Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"Every election produces its peculiar set of certainties about the future of the losing party, certainties that later analysis often proves flawed. Knee-jerk analysis crowds the airwaves and advice is proffered by opinionated commentators about what must be done to avoid permanent oblivion. I've done it myself." - Carmen Lawrence

My brother Hamish sent this email "to everyone I’ve ever met in my life" last night.

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Pre-election thoughts

Election campaigns produce enormous quantities of bullshit which, whilst having no undue impact, does not in my opinion help one person clarify what is important or what their leaders are doing. This is an attempt to describe what is actually important to me, and why.

I’ll start with the deepest, most abiding imperative I know about, which is at once biological and spiritual, seeming to emerge from some evolutionary well of unseen wisdom: concern for the future of my child, my child’s children, and their world.

"What seems to have been largely ignored of Latham’s past is his literary output. Celebrated as the new generation ideas man of the Labor party, the media over the year has not had much to say about the half dozen books he has written or contributed to between 1990-2003. There have been a few murmurings here and there, an occasional quote, but nothing sustained. This is surprising, because his literary output provides a sustained ideological view and program. Over that thirteen-year period, Latham’s thinking has not changed much, if at all. I dare say it will not change much in the future. This could have consequences for all of us." Webdiarist Chris Saliba

"Not only does John Howard disapprove of gay marriage, but refuses to even give relationship status to gay and lesbian couples, preferring the tawdry term 'liaisons'. It's as if he'd never heard of famous couples like Patrick White and Manoly Lascaris, or Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas." Chris Saliba

"I am proud of my strong advocacy over the years for people suffering political oppression, for the rights of workers in Australia and overseas to organise, for initiatives to combat chronic unemployment and for assistance to refugees. I will continue to strive to ensure Australia as a society measures up to the standard I have always espoused: that the measure of a civil society is how it treats its most vulnerable members." Brian Harradine, the father of the Senate, announcing his retirement.

"Are the Greens policies as 'kooky' as John Howard insists? Without doubt their overall program is radically different to the prevailing orthodoxy. The last decade of the Howard government has seen a current account blowout that would make Kath and Kim blush, from $194 billion dollars in 1995 to the $393 billion today. Under Howard, we’ve all shopped ourselves silly, and still feel like we’re missing out. The Greens would change all this. Under the Greens we would be made more aware of the cost of everything we consumed – to the environment, to poorly paid sweated labour. Splashing out on an outré outfit at a Chapel street boutique would become fraught with all manner of ethical dilemmas. Were the workers properly paid? Did the dyes used in the product have an adverse environmental impact? Is the outfit sustainable?" Chris Saliba

"Revelations last week by Richard Clarke - Bush's counter-terrorism guru until just before the Iraq invasion - could destroy the Bush presidency. I asked Webdiarist Kerryn Higgs, a Australian living in New York who's been glued to live TV coverage of Clarke's evidence to the September 11 inquiry, to report the controversy." Kerryn Higgs

John Howard's attempt to use teacher training as a wedge to split Labor has backfired, writes Carmen Lawrence, with the Catholic Church running a mile from being used as his wedge stooge.