Labor in Crisis - A Question or a Statement?

On February 5, 2006 ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing ReporterJames Carleton, spoke to a number of critical players in the “game” known as politics, namely Members of the ALP hierarchy.

Me, I’m just an ordinary member who never really understood the wheels that turn within wheels. I don’t have that sort of mentality. Known for being quite a direct person who is very naïve when it comes Games that People Play, I tend to get straight to the point.

This directness does not always serve me well, but I prefer to openly challenge that which concerns me, and the current ALP Leadership style is a case in point.

The program sorted through issues and vaguely confirmed what I already knew.

Whilst I have absolutely no expectations of the Liberal/National/Family First Party because their bias towards big business at the expense of the “little man” is there for all to see. Funding a State memorial service for the richest dead Australian, confirms what we already suspected. Many wondered who paid the air fares for all those people attending. And if Taxpayers paid, why?

Power and money do corrupt our values.

A hardcopy of the full report on Labor in Crisis is sixteen pages long so I may suggest if you wish to read the original version, please go to the ABC Website. www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s1560765.htm

This article I suppose is an open letter to our Labor Politicians, both Federal and State, because as a Party we are one group of people.

For me, Labor in Crisis is a statement. I present these observations on the chance that someone who can make a difference reads them and take them on board together with all the other observations that go on behind closed doors. Ignoring the problems does not make them go away, but rather it compounds them, and sometimes, failure to act, can be lethal.

Given that the “factional warlords” as mentioned a number of times in the program are alive and well from my observation in attending a couple of State Conferences, there is a perception in my mind, that the Ordinary Member is not genuinely represented by the Party.

It seemed to me that sometimes the Delegates just checked out their mate’s views without any consideration of the matter under discussion, for themselves. Given the shortness of time before Conference Papers are delivered to the Delegates this can be hardly surprising.

The paperwork is so bogged down in the bureaucracy of the Organisation that insufficient time is allocated to Policy work, as presented by the various Committees. I had a personal interest in the Health Policy Committee but was unable to get direct or satisfactory answers to my concerns.

I would like to ask straightforward questions of the Administration of the ALP such as:

(1) What strategies has the ALP Management put in place to reassure Members that their Point of View is assessed on its merits, given serious consideration and addressed accordingly?

(2) What process is in place to give feedback to a member’s concerns? Is it up to the individual to try and trace the line of command that exists in order to achieve an outcome?

(3) Given my own personal experience in trying to speak to individuals who may have some understanding of the issues I raise, has any consideration been given to providing a list of names and/or telephone numbers for contacts. One assumes people within the organisation are paid to provide a service to the Member and those concerns raised by the broader community, therefore contact should be relevantly easy.

(4) Given my own personal experience I can not in honesty recommend anyone actually becoming a financial member of the ALP precisely because of the lack of support I feel from those I write to on an infrequent occasion? The most supportive person at any level of communication is our Branch Secretary who in turn is left trying to follow up people in order to satisfy my ongoing questions about what is actually happening to the issue I initiated some three years ago. (Website http://www.yourchoiceindying.com/ is more comprehensive on that point)

Being told that” Really Good People” would leave the Party rather than address my concerns in a practical manner floored me at the time, making me say in reply, perhaps even Better People might take their place. I assumed he meant our Victorian Premier for one!

A couple of elected Members of Parliament also give private individual encouragement but without practical support from those in a position to make a difference, the support remains meaningless.

(5) If Members at Branch level give of their time and energy to support those who eventually get elected, what assurances is there for them, that their contributions is worthwhile to them in terms of being listened to, even scantily, at any level of Government?

Mr Bob Hogg, a former National Secretary of the Labor Party who successfully campaigned on behalf of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating was asked the question, “Did he believe the organisation had become top-down and authoritarian?” and although his answer was a little long winded he basically agreed that it was.

Pity Mr Hogg is not coming into the Party as a young man with his bright intelligent answers. He reads the problems very well. The broader the experiences the better understanding of the community politicians will have.

To-day disillusioned members are abandoning the party, leaving apparatchiks to run for office. The few members that are left are less inclined to say anything, given they’ve got even less influence than they had before.

Asked , if there were people in the party with a controlling interest who don’t want to find answers because the existing situation serves them well, Mr Hogg responded, that if they don’t it’ll be forced upon them by circumstances at some point. “You know, they’ll be patting each other on the back and they realise there’s only about three hands in the room.”

There was no comfort to be had in the fact the Labor Governments hold power in the States, and Mr Hogg said that he was sure that Mr Howard with all the altruism in the world would not swap the Federal Government for eight State & Territory governments, nor would Labor. (I’ve heard the term that, Federal Government is where the big boys play??)

Luke Foley, Assistant Secretary of the New South Wales ALP agrees the gene pool from which Labor draws its candidates is too narrow, but he has an idea as to how Labor can solve the problem. He suggests the radical option to place some restrictions on political staffers contesting preselection until they have timeout in a non political work place, for perhaps two years.

Mr Foley doesn’t agree that removing the union delegations to ALP conferences would be an important step towards organisational reform. He believes a great democratic reform would be if trade union delegates are elected from members of the union, not just appointed by the leaders of those unions.

As an ordinary member, in general, it seems to me that it’s the union bosses, not the rank and file members of the Labor Party, that have a decisive say over who gets into Parliament. On the other hand I have once nominated a person for Parliament quite cheerful about their suitability to represent me as a total package

Mr Beazley, our Federal Opposition Leader, denies union monopoly is a problem

Mr Hawke’s Opposition had 3 Union officials, along with various people from differing trades.

Mr Beazley’s Shadow Ministry today has 10 Union officials and 16 Party and Parliamentary Staffers.

Let me say this, as Mr Hawke used to say, Mr Beazley, the ALP has a problem with the lack of diversity when in the position of trying to form Government; you don’t have a support base of diverse points of view, that can only be gained by first hand experience in the workforce, without the security that political inknowledge gives the herd mentality,.

The cockpit of Management aims and objectives are entirely different from working with those on the Shop Floor. The overall view has to be much broader and for much longer than the average shop floor steward would ever be genuinely interested in. The workers depend on a solid managerial trunk at the top of the tree so their company is still there in time for their retirement payout. Horses for courses, we each do the task we are bested suited for.

Labor needs the diversity that Bob Hawke’s opposition had, which included a doctor, a barrister, an engine driver and a shearer, a truly representative body of workers across a broad range of trades. I speak as a person who has worked as a cleaner and an office worker. It takes diversity to create a team, (but I would still prefer to be stuck on a desert island with a mechanic than an IT academic!).

Every time I visit the Rocks in Sydney I remember the power of a united, unionized, workforce. I was one of the founding women, back in the 70’s or early 80s, who picketed the streets of Melbourne for Equal Pay for Women. I’ve attended the Anti War Rallies, and the Anti Globalization Rally (where police horses were reared over the heads of people standing peacefully on a tram stop. The demonstrator next to me had her finger broken trying to avoid the hoofs of the horses)

I rejected an invitation to become a Shop Steward, back then because I always wanted to retain my independence rather than go with the flow, regardless of my personal view. I was a member of a union all my life depending on which employment I was in at the time. Unionism has its place in society in defending the underdog’s rights in the workplace; however I do not think that a Union Delegate should have more rights over that of an ordinary Member of the Labor Party. We each pay our dues, and I believe in the morality of one man, one vote. Peter Botsman’s views, a former Director of the Whitlam, Brisbane and Evatt Institutes, and he also edits the journal Australian Prospects, would agree with my sentiments.

I do hope he holds long and meaningful discussion with Mr Hogg. Perhaps between the two of them, members of the Labor Party may regain some of their faith in the institution that is the Australian Labor party. As the man in the crowd said, when asked the point of remaining a Member he replied “to try and influence policy so that Australia will be a different place in 30 years time, not just three.”!

Mr Beazley, asked if Labor can win with a collapsed membership base, his response was that with time he feels that the extreme workplace reforms will work in favour of Labor. (Not that Labor would win, but rather that the Liberals would lose!) A lack of great leadership vision, I felt.

Rodney Cavalier who has spent years working in the New South Wales ALP gave us some figures to ponder on when he said:

“Yeah, the central problem with the Labor Party is that it is controlled, lock, stock and barrel by the trade unions. 100% of management power is in the hands of union leaders and their clients, and all of the State General Secretaries are their clients. I’m not talking about workers, and I’m not talking about unionists, I’m talking about union officials. Now in a time as we sit down now, where fewer than 23 out of 100 Australian workers belong to unions, and fewer than 1 in 10 belong to unions affiliated to the ALP, we are talking about a statistical nightmare, we are talking about a party that is based on a social base of no significance whatsoever. We’re talking about the deliberate exclusion from the managing governance of the party of about 92% of Australians. Is it any wonder that we have become unrepresentative and in that narrow head of a pin upon which non-angels dance that the whole thing should end up in the grip of a political class?.

When Mark Latham endeavoured to highlight the shortcomings of the Party he was shot down in flames as the messenger but then there was a very senior party man, Senator John Faulkner who said much the same things only with more optimism for the future of the party. Mr Latham, love him or hate him, made valuable points about what is wrong with Labor’s management style. To me he was a breath of fresh air, and I was sorry to see him go. Senator Faulkner though had everyone’s attention.

The Senator said in a speech given at Tenterfield, Labor has become a party of parliamentarians with a machine element dedicated to funding campaigns. Grassroots members are an afterthought, and for many in the machine, an inconvenience. They shouldn’t worry though, if things continue as they are, they won’t have any members at all, to worry about.

Senator Faulkner said that as party membership declines the influence of factional warriors increases. They maximize their influence by excluding those who disagree, not through leadership and persuasion. Those who defer to the power brokers are rewarded with position in the party and with employment. This is not factionalism, it is feudalism and it is killing the ALP, killing the ALP.

Of course, I have raised my issues and concerns over some years, with the Labor Party through their feed back facilities provided on their website but have yet to receive a response even once.

A classic example of exclusion, when the message may be may worthy, but is unpalatable to the pride. I used to have a saying in my diary at work, that I transferred year after year; An error does not become a mistake until one refuses to fix it.

Mr Beazley, with respect Sir, the ALP does have an image problem! If you are not part of the solution as they say, you are part of the problem. Start listening please.

Mary Walsh
www.yourchoiceindying.com

Choices Are Being Made for RU486

It is so heartening to hear that women in politics have put their differences aside and shown a united front when dealing with legislation regarding the drug RU 486.

Mr Tony Abbott, the Federal Health Minister, showed his disregard for democracy when he cried, Foul, citing the opposition to his proposed power as Health Minister, over that of the Therapeutic Drugs Administration, as a "Vote of No Confidence in Him as Health Minister".

The debate is about the perception of his power to control Government Policy alone. Mr Howard is fully supporting him and will do everything in his power to ensure they don't lose this argument. And Amendments will probably be such in the Lower House as to render the legislation right back into the Minister for Health "Catholic" Power Base!

In the past ten years Australia has gradually lost its sense of freedom to speak and act, in the manner we'd grown accustomed to. When talking about suicide methods on a telephone with a doctor or a friend becomes a criminal offence, subject to $110.000 fines, we may well ask, what is next? If Mr Abbott and Mr Howard had their way, we would be forced back into church pews each Sunday because of their religious interference in Government Business.

I absolutely loved the TShirt, worn in Parliament, by Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, asking Abbott, to keep His Rosaries off Her Ovaries.

Mr Abbott is comes to pass was just as human as the rest of us in his youth, but he was lucky and escaped the product of an unwanted pregnacy with his then girl friend. The fact he hadn't paid maintenance showed he didn't follow through on his responsibilities as seen before the introduction of DNA testing. Ok it wasn't his child, after all, but in principle, it could have been. A moment of weakness of the flesh can ruin a child's life, a mother's and whatever male happened to drop his pants as passions soared. A moment's pleasure wrecked by a lifetime of consequences. I wonder how many other very good Catholic men have children sired by them up for adoption and whisked away accepting responsibility for those they created in the first place. God..................I just can't say what I'm thinking!


Ms Danna Vale (Liberal Member of the Lower House) tells the nation, this morning, that removal of the RU 486 from the power of the Government will result in a Muslim nation. At the moment Australia is a Christian nation with religion firmly impacting on Government Policy.

Jewish, Muslim or Christian, what goes around, comes around eventually. England is already heading in the direction of Islam if my relative's school reports are anything to go by (read first blog this site). She want to remain Christian, but if one looks at history, Spain was not always Catholic.

Ms Vale is concerned that we Australians will abort ourselves out of existence. No worries though, we'll just be populated by the immigration refugees brought about as a result of global warming causing the sea to rise throughout all the islands dotted around Australia. Because Australia chose profits before Environment in the global picture that is our World.

Referring to the Four Corners Program on Channel 2, regarding Global Warming, thank you for the likes of Dr. Guy Pearse who stood above the Herd and told Australia last night the levels of corruption that takes place in Governments and their Beaurecrats when dealing with lobbyists that employ less than 2% of the Australian workforce. Their power outweighs their importance....but that's another issue.

RU 486 is a drug like any other and should always be under the control of the Therapeutic Drugs Administration. The Health Minister cannot be expected as an untrained scientist to fully understand the application of individual drugs. If the drug has already been approved in over 30 countries that would be a fair indication of its safety. Of course Australian authorities still have to reassure themselves that it is Ok for Australians (on the off chance that our bodies will react differently to an American's???)

Moral views, about the ethics of abortion have no place in Government. If the Government felt so concerned about the loss of a fetal life, it should concern itself equally in the loss of childhood life as the reality of an unwanted child results in broken relationships and marriages. The financial strain caused by the additional mouths to feed would not have the same impact if the object of the expense was wanted in the first place.

I believe the Government has a moral obligation if any at all, to ensure that a child is being welcomed, loved and cared for within the environment that they will live in for at sixteen years after their nine months in the womb. The child will remember nothing of its time in the womb but will remember their sixteen years of childhood for the next seventy years, sometimes scarred for life.

One member of the partnership involving an unwanted child invariably walks away from the responsibility of parenting. I am not talking here about the finances so much as the need for a lovely joint parenting where Mum's Rules can be balanced by Dad's Rules, which is usually different from each other. Boys brought up by women alone, I feel, are disadvantaged by the loss of a male role model in their lives.

"Live in Boy Friends" from my observation (and limited experience on the receiving end) quite often has a negative impact on the child, as the mother may or may not have relationships stability. The child could form an attachment only to lose it as the parent moves onto another partner.

All the discussion is based on a perceived sense of stability at the time of pregnacy. How much more tentative can the circumstances be for the unborn child when it is being brought into the harsh reality of being unwanted, but without the (easier) means of abortion?.

In years past one may have relied on family to support an unmarried mother both in terms of additional income but even more importantly, additional practical support with child minding etc. With the continuing break down in family relationships and interstate removals in Australia that support base for the parent is lost.

Many children are murdered by either their mother or father, or even, lover, unable to cope with the stress of child rearing. And the reported batterings that take place!

A loved child is safer.

Placing always the child's needs first, I believe the child should be the only consideration. This is the moral responsibility of Government. The continuing and ongoing happiness of a child whose right it is to be born: loved and wanted.

Let's trust that the House of Representatives vote with their conscience based strictly on the need for the drug to be assessed only on its safety application without any moral or political interference.

Where will government interference end, in our everyday life? My body, my choice!.

To all the women who are making their presence felt: Go Girls Go!!!

Women Unite: for the sake of the children.......


Mary Walsh
www.yourchoiceindying.com

Memories of Mary

I think my sister was a little horrified at my depth and passion when addressing the issue of abortion in a previous blog, from my POV as a child. She tried hard to tell me that "it wasn't all bad", from her recollection of our childhood. As I read her very well written story of her memories of a shared childhood I was transported back to a time when it was good!.

That period of time before the pedophiles, the incest and then the confinement within the high walls of the Good Shepherd Convents.

I even vaguely remember some of these times.....particularly the huntsmans, which brought out the demon in me like nothing else. I just had no fear, and when I think of the scorpians and the risks I took handling them, together with the spiders I was meant to live. We'd sit in the apple tree and watch the snake on the ground below us.

But these were the happier times before the pedophiles, the incest and the horror of the orphanage. Being older my sister has the advantage of remembering more of the better times........

Beautifully told, big sister:


My first memory of Mary is when she must have been about two years old. We were playing in the back yard of Mrs Cavanagh’s house where we lived in ‘rooms’. Mrs Cavanagh was an old lady who slaughtered chickens in her backyard, using the copper outside to lower the carcases in boiling water to make the plucking easier. Mrs Cavanagh raised the chickens in the backyard and probably sold them. I think that was the day we got into trouble for using condoms we found in Mum’s drawer as balloons. Mary wore a light coloured dress without collar or sleeves and we both had bare feet. There is no memory of Julian being there and it is likely he had been given to Aunty Phil at that time.

At the time I started school at the local convent, we were living in ‘rooms’ at Mrs Barrets. Mrs Barret seemed impossibly old, very thin with scant grey hair pulled back into a bun. I remember her being kind and not nearly so fussy as Mrs Cavanagh – more understanding of small children. The weatherboard house was big, old and in need of painting. The wash-house was not plumbed to the sewerage system and the water was allowed to run out on to the land ‘down the back’. We enjoyed paddling in the water which sat in the channels that were supposed to take it away but did not. Mrs Barret made jam in a big preserving pan suspended over an open fire. The plums for the jam came from the cherryplum tree beside the window of the ‘sitting room’. I realize now Mrs Barret was probably about 75 and was perhaps one of the early settlers in the area. She certainly belonged to a vanished era. On school mornings Mum would walk me up to the railway crossing with Mary in the pusher. Mary would cry to come with me to school and Mum would tell me to sneak away before Mary saw me go. It didn’t work!

Then came Hasset St a small, four roomed cottage with two bedrooms, a ‘front room’ and a kitchen with a dirt floor and corrugated iron walls. Mary and I would sit in the back doorway and watch the clouds, making up stories about what we could see in the cloud formations. We sat in that doorway and watched the men cutting down the great pine tree which stood in the middle of the back yard. We had great fun playing amongst the branches which lay on the ground for some time. The wood probably ended up in the kitchen stove and the fireplace of the sitting room. I think this was about the time Mary found out I was terrified of spiders and I amused her greatly by running screaming as she picked up huntsmen to chase me with. It took me more than 50 years to overcome that particular fear.

In Hasset St Mary helped me overcome my fear of the dark. She did this by getting me to run round the outside of the house in one direction while she ran round in the opposite one. Just as I became really frightened, she would appear round the corner and go with me the rest of the way. I wonder if she remembers those nights? There was a lemon tree in the front yard, and Mary went through a period where she would sit under the tree and peel and eat lemons, lots of them. We also used to pinch the green apples off the tree in the paddock next door where Brickles kept their cow. They were the BEST apples!

My next memory is of being made to take Mary with me to get the messages and her lying on the road having a tantrum because I would not buy her lollies or icecream with the change, being too afraid of Mum who told me to bring back the change. This was probably at the time we lived in Hasset St. The next door neighbours were the Brickles and they had a dog which scared me by running at the fence and barking furiously each time we passed on our way home from school. Mary would hold my hand and walk on the side nearest the dog to ‘protect’ me. We squabbled and fought, but she always protected me from anyone or anything outside.

Our next move was to Jeffrey St when our parents finally bought their own house. We had great times in Jeffrey St, playing under the house which, being on a slope had plenty of room under the back of the house, storage cupboards and a few old cases containing clothes. The cases had probably been there since the twenties, judging by the clothes. Among the inhabitants of ‘under the house’ were huntsmen and scorpions, which Mary regarded as her pets. We had no town water, water coming from a large corrugated iron tank on a tankstand which stood beside the back steps. Our supply of potatoes was kept in bags under the tankstand. I hated being sent to bring up some potatoes as I imagined the huntsmen living among the potatoes and just waiting to ‘get’ me. I don’t actually recall Mary offering to protect me from the horrors of ‘under the tankstand’.

The ‘lav’ (lavatory) was in a leanto attached to the washhouse halfway down the backyard. Under the wooden bench seat was the can that was changed once a week. This was another house of horrors for me, both for the huntsmen that I was certain waited for me under the seat and for the stench. I expect my childhood constipation was brought on by my determination to go there as little as possible. The washhouse was populated by large black housespiders in the roof. As you can see I was quite fixated on spiders – there seemed to be so many of them. It’s a funny thing, since I am no longer frightened of spiders I seldom notice them, but this is a recent development on my part and Mary will probably have more memories to add to these.

In the middle of the backyard was an Irish Strawberry tree. Many were the hours of fun we had in that tree – Mary-Tarzan, Joyce-Jane – I wonder what Julian did. This is my first memory of him in childhood. We also played lots of ‘cowdys’ (cowboys and Indians). Our pointing fingers were our guns and Julian was really good at making the noise of a shot. These games were based on films we saw on Saturday afternoon matinees. We got one shilling and threepence – ninepence for the ticket and sixpence to spend on lollies. To get to the theatre we had to cross the railway bridge and it was great fun to stand in the smoke and steam from the steam engines as they passed underneath us. There was always a race to get to the top of the ramp and on to the bridge first.

Down below the backyard was an orchard and the chook yard. In the orchard were apple and plum trees and a big gooseberry bush that was home to at least one snake that we knew about. The snake did not stop us from playing in the long grass under the trees where we made nests and played that game of making up stories about the pictures in the clouds. I learned to whistle up one of the apple trees when I promised myself that I would not come down till I could whistle. I still whistle. We also had ducks, Khaki Campbells, and I can still remember the awful smell they generate and the muddy mess they make. I preferred chooks and had my own pet bantams, including a few silky bantams. My bantam rooster was a handsome, colourful fellow and I was broken hearted the day he hung himself in the chicken wire across the front of the chookhouse. I did not eat the chicken meal which appeared on the table that night.

One day in the height of summer we, Mary, Julian and I decided to go for a walk. We must have walked for miles and being country kids wore no shoes. On the road out of town, our feet began to burn and we decided we’d better go home. A car came along as Mary was crying because her feet were burning and the driver offered us a lift. Mum had told us never to get into anyone’s car ‘because they will take you away and chop your head off’. Mary insisted we accept the lift and got into the car when I noticed an axe on the floor of the back seat. I hauled her out and said we would walk after all. It turned out a couple of days later that the driver was the local bank manager and Mum’s boss.

On another occasion, Mary and Julian went walking without me (I was probably at home, my nose in a book) and came back dragging a dead koala by the hind leg. We gave it a decent burial when we found Dad couldn’t make it better. I’ll bet it was Mary’s idea to rescue it from death.

Cane Toads versus Humans - Prioriites?

I received this little gem in this morning's email box and as I feel quite strongly about a human's life being at least equal to any other species, I wondered where society's priorities lie. To die like a dog, or a toad could perhaps be more preferable to that of a human being!

I think I can safely assume my husband would not allow his golf club to be used in this manner as he would worry about damage to his beloved toy! forget about the toad! But on reflection, perhaps if the toad could be balanced on the Tee, or was stupid enough to get in the way of the ball, I believe its days would be numbered.

Perhaps when a safe, painless method is developed for the toads, the good men of science can allow it to be used on human beings?

Shared email as received:

As a side issue, yesterday morning whilst driving I had the radio on the A.B.C. as always and happened to tune into a talk-back program. The talk-back session would you believe was all about the most humane way to kill vermin toad frogs.

So called caring grown men were phoning in to voice their objection to the killing of toad frogs with golf clubs and cricket bats. In expressing their sympathetic views, they were amplifying their support for the use of freezing and the painting of the toads backs with hemorrhoid cream in order to administer a humane death to these poisonous pests.

As you may imagine it made me also angry at how such people can become emotional at such a peripheral issue whilst at the same time failing to make any mention of the inhumane way in which we treat terminally ill people who, all they really want is to be medically assisted to die.

When thinking further about the subject of dying, when the doctors and specialist say that there is nothing more that they can do for a person and that they only have a certain time to live I uphold and express the following.

In such circumstances where the religious zealots would try to have us believe via pious deception, that it is irresponsible to request assistance in dying - yet actually, for those who voluntarily desire a compassionate and more merciful shorter path to the same end, is in fact being responsible, and it should be everybody’s inalienable civic right within our secular society to choose.

Keep up the great work Mary.
Cheers

Mary Walsh
www.yourchoiceindying.com

Abortion can be a Better Option

Abortion has many faces:

The Right to Life brigade are gearing up to prevent abortions through the use of RU 486. Senator Barnaby Joyce has "concerns", and Senators Steve Fielding and Ron Boswell are urging a letter writing campaign throughout Churches.

I am so very glad to read that the Uniting Church will not be participating in the new Lobby Group, Australians Against RU486.

Interestingly, all three Senators are men. No fear of poverty in their families though!

Australians Against RU486 is holding a national day of action today, January 29 2006, before an expected vote of the drug's availability. I am sure no prizes will be handed out for guessing what way the vote will go. Given the power and the access to politicians the conservative religious have over the ordinary woman in the street, it'll be a push over to ram home what ever Laws, they deem suitable for society.

I am waiting for the Spanish Inquisition to be reintroduced into modern Australia under another name (banning telephone conversations based on christian ethics is a very good start). The Government call at Christmas time to remind us of our roots as a Christian society was indicative of our loss of freedom of expression. Even being passively non christian, worries them. What! no nativity scenes, within shops bursting with consumerism. Perhaps the reality is honesty, beginning to reflect society's view. To the majority, it would appear that family, gift giving and good food is the highlight of the new "holiday time".

Back to abortion - as a person on the receiving end of being brought into the world against my mother's wishes because there was no alternative 63 years ago, I trust all the "sanctimonious do gooders" will nurture the depressed mothers for the next fifteen years after the birth of an unwanted child. Multiply that by perhaps another one to six children born because the parents felt like have sexual intercourse and didn't start out the act fully prepared for the consequences.
I remember numerous times as I was being beaten with a razor strap the words rung out. "I wish you had never been born", "After all the pain and suffering, I went through having you" and "Get out of my sight".

Unwanted children suffer more, physically and emotionally.

Children being born into a home where they are actually wanted is the fundamental right for the child. The child being born into a home where the parents will love, feed and clothe them is the fundamental need for the child. The child being born into a home where incest is rife because the parents don't love their children enough to put their sexual needs above the fundamentals of being permitted to live the life of an innocent child...............

My father was a fantastic churchman! God love 'im!. Many good churchmen know how to screw a child's life up.(forgive the pun) Ah yes he was showing that he loved me.

An unwanted child I would suggest is much more likely to be abused than a cherished, longed for baby.

A thousand times I could imagine not being born at all was preferable to the enforced pain and suffering brought about by being born unwanted and unloved. Having being born, the child still has to survive life. Remember that! when the RTL set up Counseling Centres sneakily, in the name of Pregnancy Advice Centres. Although they receive Government Funding as a legitimate counseling centre, many organisations are just a front for a conservative church group.

My comment in the previous paragraph has been challenged, saying that surely I couldn't mean I had had such a joyless life, that I could feel so strongly in favor of abortion. I suppose it would depend whether you are an observer or a paticipant.

And in place of the orphanages of old, the modern unwanted child can be fostered out into, sometimes unknown dodgy homes, prey to the sexual and other exploitation of being an additional social security income stream. I understand many foster parents are wonderful people, but I wouldn't want to be a fostered child, and I doubt many of us would. Russian Roulette for the child!

And then there is the misery of the child put up for adoption, knowing itself to be rejected. Sometimes, not once, but twice in a short life. Perhaps adopted out to a family who thought a young child cute only until he was ten, having a mind of his own, became immediately dispensable because the blood ties just weren't there.

I almost forgot to mention the trauma experienced when one adopted child wants to have nothing to do with the sibling, because to them, they've become strangers.

Ask around, ask the children born to parents who didn't want them and find out how many really grew into well adjusted adults!.. It was OK for the Christian Brothers to beat **** out of them, because they weren't really family!!! I am married to one to them. I trust the RTL'ers will do their homework for the next fifteen years of the child's life, before they block out abortion in the same way voluntary euthanasia has been dealt with.

Like dying can be better than living in some circumstances, so too, can abortion be better than birthing.

The Cutting Edge program on filmed in Ameria on SBS January 24, is a chilling reminder of what lengths the Right to Life advocates will persecute Abortion Clinics in America, forcing women to travel great distances in order to achieve a legal abortion. That they succeed, is death to choice.

An elderly woman and her daughter in law were harassed entering a laneway to attend an Abortion Clinic in Melbourne, as far back as the year 2000. Watches were maintained by the RTL from both ends, chanting and waving placards in their faces.

And will the next victims of the anti abortionists be, the seriously malformed babies currently aborted in Hospitals throughout the Australia. My daughter a nurse, as part of her training was taken some years ago to a facility where these people, since grown are dumped by the system. She was afraid for the images before her eyes, but I doubt if any anti abortionists actually service those unfortunate people with their bodily functions.


Babies are being born directly as a result of the unavailability of abortion and no one appears to concern themselves greatly with what happens to these unwanted babies, forced on their mother. Yes the RTL people do provide limited booties, perhaps powdered milk and even a pusher, but long after the child is 18 months old, provision for the rest of its life in childhood needs consideration. Clothing for a growing child, educational expenses, a balanced diet of proper food. Money is less likely to be forthcoming for an unwanted child's expenses than a longed for one. The voice of experience speaking here.


Don't force woman to have children against their instincts. The mother will suffer and so too will the child. If there is an easy way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, please allow women to have easy access to it. Abstinence, as an alternative, is ridiculous for the average person. Mother nature ensures survival of the species by making men and women want to have intercourse. It is a natural thing to do, unless you've made a vow of chastity and then sexual frustrations can be taken out on the unwary child unable to fight back.

The RTL ensured the Suicide Related Materials Law came into being in Australia, on January 6. They were so proud of their victory. Women forced against their will may well increase the suicide statistics. Long after the RTL'ers have gone back to their prayers a fifteen year old girl will be struggling to settle a screaming child alone, and so the chain reaction sets in with the young mother killing her baby or taking to alcohol and drugs to escape it. De facto relationships don't have a really good track record for stability and safety for children.

Life at any price is truly the motto of the RTL but they don't get involved the the "living" aspect of the "life" they save!

One's Choice in "creating" Life should be voluntary. It it such an important choice that not to have it, perhaps leading to the death of a full term living baby is the very real alternative.

It is a much more selfish society in which we live these days and no one will "care", once the reality of ongoing responsibility starts to bite.

Better for all concerned, that the child is wanted.

Mary Walsh
www.yourchoiceindying.com
___________________________________

Comprehensive Education is a necessity

I created this blog site specifically for publishing these two emails received this week from a frustrated relative about to embark on shifting the entire family to Australia.

I intend of course to use the facility for other subjects where I believe the right for choice is a dying matter.

I have already warned her that the Australia she knew many years ago has had it "choices" or freedoms eroded by our Government bringing in laws under the guise of the concerned well being of our citizens.

From the war in Iraq, to our Industrial Relations legislation, to the Suicide Related Material Law, to the Sedition Laws, the Australian Government has ensured choices for mainstream society are a dying breed. It would appear the next subject on the Government's Agenda for legislative change may well be Abortion, the ultimate choice of a woman over her own body.

The fact the Government was re elected based on preferences from an unknown Family First Party which succeeded, in a Senate Seat, by gaining preferences from both major Political Parties, namely the ALP and the Liberal National Party at the expense of the minor parties, namely the Greens and the Democrats.

I operate a website specifically dealing with Voluntary Euthanasia www.yourchoiceindying.com which touches a little on other items that interest me. I felt I needed to have another forum in which to share views of a wide range of issues.

Here is the email which I wanted to share with you in cyberspace.

Greetings!!
For those of you with concerns about how the world is changing and the effect it may have on our children, here are a few facts which you might find interesting (or so galling you want to kill someone!!).
My children have never been taught the English national anthem at school but they do know (a bit) of Advance Australia Fair (taught to them by me).
My children have never been taught the English national anthem at school but they do sing Black Eyed Peas songs in assembly. (Actually, during these times, Boo excuses herself and hides in the toilet whilst Zac quietly unscrews vital components from gym equipment stored next to where he sits.)
Zac had to be reminded (by me) that churches have pews with aisles up the middle but he knows that mosques have no furniture in them.
Neither of my children have been taught long division at school but Zac is in the process of making a 3D paper mosque. (He has chosen not to put the minarets on because he says the call to prayer annoys him.)
Boo knows that in excess of 1 billion people live in India but does not know the population of England.
Both my kids know that the Muslim holy book is the Koran but do not know that Christians Succinct action is a necessity read from the Bible. (We struggle to get them to remember this small fact because it is taught at school at the same time as all the other Christian stuff which is .......NEVER.)
Boo's teacher would rather she read books from school (which she whizzes through in under an hour) than continue with the Harry Potters she is so interested in.
Zac's PE lessons consist of walking around the hall 'with attitude' as instructed by one of his teachers. And if the class is really well behaved and they have time then they might get to learn African dancing (which will tie in nicely with the African drumming they've been doing for the last 2 years!).
School sports days for Zac and Boo involve egg and spoon, skipping and 'getting dressed' races and there are no losers. (Quite how that works I'm not sure because they sure as hell don't all come first!)
If you look through a Brownie catalogue you will find Brownie uniform jeelbabs. (I have no idea how that word is spelt but it's the head scarf thing worn by Muslim girls.) I find this odd because I was under the impression that the Brownies organization started as a Christian thing and I know that (certainly in some chapters) you are not allowed to wear the uniform until you have been to church with the troop.
In spite of the fact that we all struggle to get our kids to do their homework Zac's teacher thinks it's okay to tell the children to put their completed work in the bin, refusing to mark it because of it being handed in late but never bothering to consider that most of us don't know what day the homework is due in. (Result of this is that Zac now refuses to do any more homework and I support him in this 100%.)
My childrens teachers obviously believe there is NO risk of dehydration during winter and must be totally unaware that children who drink water during the day concentrate better because now that the weather is cold they are not permitted to drink in class. (This despite the fact that the heating is cranked up as high as it will go and is dessicating everyone in the building.)
Those of us who allow our children to wear jewellery (earrings!!) to school are constantly bombarded with letters telling us that this is not permitted but never has there been a letter about inappropriate clothing or footwear despite some (girls in particular) turning up to school in mini-skirts, cropped tops which expose bellies, shoes with more heel than anything I own, ugg boots (just longs slippers) or mukluk boots (with all the fur on the outside which is clever in this climate!).
So, for any of you who wonder why we are so impatient to get Zac and Boo out of their school and out of this country there you go!!! The days of Great Britian are but a distant memory as old Blighty hurtles at an ever increasing pace toward becoming a nation only previously seen in the Middle East.
Have a nice day and be grateful you live where you do!
Lots of love
XXXX
Hello Again!!!
You will have received an email from me in the last week which I am sure will have been something of an eye opener for many of you. Below are a few more points which I didn't have to hand when I wrote that original email (because the letters containing these new gems only came home today).
Boo's art assignment for this term is to design and construct a chair (when I was at school this would have been done in woodwork), whilst Zac's art and technology involves slippers and head dresses (the mind boggles!!!)
Zac's R.E. for the term is to "continue learning about other faiths and cultures focussing on Sikhism and Christianity". (I thought England was a Christian country but the fact that the schools teach about Christianity as an "other" faith speaks volumes!!) Boo will be studying Sikhism and Islam (surprise, surprise!!!) for R.E.
Amongst other things I'm sure, Boo will be taught how to "keep warm" as part of her science studies for this term. (This is possibly the most stupid thing I've read for ages because if she didn't already know how to keep warm in this environment she'd be dead by now!!)
Zac will be taught how to use the internet in ICT. (Sadly they are a bit late because he already knows how to use it. This we know beyond a shadow of a doubt because it transpires that he's been looking at boobies on line. Result of this is that he has had all computer and computer game privileges withdrawn until further notice. What we also know is that he was taught how to use the search engine which assisted him in his quest, at school!!)
In PHSE (which translates as sex, drugs and rock'n'roll lessons) Boo has been learning about drugs and knows the names amphetamines, barbituates, cocaine, cannabis, crack, heroin, marijuana and speed in addition to alcohol, tabacco, glue, paint and felt tip pens (texta's). She also knows how these substances are taken which is a bit scary. (Now all they need to do is tell her where to buy them and her education will be complete!)
Further to information gathered last week we are now informed that Zac's homework will be handed out on Thursday and/or Friday and will be due back on Tuesday and/or Wednesday (due dates for return is in no way effected by the day on which it is given). Other homework will also be handed out at other times where relevant. According to this new letter "children will need to complete homework in their break times if they have not finished it" and nowhere does it say anything about throwing homework in the bin before it is seen by the teacher. (Is it any wonder the children {and parents} have no idea when homework should be handed in??!!)
This term Zac and his classmates will be doing SATS which (we are told) is all about finding out how well the school is doing its job of educating and has nothing to do with the children as individuals. However, this term Zac and his classmates will have to do "Extra numeracy (maths!!) and literacy (English!!) revision during lunchtimes. Science revision will be done in class." (Why do they need to give up their lunch break in order to revise for tests which, in theory, will have no bearing on them at all and when will the authorities realize that if teachers didn't spend their days teaching kids about 'other' religions, slippers, head dresses and chairs then they'd have time to teach maths and English during class time? At what point did maths and English become non-essential lessons?)
Have a nice day!!
Love