It can't be long before we all get a message "Russell Brown has just rented 'An@l Midget Leather Fest' from Blockbuster – would you like to reserve your copy??"

It seems they have responded to my fears (okay, and 51,500 others) and reversed themselves:

Critics…

What price democracy hey?

A decade after Pauline Hanson was beating the anti-Asian drum, she languishes in political obscurity, not even an asterisk in the polls. Meanwhile in Canberra, Jenny Wong joins the Cabinet.

A spokesman for Ms Hanson said: "They are taking our jobs!"…

Golly, I wonder why Howard was so interested in reasserting control over the Northern Territories? INDIAN GIVER!

There's a colonially loaded term.

It'll no doubt be on tele tonight, Wed, and available here soon (possibly Thurs)

How long ago was it that Howard announced his intention to make Australia rich by taking the world's nuclear waste off its hands and burying it in the Northern Territories? The geologists…

not a big complicated word

"I've always said that it is not right to oblige and compel the present generation of Australians to apologise for something that they were not responsible for,"

the last of the stolen generation, a practice established in the state of victoria as early as 1869, was taken from their homes…

When I moved to Sydney, I lived about 100 metres from the Block in Redfern. We were right around the corner during the riots in 2004. The…

and howard despised it. be called the view represented in it a "black armband" view of australian history.

thing is, you can't lift "the sorry" out of the reconciliation movement.

the nationally distributed…

We non-Aboriginal Australians should perhaps remind ourselves that Australia once reached out for us. Didn't Australia provide opportunity and care for the dispossessed Irish? The poor of Britain? The refugees from war and famine and…

For what it's worth, I sense a great deal of across-the-board support for an apology, provided it is part of both a genuine attempt to…

man... a guy can't even pick a fight in this forum without two reasonable people coming along and being all "reasonable"...

Umm OK, hang on a second.

"Che you liberal PC wiffley left-wing pinko give-everything-to-the-Murrays-and-Abos, say-sorry-at-the-drop-of-a-hat... person!"

Now don't say I never give you anything.

"Refusing to apologise, when it carries no cost to do so, is a blatant statement that you have nothing to apologise for..."

As we know, and even Blind Harry can see, decades of racist, and paternalistic government policies towards Aboriginal Australians…

But here's my take...

The very fact that an apology carries no cost, no associated actual reparations.... is the very reason that refusal to give it grates so badly...

Refusing to apologize, when it carries no cost to do so,…

second, the partisan sniping accusation rests on your willingness to assume that rudd is merely wanting to make photo-mileage out of this issue.

the apology to the…

And getting equally angry, how about you save your condescending bullshit for someone who actually gives a damn and finds bold print even slightly intimidating? Since folks keep bringing up the Treaty process here, I've talked to some folks who think apologies are all very nice and enormously moving,…

*save your partisan sniping for issues that don't actually matter

Gee, that and $3.50 each should buy Aboriginal Australians a cup of coffee. Sorry, Charles, but this is about as impressive as Tony Blair's apology

sorry craig, but this is one where i get to say that you are totally and completely wrong.

first of all the apology was never…

There's a lot of power in symbolism. Just ask the Chinese how they feel about war crimes committed by the Japanese during the Second World War.

Or the so called 'comfort woman' in Korea for that matter. An acknowledgement would be huge.

But not instead of a treaty settlement...

Well no, but I don't believe that Aborigines have given up on making progress on that.

But I don't get any impression that an apology is an 'empty' gesture for Aborigines. It might have no practical implications, and it might do very little…

I'm just not sure that 'we' should go telling Aborigines what's important for them. Particularly since it costs nothing to do so.

Kyle: PAS, and the rest of teh bogisfere, would be a very quite place if we didn't feel entirely confident about setting the world to rights from the…

Who needs real policy when you're got the empty politics of gesture and moral self-congratulation? Perhaps Mr. Rudd might want to forget the photo op, and show Aboriginals that his Government actually takes their desperate social deficits seriously.

I can't speak for the native people of Australia, but I've always…

BTW – This in the SMH from Rudd: "We will say sorry."

KEVIN Rudd has vowed to act quickly after he is sworn in as prime minister to make a formal apology to Aboriginal Australians on behalf of the nation.

At last!

Gee, that and $3.50 each should buy Aboriginal…

Former Queensland Liberal state management committee member, Russell Galt, says Liberal Senator, George Brandis, who originally investigated the children overboard affair, described the Prime Minister as a "lying rodent" at a meeting he…

the chaser had howard being stalked by a bus with costello's face on it.

now that was damn funny.

Et tu Brutus, you rat-fuck

That sentence on its own is laugh out loud funny

there was some kerfuffle a few years back about howard's lying ways, and someone (i genuinely forget who) referred to him as "a lying rodent".

caused quite a chuckle at the tibby household, let me tell you

Yes, a priceless moment in Aussie politics – I can't remember who it…

BTW – This in the SMH from Rudd:…

Heh – despite what you may have thought, the oft used 'rodent' moniker does not refer to the mans appearance, but his track-record of political behaviour. Stemming from widely held observations of sheer bastardry and 'rat-cunning'.

Or rodent as in "rat-fuck"? One of my favourite Australianisms is "rat-fuck" used to…

there was some kerfuffle a few years back about howard's lying ways, and someone (i genuinely forget who) referred to him as "a lying rodent".

caused quite a chuckle at the tibby household,…

There seems to be a few comments about Howard's appearance ('rodent", "small").

Heh – despite what you may have thought, the oft used 'rodent' moniker does not refer to the mans appearance, but his track-record of political behaviour. Stemming from widely held observations of sheer bastardry and 'rat-cunning'.

I've thought that the…

But I think democracy has one good thing going for it – it is capable of dealing peacefully with people who are clearly the wrong leader.

It won't happen overnight, but it will happen... Howard, Bush, et al.

If they're anything like the KPIs that I've had to put up with over the years they're more…

it's sure not healthy when we have MPs whose (to use some ghastly psychobabble) life experience is limited to scaling the greasy pole.

Yes, I feel similarly nervous. It seems to me that 'scaling the greasy pole' could really be the narrow domain in which these people achieve mastery, and…

Like all the untalented accountants and auditors and clerical workers and computer programmers and ...

Is being the Prime Minister like being an accountant/auditor/clerical worker/computer programmer? If so, then it's not a problem. But that is my question. People who master the use of a small domain (or even fail…

is that a trick question?

Not really: I've worked with my share of charmless egomaniacs, and maipulative, paranoid rat bastards. While the preferable option is 'none of the above'. if I had to make up my mind Vanstone seems a much better option than the cesspool that appears to be…

On one hand it…

@julian. apparently one of vanstone's favourite japes, upon arriving at the office was to pick a junior staff member an watch them squirm as she asked, "what can you do to make me look good today?"

Hum... would I choose to work for Vanstone or or these arrogant and paranoid creeps?…

arrogant, and sanctimonious.

but in her defence, rau has a serious mental illness, a…

we have a rout that's been predicted for at least 6 months, and a former Government who refused to listen to the voice of reason and replace their leader?

surely that falling on head your alluding to is merely the voice…

And lately there have been a few cases unearthed of Australian citizens being mistakenly held in detention centres for years.

Just to tie a couple of threads together here, Cornelia Rau was one of the Australian residents found being held in detention centres by mistake, and Amanda Vanstone was at…

he's going to let the libs continue to hang by their own petard.

Oh, I wouldn't get too smug yet. I thought Malcolm Turnbull was supposed to be goneburger in Wentworth and as the late, not so great Tony Blair could tell you, landslides have such a nasty habit of…

whose colleagues weren't exactly keen to put him there when it might have done some good

indeed. costello is the biggest loser in this whole mix, and he did exactly what any sane person would do. not sign up for the worst job in australian politics.

he's going to let…

But you've really got to wonder what Rudd really believes in, and how he's going to handle doing anything that can't be smoothed over with bland bormides and might actually be unpopular.

He probably looked at the John Key love-in and decided to follow an apparently winning strategy.

When Helen was last in Sydney for APEC the Chaser showed up at her press conference to ask her all manner of questions that required an answer of six – she was onto it very quickly and played along well.

Oh for fuck's sake... meanwhile the real journo sat APEC…

If you go here you can watch the guys from the Chaser pop round to Kevin's place with a few of his Facebook friends.

And this morning they joined Howard on his morning jog!

I saw a few eps while in Oz, and they are funny but on occasion cross the…

I sincerely hope that finally, Australia's first peoples will get an official apology from the government. Now that's Bennelong, long time coming.

For what it's worth "a" John Howard did present an apology back in 2000:

... I speak for all Australians in expressing a profound sorrow to the Aboriginal…

The Chaser is coming to our screens soon

Choice.

Fnar.

If you go here you can watch the guys from the Chaser pop round to Kevin's place with a few of his Facebook friends.

That's a simple but great idea. BTW, The Chaser is coming to our screens soon ...

Your favorite bands, businesses, and products are coming to Facebook. Check out Dave Matthews Band, become a fan of (RED), or search for your favorite brands.

Which is all part of Facebook's evil plan to take over the world by getting you to do the marketing for their corporate partners.…

He copes very, very well indeed. I hear a rumour he was some kind of diplomat...

STV (which is the same but with multi-member constituencies) does provide proportionality and is…

Funnily enough, they're "fans" not "friends". Facebook lets "public figures" create pages that are halfway between a personal profile and a group.

It looks like this is a brand new Facebook feature, cos when I just logged in now, I found this notice:

Your favorite bands, businesses,…

Australian soil is only a boat ride away from Indonesia.

agreed, but generally the asylum seekers, who don't seem to be in vast numbers, are from further afield. Australia is far more obsessed with Indonesia than the other way around and there seems little desire here to migrate south (the…

It should…

It appears…

As for the Senate,that is much better, but at the same time it has some quirks – notably that they've fixed the system to encourage party ticket voting by having "above…

I'd predict the Greens would do a lot better in NZ under STV if that were the case.

Um... how? The Greens got seven percent of the House of Reps vote, and no seats. STV isn't proportional, and it hasn't switched Aus off being a two-party state.

Unfortunately in practice STV turns out to be anything but democratic – it is just a polite way to enforce the two party system. It's rare…

Here's a simple explanation of the STV system as it applies to HoR seats:

http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/How_to_vote/Voting_HOR.htm.

The Senate is the same, however because of the number of candidates and parties, you can vote "above the line" which means your preferences are distributed according to…

It probably isn't very clear but it is kind of simple. Just hard to explain.

It's very clear to me Charles! What a pity we ended up with MMP and not STV here in NZ. I mean, really, if you want to be truly democratic ...

STV allows people to vote…

The "Work Choice" legislation went down like a cup of cold sick, just like the ECA did here. People didn't like it, so they spat it out. This has been a major factor in the Aussie public turning against the Liberals.

Also, as an Aussie commentator said…

Commentators on election night made the point repeatedly that…

With 79% counted (about 77,000 votes) Howard is trailing by about 340 votes. It appears the Green vote collapsed and fell in behind the Labor candidate.

Although quite how that works in terms of Preferential Voting I'm not too sure.…

Interesting how Howard, in that last 12 months at least, lost his golden touch with regards to 'middle'…

Anyway, the most interesting post-election item is that Rudd is not letting the caucus have any say whatsoever in choosing the front bench. Now, that's definitely Bliar-ite, and only time will tell whether it ultimately has the same outcome.

It's superficially Blair-ite and I can't see Rudd making the same…

This is a good idea, but I can't find anything official from any NZ politicians. Not even my local MP – a blogger – is on Facebook.

As long as I don't get "Click here to be a pirate/ninja/vampire" spam, I'd be happy to have a political Facebook…

re: aboriginal people. i put a couple of great youtube videos over on my own blog.

howard's ignoring reconciliation in favour of a pastoralist-led agenda to undermine native title is yet another reason to find the little rat reprehensible.

Also there's been the years of incarceration in detention centres in places like Curtin and Nauru. Remember that these have included children.

And lately there have been a few cases unearthed of Australian citizens being mistakenly held in detention centres for years.

Off topic but as…

Perhaps not, but I saw Rudd on 'Rove Live' last week and he certainly held his own there. He also seems to have an affinity with the 25…

But looking at Australia, they're quite a way behind us. What a difference a couple of women Prime Ministers makes.

in fact, there were strongly implied messages during the leadership debate that stated a woman would never be prime minister. it is an issue that aussies will need to face.…

I want the old style ocker politician back.

That is like asking to live in Interesting Times.

Uninteresting times may be boring, but they're a hell of a lot safer.

Our politicians hardly ever say anything fun these days, I miss getting a laugh from politics.

SMH: It's Bennelong, long time coming.

The subs at the SMH have been on a bit of a roll recently.

Uninteresting times may be boring, but they're a hell of a lot safer

Agreed; but it is Australia we’re talking about here.

There was not much liberty for the boat people

I want the old style ocker politician back.

That is like asking to live in Interesting Times.

Uninteresting times may be boring, but they're a hell of a lot safer.

As I said, Idiot/Savant, I think reasonable people in this country don't regard women in politics as some delightful novelty. Dare I say it, perhaps we even take women seriously enough to judge them on their performance rather than their gender?

Over here, yes. But looking at Australia, they're quite…

There has always been something colourful about them. Having a prime minister being picked up by a Chinese submarine started my fascination with them, followed in the next decade by the drama of the Whitlam sacking (“Malcolm…

Craig – yeah, the stick was definitely humorous/demeaning rather than hard-hitting/journalistic. But then Rove is comedy/entertainment. I haven't detected any pretensions to serious current affairs.

Come to think of it, the script for the whole episode was significantly above the usual offering…

I watched Rudd on Rove on Friday night in anticipation of the election. I thought his calmness and composure was perfect for the occasion, and Rove gave him a fair amount of stick

Meh... that's akin to saying Larry King asks difficult questions... like whether you can remember the title…

ALP sources suggest the expatriate vote from London and Hong Kong is likely to strongly favour her, since the McKew campaign succeeded in targeting the large group of voters in the electorate of Chinese and Korean backgrounds – who have traditionally favoured Mr Howard…

And predictably we saw the same sort of nasty misogynist smears directed at her that some still direct at female politicians over here.

And interesting see Gillard herself very carefully not playing the 'gender card' – which is very smart, consider that the presumptive next President of the United States…

My leaving was more on grounds of factual accuracy than political expediency but I can very much appreciate the smile on Russell's face when he saw it.

Another feature of the new government will be the performance of of the deputy leader Julia Gillard. Isn't it great to see a woman close to the apex of federal leadershp in Australia? I think it may even be a first. They've had women state leaders but not in federal…

Sorry, Russell, but anyone who would describe either the Coalition or Labour as fiscally conservative is just not speaking any reality-based language I'm familiar with.

Quite. I guess it helps when you're awash in mining money the way Australia is. I think I read one column pointing out that both…

Surely you mean to say Hawke and Keating?

I did. Fixed now.

It's no accident that both Howard and Keating

Surely you mean to say Hawke and Keating?

Facebook lets "public figures" create pages that are halfway between a personal profile and a group.

How do they judge a "public figure"? Wiki page that hasn't been deleted for non-noteworthyness?

Kevin Rudd, famously, has 20,000 friends on Facebook

Funnily enough, they're "fans" not "friends". Facebook lets "public figures" create pages that are halfway between a personal profile and a group.

This is a good idea, but I can't find anything official from any NZ politicians. Not even my local MP…

Another feature of the new government will be the performance of of the deputy leader Julia Gillard. Isn't it great to see a woman close to the apex of federal leadershp in Australia?

Don't know about you, Charles, but you'd think this is one country where folks with vaginas in…

"I vomited when I found out," said a 16-year Liberal member, Wendy Anderson. "It was just such an incredibly stupid and unthinkable thing to do, and the fact that Jackie's husband was involved…

A broken home in a broken party

THE Liberal Party is in the doghouse – and so is the husband of the defeated Liberal Party candidate Karen Chijoff.

Days after Greg Chijoff was caught red-handed…