Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Sites | Writers | Advertise | My Orble | Login
 
The Rainbow Report broadcasts live every Thursday 7-8pm AEST in Melbourne Australia on 94.9 FM, streaming via the web at joy.org.au. PODCASTS are available via the Joy website and now also on iTunes.

Victoria Australian politics - Rainbow Reporter

Rainbow Report Thursday on 94.9

November 12th 2008 05:05
Robert Doyle
My guest this week


We continue our series of interview with mayoral candidates.

Robert Doyle, former Victorian Liberal leader and candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne, will join us to talk about his plans for the city.


Centrelink are keen to explain to us what the changes to the legal treamment of same-sex couples will mean in realtion to pensions and benefits, so they've agreed to provide a spokesperson - so let me know what you'd like me to ask on your behalf.

And Dale Smedley of DTs Hotel will be talking about his bid for a seat on his local council.

You can send your questions ahead of time to journobear@gmail.com

Plus the latest look Beneath the Bonnet with Kaye Sera.

That's Thursday noght 7-8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time, on Joy 94.9FM, streaming live at www.joy.org.au.
37
Vote
Shared on
Comments (1)Comments (1) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Sham 'conscience vote' on Assisted Reproduction Bill

October 24th 2008 09:43
Hostage
How Stuff Works - A Liberal/National 'Conscience' Vote


Q: When is a conscience vote not a conscience vote?

A: When you are told that you are of course free to exercise your conscience – just don’t be surprised if you’re out of a job come pre-selection time


That’s the situation facing Liberal and National members of the Victorian upper house, as the vote on Assisted Reproduction Treatment draws near – perhaps as soon as next week.

Both major parties have allowed their members a conscience vote – but the Liberals and Nationals are determined they won’t lose this one.

They lost on the same-sex relationship register, stem cell research and abortion, but now the party hierarchy has drawn a line in the sand.

‘They’ve had their three strikes,’ I was told, ‘one more and they’re out.’

The party is of course at liberty to impose discipline and insist all members toe the line – provided they do so publicly. Everyone would then know the party policy on the issue.

But if the LibNats do that, it’s an invitation to Labor to do likewise – and then the bill would almost certainly pass.

As it stands, by maintaining the illusion of a free vote by all members, some Labor members feel free to vote against the bill. Combine that with a 100% LibNat ‘No’ vote, and the bill goes down.

Of course, on the record it’s all above board, no pressure, totally free. But off the record it’s a different story. Members being told that if they vote for the bill – as their conscience dictates – then they can expect ‘very close scrutiny of your preselection’, according to one upper house member.

It’s not hard to work out who must be under this kind of pressure, whatever they may feel obliged to say in public. Genuine Liberals in the traditional Menzies mould, such as Matthew Guy, Andrea Coote, Wendy Lovell and Donna Petrovich, who have a record of supporting gay and lesbian issues, are obvious targets for this sort of bullying.

‘I wouldn’t use words like “threatened”, or “bullied”,’ said one source.

Being told you have to vote against your conscience while pretending to do the opposite, under threat of losing your job, sure looks a lot like bullying and threatening to me.

And it seems to work. There was a free vote in the lower house on the ART Bill – and not a single LibNat voted in favour. That’s rather too large a coincidence for me, even without the leaks now coming from the upper house.

The Victorian Liberal Party, that famously ‘broad church’, suddenly seems terribly narrow, doesn’t it?

UPDATE SUNDAY

I have been in touch with a Liberal or two and have been told that this story is, according to them, 'crap'. I have been told by a gay Liberal:

The Liberal Party simply doesn't work that way.

Opponents have thousands of letter writers. We have about three people. If you had three letters vs one thousand, which way would you go?

Well in my book a conscience vote means you vote according to your own personal conscience in the matter. Not the policy of your party, and not the conscisnce of your constituents, you PERSONAL conscience.

This 'reassurance' seems to me to affirm what I have been told - that pressure is being applied to get people to toe the line.

There are legitimate concerns about the Bill. I have told Corey they need to consult and find a way to split off sections of the Bill that will be palatable and get through.
33
Vote
Shared on
Comments (1)Comments (1) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Mayors Nest or Dragons Lair

October 7th 2008 23:55
John So
I So ain't gonna be yo' bro' no mo' - pic thanks ABC

Now that John So’s decided he ain’t gonna be our bro’ no mo’, and Jeff Kennett’s decided to stay home with the grandkids, would-be Melbourne Mayors are popping up like weeds. And weeds is the operative term.

Ineffectual former Liberal state leader Robert ‘Popeye’ Doyle – who in a “Sarah Palin moment” was once blessed by the fundamentalist ‘Catch The Fire’ Ministries - has been annointed front runner by the press, even though he hasn’t even said if he’ll definitely stand yet.

Long-time So associate (and wife of one of Ted Baillieu’s advisors, so I guess we can put her in the Liberal camp, too) Catherine Ng reckons it’s her turn at the top. She probably read Peter Costello’s memoirs and decided that if she didn’t give So a shove she too might turn into a political Miss Haversham.

Her decision to back herself instead of our incomprehensible but oddly popular mayor allegedly persuaded him to stand down. She’s rumoured to be something of a Dragon Lady - insiders call her ‘combative’ and ‘odd’, and that’s when they’re being nice; she calls herself “The City’s Mother”, which could illustrate either a high degree of self-delusion (not necessarily handicap for a politician – just look at Eva Peron) or simply a profound cultural gulf.

If you’re in no rush to collect another mother, how about a (slightly used) wife? Liberal power broker Michael Kroger’s other half, Anne Peacock and Jeff Kennett’s spouse Felicity are definite maybes. Rich businessmen are apt to buy up little businesses to give their wives something to do, but I’m not sure I want Town Hall put into that category.

Thankfully the former Premier himself – you know, the one who confuses gays with paedophiles, and likes to dress up in brown and yellow - decided not to run, a decision which generated such a deep sigh of relief in Bourke Street that that the Bureau of Meteorology issued a strong wind warning.

Meanwhile Labour, ever the friend of the working man, is offering us two “champagne socialists”: official (serial) candidate Peter McMullin, heir apparent to the Spotless Group, and multi-millionaire Will Fowles of Fowles Auction Group.

Spotless Group make their millions employing hordes of workers on minimum wages, many of who work on - surprise, surprise – servicing city owned properties and venues.

Not exactly the most inspiring group of contenders.

Does it matter who wins? You might think that a city like Melbourne ought to have one overarching strategic authority to deal with planning and infrastructure from Geelong to Sorrento, from the bay to Yea, but “Clown Hall” has only limited powers and responsibilities. It doesn’t run most of what we think of as ‘Melbourne’, just the CBD, Docklands, and a few inner suburbs.

On top of that, its decisions can be overridden by Spring Street, and if that doesn’t bring the councillors to heel, Spring Street can turf them out. Both have happened within recent memory. So it’s no wonder most of the cast of candidates look more like show ponies than workhorses.

Melbourne City Council may have less power and fewer responsibilities than the suburban councils around it, but it does have a power over our community. The power of money.

Thanks largely to the work of openly gay Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer, the city has tipped substantial amounts into Midsumma and OutGames (and elsewhere) in recent years, and given cheap CBD office space to Joy, ALSO, Switchboard and Queer Film.

But if Singer leaves at this election, all that becomes vulnerable. As the recession bites, a cash-strapped Council looking for budget cuts could find us a very easy and tempting target.

He has said he’s ‘considering’ a run, but high in the list of considerations must be the mauling he’d inevitably receive at the hands of the Herald Sun, which has never shirked from digging up dirt about him (and his partner) and throwing it around.

I can make no judgements about the quantity and quality of the dirt in question, compared to that available for flinging at other candidates, since to date the Herald Sun has not exactly been an equal opportunity muckraker.

For now we must give them the benefit of the doubt and acquit them of homophobia. The situation might be different if we had a decent broadsheet paper in the city , who I’m sure would delve into the dealings of all the candidates.

Instead of which Fairfax, owners of the Age, pursue a petulant policy of not touching any story already defiled by the hand of News Limited, thereby depriving us of much entertaining investigative journalism.

The money that has flowed from the Council to the rainbow community has underpinned a remarkable flourishing of Melbourne gay life, but to maintain it, we will need an advocate at City Hall, and of all the runners currently in the race, only the Greens have strong pro-diversity policies.

The signs are good. Adam Bandt, the Green candidate for Mayor, almost tipped Lindsay Tanner out of Melbourne at the general election, and is currently second favourite behind Doyle.

Another openly gay Melbournian, Andrew Heslop, recently quit his job in NSW and, after initially playing coy, now says he’s considering a run, and is looking around for a deputy. But he may have left it too late.

But unless Bandt, Singer or Heslop gets up, we could soon be dealing with a mayor’s nest.

Or possibly a dragons lair.

Adam Bandt and his deputy, Kathleen Maltzahn, are my guests on the Rainbow Report Thursday night October 9, on Joy 94.9 FM 7-8pm if you're in Melbourne, streaming live at www.joy.org.au if you're not. Podcast will be on the same site by the weekend. A version of this column first appeared in Southern Star, Melbourne's newest GLBTI newspaper, on the streets Thursdays.
36
Vote
Shared on
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


New gay papers, Taxpayer fund Mardi Gras

October 2nd 2008 04:05
Rainbow Report

It’s been a dramatic week in gay and lesbian publishing, with the collapse of bnews and the sudden emergence of two new gay media – Canvas, an arts and entertainment magazine from Evolution Publishing, and Southern Star, from Sydney Star Observer.

[ Click here to read more ]
55
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (3)Comments (3) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Heartless Archbishop threatens to close hospitals

September 23rd 2008 01:59
General hospital
The arrogance of the Catholic Church is quite breathtaking. Once again the Vatican is using blackmail to try to get its own way.

In the US, Catholic politicians who won’t vote as they are told have been threatened with excommunication


[ Click here to read more ]
27
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


On The Rainbow Report Thursday Night

August 6th 2008 06:45
Rainbow Reporter
Every Thursday evening 7-8pm AEST broadcasting live from Melbourne on Joy 94.9FM, streaming live at www.joy.org.au. Podcasts available on the Joy site by the weekend.

Last week we had a few things to say about Jeff Kennett, but he’s rather gone to ground since then. But the issue of gays in sport, the entrenched homophobia in sport, hasn’t gone away. In fact, if anything Jeffs intervention made it worse


[ Click here to read more ]
36
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Careless talk costs lives

August 5th 2008 00:08
Hangman's Noose

The old WW2 slogan is especially true when major public figures like politicians, churchmen and celebrities make ill-considered untrue statements about homosexuality. Such statements can quite literally kill.

[ Click here to read more ]
46
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Education Minister Backs Gay Marriage

August 4th 2008 00:25
Bronwyn Pike
Bronwyn didn't pike it


The numbers may have been down – only about 300 turned out for this year’s Melbourne Equal Love Rally, well down on previous years – but two facts made it a memorable occasion


[ Click here to read more ]
34
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Kennett now equates bisexual footy trainers with pedophile priests (LINK)

August 2nd 2008 21:00
Dark Knight priest
Dark Night Priest


Well, I was going to lay off Jeff Kennett, but the man just keeps chewing on that foot in his mouth. In the Herald Sun today he continues to make a link between bisexuality and pedophilia. Such a link does not exist, and such a slur is incredibly damaging


[ Click here to read more ]
45
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (1)Comments (1) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Should Jeff Kennett Apologise? (LINK)

July 27th 2008 22:37
I wrote about this yesterday.

The story also made Channel 7 news last night


[ Click here to read more ]
36
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


It's Art not Kiddie Porn (LINK)

July 6th 2008 02:52
Chocolate Box

A TAXPAYER-funded magazine has put a naked six-year-old girl on the cover in protest at the "hysteria" over similar images by photographer Bill Henson.

[ Click here to read more ]
49
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   




[ Rainbow Reporter Home ] [ Create A New Post ]

Doug Pollard's Blogs

I have no other blogs :(
Moderated by Doug Pollard
Copyright © 2006 2007 2008 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]