this is a little gem from my neighbourhood.
to put it in context, in a bit over a week will be a by-election for the federal seat of Batman (lol...i live in Batman) because the sitting member was found to be ineligible and he's a fucking idiot so he resigned.
as wikipedia says - "Located in Labor's traditional heartland of north Melbourne, Batman has been in Labor hands for all but two terms since 1910, and without interruption since 1969" - it's long been a safe labor seat.
but the inner north of melbourne is probably the most left-wing part of australia, and it's looking like the Greens are going to win the seat.
they came very close in the 2016
anyway, so the guy in the picture is the federal opposition leader (leader of the labor party) bill shorten.
he's been really indecisive on
one of the most contentious topics in australian politics in years - a massive coal mine proposed to be built in queensland which would be an environmental catastrophe (especially for the great barrier reef) and result in massive carbon emissions when the extracted coal is inevitably burned.
there is huge public opposition to the mine - but mr shorten has been (to use the australian vernacular)
fucken weak as piss - sometimes he sounds like he's supporting the mine...and sometimes he implies opposition to it.
he's really not convincing anyone (except the rusted-on ALP supporters) and has only really been vocally opposed to the mine being built recently - when this by-election battle with the greens came up, and when the whole project has started looking doubtful anyway.
so....bill depicted on the left is equivocating in 'inner city latte-sipping progressive" mode. trying to appeal to the folks here. vegan, coffee-in-hand (signifiers of melbourne) and pseudo intellectual babble about
scepticism.
and bill on the right is hustling for the hi-vis mining industry votes and name-dropping rugby players - trying to appeal to voters elsewhere (rugby is more of a queensland/nsw thing - and he's drinking XXXX beer, which only QLDers drink, apparently). layin' on the ocker aussie accent real thick, mate, ("moit") aye.
so yah -
two face bill.
anyway, even with the longwinded explanation it obviously won't mean much to anyone outside of australia - but i'm quite enjoying my neighbourhood being in the political spotlight, because it is a really politically engaged community - which is why we're going to elect someone who will use her political voice to actually represent a great amount of her constituents.
it's quite exciting actually - i've never voted for anyone in the lower house that's actually won before!
i'm hoping we can get the second green into federal parliament.
