It sure was a happy night last night - after all the nail biting of the last few days and the start of the count last night, the John Howard era has come to an end!
Shan sent me his last election puppetry video, Howard’s Way, yesterday, but I must admit it felt too much like […]
Category Archive for 'politics'
Walk against warming
Posted in environment, politics, puppetry, puppets, street theatre on Nov 13th, 2007
The Walk against Warming on Sunday drew about 9000 people in Canberra. It felt substantially bigger than last year. As yet neither of the major parties are addressing the issue with the seriousness it deserves, which has surprised me in a way. I thought it might be the clincher issue for a Labor victory. […]
Mick Jagger of Australian politics
Posted in politics, puppetry, puppets, video on Nov 13th, 2007
Shan Jayaweera’s John Howard has been pressing the flesh in Melbourne. I love this, especially where he describes himself as the Mick Jagger of Australian politics! Jemila McEwan made the puppet.
Previously:
Search for a scapegoat
Once Upon a Coffee Cup
The GreensBlog has some politician masks you can download and print. They were intended for halloween, but, you know, they might come in handy in the next few weeks!
Here in Canberra this time around we have a unique opportunity to alter the balance of power in the Senate immediately. The Coalition parties hold 20 of […]
Good on yer, Kim
Posted in politics on Oct 1st, 2007
It’s the Labour Day holiday here today, which recognises the union achievement of the 40 hour week.
On 21 April 1900 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, […]
I’ve been enjoying a radio reading of Alice Pung’s novel Unpolished Gem on the Bookshow’s First Person program It is about Pung’s experiences growing up in Melbourne as the child of Chinese-Cambodian parents who were refugees from the killing fields. So I was interested to see her take on Australia’s embarrassing new citizenship test that […]
Stronger and smarter
Posted in politics on Aug 29th, 2007
Chris Sarra is enlightening.
He says the proposed government ‘management’ of the welfare payments of indigenous parents whose children are repeatedly absent from school doesn’t address the heart of the matter: that schools must be places that the kids want to go to, that address their and their communty’s needs, and provide them with top quality […]
Search for a Scapegoat
Posted in politics, puppetry, puppets, video on Jun 27th, 2007
I’ve written previously about Shan Jayaweera’s John Howard puppetry satires. Now with an election looming later in the year, ‘Australian Prime Minister John Howard needs to find something
new to blame and scare the voters into voting for him’. Follow his efforts in a welcome new series, John Howard - Search for a Scapegoat:
Episode 1: Howard […]
Breakfast reading 5.10
Posted in environment, photography, politics on May 10th, 2007
Murdoch turning his empire green: ‘Although some of his newspapers were once sceptical about global warming, he said that although he was no scientist, he knew how to assess a risk. “This one is clear. Climate change poses clear,
catastrophic threats. We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can’t afford the risk of […]
Breakfast reading 5.05
Posted in environment, miscellaneous, news, politics, technology on May 5th, 2007
Turnbull says IPCC report backs government position: The government asserts black is white (again). Breathtaking. Peter Garret, the Opposition Environment Minister, is not hitting back hard enough with things like this. I’m not sure why, because he is articulate and knows his stuff. On present form his predecessor, Anthony Albanese would be better. I was […]