Shit! Shit, shit, shit!! I am depressed (sedih). How could we have lost the election on Saturday? So badly, too. We Labor people were pretty confident that things would go our way, but to face the prospect of another three years of these corrupt, lying, incompetent, hard right wing Liberals is just too much to bear.

Unfortunately my neighbour is a Lib supporter too, so I have to avoid any conversations. I’m supposed to be going with V to a restaurant here tonight with a couple we met there last Thursday. They made it plain they are Liberal voters and I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my anger in check, so I don’t think I’ll go. In fact I know I won’t go. We don’t know them, we just chatted last week, so too bad. They will be too smug.

___________________________

This means there will be further cuts to the ABC and SBS, in line with the IPA agenda, who want these important institutions sold off to private industry. We all know what that would mean.

This constant cutting of ABC funding and attacks on their integrity amounts to suppression of free speech.

There’s a very good article in the Guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/19/its-not-you-bill-its-the-country-is-this-election-australias-trump-or-brexit-moment that opines that this election marks a turning point in Australia, where the country has become divided in the way Trump in the USA and Brexit in the UK have divided those countries. I feel it. The hard policies of the Liberal party are too extreme for me, and truth and integrity are no longer givens. Nor is the “fair go” a given, where it once was. The Liberal party policy has been shown to be wage suppression. “Wage theft” by employers is now a common term. Wage theft! Can you believe it?! Not a day goes by without the exposure of some new fraud by an employer against the employees.

The decline of unions has produced this. For goodness sake, join your union! Do you want to invite your employer to cut your wages? Are you happy to see the ACTU spending its funds from the few remaining members to argue wage cases before the Fair Work Commission and take the results without paying your share? It seems so. Australia has become a nation of takers. Gutless takers, so afraid of industrial action that they sit passively while their rights are abused.

________________________

I’ve moved upstairs to write this, where I can have the aircon on low and overlook the pool. Negotiating the stairs is proving not too bad. I can go up in full steps (holding on tight to the hand rail, of course) and the basket on the rope is proving to be a wild success. V plans to leave it here when she moves out, whenever that is. She pines for the north coast again, and I can see why. It’s cheaper living up there and she has friends there.

_______________________

I developed some ulceration on the back of my left leg soon after I arrived, but diligent cleaning, application of Betadine and waterproof dressing has fixed it right up. It’s still covered, but I’ll leave it that way to keep any nasties out. Betadine = good stuff.