WOMAN in LABOUR: POWER WITHOUT GLORY

30 June 2015 - To Queensland Labor State Secretary -

(re-edited version)

Wished I'd voted for Albanese...

Ipswich Trades Hall, with Bill Shorten.

Dear Evan,

Regretfully, I wish to resign from the ALP and request you stop the direct debit on my membership (2006-2015).
On the whole I have enjoyed the experience, and would suggest to any person it is worthwhile being a participant in the political system.

I had to leave with failing mental ill health; haven’t got a tough enough shell to deal with my growing horror of the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees, breaching UN Conventions we signed in good faith(as a response to turning the Jews in the boats back to the Nazi's).

To not correct the Conservatives(Lib/Nats) on these principles is to be part of the breaches of international law on torture, and rights of the child. The Greens Senator Sara Hanson Young’s voice never fails to ease my bleedin’ Labor heart.
Maybe I'd be better with the Freemantle tribe? http://www.melissaparke.com.au/latest-news/694-fate-of-asylum-seekers-ignored-in-boats-turn-back-policy.html

When I was a member of the Federal Electoral Council(FEC Ipswich) I discovered our M.P. Shayne Neumann might be a terrific, hard-working member locally, but he was expressing views as hard-line as the Tories - discarding the rights of the individuals fleeing.
I spoke up,

“I know if I was stuck in an Indonesian camp with daily suffering and assaults on my body and dignity for more than a couple of years with no hope of a decent future I would take the gamble on a boat, wouldn’t you?”

We cannot claim to have a foundation based on social justice whilst staying silent about the authoritarian regime growing like an invasive weed, a destructive Tory terror on our Egalitarian principles.

Resilience & Courage admired in Freemantle MP Melissa Parkes speaking oath to Gov. General
Mrs. Bryce, and PM Gillard.

Our racist White Australia Policy belonged to the 19th & 20th century. How do we tell our children it doesn't have a current influence? OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND ESSAY Highly Commended EUREKA award

How do politicians expect respect from voters when they show by their actions, If you have money, even ill-gotten you can fly in and be free.

Boat people are sub-human, demons - daring to defy our Sovereign Borders so we can persecute the persecuted, outa sight outa mind.

Labor 4 Refugees soften the tyrannical edges, but not enough to contaminate the current ideologues of deterrance via fear.

My capacity to push on regardless, continuing to be a solar light on the hill in the Brisbane Valley was finally done in by a deepening depression and disatisfaction of certain expectations on my role as Branch Secretary.

Premier Bligh visits Fernvale After the Floods

Crikey, I was even censored, told to
close the Somerset branch face book page - a wee bit paranoid about me speaking out of turn! We really needed some younger members...

The straw that broke me to the core was the thwarting of plans(by men) who were new and ambitious, changing the dynamics of the Branch.

I was perceiving their inputs as hurdles/barriers to my pure vision of shining only Labor women's light for an International Women's Day event - especially as Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk had accepted the invitation to come to Fernvale on that special day.

Like the turns of a kaleidescope I was stunned by the shifting hues taking place, until I became exasperated, and threw my Secretarial tools and papers in the air with histrionic effect. Why go out with a wimper? I was fuming.

Shit happens in any group but there was a bit of history repeating itself.

Let me say that 80per cent of time has been great being a Labor Party member - many like minds with the goal for a brilliant Labor Government.
It was interesting to campaign for Fiona MacNamara for Wright, Neumann for Blair, Wayne Wendt in Ipswich West, then making sure every vote counts in the booth.

Feb 2009 Fernvale Futures: Learning about Climate Change
with Karey Harrison, Senator Claire Moore, Wayne Wendt MP

Running a regular branch stall at our popular Fernvale Market meant getting to know the news and view of my neighbours, and helping them to solve their problems with their Parliamentary representative.

Fernvale Markets

I would still recommend becoming an active member of the social democratic ideal of the Australian Labor Party. You learn about political process, and meet some inspiring people.

Senator Doug Cameron in Ipswich for talks on Housing crisis
though he shied away from removing the tax perk of Negative Gearing which had been shown not to work for the purpose it was designed for. Yes, he shied away, champion of the Left, entrenched in Power plays, and a comfortable office - his rhetoric on refugees now a ghost of his radical self...

Of course there is still so much to do - even with polling suggesting the population at large is of the view for autonomy in reproductive rights and access the best of us are thwarted by control my conscience freaks.
I regularly brought up the separation of powers principle where our Parliament should stop voting on social issues like theocrats.
The abortion case where Deputy Roman Catholic Premier Paul Lucas were firm - don't let the Cairns couple who used the safe self-administering abortion pill open Pandora's Box.
It was a blight on the Bligh Government.
The policy platform is secular - abortion should be out of the criminal code - it is a health issue.pro/abortion-case-proves-need-for-law-change-2010

I thought it was great to participate in regional conferences and meet, ask questions of various ALP MP's and apparatchik: At Ipswich Trades Hall, during the Bligh Labor Governance, The Deputy Premier and Minister for my Health,couldn't be convinced that as women who manage our own reproductive issues from 10-60, it was an insult to be under the Criminal Code from England in the 1860's!

Chaplains should be in Sunday schools not State schools. Or is there a secret Christian army being built for the end of times?

I felt so much better when I made the decision to quit the party. My conflicting inner-self was less inflamed. I'm a cheer-leader for Premier Annastacia but disappointed on the Gallilea Basin coal con- job, proposed by the Adani company.

We now discover Adani has employed former Labor party staff and members to lobby Ministers on their behalf! The company had misled everybody by it's 10,000 jobs headliner, which apparently was going to be worth sacrificing the Great Barrier Reef for.
It smells like rotten eggs. The self-interest cycle perpetuates itself and we all suffer by it.

I will sign off now and wind down my blogging as a former apparatchik.

Julie McNeill
former Secretary, Wivenhoe/Somerset branch

my editorial for The Gatton Star

and sewing improvisations

Labor Day Ipswich March - to show our solidarity - all of our branch members were proud
Unionists, except me, being unemployed.

Wivenhoe branch founder Virginia Clarke campaigning for Nanango

Branch meetings on Saturday arvo at member's homes and roving along the valley between Fernvale and Esk.

At front is Life Member Stan in company with visitors & neighbours Hon. Bill Hayden
& Dallas Hayden, They shared many campaigns together in the former Oxley.

Convivial, stimulating conversations among
Comrades.

Fed MP Shayne Neumann with President Peter Arndt & State MP Wayne Wendt
at monthly branch meetings.

Wivenhoe branch meetings convivivial comraderie.

Wivenhoe branch Founding member VIP Kim Travers swan-song to new CPSU
organiser job in Melbourne.

Dinner for Wayne Goss anniversary of Labour return to Qld Govt.
with Brisbane branch member Paleni Thevar

From the Lockyer and Brisbane Valley, Janet and John and Julie
JJJ

Fernvale Markets on a Sunday morning.

"Pollies, Pies & Poets" at Fernvale Bakery. Thom the Poet from Austin Texas reminisces
in Poetry being a Chermside Kid with fellow Chermside kid Senator Mark Furner.

M.P. for Ipswich West MEETING his favourite local constituent, Labor member and pro-choice activist outside Qld Parliament!

Abortion debate. Qld Parliament with Anna Bligh as Premier.

more wordsmithing for free - local news-papers:

KNOWLEGE IS POWER

Remember when we had visionary politics?

A Creative Nation and Republic, plus a good fundraising dinner
for Premier Anna Bligh. and an autograph for my poem!
ARTISTS FLIGHT FROM KENNETTS VICTORIA