Australian Federal Election 2013

Australian Federal Election 2013

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Posted 2013-09-02 by Retired Writerfollow

Sat 07 Sep 2013

With less than a week to go until the 2013 Federal Election, some are getting excited, some are anxious, others are asking "Isn't it supposed to be blues vs. maroons?"

But most just don't care.
And that's exactly why they should.

I'm travelling to uni as I type this, passing placards, billboards, volunteers waving and holding signs bearing the face of their local member.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria … tens of thousands are still displaced after riots broke out in the north, following the election of southerner Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. The country continues to be divided by rivalry between the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

Meanwhile, Egypt is facing another period of political uncertainty, and consequent bloodshed. On August 14, security forces violently cleared two protest camps outside a Cairo mosque and in Nahda Square in the city's west, killing more than 600 hundred supporters of the ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

And meanwhile, in Australia…

Labour's satiric #t =0">YouTube video , poking fun at the LNP's proposed National Broadband Network scheme, has gone viral.

Citizen journalists are making Ruddy memes (below).

And mining tycoon and multi-billionaire Clive Palmer is running for Emperor… eh, I mean PM.


Sure, the election will take a chunk of time out of your Saturday this weekend. But the fact that we can campaign and vote without fear of being killed or persecuted, is exactly why we should take it seriously.

We, Australians, have it good. While people in other countries are fighting and dying for freedom and political stability, we're neglecting ours.

But if we disregard political insight and politics in general, it's all too easy to make a wrong decision. If we don't care, politicians won't care either. So begins the rollercoaster-ride through economic downfall and corruption.

It may be the media's role to hold public figures to account, but the media's (sadly) going to bend to our interests. This past week, it was Miley Cyrus' VMA performance . Just saying.

I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. But do vote, be an informed voter, and make sure your vote counts (misplaced marks, like love-hearts around Wyatt Roy's name, will void your ballot paper).

After all, if Australians don't take Australian politics seriously, why should the rest of the world?

Make the most of this coming weekend.

#september
#misc
!date 07/09/2013 -- 07/09/2013
%wnbrisbane
209918 - 2023-06-16 06:23:37

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