One senator’s go at offending the good people of Australia on about fifty levels

21 thoughts on One senator’s go at offending the good people of Australia on about fifty levels

1. This is pretty common in social legislation here in the United States. The morality-of-abortion discussion rears its interminable head whenever Congress addresses funding for any kind of social program. Indeed, it seems that if public funds are involved, politicians are more than willing, even eager, to consider and impose the taxpayer’s morality on the poor and abject before the personal agency of public pensioners. As though entering the bureaucratic juggernaut that are public pension programs isn’t enough of an affront on personal agency to have paid the piper so to speak.

   I prefer to dwell on the electoral happenings that allowed a political party in Australia whose sole purpose is to “advocate for the family*” to get a Federal Senator. What’s going on in Victoria, Chally? I know Victoria has some National Party activity but the state as a whole has a fairly healthy Labor majority. A Family First Senator seems more Queensland’s cup of tea.

   *semaphore for “bolster the patriarchal social order,” right? That’s what it means in the US anyway.

2. “Which, apart from being ridiculous on all the obvious strawperson, scare tactical, derailing, classist, misogynist…. everythingist levels, is all the more so because women who’ve had abortions won’t be allowed to take paid parental leave under the proposed legislation.

   I inferred from this paragraph that women who’ve had abortions wouldn’t be eligible for parental leave for any future pregnancy. That sounds like folly, so I followed up the links and I don’t think that’s actually the case.

   From the abc article: ‘the Government says women who choose to have an abortion are not eligible for paid parental leave’ (this in response to Fielding’s ridiculous comments). I think this means that women are not eligible for parental leave for a pregnancy that has been aborted. That seems pretty logical to me.

   If I just misread your intention, sorry!

3. Yeah, you kind of did! My point was that Senator Fielding’s “concern” that people would get abortions to get money off the leave scheme was quite illogical as people can’t get leave for an aborted pregnancy. 🙂 I’ll edit to make that clearer.

4. semaphore for “bolster the patriarchal social order,” right? That’s what it means in the US anyway.

   Right in one!

   What’s going on in Victoria, Chally? I know Victoria has some National Party activity but the state as a whole has a fairly healthy Labor majority. A Family First Senator seems more Queensland’s cup of tea.

   Seems like you know more about Australian state politics than I do! 😀 I have trouble enough keeping up with the goings-on in NSW, where I’m from – not that NSW politics is anywhere near coherent enough to keep up with easily; it’s such a mess it’s just entertaining more than anything at this stage. I’m putting out a call on Twitter; hopefully someone will be by who knows more on this front who can help the pair of us out.

   ETA: A tweep’s just told me she thinks the Family First thing was largely a matter of preference deals.

   ETA II: @KristianStupid on Twitter passes on these links: an article from The Age and one from the ABC.

5. @Matt: From memory, the FF Senate-taking in Vic was in large part the result of preference deals, which are a big deal in Senate votes, since most people vote above the line on Senate ballots (ie, vote once for the party they want) rather than below the line (numbering every person standing for the Senate in order), because the latter opens you up to a sig. risk of an invalid vote if you misnumber, since in larger states the ballot resembles a tablecloth.

   That said, I feel a need to stick up for Qld, which has actually been Labor-run at a state level for well over a decade now. That said, I suspect FF’s failure to really get very far in Qld has some to do with the party originating out of South Australia as well.

   That said, Qld Labor is doing a good job of being ridiculous at the moment, partic. with the recent “let’s allow police to issue on the spot fines of up to $300 for minor offences like, swearing. *shakes head*

6. get themselves pregnant

   Dude needs a class in the mechanics of human reproduction. Last time I checked, I can’t “get myself” pregnant–I need a male-bodied person to help me out with that.

   I love how so many conservatives and anti-choicers talk about women’s pregnancies as if we called 1-800-MY-FETUS.

7. There’s very little Nationals support in Victoria. And Senator Fielding did indeed get into the senate by an embarrassing quirk of the preference system in 2004. He has next to no chance of being returned when his 6 year term expires this year, and his party, such as it is, is unlikely to slip into in any future federal parliament.

   His special brand of offensiveness has been persistently ridiculed – not least because virtually no-one voted for it – and will not be missed.

   He received a mere 56,000 first preference votes from an electorate of over 3 million, the remainder of his support coming from surplus ‘votes’ from Labor, who were trying to avoid directing preferences to the Libs and, especially, the Greens for the 6th and final senate seat in Victoria.

   (Proportional representation is ridiculously complex to the uninitiated, but the data is here: http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2004/results/sendVIC.htm )

8. I admit to being no expert about Australia, but a native told me recently that the welfare/unemployment system present until quite recently had many flaws. She said that living on the dole perpetually was quite easy to do. She mentioned that people would fabricate lists of jobs supposedly applied to in order satisfy the requirements needed and even formulate fake front companies to skirt the rules. Was this the case? If I’m wrong, please correct me. I won’t be offended in the least.

   This comment is not written to defend the deplorable remarks made by the senator, but rather to perhaps understand why some might form such patently offensive thoughts. If what my Aussie acquaintance said is true, then the social welfare system in place there is much more extensive and better funded than anything which has ever seen the light of day here in the United States.

   I mention this not to

9. Thanks Chally and Jennifer, that was really thorough. @Jennifer: I brought up Queensland is that it is a large state in which the Liberal National coalition tends to do better than in the other large states, or at least that’s what I remember from a comparative politics course in undergrad. I’m happy to be better informed by a resident, thanks.

10. @comrade kevin

    Yeah, those weren’t flaws. Social security is a right, and people searching for work shouldn’t be penalised by punitive laws designed by conservatives who tend to think that *all* unemployed people are inherently lazy bludgers. As it is, Centrelink has become increasingly unpleasant and counter-productive – you spend your time trying to fulfill ridiculous requirements rather than look for work. Fun times it is.

11. @Comrade Kevin

    I’m with queen emily. Unfortunately, many Australians profess to understand intimately the plight of certain vulnerable groups that they rarely have to encounter. Such that it’s “common knowledge” that the unemployed have it easy, that refugees are overrunning the country, and that not enough criminals are being given sufficiently long jail sentences (“bring back the death penalty!” etc).

    While it is theoretically possible to receive unemployment benefits indefinitely, you certainly wouldn’t want to do so for very long. I’d say you’re right that Fielding was attempting to tap into precisely this dislike (even a perverse sort of envy) of welfare recipients, but this instance was just far too bizarre, even by his standards.

12. I live in Victoria. I was enraged when Steve Fielding was ‘elected’. In some ways, I think it was more reflective of the rise of support for the Greens party (and subsequent fear of them from the major parties) than any real support for conservative ‘family values’. I voted below the line on the Senate ballot and this is why I will continue to do so and encourage others to do the same. Here’s hoping Fielding is a lesson to Victorians: Matt’s right, he does seem like someone more suited to Queensland. (Queensland produced Pauline Hanson, after all.)

    Fielding has been ‘persistently ridiculed’, that’s true, although he clearly has some supporters and an inflated sense of his own importance to boot. His latest comments sickened me. Whilst I suppose I should feel heartened that they seemed to be condemned even by conservatives like Barnaby Joyce, that kinda disturbs me in itself actually – our current opposition’s all for misogyny. Anyone who makes them appear more moderate, more friendly to women, is dangerous in my opinion. Even if his chances of being returned to the Senate are slim-to-none.

13. Honestly, I saw that on the evening news last night and my jaw just dropped. Seriously, Mr Fielding? “Drug addicts and welfare cheats”?

14. Fielding is a Victorian? The shame! The shame! I’ve been blaming SA for him for the last few years. (Sorry, SA.)

    Comrade Kevin – unemployed people receive a benefit of $226 a week, a rate that is less than half the minimum wage. No-one is living up big on the dole. To receive this paltry sum, people have to provide a list of the jobs they have applied for daily. Failure to apply for jobs means no benefit. Yes, I bet people do lie. I’m also betting that it’s because they need to pay their bills.

    The system is predicated on the notion that everyone in the system is a liar and a cheat. A number of ignorant and bigoted Australians fully believe this. It is not something of which the rest of us are proud.
    We have the same problem with Fielding.

15. Also, be aware that in the Australian context, “welfare cheats” is frequently (but clearly not always) code for people with invisible disabilities, especially chronic pain or depression/anxiety, who are viewed as faking their disabilities to gain welfare moneys.

    The Welfare Is Totes A Rort I Totes Know This Guy Who Lied To Centrelink Like One Time meme is way more complex and way more boring than people generally think.

16. Yeah, I’m a New Zealander and it’s a fairly common perception here too. I don’t know about Australia, but there’s a lot of racial tension around unemployment benefits as well, especially since (people think) that a disproportionate amount of Maori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) receive social welfare. You only have to look up facebook groups about the Maori to see the sickening extent of the racism, and how internalised it is. Ugh.

17. Oh, Fielding. This is why I always fill out the Senate ballot below the line (even though I can understand why most people don’t – it’s massive!). I’m Victorian, though, so I still feel guilty about not putting Fielding last! Both Labor and Liberal channelled preferences to Fielding to keep the Greens out – I always try to remind myself that parts of Labor have a nasty misogynist streak, and Fielding is a clear manifestation of that.

18. Comrade Kevin, being able to live well on the dole would be a good thing. Many years ago when I was very young, it was possible, but not now.

    Fielding is so embarrassing is that even the Nat Party Senators were mortified by his stupidity.

    I believe that under this legislation if you have a still-born baby you would be eligible for maternity leave to recover. Fielding has managed to twist this into evil welfare cheats having abortions to get the money.

    To understand this, you have to understand Australia’s preferential voting system, in which you vote for candidates in the order you’d like to see them elected, e.g. if my first choice doesn’t get elected, then here’s my second choice. He got into the Senate on Labor preferences last time, and he wants to sneak on the back of preferences again. I learnt a harsh lesson last election. I followed Labor’s how to vote card unthinkingly and thus gave him my second preference without even realising. So, I actually helped get him elected. Now, I’ll never follow any party’s how to vote card. Always vote below the line.

19. that refugees are overrunning the country

    On that note, does Australia still have those refugee detention camps I remember reading about and mentioning on-air a few years ago?

20. Yes. Kevin le Batard reneged on his election promise to close the camps and end refugee detention and is currently re-opening camps and placing refugees in remote mining areas.

    Bob Brown for PM.

21. Honestly you could cut that man into slices and serve him with brandy cream and custard.

    does Australia still have those refugee detention camps I remember reading about and mentioning on-air a few years ago?

    Indeed we do. There’s a big one on a very remote island, a few in the middle of the desert, plus an unofficial one in Indonesia. And they’re all full of queue-jumping drug-addicted welfare-cheating-but-secretly-rich plague-carrying future gang members, apparently, while everyone who comes here by plane is just lovely.

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