The time has come, the wizard said, to speak of many things ...

“The time has come, the wizard said, to speak of many things”, to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland.


In the not-too-distant future, Australia will be facing a national election.

At the last election, the choice for GLBTQ people was clear. Labor was a definite front-runner for gay rights when compared to the Liberals. Under John Howard’s conservative regime, gay rights was moving backwards towards the 1950s. This was also true about women’s rights, workers’ rights, refugees’ rights, and many other rights of natural justice which have been hard-won in the past.

Many thought at the time that a Labor government headed by Kevin Rudd would bring a new era to Australian society, and move us forward into the 21st century. But Rudd has proven to be a dud.

While the majority of the Labor MPs at a Federal level have indicated support for gay marriage, Kevin Rudd has made it clear that will never happen “on his watch”.

So in effect, the Labor party, under the current leader, could be considered to have betrayed the Australian GLBTQ community.

Some people will now point to the 85 pieces of legislation which the Federal government amended under labour to remove anti-gay discriminatory language. I applaud the Labor party for this work, which was well overdue. However, the one important piece of legislation which would have shown that GLBTI people are truly considered equal — the Marriage Act — remains as discriminatory as ever. This is purely a result of Kevin Rudd’s personal conservative religious world view.

Unfortunately, Tony Abbott provides no hope in that regard as true colours have been well shown in his recent quasi-homophobic statements and well-known allegiance to Roman Catholic ideals.

A valiant attempt by the Greens to remedy this injustice was struck down by a joint attack of both major parties. This is particularly interesting to me at this point.

The fact is, both the Labor and Liberal parties are conservative parties under their current leaders. Increasingly it is becoming apparent to me (and I am sure to many others) that their relevance is fading as they hold on to 20th century ideas and refuse to move into the 21st century.

At the same time, support for the Greens is increasing — they are no longer just a “loony left” party to be ridiculed and discounted — one only has to consider the recent Tasmanian election results to see this.

Accordingly, running up to the election I am intending to regularly blog about issues relevant to the Australian GLBTQ community, to the Australian pagan community, and to 21st century Australians in general about the issues which will be important at the next election.

I will be encouraging people to abandon outdated party loyalties given to the major parties in favour of the Greens and also independent candidates who show intelligence and futuristic thinking.

Keep checking back for updates on a regular basis. Comments will be allowed but will be moderated (troll-free zone!).