Dear Ms Lundy,
following a plea in this morning's sydney morning herald to visit your blog and comment, here I am. Seriously though, I was quite pleasantly surprised at the wealth of information and opinion here. I think it's important that the general public (particularly the young 'uns) have access to parlimentary proceedings and issues. So thankyou for having a highly effective blog! yay!
with kind regards,
a random 14-year old.

First post!!!

First

Kate,

Congratulations on embracing digital media, doing it in an apparently meaningful way and having the good faith to put your name to it.

I say apparently because none of your links work, so I can't read or listen to your blog, so I can't be sure. I suspect this comment feature won't work either and thus my words are wasted.


I say good faith, in part, because an SMH article titled 'Fella filter tips the odds' which linked your blog site brought me here and I'm not willing to associate my real name with that publication. By the By, that article requested that "please - someone - post [you] a message".


The opportunity to exchange words with a Senator (let alone irreverently address a comment by their first name with complete anonymity) isn't something I come across every day, so I can't believe other people have passed it by.

Seriously now: keep up the (apparently) good work. I look forward to being able to actually read your blog and then make a comment more meaningful than this one.

Cheers

Tyler.
Fishgobot@hotmail.com

Thanks for the blog. The more access we have to decision makers the better, and I'm not one for writing and posting letters.

I too read the SMH this morning (oh that the Canberra Times could do serious stuff as well) and thought you should be commended for putting up the blog. Good luck with it.

I am one of those people who would like to see the end of the present government. But I don't know if Labor is up to the job. When I speak to my friends who are ALP members, I hear about a factionalised, opportunistic culture where, if you don't count (and you're not the child or partner of a member), you're just a number.

And I get depressed by (i) the clumsy myopia that afflicts policy-making, (ii) the asinine retention of rhetoric that doesn't reflect reality (eg whether they are, or they aren't, most Australians think of themselves as middle class, like it or not, and don't think references to the working class are about them), (iii) the unwillingness to engage with the rest of the progressive end of politics and (iv) the ideological narrowness and obstinacy that drives so much ALP policy. (Another friend will not join the ALP because, when he went to a meeting to help decide, members present attacked, for mistaken reasons, the school system he had chosen for his children - he is also threatened because his family needs the rebate on health insurance and the safety net).

The ALP should be a natural party of government, even if that means getting into coalition with the Greens or whoever, or splitting between industrial and social/progressive wings which can take different perspectives and cooperate on core issues after elections. But its members seem to prefer to spend their time fighting over the crumbs of opposition. I don't know if you deserve my vote.

Thanks for your blog Senator Lundy. Like some others, I've been drawn here today by the Sydney Morning Herald mention.

With regard to the underpayment of entitlements to some workers in 48 Canberra restaurants - could you please name the restuarants concerned?

I would like to know which restaurants to avoid in Canberra. I can't see the names in the relevant section of the Seneate Hansard for 10 August, 2006 (pages 39 + 40), nor on the LHMU website. How about giving us the information Senator?

Haha, SMH alos alerted me to your site Senator, funny though I had to read the SMH in Canberra to know about it, oh well, its a good thing so many of us canberrans read SMH as our own canberra times is a poor alternative at best.

Anyway, good to see you blogging about local issues, canberran youth need a voice on issues affecting them, and most canberrans are sick of being left out altogether almost on the broadband grazy train, esp. gunghalin residents, so keep up the good work campaigning for broadband access for us!

At least now you have an audience for your blog, i think you owe Stay In Touch (back page SMH) a big thankyou for drawing attention to your site :P

To anonymous who said that when they talk to their ALP member friends they hear about a factionalised, opportunistic culture where, if you don't count (and you're not the child or partner of a member), you're just a number - that's not my experience at all!

I'm a grassroots member of the ALP, without any politician relatives and my partner is not a politician, and my experience with being involved with the party over ten years is that my contribution and opinion are valued, that politicians and candidates are accessible and that if you want to contribute there are heaps of ways of doing so without getting involved in any of the factional rubbish. Personally I think if you join the party to try to get power for yourself, rather than because you think the ALP is founded on sound principles - which it is - and because you want to further those principles, then of course you are going to get discouraged by the factional politics etc.

But there are plenty of people who are working for reform within the party, the ideals are still good, and as I said, my experience is that my contribution is always valued.

I'd say if you want to do something about the ALP engaging with progressive politics and all the other positive things you spoke about, get off your backside and join the party so that your voice is heard, instead of critisising from the sidelines and expecting other people to do something about your concerns.

As Jed Bartlett said on The West Wing: "Decisions get made by those who show up".

I am grateful for the SMH mention! It was about time to try something new. I hope this blog is a useful way for us to discuss what is happening around the place. Please give me feedback on the things you want to discuss too.

Tyler Durden wrote that "none of your links work, so I can't read or listen to your blog".

Works fine for me on both Firefox 1.5 and Explorer 7.0.

What are you using as a browser, Tyler, so that I can avoid it?

Bill O'Connell

Kate

This is one issue on which the ALP is almost unassailably correct. I am disappointed however that there continues to be undercurrent of dog whistle references to the extremely low common denominator of racism and/or intolerance of certain religions on a knee jerk basis. Stop joining Howard in that gutter.

I thank SMH for getting many people to be in touch with one of our politicians who has opened her door on the web. Good on you Kate and keep the good work up.
I'd also like to hear your support on public education and more funding for the TAFE system from our Federal government. Australia's future relies on equitable access to education for all.