POLITICS AND POETRY MATTER

First visit to Canberra 1993 -
 Proud and grateful
 to be an Australian citizen.

Composing a poem, with a public policy in mind, whilst inspiring music is playing is a common method of our Celtic creativity which Paul Keating and I share - and being Republicans and wanting the Union Jack removed from the Australian flag.

The former P.M.'s Promotional tour for his new book has worked - its all I want for Christmas! (But not his choice of music).. Hear:
ABC Classic FM - Margaret Throsby interviews Paul Keating

Keating excited me with the vision of a Creative Nation over  twenty years ago!! I always tuned into the theatre of Question Time in Parliament whilst the babies were having a nap.
An anniversary of his record of achievements as Prime Minister of our country from the Australian Labor Party is significant. Like Gough Whitlam before him, in a short time he progressed the Nation in so many beneficial ways.
His time as Treasurer in Bob Hawke's government was bold and necessary for the future strength of our economy today.

Nobody is perfect - and certainly not Keating in hubris(his 'get a job' gaff still makes me squirm), but what is is going on with the petty egos of women and men in our rank and file - the movers and shakers who are getting paid to organise and communicate what is great about the A.L.P - in governments, when they can't even honour a great public servant in our Paul? Are they jealous?

Troy Bramston( Inquirer, The Weekend Australian 17-18 Dec 2011) was also disappointed.
The ALP love to party with their leading lights. I went along to the Brisbane Convention Centre to celebrate the 20th anniversary of  Wayne Goss becoming Premier of Queensland.
That the artists of Australia felt appreciated by Keating, for the first time since Whitlam and a fabulous musical about him was created... is the ALP management stupidly jealous?

In the back of my mind is Australian Labor Party Renewal - the annual review - to pay our dues - mine with concessional rate. All my words to the Letters of the Editors,local branch activity and being at the polling booth for Wayne Wendt MP for Ipswich West, and Anna Bligh and her Deputy etc. are the muscle within my brain and heart. 
I've always been shocked and saddened for people who don't see a reason for being part of the evolution of a social democracy - after all the struggles it took to get here.
As my own history shows you can't let the bastards get you down. Power corrupts and  when they are in positions of power it's only human to delude yourself you know best - for the greater good.


From my ancestral research, so many of the present day arguments for detention centres acting as deterrent are the same as the Workhouses that punished you for being poor and vulnerable before entitlements to social welfare began.
Don't make these children and adults comfortable or you won't stop the boats. Don't let them tell their stories to the media or people might feel compassion. Hide the history and the herstory of the common people like my mother who was smuggled between the British and Australian Governments:  INHERITANCE: A Working-Class Pedigree


THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL: As soon as I heard about The Malaysia Solution I was ashamed I was a member of the ALP. Like the Child Migration Scheme, where assurances by politicians for individual rights and protections sounded convincing - the fact was, the most vulnerable and dis-empowered will not be protected  from brutality, when you are out of sight, out of mind.


I acknowledge that when Prime Minister, Paul Keating set up mandatory detention it was reasonably limited to a couple of hundred days for health checks.  
An amendment followed that made it indefinite incarceration. 
In the pages of his book does he see the consequences of the power he had, as a huge mistake which having failed, should end?

We are in this State of reckoning, waiting for Christmas respite and reading gift: hint to my husband I'd like the former  politician of my dreams of 20 years ago to be resurrected in my head with his new book!

THE REDFERN ADDRESS

2011

Our small Queensland ALP branch in the Brisbane Valley was  keen about being informed on the facts about indefinite mandatory detention. We invited a respected Refugee Advocate(and former Immigration Officer) to speak, then met with our local Federal MP for Blair, Shayne Neumann to discuss our concerns.

By the end of the year we were unanimous in passing a motion for an end to indefinite mandatory detention  as it does more harm than good. 

It was also passed at the Ipswich Regional Conference along with

the motion to urge the Australian Government to establish a Register of Community billets provided by private citizens in their homes, to assist in accommodating refugees until they are re-settled.

Now we await the Minister for Immigration's response. 

I received a Highly Commended for an essay competition at a Jesuit e-publication on how I would like to  see Australia in twenty years.

OUT OF SIGHT,OUT OF MIND - TOWARDS A FINAL SOLUTION

And so this is Christmas/ Same as it Ever Was/Refugees everywhere/John Lennon singing/me writing another poem:

THE LAST SCRAP.

I would have done the same y'know,

Stepped off the shore, steadied my 

Grasp on the rail with one last scrap of hope.

Desperate, brave and foolish,

Reckoning on one last leap of faith,

One last roll of the dice.

Y'know, the suicidal mentality

Where existing leaves you drained

So drowning off the Java coast is 

A slight deterrent.

It's a chance I would take in the 

Same place, with one last scrap

Of hunger, pain and a vision to be

Free and flourish.

I  TURN TO THE GREEN SENATOR SARA HANSON-YOUNG FOR HUMANE SENSE.

SHE SPEAKS AS I WRITE.in

ANOTHER SPIRITED SHEELA

(c)Julie McNeill December 2011