VOTE#1 EVE FISHER
A gentleman was kind enough recently to message privately and thank me for sharing policies for the upcoming Victorian election.
Armed with the Ai-generated poster brandishing the 15 policies I’d deemed to be personally and publicly important he now knew with fortunate certainty he was not going to be voting for me. His engagement is appreciated.
The most interesting part of that exchange is not the revelation of losing a voter but that he didn’t tell me which particular policies offended him most. I can only assume it was the handful of ideas that smacked of my conservatism — small government, harsher criminal penalties, no medical coercion, no men in women’s spaces — leaving my seemingly sensible liberal ideas like better pay and conditions for first responders, prioritising our farmers, protecting nature and fighting corruption languishing without consideration.
Such is the seemingly intelligent notion of Left and Right politics until an independent candidate jumps into the race. WHAT ARE YOUR POLICIES? they screamed in the void of Facebook groups permitting campaigning. “I bet she’s a Labor stooge”, “another bloody Teal, here we go” or “right wing nut job”. To be fair, I hadn’t said anything about myself at all. I’d simply announced myself as an independent and explained that new voting laws meant it wasn’t just big parties and minor parties in the upper house like usual. And I popped up a photo. “You can’t expect to post your pretty face and get votes” … awwww thanks stranger for such a lovely backhanded compliment, I’ll take it. So my next post described how the old paradigm was dead. I soft-launched my slogan NO MORE RIGHT AND LEFT, ONLY RIGHT AND WRONG and waxed lyrical about how we were governed by grifters and looters of all stripes and something had to change. It didn’t really hit home. “What’s a grifter?”, “what do you mean WE?”, “better than having racists in power” and on and on.
Campaigning is always focussed on finger pointing and policies. No one wants to discuss values. My values are the last thing anyone is interested in because from their perspective my policies are my values, so from my perspective I’ve covered a fair bit of ground. Except it doesn’t. Voters pick and choose how to read into that value. Take ‘no men in women’s spaces’. From my perspective that policy affords safety, fairness and privacy to women. From an opposing view it’s exclusionary and transphobic. So who is right? Or Left? It makes for tricky campaigning when the absurdity of politicking and simply telling people what they want to hear seems to be the order of the day.
Let’s look at a policy and value in isolation. Big government. Usually a liberal ideal based on the value that the government is a provider and must supply as many services and as much infrastructure as possible to make society comfortable. To be of service as it were. Paid for by the taxpayer.
Small government. Traditionally a conservative belief based on the value that big government is wasteful, and disrespectful of taxpayer money. It should be kept minimal, and fiscally responsible. Because it’s paid for by the taxpayer. Services and infrastructure are great; I mean who doesn’t love a snazzy public building or lush park. Or that when we call triple zero someone will help us. It’s why the average person pays at least a third of their earnings to the government. It’s also why every layer of society has more tax. Or levy. Or fee. Or excise. Or duty. Or tariff. To pay for roads and schools and hospitals and sports grounds. And everything in between that isn’t privatised. We love infrastructure and services. The only problem is when the cost outweighs the available funds — Victoria’s roads cost $3 billion a year to maintain but only $1 billion is allocated in the budget — the infrastructure fails and people die hitting potholes. Atlas Shrugged enthusiasts this way please.
Surely by that extension the value around using taxpayer money should result in being as austere and respectful with every dollar, while providing as many services as possible, in order to stretch it as far as possible. You’ve got values of responsibility; accountability, stewardship and self-reliance. Isn’t that common sense? Why then does our prime minister have 59 personal advisers and 509 personal staff at a cost of $100 million a year. Why are those who identify as Left okay with this grift when they are upset with cost of living pressures and the price of fuel? Would they tolerate this information if it was a conservative prime minister?
There have been 40,000 public service jobs added Australia-wide – making it 2.6 million total – in the past three or so years; row upon row, column upon column of staffers, consultants and advisers peppering the vast landscape that is government bureaucracy under the illusion of solving problems. In reality it’s just white collar middle management types on committees, taskforces, working groups, focus groups, panels, boards, delegations, deputations and any other name for everything except the actual provision of services. If this doesn’t epitomise wastage — and failing to value taxpayer money — then I don’t know what does.
Let’s take it back to Victoria. $15 billion gone in union-related rorts, another $5 billion in fake invoices, $600 million for the failed Commonwealth Games. We’ve added $170 billion in debt since 2014 and there are folk wanting $200k a year for watering department plants. Yet values around the desire to eliminate corruption, have smaller bureaucracy and control spending is seen as “right-wing nut-job” stuff. Dangerous thinking. What’s not seen as crazy is making election promises that require hefty spending without stopping for a second to consider how the state will afford anything for the next two generations.
Where do people’s values really lie? Let’s look at number 15 on my policy list. Have national pride. I just realised Messenger mate obviously has me pegged as a white supremacist. Shame. I wish I’d told him I was simply a Jewish immigrant from South Africa who doesn’t spend a day not being grateful for being in Australia for the past 40-odd years. Obviously I see the Apharteid-Gaza-related bows that can now be easily drawn.
When I see people like that refugee advocate Nyadol Nyuon moaning how hard her life has been here with her three university scholarships and public accolades it makes my blood boil. She came here from war torn Sudan but has become so “disillusioned” with racist old Australia that she’s now started an online fundraiser to gather $150k so she can “recover” from life here and then be moved back to Africa. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out looter. She doesn’t deserve to call herself Australian. Being foreign and being lucky enough to be granted citizenship is a privilege, not a right. And it should be treated as such.
When I was acting mayor during my time as a Surf Coast Shire councillor I was lucky enough to preside over one citizenship ceremony. With my words carefully crafted by a speech writer and the law, I made seven Surf Coast residents Australian. I actually get teary thinking back because I was so darn happy for them. I was so chuffed that I could say the right words, hand them a native seedling and wish them a fruitful and productive life here. Not one for ceremony, my dad never took me to ours and being a minor my name is simply on the back of dad’s certificate. But I’m still Australian and — to quote a line from what I think was an AusPost tv commercial during the Sydney Olympics — “we’re not Down Under, we’re on top and we’ve got the best postcode in the world”.
So, if you don’t like it, then leave. Oh and if you burn our flag you go to jail. That’s a value about respect and honour, not supremacy.
Eve Fisher is standing as a conservative independent candidate for Western Victoria Region upper house in the Victorian election. Vote below the line. Solo independents will not appear above the line due to new group voting laws.
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