One thing I know is that today is the first time I’ve felt insulted in this thread.
Sure , my intelligence has been insulted many times, but I am really annoyed by one part of what’s been said today.
MT, don’t tell me I’m ungrateful of the efforts of the ANZACS because I think the voice referendum was a waste of money. Linking “Lest We Forget” and “the ultimate sacrifice” to your argument is pathetic. Frankly, I think you are being disrespectful doing so.
Really stuffing peeed off. Considering I have been to 13 of the last 14 dawn services (including hosting one overseas), I don’t need someone telling me what I do and don’t respect with regards to our service men and woman, because I fall on a side of an argument you disagree with.
stuff Albo and stuff the voice referendum.
And to our fallen soldiers , “we will remember them” and I for one am thankful for the sacrifices you have made.
Side note, wonder what the diggers would have thought of how Dan Andrews locked us up for month upon month upon month. Democratic rights my arse. The nanny state Australia and specifically Victoria has become would make every single one of them roll over in their graves.
Sorry, you do get the democratic right to say whatever you hate about Albo (as long as it's not legally defamatory) and you can say and argue the Voice idea was stupid or whatever and vote against it. But you don't get the right to tell the rest of us that we shouldn't have been allowed to vote on whether to alter our Constitution or not simply because you opposed the proposal and you hate Albo/Labor. FFS, by law a referendum must be held for such alterations. By the way, I most likely would have agreed with you if it had been just a plebiscite with no legal bearing or the polls had always showed public opposition to the Voice, but for 5 years the polls had shown a majority supporting it until the last few months leading up to the referendum date. It had been an unresolved issue for six years, plus the referendum was an election promise. I can just imagine what the LNP/Murdoch crowd would've screamed if Albo pulled the referendum at the last minute: "Bla bla bla Lay-bah broke its election promise", "Bla bla bla Albo goes back on his word", "Bla bla bla Lay-bah scared to face the people", etc
. As for crying about the referendum cost after 9 years of the LNP rorting and peeing billions up the wall leaving nothing to show for it ... oh please!
What gave me the s***s was some of us here give up our time to work for the AEC/VEC at election time. Organising and delivering elections doesn't just happen you know. Forget about me, but it's an insult to others I know from various backgrounds who take leave from their real jobs and life so that democracy, that was hard fought and won in war and peacetime, can be delivered. Some of these people are pulling up to 15 hour shifts on election day so that everyone gets their vote and say. Think of them at least. Better yet register your name and see for yourself how it all works. It certainly gives everyone who does it a greater appreciation of the electoral process and how rigorous and fair our elections are no matter what the result.
As for your side note - classic NewsCorp speak which ignores Australian history. Directly following WW1, the Spanish Flu caused 40% of the then 5m population to get sick and which killed an estimated 12-15,000 Aussies despite a swift quarantine response. The returning diggers didn't complain about the quarantine requirements. Sadly over 1200 diggers died from it. Imagine surviving the hell-holes of Gallipoli, Flanders and/or the Middle East, only to die from influenza
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One particular respiratory infection that probably presented the most serious threat to the Australian forces came very late in the war in the shape of the Spanish flu pandemic. Among the AIF in France there were nearly 22,000 cases from the middle of 1918, and ultimately 1,238 died.https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/article2That overall Oz deathrate by the way would be equivalent to between 62,400 to 78,000 dying these days from our current 26m population. While the lockdowns sucked and there were govt stuff ups, the Covid response saved tens of thousands of people's lives. Pretty safe to say the diggers wouldn't be rolling in their graves because we saved lives
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https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/influenza-pandemic#:~:text=Despite%20a%20swift%20quarantine%20response,the%20virus%20spread%20through%20Australia.
The first vaccine mandate was in Victoria on Nov 20, 1854, in response to a Smallpox outbreak in Ballarat. If you recognise the location and date, it was just two weeks before the Eureka Stockade. Funnily enough the miners revolted against the mining licences and NOT the vaccine mandate. I'd guess in an era where people often died from what are nowdays controlled diseases via vaccines, vaccine mandates were a godsend. Anti-vaxxers (not you) these days who grow up in a vaccinated society take it all for granted.
https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/provenance-journal/provenance-2018/smallpox-ballarat
https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/hist_act/aatmctpov456.pdf
