the police disregarding victims of domestic violence?

Victim blaming is reflective of society’s insidious prejudice against women and it is often manipulated by men to justify violence against them. Who cares what the neighbours thought about her? How was this relevant to the story?

A domestic fight that gets out of control can often involve violence on both sides but the statistics show that violence is nearly always against women and children. Violence is a sickness within our communities and we create a reason for it when we blame the victim. Who cares if she was loud and dominant? Good for her I say.

There is never a reason for violence unless it is in self defence.
http://www.domesticviolence.com.au/pages/domestic-violence-statistics.php

'Each culture has its sayings and songs about the importance of home and the comfort and security to be found there. Yet for many women home is a place of pain and humiliation...violence against women by their male partners is common, wide-spread and far-reaching in its impact. For too long hidden behind closed doors and avoided in public discourse, such violence can no longer be denied as part of everyday life for millions of women. [1]'
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2011-2012/DVAustralia

Victims of abuse often suffer twice; at the hand of their abusers and at the collective hand of our community. Society, our larger community which is supposed to protect us, very often betrays the victim. Prejudicial language such as 'provocative', 'suggestive' or 'loud and abusive' is often used to describe those who've been hurt. Imagine the effect this language has on the listener, any listener and more importantly on the abused? Violence is never the answer.

It was this lack of empathy toward victims that made it possible for our churches and public institutions to disregard the sexual abuse of women and children in their midst. A fierce double damage was enacted on these people and as a consequence, all of them have lived lives of desperation with many committing suicide.

We, who have not experienced such pain, have been left reeling at the revelations of evil in our midst and the double damage caused by our churches and institutions and unknowingly by our own, ignorant, shame inducing silence.

I hope that the commission into child sex abuse will help raise awareness on this issue, address injustices and create a healthier more vigilant approach within our community.  http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

But if the comments in the ABC 1 News report is anything to go by, we have a long way to go! The accusative language is an insult to Mandy's memory and to her grieving family and friends. Such disgraceful reporting would be wrong from any TV station but it is much worse from our public broadcaster, our publicly owned TV station. There it is again, the double damage being enacted by our public institutions.

Victim blaming and prejudice against women are flaws in our collective psyche which contribute to the  misery of domestic violence within our communities and also to the violence against women and children in our institutions. This pattern seems to have been repeated throughout the world. In which case, it makes sense that at every level, men themselves should be the ones leading the campaign to stop violence against women and children. Only when this culture of violence is addressed by men themselves will we see real change. In fact, I wish it had been a man who noticed and drawn attention to the bigotry in this news report.

Shame on you ABC! Please read the news article or watch on the ABC website and use the following complaint form to let the ABC know what you think of their reporting on the terrible murder of Mandy Rahimzadegan.

Vale Mandy Rahimzadegan and my love and sympathy to her family and friends.

I am so very sorry.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-30/husband-built-deck-to-conceal-wife27s-grave2c-court-told/4722896

http://www.abc.net.au/contact/complain.htm

Julia Gillard First Girl PM

Think  'The Sound of Music'...

How do you solve a problem like Julia. ...

Blah de blah de blah ha ha ha.....

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her

Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say

How do you keep a wave upon the sand?'

Oh Blah de Blah de Blah de Blah ha....

When I'm with her I'm confused

Out of focus and bemused

And I never know exactly where I am

Unpredictable as weather

She's as flighty as a feather

She's a darling! She's a demon! She's a lamb!

She'd outpester any pest

Drive a hornet from its nest

She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl

She is gentle! She is wild!

She's a riddle! She's a child!

She's a headache! She's an angel!

She's a GIRL!  

AND THERE IT IS! She's a bloody girl. The first girl to be PM which is ironic because Australia was one of the first countries in the world to give the vote to women but one of the last in the world to elect one as PM. 

The outrage, that we who spawned the likes of Germaine 'big arse' Greer, were not the first to elect a woman PM! 

Anyway....though initially the press thought Julia was going to be stoic and wooden throughout, she did reveal her emotions on a number of occasions, crying in parliament after the floods in Queensland and especially after the shocking inland tsunami in Toowoomba and the heroic actions of one young man. 

She held back when her Dad died, at least in parliament. When refugees were smashed to death on the Christmas Island rocks and during the terrible bush fires and cyclones and the shocking treatment of our cattle overseas and the meltdown in Fukushima, she was cool and professional throughout. Many, many tears must have been shed behind doors. I know they were in our house.

One does wonder if the spin doctors tell Julia exactly when crying would best enhance her chances of re-election...though this does sound a wee bit cynical and if she is anything like me, tears can be rather unpredictable and I'm sure those she wept in parliament after receiving a card from some disabled kids and their families, were indeed genuine. The photo taken by Sophie Deane is gorgeous.

AND of course how could anyone forget the Prime Minister's misogyny speech. We all cheered when she delivered her withering expose of Tony Abbott's puffed up sexism. Having a woman in the country's driver seat has created the opportunity to get the issue of sexism against women out in the open. It's a shame that Germaine Greer, Australia's most famous feminist export, was herself responsible for a sexist jibe toward our first girl PM. Oh, the irony!

http://media.smh.com.au/news/national-times/julia-gillards-misogyny--speech-in-full-3701787.html

 

My husband uses that term to describe something powerful, such as a big truck or an earth mover. So, in that sense, she is a big arsed PM; a powerful woman. Germaine however was unfortunately referring to her derriere and consequently our foremost feminist academic and author appeared to be perpetuating those old sexist attitudes she herself has declared war on. How strange! Anyway...I'd rather be 'big arsed' than 'dumb arsed' any day and I can think of a few in parliament who would fit that description.

AND, Julia, our first woman Prime Minister has attempted and in some cases achieved some admirable things, specifically the price on carbon, the NDIS, Gonski funding for primary schools, Marine Sanctuaries and the cancellation of the fishing super trawler The Abel Tasman. Although there are now new threats to our fisheries that the government has not responded to.  

Julia's legacy will be far from perfect as she missed the mark on some vital issues such as the watering down of the mining tax which has led to a a huge drop in revenue and consequently cuts to funding for universities and single parents. In this round, some really big arsed mining billionaires won and education, single mums, foreign aid, forests and the environment lost out.

Julia's government has reinstated inhumane measures against asylum seekers, such as off shore processing and the incarceration of children in detention. 

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young showed her despair in parliament, over the Government's treatment of asylum seekers. 

Sarah works directly with asylum seekers and refugees and sees first hand the effects our legislation has on them. Those of us who have fought for years winning some hard earned rights for asylum seekers, all felt despair when those rights were wiped out by short sighted politicians. And now it's back to square one.

 

This is what Sarah Hanson-Young had to say about it.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young

The Government is working with Libs to suspend standing orders in the Senate as we speak to excise the entire mainland from Australia's migration zone. Shameful & inhumane. Removing Australia from our own migration zone will not save peoples lives or care for refugees, but it will subject children to more harm.

Julia's government has approved new coal and coal seam gas exploration and mines and supported uranium mining. 

They have not encouraged renewable energy developments or the  manufacture of renewable energies here in Australia nor the development of sustainable manufacture or sustainable agriculture. 

AND our forests have suffered under Julia's big arsed government. More ecosystems have been damaged, more species are under threat and have become extinct, more forests destroyed, more rivers, land, ocean and air polluted thanks to her unacceptable policies on the environment. 

BUT don't get me wrong! It would be whole lot worse under Tony Abbott's big arsed leadership. It would be insufferably worse.

That's why I'm voting Green in the coming election because I know the Greens have the intellect and ethics to stay with the issues and not jump to the tune of the coal, uranium and coal seam gas mining industries, or the racists, sexists, homophobes and the extreme right or left. Have I forgotten anyone?

The Greens have the forbearance  to stay with problems until they find long term solutions. The Greens are not afraid to stand up for what is right; to stand up for the vulnerable who cannot speak for themselves, to stand up for vulnerable ecosystems, animals,oceans, forests and for standards of education and those who are marginalized including asylum seekers.

We support sustainable and ethical industrial development, agriculture, manufacturing, forestry practices, mining with conditions and fair and sustainable business practices. 

We believe that renewable energy is the way of the future and that if governments continue to support dirty fossil fuel energy, they will take the country backwards.

We know that there is no time to waste and that the decisions we make now will determine our survival into the future.  

So if you are sick to death of short term, knee jerk reactions and want big 'arsed' sustainable, humane, long term solutions, then simply vote 1 Green. 

  

Mother's Day 2013. Can you keep a secret?

Here's the thing. I made some truly spectacular mistakes in my day and each time I thought I'd die from embarrassment or shame and then I didn't, die that is, but was left with a terrible memory of what felt like failure. For example....

The last time I was a candidate in a Federal Election, I said yes to a debate that I should never have said yes to. The room was full of the opposition and I was booed out the door. The paper ridiculed me on its front page. I felt embarrassed and obsessed for at least a month but I did not give up! Repeat; I did not give up.

Another time, a community group I belonged to lost a very big funding cheque (that's funding not 'f#@*ing') which I'd forgotten they'd given to me for safe keeping and possibly banking and I swore I'd never seen it and found it years later in a file in the back room. Oh, that's where that went! It hadn't been cashed and another had been written but I couldn't believe I had made such a mammoth mistake and walked around in stunned silence for days.

I was a hopeless bookkeeper so our accountant banned me from helping with the nightly tally for our family business because I accidentally made a $100,000 mistake. He said that if he didn't know better it could look like I was doing something illegal.

When we lived in Winslow, a small country community 17 km north of Warrnambool, I belonged to a kindergarten driving pool. One lunch time, on my way to do the pick up from kinder I was running a wee bit late so I stepped on the gas. Being the secretary of the kinder I knew how annoyed that teacher was when parents were late and in this case it would mean five extra kids eating into her lunch hour.

On the outskirts of Warrnambool the speed limit was 60 kph, which I felt was a little unreasonable when it was still more or less an open highway with paddocks on either side and so I stepped up a few kph s. Suddenly there was the sound of a siren and I was pulled over. I wound the window down thinking the policeman would understand that I was late for the kinder run. 'Is it an emergency?" he asked. 'Yes.' I said. 'I'm late for the kinder run.' and he gave me that 'I don't think so' look and told me I had been doing 90 kph in a 60 kph zone which meant an immediate withdrawal of my licence for 6 weeks! I could drive the kiddies home but that was it. And we lived 17km out of town! The teacher, my husband and the car pool mums were literally going to kill me.

And then there was the day I forgot to pick up my daughter from school. I was at a friends and lost track of the time. My poor little, lonely daughter was sitting on a chair in the hall and if looks could kill I'd be dead.

But that's not all. I'd forgotten that James my son, who was in prep, was going with the school down to the Blue Hole for a fishing expedition. I was supposed to pick him up early at 2.30 pm but forgot and was surprised when I answered the front door and there was James with his kindly teacher who for my punishment, thank you very much,  handed me a bucket of water in which flip flopped a great big live bream.

James wanted to keep it as a pet and take it to bed with him. David was away on one of his many business trips, so I had to ask a friendly neighbour to kill and clean it. Having managed to prize the large fish head away from James's tight little fisted hands at bed time as he screamed into my face (which I felt it was just punishment for my crime), we kept it in the freezer for him to admire at his leisure (every two minutes) and also to show it to his Dad hopefully without the dead fish odour. (On second thoughts, I should have left it in the pantry!)

I still have the picture of James, taken by said teacher, proudly holding his very big bream. Thanks teacher. (Oh the shame!) James' photo even made it into a fishing magazine! But for me the day will be forever remembered as the day I left my poor little fisherman sitting on that lonely bridge with his large live flipping fish.

When my daughter Skye was in early secondary school there was a parent teacher interview appointment (one of oh so very many). We had agreed that Skye would meet me in the car park when school was over and we'd go in together. (Not sure why but it seemed like a good idea at the time!)

I waited just outside the front door but she didn't arrive and as I sat there the clouds gathered and it began to hail so I dashed inside. The place was empty so I approached the front desk and asked the secretary if she'd seen Skye. She said that Skye had thought I wasn't coming and (it was before mobile phones) she tried to ring me at home but when there was no answer she had walked home...across town in the weather. She asked me if I knew that my daughter had a cold. I asked her why she hadn't checked the car park or at the very least rung a taxi for her. She answered with a withering scowl (which told me what a dreadful and complete failure of a mother I was) and said 'I am not her mother!'.

Poor Skye. I drove around looking for her and finally found her trudging along our street, her good woolen uniform completely drenched and never quite the same. I was so angry with her for not sticking to our plan but she swears the plan was that I'd meet her inside. Dear God Almighty I felt bad that day!

In the eyes of the world mothers are either sinners or saints and rarely something in between but somewhere in between is actually where, under a mountain of guilt, we all live. Mother's day, with all its corny sweetness, offers us a brief respite from all that guilt and a chance to straighten the halo and soak up some of the glory of the myth of motherhood. And the next day, the routine and mistakes begin again, ad infinitum!

I guess my point is that, though a bit bruised and wounded, I lived  through these and many more mistakes, to finally see the funny side and they did get funnier over time.

And the other point is, many of the mistakes were either worked out or through and became a a whole lot of learning experiences. Mostly, I learnt not to try to do it all myself but rather to delegate (book work, some housework and some babysitting and oh man that's another story).

Last Saturday there was an interview with Noni Hazelhurst in the Age. Noni said that when she was filming Play School in the early days they would tape it all in one hit, mistakes and all. The producers wanted the actors to work through their mistakes on TV for the children to see, in order to model 'problem solving'.

Good old Play School. I knew I loved it for a reason (beside the fact it was a knock out babysitter). And in the end, I guess that's what life is; one long problem solving lesson and probably, in the end, largely what being a mother is all about too.

But the late great President Roosevelt said it much better than I...
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt in "Citizenship in a Republic," Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Just Plain SEXY!

I love sustainability. It's so very sexy.

If a man utters the word 'sustainability' in a favourable light, then at least in my mind, sexiness follows.

Now hang on. Put the brakes on. I simply mean that all sins are forgiven (big noses, shortness, baldness even bad breath) and there is peace and hope because that's what the word means to me. Sustainability means hope... and sexiness.

When a man uses his creativity to find a way for us to live without hurting the earth or each other, well, c'mon, you've gotta admit, that's very attractive...in a good and wholesome way.

When a woman finds solutions to our over use of the earth's resources, from my perspective, that's pure and saintly but I'm sure she could be sexy too, depending on your orientation. Hell, I think I'd find her sexy...in a virtuous way, of course.

Oh stop pulling that face! I'm not being licentious. I just think that, (thinking now), well sex is good and natural and attraction is sustainable. (As long as we don't breed like rabbits.)

Most of us (unless we're rampant teenagers) are generally attracted to healthy, positive and kind people....people who believe in sustainability...if you catch me drift.

Here's a picture of a man who believes in sustainability. He has a sexy, you wouldn't wanna mess with me kinda look...but doesn't the fact that he raises grass feed sustainable cattle on his sustainable farm add to his allure? It sure works for me.
Will Witherspoon

Witherspoon's the NFL's best-fed player, and he has himself to thank for that. Originally purchased as a hobby farm and a place to relax, the pro linebacker's Missouri getaway quickly turned into Shire Gate Farm, a grass-fed, Animal Welfare Approved farm that includes hundreds of heritage breed White Park cattle, chickens, and sheep.

Farm animals raised on pasture drastically improve soil health, naturally allowing the earth to sequester and store more of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

And then there's Salma Hayek....

Salma Hayek Known more for her efforts to raise awareness for domestic violence, the sexy Latina is also an avid supporter of environmental causes. In fact, she traveled to the Arctic with other celebrities and politicians on a trip organized by the nonprofit Global Green to raise awareness about the plight of indigenous people who are suffering some of the most severe effects of climate change.

And here's William McDonough who invented the term Cradle to Cradle. He's not a looker but who cares? He invented Cradle to Cradle. That's enough for me. ( But he does have nice sustainable blue eyes.)

William McDonough is an advisor, designer, thought leader, and author. His vision for a future of abundance for all is helping companies and communities think differently. Together they are changing the world.

William McDonough is a globally recognized leader in sustainable development. Trained as an architect, McDonough’s interests and influence range widely, and he works at scales from the global to the molecular.

Time magazine recognized him as a “Hero for the Planet,” noting:

“His utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world.”

In 1996, McDonough received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, and in 2003 he earned the first U.S. EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for his work with Shaw Industries. In 2004, he received the National Design Award for exemplary achievement in the field of environmental design. McDonough is the architect of many of the recognized flagships of sustainable design, including the Ford Rouge truck plant in Dearborn, Michigan; the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College; and NASA’s “space station on Earth,” Sustainability Base, one of the most innovative facilities in the federal portfolio.

McDonough has written and lectured extensively on design as the first signal of human intention. He was commissioned in 1991 to write The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability as guidelines for the City of Hannover’s EXPO 2000, still recognized two decades after publication as a touchstone of sustainable design. In 2002, McDonough and the German chemist Michael Braungart co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press), which is widely acknowledged as a seminal text of the sustainability movement. Their new book, The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability–Designing for Abundance (North Point Press, 2013) came out this spring.

McDonough advises commercial and governmental leaders worldwide through McDonough Advisors. He is also active with William McDonough + Partners, his architecture practice with offices in Charlottesville, Virginia, and San Francisco, California, as well as McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, the Cradle to Cradle consulting firm co-founded with Braungart. He has co-founded, with Braungart, not-for-profit organizations to allow public accessibility to Cradle to Cradle thinking. These include GreenBlue (2000), to convene industry groups around Cradle to Cradle issues, and the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (2009), founded at the invitation of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to create a global standard for the development of safe and healthy products. McDonough also co-founded Make It Right (2006) with Brad Pitt to bring affordable Cradle to Cradle-inspired homes to the New Orleans Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.

Now that's what I call SEXY with a capital S!

And here are two of my favourite sexy people, the clever NSW Greens MP, Cate Faehramm and Bob Brown. Lovely, sexy sustainable Green Party people.

And here are two more.

Bob again. He does rather feature and he's standing next to the lovely Greens Senator, Larissa Waters.

Some links to more sexy sustainability. Have fun!

http://www.capepatersonecovillage.com.au/

http://www.aila.org.au/sustainablecanberra/009-christie/

http://tedxsydney.com/site/item.cfm?item=3223B67DC290F6C97A947C23B14D3279

http://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design.html

http://tedxsydney.com/site/eventGIL.cfm

Napthine's $10 million for cancer $2 million for jumps racing and zero for trains.

http://www.standard.net.au/story/1485707/peters-project-campaigners-celebrate-a-major-victory/?cs=72
By SEAN McCOMISH
May 8, 2013, 4 a.m.

• 
  Celebration time: Peter's Project director Vicki Jellie and Premier Denis Napthine toast the $10 million funding announcement.

THOSE at the heart of the campaign had known for a week, but for others the excited phone calls started coming in fast yesterday afternoon.

The state government had agreed to fund $10 million for radiotherapy services in south-west Victoria. They might have been just a few words uttered in State Parliament but they were what hundreds of families battling cancer and thousands of supporters had waited years to hear. 

Premier Denis Napthine is gaining mileage from the allocation of 10 million dollars toward a radiotherapy center in Warrnambool. In 2011 we received an MRI machine and both of these developments are a step closer to the establishment of a cancer treatment centre. The campaign to build this centre is called 'Peter's Project' and was started by Vicki Jellie whose husband Peter died from cancer a few years back.

Big, big celebrations here as 'Peter's Project' is the darling of all sides of politics and this move firmly enshrines Denis Napthine as our most popular premier ever. Not that the Liberals need any encouragement as it has been a Liberal stronghold for over sixty five years!

It is very good news. However.......

I believe that a cancer treatment centre should be a part of a larger project which incorporates preventative measures. The statistics on cancer are not good.  In the 1950s  the rate was 1 in 30 and today it is 1 in 2. That's a staggering increase! Think of the increased cost to the community in physical and emotional suffering and the financial cost of treatment.  The fact is that 50% of our community will eventually get cancer, unless of course, we can learn how to prevent it.

Some blame the over use of chemicals in industrialised agriculture which has been attributed to the growth of the fast food industry, first from the United States in the 1950's with companies such as MacDonalds and then around the world. The fast food industry is also implicated for it's use of corn syrup, chemical additives and trans fats. 

Others blame the chemicals in our clothes, our homes, our water, our toiletries and also our overuse of plastic on everything especially our food and there is the pollution of our water and air due to the constant demand for economic growth and fossil fuel energy. Some even blame GM and some say that there is a cancer gene or perhaps many different cancer genes.

We know some things can increase the risk of certain types of cancer but we also need a lot more money for cancer research to find out exactly what is responsible for the huge increase in the rate of this potentially deadly disease. Some even call it an epidemic.

Last week Napthine was aglow at the Warrnambool Races which of course is the home of the notorious Warrnambool Cup, the longest (and cruelest) hurdle race in the world. Did you know that the Victorian government gives two million dollars of tax payers money to jumps racing annually? This is what the RSPCA thinks of the funding of such a cruel sport.

This year, just a handful of protesters stood at the gate. The horse who accidently jumped the wrong fence and injured onlookers last year, actually won the jumps race this year. Oh heaven! Such a good news story. All is well! All is saved! Black Caviar each yer heart out! 

The local newspaper had a picture of Napthine champagne toasting Gai Waterhouse who of course, along with Napthine, ferociously supports jumps racing and her son Tom who causes his own brand of  misery through the advertising of gambling during sporting matches. Such an ethical family!

There is a group that helps rehabilitate racehorses after they have been abandoned by the racing fraternity. It's called Racehorse Rescue. Here is the link.  http://www.causes.com/actions/1751103-pledge-to-vote-and-help-small-racehorse-charity-win-much-needed-funds?

AND that's not all! The Victorian Government has allocated zero money to public transport and V Line is now saying that by 2014-16 they will not be able to service all commuters during peak times. V Line desperately needs more trains. If there were more trains, fewer people would need to use their fossil fuel dependent cars, which give off polluting fumes throughout cities creating health and environmental consequences. But the Napthine government is instead funding new tunnels promoting the use of the car. I wonder if Napthine realizes how illogical this is? Of course he does. Silly me.  

So now we are faced with overcrowding on trains and further greenhouse gas car worship with the funding of road tunnels. 

http://vicmps.greens.org.au/content/public-transport-misses-out-budget

The week before the races Napthine was soaking up the glory at the Macarthur wind farm despite the fact that his government is making it harder for new wind energy investment whilst sending wind turbine manufacture overseas. This is costing Victoria jobs and revenue. I refuse to put more than one picture of Napthine in this post so instead I include a photo of the very ethical Green MP Greg Barber at the Macarthur wind farm. 

And then there is the dreadful forests Bill that will lock in bad forest practices in Victoria for years to come.  http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/defer-the-bill-that-would-lock-in-long-term-native-forest-logging?utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

Pulling my hair out now.  http://newmatilda.com/2013/05/07/loggers-will-own-victorias-forests

Of course, this is I why I support the GREENS. We need them to make all the good things happen, including a comprehensive cancer prevention and treatment centre in Warrnambool. After all, we know that 'prevention is better than cure'.