Posted on 09/02/2004 2:58:20 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy
Speaking up here, as a member of the Australian Liberal Party who is sometimes involved in helping to select candidates.
The kid - and he is a kid - is an immature little twit.
Why do you think he's running for the Liberal party in a safe Labor seat?
He's 25 - he was a little younger when he wrote this diary.
We don't condemn people to a life on the outskirts of politics here because they were stupid in their early twenties. Even if they were really stupid (unless they break the law).
We give them a chance to grow up.
You'd have to be a masochist to run against Latham in his own seat - basically for seats like that, we look for people with something to prove. If he wants a future in politics, he's going to have to prove to us he's grown out of his stupidity.
The more stupid you were - the bigger challenge we give you - OK, that's not really true - but seriously don't think this kid represents the views of the Liberal party. He's being given a chance to redeem himself here.
Maybe he'll take it - in which case, sometime around 2010, he might be given a chance to run in a seat he actually has a chance of winning.
Only if I can bring my dogs,hehe. Are they having winter or summer now? It's hot as hades here and I'm dying for some crisp autumn air.
Condolences on your jeep,hope it's fixed with the minimum of time,hassle,and funds real soon.
He's not a liberal loon. He's an idiot child (no, most 25 year olds aren't children - but this kid really hasn't grown up yet).
He certainly doesn't speak for the whole country. He doesn't even speak for his party - the Liberal Party here is conservative (the name is an historical relic) and is generally pro-American.
Australia did send troops into Iraq as part of the initial force, and still has troops active in the country. We have an election next month - and provided the current government stays in office, we will probably keep troops there as long as is necessary. The opposition wants to bring them home.
Too much can be read into the fact he still lives with his parents - especially in Sydney where housing prices are absurd.
It's not at all uncommon for 20-somethings to still live at home in Australia - unlike the US where a lot of young adults seem to go away to school, a really high proportion of Australia kids attend University quite near home - it comes from having something like 85% of the whole population clustered around a few major cities. It's not uncommon for them to move out either, of course, but a lot will stay at home until they've finished uni and then while they save a bit of a nest egg to start their life. 25 is just starting to look a little bit unusual.
To be serious... yes, we do have a lot of poisonous animals roaming about the country - but most of them aren't really as dangerous as people try to make out. A lot of them used to be - when people lived days away from the nearest hospital, and before we had effective anti-venoms.
The funnel web can kill an adult, but even without treatment your chance of survival is better than 50%. It will make you sicker than you've probably ever been in your life but most people will survive. With treatment, survival is pretty close to certain.
Red backs - much more common - can certainly make you sick, but are really unlikely to kill you. The bites get treated as very dangerous, because there's no point in taking chances, but for most people, while they can make you sick, they're nowhere near deadly.
There are some more dangerous snakes around - but most of them will head away from you - people who get bitten tend to have stepped on one, or tried to provoke it.
We don't have bears. We don't have big cats (well, there are rumours of some wandering around country areas - possibly descendants of cats who escaped from zoos, circuses, or were mascots for US military units posted here in World War II). We do have crocodiles - and they do kill people sometimes. But they are in areas a lot of tourists never go.
Seriously - I'd say the US has just as many deadly animals. It's just familiarity makes people less nervous of them.
But here in the States, I've noticed that guys who live with their parents are a nasty-tempered bunch.
1. It's still not too late
2. In solid Labor seats like Werriwa there's usually not too many volunteers to be the verlorn hoop running against the Labor candidate. Body temperature of 37 Celsius for the previous 18 years is pretty much the minimum qualiftcations that can be demanded.
3. If wouldn't be a Australian election without at least one really embarrassing candidate somewhere.
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