Bleeding heart? I'll bleed on you bitch!
Yes this thing again! I'm not usually the polictically active type except when something REALLY pisses me off. I don't go around trying to sell left wing papers, saying the word "facist" willy niily and I don't even wear a brightly coloured woolen beanies. But this issue has made me angry.
I must stress this about fighting for YOUR vote to count NOT JUST homosexual rights. This about equal rights for all ACT residents, even if you are homophobic don't cut off your nose to spite your face, we shouldn't let this slide.
Again I strongly urge people to also write letters. The email addresses of the offending senators are:
senator.abetz@aph.gov.au, senator.adams@aph.gov.au, senator.barnett@aph.gov.au, senator.bernardi@aph.gov.au, senator.boswell@aph.gov.au, senator.calvert@aph.gov.au, senator.chapman@aph.gov.au, senator.colbeck@aph.gov.au, senator.coonan@aph.gov.au, senator.eggleston@aph.gov.au, senator.ferguson@aph.gov.au, senator.ferris@aph.gov.au, senator.fielding@aph.gov.au, senator.fierravanti-wells@aph.gov.au, senator.fifield@aph.gov.au, senator.johnston@aph.gov.au, senator.joyce@aph.gov.au, senator.rod.kemp@aph.gov.au, senator.lightfoot@aph.gov.au, senator.ian.macdonald@aph.gov.au, senator.sandy.macdonald@aph.gov.au, senator.mason@aph.gov.au, senator.mcgauran@aph.gov.au, senator.minchin@aph.gov.au, senator.parry@aph.gov.au, senator.kcpatterson@aph.gov.au, senator.ronaldson@aph.gov.au, senator.scullion@aph.gov.au, senator.troeth@aph.gov.au, senator.trood@aph.gov.au, senator.watson@aph.gov.au
The Letter:
Dear Senators,
I am writing to you to express my extreme disapproval
of your vote on the matter of letting the
Governor-General overturn the ACT Civil Unions Act.
Words are barely adequate to express my disgust and so
I won't try. Instead I will merely try to convey why
what you did that was so despicable.
This was not merely matter of protecting the rights of
the homosexual community. Though it shouldn't matter
to you I will say that I am in fact heterosexual and
therefore the act itself does not affect me directly.
What does affect me directly is that fact that my vote
for the ACT government has been basically invalidated.
The action taken by the Prime Minister, the
Governor-General and subsequently supported by you was
simply undemocratic. The fact that what occured was
legal doesn't make it ethical.
The majority of ACT residents didn't vote for John
Howard, the Governor-General (we voted for a republic
so it can be said that we don't even agree in priciple
with his office - and certainly not the
ultra-conservative John Howard picked) and we didn't
vote for you. We did vote for the Stanhope Government
however and apparently it can't pass any laws unless
JOhn Howard agrees with them. Why did ACT residents
even bother voting locally if we cannot express the
distinct nature of our local political views? Should
every electorate just be a clone in John Howard's
Australia?
The ACT Civil Unions Act had no effect outside of the
ACT, so why should all these people that we didn't
vote for get a say? I can understand needing last
resort powers to overturn laws that infringe upon
human rights and the like. Far from posing any danger
to human rights this bill actually increased equal
rights and the intervention itself infringed upon ACT
residents' right to democracy.
In summary I think you should all be ashamed. You have
spat in the face of democracy.
Yours by no means,
(my name)