Passionate Political Discussion

[mick]

Many people have very passionate political views on this board. Just out of curiosity, how many here are or have been members of political parties. To start the ball rolling I was a member of the Liberal party in the late 1970s... suprise eh

[am Bays]

Yep member of young libs, Kingston branch, but some of the people in it where scary at times......

Some of the women in the young Libs, though, hubba hubba, Amy Trott......

[BenchedEagle]

Member of Labor party 1999-2003
Member of Greens 2003-2006
Currently a free agent. Cant find a party to completely match my political views!!

[our_longreach]

Never been a member of any party

[BenchedEagle]

Yep member of young libs, Kingston branch, but some of the people in it where scary at times......

Some of the women in the young Libs, though, hubba hubba, Amy Trott......

The young Libs are all geeky wanker silver spoons from the Eastern suburbs the lot of them. They cop a lot of shi# at Uni.

[am Bays]

Yep member of young libs, Kingston branch, but some of the people in it where scary at times......

Some of the women in the young Libs, though, hubba hubba, Amy Trott......

The young Libs are all geeky wanker silver spoons from the Eastern suburbs the lot of them. They cop a lot of shi# at Uni.

Hooray Aldinga Beach is the Eastern Suburbs and my old Mazda 808 is Daddy's SAAB.......

[rod_rooster]

Yep member of young libs, Kingston branch, but some of the people in it where scary at times......

Some of the women in the young Libs, though, hubba hubba, Amy Trott......

The young Libs are all geeky wanker silver spoons from the Eastern suburbs the lot of them. They cop a lot of shi# at Uni.

Well the title of the thread asks for passionate discussion i guess

[MW]

What benefits do you get for being a member of a political party? I could not think of anything worse....

[BenchedEagle]

Yep member of young libs, Kingston branch, but some of the people in it where scary at times......

Some of the women in the young Libs, though, hubba hubba, Amy Trott......

The young Libs are all geeky wanker silver spoons from the Eastern suburbs the lot of them. They cop a lot of shi# at Uni.

Hooray Aldinga Beach is the Eastern Suburbs and my old Mazda 808 is Daddy's SAAB.......

Haha. Im stereotyping here!

[BenchedEagle]

What benefits do you get for being a member of a political party? I could not think of anything worse....

A nice little non laminated card and a newsletter! And a supper at ur local sub branch meetings. As soon as Michael O'brien walked into Napier from Springfield i left in disgust!

[Pseudo]

The young Libs are all geeky wanker silver spoons from the Eastern suburbs the lot of them. They cop a lot of shi# at Uni.

When I was an undergrad, the young Libs was one of the most-populated clubs on campus, and they comprised allsorts (though not myself).

It is worth noting that they gave a free beer to anyone who would sign up...

[Leaping Lindner]

Courtesy of my father I was a "Junior LMer" (Liberal Movement) or whatever they were called. Back in those crazy times we like to call the seventies. Big family picnics once a year at Bonython Park. Wild times were had!!! And Tonkin still talked to Millhouse.
I was dumped outside various polling booths on election days handing out how to vote LM cards. Copped shit from both Labor and Liberal supporters, and I wasn't even old enough to vote. Dad was invited to stand for the state seat of Torrens but couldn't invest the time. Got to meet Steele Hall still one of my favorite pollies of all time. We even had a sign outside our house in the lead up to the 74 election that proclaimed "VOTE STEELE HALL - UNLOCK THE SENATE". It did however get regularly vandalised.
When the Liberal Movement imploded dad went back to voting for the Libs but never joined the party. Whenever we catch up we always end up having a great discussion about politics. I am actually quite grateful he sparked my interest in it at such a young age.

[mick]

The young Libs are all geeky wanker silver spoons from the Eastern suburbs the lot of them. They cop a lot of shi# at Uni.

When I was an undergrad, the young Libs was one of the most-populated clubs on campus, and they comprised allsorts (though not myself).

It is worth noting that they gave a free beer to anyone who would sign up...

The women were friendly as well, it was always a joke that young Labor were very serious and had no idea how to have a good time.

[PhilG]

..

[Sojourner]

Member of Labor party 1999-2003
Member of Greens 2003-2006
Currently a free agent. Cant find a party to completely match my political views!!

Have you tried the Socialist Alliance? They are as left wing as the Greens and alot heavier than Labor into getting rid of Work Choices,

http://www.socialist-alliance.org/

[zipzap]

I once considered joining the Lemon Party

[noone]

current member of the ALP, (left faction)

currently interstate in a internet cafe, where i have been working on the NSW state election. working on a inner city labor vs greens contest.

[Psyber]

I am not sure what happened here - I used edit, then submit and finished up with the edited version as a quote..... so I have repleced the old one with this explanation. Can the moderators guess how it happened??? I then edited the one below to turn it back into a statement rather than a quote.

[Psyber]

I am currently a member of the Liberal Party, but I am not sure how long I am staying. I joined about 1994, when I thought Australian politics generally was moving far too right wing [i.e.authoritarian] and all parties needed leavening. It has been largely a losing battle as the whole world marched to the right. Authoritarian socialism appears to have been the alternative, and I thought authoriarian conservatism was preferable to that. As I have said elsewhere in these fora, I am a liberal conservative - liberal meaning not authoritarian. Mal Fraser suited me.

Context: the Labour Party under Hawke/Keating had made Mal Fraser look clearly liberal socialist by comparison with its authoritarianism and more business orientated behaviour, the Country Party had abandoned its birthright to become the Nationals, and the Liberals were joining the others in the world-wide march to the right too. I figured the power structure of the Labor Party really did not give you much chance to lobby if you were not part of, and loyal to, a faction of the party machine, whereas the Libs were more democratic in structure and you could front up to meetings and say what you thought and get elected to committees by the members living in the electorate who were at the meeting - as I did - you did not need faction support and had only to convince those local members. So, I got to bend the ear of John Olson and Alexander Downer, when I lived in their electorates, and could debate issues with them face to face. AD nominated me for the SA party's Police and Law Reform Policy Sub-committee in 1998.

Since I moved to Melbourne shortly thereafter I have been less actively involved, simply goading them about social injustice via my local federal MP - 8 ministerial representations last year - all replied to by the ministers.

Background: I grew up in Adelaide's western suburbs, my father was a staunch Labor man, and read me the lecture on class treachery as a child when I read about Bob Menzies and said positive things about his achievements and debating skills. I voted Labor once, twice may be coming up, mostly for lack of a viable alternative, and because the leadership now looks more conservative and less authoritarian and less dangerously/economy wreckingly socialist.

I am considering setting up a website promoting the abolition of party politics by rotating local elections instead of holding them all at once and thus encouraging more independents who may exercise conscience rather than toe a party line. None of the parties like that idea!

[GWW]

current member of the ALP, (left faction)

currently interstate in a internet cafe, where i have been working on the NSW state election. working on a inner city labor vs greens contest.

What are the polls there saying re this election? I presumed that Iemma would struggle to get through with a win given transport problems etc, but i believe that Debnam and the Libs are in an even bigger mess.

How long til this election?