So the government has decided to go ahead with a postal plebiscite. What does this mean? What do you need to do? Let’s begin:
Enrol to vote if you haven’t.If you have already then sweet! You only need to register to vote once (so if you’ve voted in an election before you can relax).
Update your change of address. Is your address up to date? Then sweet! But if you’ve moved and haven’t told the AEC then YOU HAVE UNTIL THE 24th OF AUGUST TO DO SO! THAT’S NOT VERY FAR OFF!
Ballot papers will start arriving in the mail from September 12. It’ll be sent out through the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) So check your mailboxes.
YOU WILL HAVE UNTIL NOVEMBER 7TH TO POST THEM BACK
It’s not compulsory which means the government is probably hoping you forget and don’t do it. Political apathy is a tool of the government to wield power unchecked. Don’t forget. Do it. Remind your friends to do it. Set a calendar reminder in your phone or something. Have your voice heard. If the result is a majority “no” vote then the Liberals will use this as political firepower for years to come to deny LGBT+ people rights. So it’s not the option we wanted but a boycott will be politically pointless and only destroy the “yes” vote. They’ve twisted our arm into having to partake in this farce but partake in it we must to get what we deserve
The result is expected November 15th but this isn’t a vote to make it legal, it’s a vote to prove to the government that Australia wants it to be legal, and thus a bill will be introduced (upon a “yes” majority) and therefore potentially we might have marriage equality just before the end of the year.
So go forth and make Australia a better place, everyone! Talk to people, make sure people are enrolled to vote, have up to date mailing addresses with the AEC, and make it clear how important it is to send a “YES!” vote off by the due date!
Please, please don’t boycott the postal plebiscite. I know it’s unfair. I know it’s biased. I know it makes you feel less than human, because it hurts me too.
But the No to Marriage Equality Crusaders are counting on us to be offended and disenfranchised and disgusted, because every boycott is a vote against our right to marry who we love.
Enrol. Campaign. Vote. Beat them at their own game. Give them a landslide in favour of Australian Marriage Equality. We need you.
i’m gonna hop back on the auspol train for a month or two til we ride out this goddamn postal vote so prepare for that. in the meantime, if you are over 18 and an australian citizen: make sure you’re enrolled to vote, and make sure your address is updated. this postal vote is slated against young people; we’re transient and have the lowest participation and enrolment rates, do not just assume this will pass because of census results. we live in a time where nothing is a political certainty, don’t take it for granted that others will vote so you don’t have to. if you are lgbtq or you give a shit about lgbtq people, act like it: make sure your details are up to date with the AEC, it takes 30 seconds. We have to win this, or they’ll use it as an excuse to silence the lgbtq community for years to come.
look at it look at that weird birb it doesn’t know how to raven
other ravens: caw caw
australian ravens: aUGH AUUuuuGH AAAAUUUUUUughhhhhHHHhhhhhhh
it genuinely didn’t occur to me that this was weird that i’d never heard a crow or raven caw in my life and frnakly the australian raven noise is the most common noise to me and it means “it’s the morning now”. i can’t imagine life without it. its background noise i didn’t even think to identify as coming from somewhere. it’s just There.
quoth the raven, “aUGH AUUuuuGH AAAAUUUUUUughhhhhHHHhhhhhhh”
it sounds like a depressed kazoo.
Wait a minute… how do non-Australian ravens sound? Do they not sound like this?
Australia’s only sexual assault network specifically for Aboriginal women has run out of money.
Hey Sis, We’ve Got Your Back is a groundbreaking program that has been working to combat sexual violence against Indigenous women.
The program receives no government funding.
Up until now it has relied on private donations but the money has finally run out.
The first Indigenous woman elected to the New South Wales Parliament, Linda Burney, said it was astounding that the organisation was not getting the support it needed.
“The ‘Hey Sis’ program is absolutely what you need in Aboriginal communities, it’s Aboriginal-owned, Aboriginal-run, run by women who have walked in the shoes of the women that they’re working with,” she said.
Dixie Link Gordon and Ashlee Donahue are the co-creators of Hey Sis and both are survivors of domestic violence themselves.
These women suffer in silence because there’s nothing else for them. They don’t have a way out. She’ll probably go to hospital more times than not, that’s why the statistics are so high. Melissa Wellington The program works by identifying the trusted aunty figures, who are the go-to people for women in their communities suffering sexual assault and violence.
“In every town and every community, there’s an aunty that everyone will run to,” Ms Donahue said.
“There’s one family or one person where they say on a Saturday our lounge room will be full of young people and that’s who I run to, Aunty Beryl over there, you know.”
Hey Sis provides a support network for these aunties and offers them training and mentoring.
In two years, they held 10 forums in communities around NSW and built up a network of 200 aunties.
The program costs $250,000 a year to run.
BOOST indigenous women are at the highest risk of violence of literally anyone else in this whole country I cannot believe there is only one support group and it has no funding.
Please if you have the money, give a little to Hey Sis. This is so important that indigenous women have a safe space and support since anti-indiginous racism is so predominant and is heavy on the victim blaming.
it’s absolutely disgusting that the government will not fund this!!!
Happy first day of winter, it is already FUCKING FREEZING
[nothern-hemisphere voice] “exCUSE me, 10C isn’t cold, why, here in sufferville, we routinely have to endure MINUS A MILLION DEGREES!!! i WISH!!! 10C here!!!”
me: [living in an Australian house build to disperse heat, with thin walls, reflective roof, huge floor-ceiling windows and with no heating, whose bedroom was 6C this morning, where we have to get up in the middle of the night to make sure the greyhound still has a blanket and isn’t dying of hypothermia, where three blankets isn’t enough, watching our breath fog up the air in the bedroom as we exhale] …………….okay
