Election Day

It's here, it's finally here! 
Quick! If you are over 18 run to your nearest polling station and vote, but please, please, I beg for you to vote for a reason.

It's finally time for my first election, it was never a hard decision for me. I know the policies that matter to me and I have looked, in great detail, into who will work towards creating my ideal Australia. I did in any case use the abc online vote compass, just to see where I would sit and the results weren't surprising in the least but I do know that it helped out some of my friends who were less decisive.
When it comes to political debate I find myself torn. As it is the first time that any of my friends have voted we are constantly asking eachother "who are you voting for?" or "Who should I vote for?" This leaves me in a difficult position as I am a strong believer in letting everyone have their own beliefs, as long as they don't hurt anyone else. That's just the thing though, when it comes to politics I tend to believe that the party I am voting for will better our country so I could very easily justify that giving me the right to explain to them exactly why my preferred party will be best for the country.
But no, I can't do that. I want everyone to make up their own mind for their own reasons, that's how democracy should work. I won't be the voice in their ear telling them how to make their decisions, as I don't want them telling me how to make mine. So I am fine with you voting against me, as long as you are doing it because it's what you believe is right.
What I, and I am sure all politic enthusiasts, cannot stand is people who are voting randomly or for almost no reason at all. This is the problem with compulsory voting (which I am uncomfortably neutral about), I would rather you not vote at all then vote against me because you like the way that one guy gave you a sausage once. And please, putting The Sex Party as number 69 isn't original nor it is amusing. Look into the party and see what they stand for. I doubt that even the smallest parentage of people who put The Sex Party as number 69 know anything of their policies. Come on guys, we had months to look in to this. Please use your vote wisely.

However it's not all bad news! Maybe it's just because I live in a college and am therefore surrounded by intelligent people (not that they always seem that way) seeking a further education, but I was impressed by the attitudes of the people around me who were voting. The people I spoke to who could not yet give a definite answer as to who they were voting for (followed by valid reasons) who quickly follow their response with the assurance that they would be doing a night of research before the election was held. Maybe if I was back home this feeling would be different, but for now (until the results are announced), I happy to think that the victor will be deserving.

The problem with "Border Protection"

Lately one thing has been really irking me, and that's the debate over Australian border protection. This phrase coined by Aus politics is one that, to me, perpetuates what I see as quite an insensitive stance on refugees and asylum seekers.
The term "border protection" connotes that are borders are in danger, that these people are infiltrating our borders illegally (do we still need to clarify that there is nothing illegal about arriving in Australia by boat to seek asylum?) and that they must be some form of terrorists. Many Australians really don't know a lot of the facts regarding asylum seekers in Australia and the corresponding laws. This is no fault of their own, by bringing the issue into politics the average Australian who is just grabbing glimpses of information rambled by politicians on the news would easily become inundated with the flood of conflicting information. When terms such as "illegal boats", "mandatory detention" and "border protection" get thrown in the mix it becomes pretty obvious why so many Australians are so hostile about a topic that they no relatively little about. Some of the misconceptions I have heard come from fellow university students are astonishing, the most common being that almost every right-winged student I have spoken to won't believe me when I say that over 90% of boat arrivals are found to be genuine refugees. There also seems to be a huge gap in the knowledge of what actually constitutes a refugee.
So here's my suggestion, what if we stopped talking about refugees as if they are a threat to our livelihood and we start talking about they compassionately and just occasionally make reference to the hardships they have already endured. I am willing to bet that with a change in language would come a huge cultural shift. After all, I like to believe that people are inherently good and that these acts of hostility are caused by nothing more than a miscommunication of intentions.    

Two of my third grade students from Our Home