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Stott Despoja rocks the House

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:35 / 18.10.01

It's Prez

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's youngest political leader, Natasha Stott Despoja, is taking an unconventional route to win voters' hearts ahead of a November 10 election -- aligning herself with the world's most popular vampire slayer, Buffy.

While the main party leaders tussle over tax, health and global terrorism, the head of Australia's third political force, the Australian Democrats, has declared her admiration for cult figure Buffy in a TV documentary to be aired later Tuesday.

"(Buffy) has a relatively strong female role model for young women...and my concern is to get young women into positions of power," Stott Despoja, a sophisticated media player, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday in her parliament house office.

While openly supporting Buffy may seem an odd ploy 10 days into a five-week election campaign, the move is not so off-beat when weighed against figures showing key support for the left-leaning Democrats comes from young voters.

Stott Despoja, 32, who spent the first week of her campaign targeting voters up to age 39, said her key election priority was for the Democrats to retain the balance of power in Australia's upper house Senate, with clout to block legislation.

Currently the Democrats have nine of the 76 Senate seats -- including the only Aboriginal in the national parliament -- but five of these are up for re-election on November 10.

"My main aim is to retain seats and thus the balance of power in our own right in the Senate, fending off the possibility of a coalition of minority parties or independents or Pauline Hanson's One Nation holding the balance of power," Stott Despoja said.

13:04 / 19.10.01

Haus, unlike your eponym, Stott Despoja (Despoja: pronounced Da- spoy-ya), leads the party that currently holds the balance of power in the Australian Federal House of review; The UPPER House.
Gee, it's interesting and sooooooooooo fawking cool of her to cite Buffy Somers as a feminine role model, however . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Paranoia, Stott Despoja, everyone is coming to get me"

The Democrat party, which Stott Despoja, recently won leadership of (largely due to rank & file Democrat pary membership dissatisfaction with the previous leader's lack of resistance to the GST - Australia's version of a valu-added tax), is largely kept in its position of influence by disaffected liberal (in the US sense) voters. It acts as a "go-between" between the Labor party and the Liberal/National Party coalition, in the Australian upper house, by ammending legislation from the conservative side of the fence (i.e. Liberal/national) for ascension through senate, or rejecting it.

Stott-Despoja is a v. attractive, photogenic, articulate voice for I dunno. She appeals to the 'alternative' youth set, thus the Buffy comment, which while 'rocking', is pure youth mercenary politics, from my perpective.

National politics in Australia, especially in light of a federal election in 3 week's time, is just as serious as the politics of anywhere else. I used to dig Buffythe Vampire the Slayer, but I hardly think that a politician's endorsement of Buffy as role model is salient in light of the numerous other debates and contests currently at play in the Australian politic.
Australia, unlike our anglophile cousins, the USA, Canada and the UK, is in closest proximity to the largest nation of Islamic identifying citizens in the world:Indonesia - and our Prime Minister has just committed troops to the so-called 'War on Terrorism'.

Frightening, but much more relevant, to me anyway, than Reueter's and Haus' interest in Stott-Despoja's use of Buffy as campaign fodder.

If you have and interest in Aut=stralian politics, try hereAustralian election 2001

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:43 / 19.10.01

As anybody with any sense knows, Australian politics exists primarily *for* light relief from the serious stuff. Why d'you think the LA Times got John Hunt's name wrong? For comic effect!

Two points, kitten. First up, it's dangerous to assume that people are entirely ignorant of Australian politics, simply because they draw attention to one particular element thereof.

Second up, Stott Depoja, unless my old eyes and older mind deceive me, said in her maiden speech:

"I hope that before I leave this place young people will no longer be unrepresented in this chamber or in the other place. I hope that I can make a contribution to help bring that about."

She has never fought shy of her concern for or empathy with Australian youth, and left-leaning, disenchanted Australian youth in particular. As such, couching the idea of more positions of authority for women in the terminology of Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems a perfectly logical thing to do.

Unless, of course, you mean that it is foolish to talk about a bagatelle like women's advancement in the workplace at a time like this. Have you thought of nothing but Operation: Enduring Freedom of late? Have you done nothing not intimately connected with it? Do you think it makes good political sense to devote an entire election run-in to talking about an utterly volatile situation whose vicissitudes may render your rhetoric utterly obsolete at any moment? Will, say, Howard's declaration fo support for the judicial execution of Bin Laden matter very much if he is not apprehended, or killed in open field, before the election? You tell me. Will there still be an unequal distribution of women and men in senior positions within Australia after the election? You tell me again.

The Return Of Rothkoid

13:57 / 19.10.01

Hmm. At least they've stopped pushing the "she's a senator that wears Docs!" line. Whether Buffy's a better bet or not, I can't really say.

14:54 / 19.10.01

Yeah, Ok, Haus of London, so I'm a bit pished and looking for abit of a fight. I've just come back from a gig at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney (hello Rothkoid !), watched three fucked bands and one superb band (peg), drunk too many Tooheys News and a G&t, and saw you quoting Rueters regarding Stott-Despoja, (which as far as i know is the first Barbelith post on the Australian election)putting forward Buffy as role model. So, having re-read my initial post, I realise I might've been a tad antagonistic and prone to 'rhetoric'.

Firstly, I'll admit to being blinkered in contrasting the Buffy issue with the war on terrorism, if you admit to similarly labelling me with a sole interest in the Sept 11 aftermath - I do have other political interests ( a rather naughty rhetorical ploy on your side, albeit fiendishly clever).

Such other political interests include: the Federal government' spending programme on private and public education, the refugee issue, the salinity problem, workplace relations, aged and health care, workers' entitlements in time of corporate collapses, responsibilities of banks and other large corporations, privatisation of Telstra, the running down of the tertiary education sector, the current crisis in the management of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, work for the dole, the moral quagmire of mutual obligation theory.

Yes there will be an unequal distribution of men and women in senior positions after the election - but can you tell me if more people watching Buffy will lead to a quicker reversal in this situation than is currently occuring (especially considering that Sara-Michelle Gellar is also one of the faces of Maybelline cosmetics TV ads. )?

ONLY NICE THINGS

00:15 / 20.10.01

And did Despoja mention *watching* Buffy as a mechanism for change, or using Buffy as an exemplum?

For that matter, she has recently spoken out against the impending privatisation of Telstra. It's hardly all big boots and Buffy...

The Return Of Rothkoid

16:40 / 20.10.01

No, not anymore, Haus; though that was largely the angle that was played up earlier in her career.

As for Telstra-attacking? C'mon; that's like attempting to beat a barn with a baseball bat: not entirely hard. Here's a good place to start.

Why - you wanna go vote for me?

21:39 / 20.10.01

Haus, to get another perspective on the Buffy alignment as a Londoner, you may be interested in this item in The Weekend Australian for Oct 6-7 by Nicole Poll (a young political reporter), which appeared in a series 'Good day'/'Bad day' items about politicians:

ELECTION 2001
A CAMPAIGN
ODYSSEY

(thumbs down symbol) Bad day:

Natasha Stott Despoja's relentless quest for credibility will have been done no good at all by her appearance, in The Daily Telegraph's Sydney Confidential pages yesterday. As other politicians fine-tuned their hustlings strategy, the ubiquitous Democrats leader took time out to explain her devotion to er, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "I have never tried to hide the fact that I am a Buffy fan - I have a Buffy doll on my desk at work - so it's pretty much there for the world to see."

While Agapanthus is right in saying that it was cool of Natasha to go on (in a subsequent interview) to cite Buffy as a role model, I think that young and old alike are more likely to be impressed by the fact that the Democrats are fielding candidates for the first time in all lower house seats in Australia, and that they're especially targetting employment, education and the economy. The Democrats lost many supporters when Meg Lees sold out to the Libs on the GST. Natasha's special strength, ever since her student pollie days at Adelaide Uni, has been her commitment to education; and currently even Murdoch has been very outspoken re the need for a *huge* injection of funding into education, particularly the university sector.

[ 21-10-2001: Message edited by: Cavatina ]

The Return Of Rothkoid

13:39 / 21.10.01

quote:Originally posted by Cavatina:
even Murdoch has been very outspoken re the need for a *huge* injection of funding into education, particularly the university sector.Hear hear! When I was at uni, the amount of cutbacks in funding - particularly to Arts-based courses - was terrifying. I believe Freud was due to be axed from some courses until the lecturer offered her services for free... just shocking.

A

13:07 / 22.10.01

Yeah, Stott-Despoja's pro-Buffyism seems like a scientific youth vote magnet to me, too, but a point in her favour is her recent description of Howard and Beazley as "The Two Ronnies". That's pretty freakin' good, even though chances are someone else wrote it for her.

Agapanthus- out of curiosity, who were these three crap bands? come on, name names!

17:40 / 22.10.01

Off topic, but the 3 not so great bands who played in the same bill as the brilliant peg , Count Adam (in my opinion) were: Spurs for Jesus (countrified boogie, with chaps, Miller shirts and ten gallon hats y'all, Murder (death metal, my ears were still hurting 2 days later, with screamed vox) and sad to say, Front end Loader, who play rock by numbers - tight but monochrome.

It was the second launch night of Bob Blunt's "Biased history of Australian Rock" - a great oral history of the indie music scene covering the mid-80s to the late 90s.

A

11:56 / 23.10.01

i saw Front End Loader a few months ago and i loved it. it was like being 17 again. but each to their own, i guess.

Disco is My Class War

07:05 / 24.10.01

I feel cynical about Natasha. Yep, she's young, cool, attractive, and gives good publicity. But the Democrats are totally divided internally and besides, however many seats they win, they'll still only serve to confirm or deny Labor or Liberal legislation and policy. No help at all.

Then again, I'm not planning to vote this time around; my faith in parliamentary politics is less than zero, and I reckon better things are being achieved elsewhere. In small communities. On the ground. So I'm probably biased.

(Haus, check out the Australian Greens... they make the Democrats look like liberal whinging misers...)

03:21 / 25.10.01

The lastest Punk Planet magazine has an interview with Ralph Nader, a quote from which seems quite relevant to Australia at the moment :

"Campaigns are pretty much farces. They're basically parades in front of people who are expected to watch, but not get involved - to not challenge, to not participate. They're expected just to look at the 30-second ads and go to the polls and vote. That's a pretty anemic democratic policy"

04:11 / 25.10.01

In that interview Nader also makes the shocking claim Father Christmas isn't real.