Do I believe marriage equality should be not only recognised but protected by law? Absolutely. Am I passionate about it? Absolutely. Do I think it would be good if Julia outright supported marriage equality? Yes, until the ACL and Abbott (two rabid dogs I’d like to see put down) started jumping up and down with the “attacking family values” crap that would inevitably ensue. I remember what the debate was like when Howard changed the bloody marriage act in the first place. It wasn’t pretty, and Howard managed to win the next election with a landslide landing him a double majority (of course this wasn’t the only issue).

I’ll state it again clearly; if Abbott wins the next election, Australia will only be further from marriage equality. Rudd could and should have pushed this agenda (but he wouldn’t of course, not with his strong Christian convictions), but Gillard is in a much more precarious position.

largely imaginary “centre”

What? I’d define the “centre” as voters that swing between centre left and centre right parties. Considering the 2004 election was a massive win for the Coalition, the 2007 election was a massive win for Labor and the 2010 election resulted in neither major party having a majority I’d say the “centre” is very much alive and well in Australian democracy.

Isn’t it funny how civil equality for GLBT people/ethnic minorities and women is always an “agenda” – a term that never seems to legislation that benefits straight, white, middle-class people like Gillard and Abbott?  Interesting framing there, and sadly revealing.

Namely its the sort of topic that could easily push some of the centre voters towards the coalition

So, why does the Australian Labour Party exist at all?  Hell, using that logic a supposedly center-left party better not do anything that might even slightly perturb this largely imaginary “centre”.  A centre which polling data suggests isn’t as hostile to marriage equality as you think.

It’s not about the direction, it’s about the person. In the last federal election I would have gladly listed the libs as my second preference had Malcolm Turnbull been at the helm. Abbott is a simpleton, plain and simple. That guy cannot negotiate, and does not think about the words coming out of his mouth beforehand. He says whatever is politically expedient for the moment, irrespective of how contradictory it is to his previous position and irrespective of how disprovable his nonsense is.

If you think that guy would effectively represent our nation on an international stage better than Gillard then I will question whether you’re intellectually disabled, along with anyone else who thinks so – including my family and friends. Go on, be offended.

(PS thanks for immortalising my offensiveness in a reply despite editorial adjustment)

Call me naive, but I think we should set a higher bar for supposedly progressive politicians than “please be marginally less vile than dribbling fundamentalist far-right lunatics”.  That’s just the soft bigotry of no expectations, and it actually plays right into the hands of the far right.

Actually, that is political reality and it cuts both sides of the spectrum. Remember how even Howard admitted that Climate Change was real when the general Australian sentiment was shifting to the left?

Only if I can be equally vitriolic attack you for doing so in language that is massively demeaning both to people with intellectual disabilities and (gasp!) citizens who have the fucking gall to vote in a direction you don’t approve of.  Could you leave the latter bullshit to the Mitt (47%) Romneys of the world?

Well, except on marriage equality.  The Labour caucus has a free/conscience vote and how did Julia Gillard exercise hers?  She didn’t stand by GLBT Australians, two thirds of her own party room and a hell of a lot of the ALP’s grassroots membership.  On this, she stood with Tony Abbott, Cardinal Pell and the talkback shock jocks like her pal Alan Jones who routinely denigrate lesbian, bisexual and transwomen.

And you know what, Julia, you fucking deserve a lecture on YOUR personal homophobia – whether it was motivated by genuine conviction (which is vile enough) or sheer expedience (which is even worse).  Whatever else you say against Tony Abbott — and I’ve got a lot, little of it fit for company — at least I know he’s my enemy.

Neither Gillard nor Obama are by any means perfect, but the other options are both complete nut-cases that would damage their respective countries for a long while to come.

Call me naive, but I think we should set a higher bar for supposedly progressive politicians than “please be marginally less vile than dribbling fundamentalist far-right lunatics”.  That’s just the soft bigotry of no expectations, and it actually plays right into the hands of the far right.

Seriously, if I was marketing for Labor I would simply run various clips of Tony’s views on carbon pricing over the years. It would make Julia’s “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead” quote look small in comparison.

Gillard hasn’t exactly fixed all the internal rifts throughout the party, however she’s gotten a lot more done even with a minority government then Rudd ever did.

Rudd was an intelligent man with some great ideas and great promises, but he was never a good leader.

Tell that to the women world-wide who have fought tooth and nail to secure those rights.

Be thankful for that.  In this country a vote for either major candidate can be completely meaningless depending on what state you live in, and basically uncounted, or a vote can have more weight than it should. Just a horrible undemocratic system.

And despite the backgrounds of the two involved here, I’m jealous of parliamentary systems where the PM is subject to ‘question time’ and what have you.  We’ve got no situation where The President is put on the hot seat, unless you consider the rare highly managed, theatrical press conference.  It’s no surprise that Bush famously said that he counted his blessings that he never had to be subjected to that kind of back and forth with the opposition.

Slime of the highest order.

Kevin Rudd (the previous Labor leader that she succeeded after a vote of no confidence)

Wow, really? you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

However it is hard to detach this event from the fact that she remains a leader not voted for by the Australian people, installed instead as a figurehead for labor party factions, and this instance marks one of the few times as pm she has waivered from a continuous monotone of on message marketing Ambien.

I don’t like Gillard, I don’t like how she got to power and I don’t like how she’s clinging to it for her life, I don’t like most of her tactical choices in terms of alliances and I don’t like her positions on many policies, but you can’t ask her to pass on such a delicious opportunity to kick her political enemies in the teeth. Abbott’s political strategists tonight should probably start sending out resumes.

The catchcry is that Gillard is a ‘liar’ but the reality is the very next sentence she said AFTER promising not to implement a ‘tax’ was that she remained absolutely committed to putting a price on carbon pollution. We have literally thousands of idiots regurgitating that she is a liar on a daily basis. These people have absolutely NO comprehension skills.

It’s a pretty unpleasant situation, but the Coalition did little to reign in Slipper’s actions when he sat on their benches.