Sorry Day.

I always thought Sorry Day was a bit lame.

Yes the Aboriginals were treated poorly, but in those days I don’t think much was fair for anyone, and it’s hard to imagine life being so difficult.

I’m all for saying sorry if I’ve done something wrong, and I’m all for a bully from my school days walking up to me and saying “Mate, I haven’t seen you for years, but have thought of you on and off… I wasn’t very nice to you back then and well, if you’d be kind enough to accept, I’d like to apologise  for the way I acted” I’d accept and that would be that.

But Sorry Day seems to send the message that if you’re white, it was your fault.

Which doesn’t make sense to me.

The ones who caused the problem, are the ones who should apologise, except that they’ve probably karked it already… Leaving people who weren’t at fault, at all.

If the aforementioned bullys Son came to me and said He’d heard I was bullied by his Dad and that he felt ashamed and would like to say Sorry, well… fine, but this kid didn’t cause me any grief, so what’s the point?

And now apparently, we have sorry day EVERY Year?

So let’s say that the aforementioned bully had said he was sorry, and I accepted… then we started chatting, became friends, liked much the same things, I met his family and things were good, and then on Saturday he turns up at my door looking rather sober and when I ask what’s wrong, He says “I just want to say I’m sorry”… “um, what for?” Me wondering if he’d run into my car or something… “For what I did at high school”… “er, what?”

And let us suppose he does this every year from then on?

Don’t you think that’d be a little weird and creepy?

Now I’ve seen times when Mum and Dad would be having a row, and Mum would remember something which literally happened over forty years ago, and nag my poor Dad over that… OK, sometimes Dad did some pretty stupid things, but still, He’d probably said sorry about that many times already.

During the nineties, I had become a new age, crystal wearing hippy, who was into meridians, massage and ch’i energy… but even then I could spot whiney bullshit a mile away, and sorry day, is whiney bullshit.

Wolfie!

* Consider my own Aboriginal heritage before you call me a racist.

Time for soup.

It’s getting colder in Melbourne as winter draws closer, and the tummy of the average domesticated Werewolf begins to crave his Mothers soup, which is a standard in our family.

It’s a cheap and filling meal and wonderful for anyone who may be on a tight budget.

The other great thing is that everything you add to it, is to taste, that is, you can add or leave out whatever you like and the recipe shouldn’t go wrong… although I have a story about that.

Firstly, find the largest pot you have, I have a pressure cooker pot… the ring broke on the lid so I can’t pressure cook it (it takes a lot less time if you can) but I can simmer it just the same.

Add a combination of water and stock, probably less stock than water, and some salt… no more than a flat teaspoon. (If you don’t have stock then you can just use water, it’s all we used for years and the soup was fine… the reason I use stock is that I tend to leave an ingredient out)

(about 4 litres of liquid)

And you’ll need soup mix, this is a basic requirement for this soup, you must have this, You use about half a pack (a pack which fits nicely in two hands)

Please don’t panic about me not mentioning how much *exactly* should be used, as none of that matters, you will get used to how much you need and vary the ingredients yourself.

Put the heat on and simmer it, when it’s bubbling it should be a lazy sort of bubbling, not too fast! just barely bubbling, ok?

Now choose about three of the following, at least, or the lot… play with it, experiment, you can’t really go wrong… kind of… about a cup of each should do.

Potato, Carrot, Parsnip, Onion, Peas, Green Beans, Corn, Celery, Parsley, Leek, Bok Choy…

Pasta is ok too.

Now Mum always used a lamb shank, and what we always did was ate the soup, and the family dog would get the shank (Although Dad often had his eyes on it), But I tend to feel that sometimes a shank has hardly any taste, and it adds fat too the soup, so why bother adding it?  Therefore I have taken to using stock, which I buy in a packet from the supermarket… I also don’t like Onion much, and find that there’s enough flavour in the stock to skip the onion too.

I have taken to using broccolini too, which is something Mum never used (she hated corn too) but be careful when using broccoli from the garden, all I wish to say is inspect it, carefully… and wash it like mad.

Put a lid on (make sure the pot cannot be grabbed by a toddler) and let it bubble for two hours or so, at least until the soup mix is tender.

If it’s going well then the soup should develop a thickened look to the liquid.

On a cold night it’s fine to keep the soup on the stove overnight, and re-heat the next day for lunch or tea… You may find that it has turned to jelly overnight, it might spook some of you soup virgins, but all that it means is that everything has gone perfectly right… when you heat it, it will turn back into liquid.

If you still have some soup left, you can put it in the fridge, but don’t keep it much more than two days. or you could decide to freeze it, and microwave portions of it over the next week or so.

Or you may find that you eat it all in two nights, a family of three can do that fairly easily.

Now I did say that you can’t ruin the soup, However here’s My Sisters unfortunate story.

My Sister, Janice (Jan-eece), Could never make the soup taste like Mums, and she never understood why. While hers was perfectly edible, it always had a strange taste which was ok, but wasn’t “right”.

One day, many years ago, (70′s/80′s) She stood next to Mum and made the soup and it still turned out wrong.

Now the sad part.

I was talking to Jan on the phone one day, she had cancer, this was just a few years ago, and she didn’t have long to live.

And we were discussing Mums soup.

“I do everything Mum does and I still can’t get it right” She said (I’d heard this many times over the years) and then I mentioned that I make the soup. “I bet you can’t make it like Mum does” She said… “I do, it’s exactly like Mums”.

“It can’t be” She replied

“Well it is” I said.

“Well what do you add?…. Peas?” “Yes”

“Carrots” “Yes”

and the list went on, “Salt and Pepper?”…. “Salt” I said.

“Mum always used salt and pepper” She said.

“No Jan, Mum only ever used salt, and so do I”

It had become apparent what had happened, Jan had thought that salt and pepper simply went together and Mum hadn’t observed the error, or thought that a bit of pepper couldn’t hurt.

We were both stumped, after all those years we had found the tiny error which caused such a huge difference in flavour.

So remember… no pepper, unless of course you find that you like the flavour.

And one final thing, when you serve the soup, shake a little worcestershire sauce into it, it just adds a bit of kick.

Wolfie.

Note:

* Give the dog a bowl of (cooled) soup, it will feed them too.

* If you use a shank, remove it *before* allowing the soup to cool, and wrap it up and put it into the fridge or give it to the dog, don’t allow the soup to cool with the shank in it.

* If you’ve used a shank, fat will form on the top as the soup goes cold, and you can easily lift this off, which I would advise.

A warming winter soup.

An essay on what I did on my holidays *sigh*

The first day on the return to School was always the same.

The Teacher would say “Write me an essay about what you did on your holidays” and then there’d be a collective sigh from the class.

Years later, when I found out that I actually liked writing, I began to understand that the reason kids hate writing about their holidays is because they don’t enjoy writing, particularly if spelling isn’t easy… but also because most of us think our holidays were “boring”.

Emily thinks she didn’t do anything interesting, despite the fact that She spent a weekend with her Gran who is a well known pianist and very funny… She thinks of Jim, who spent two weeks in Italy… Despite the fact that Jim thought that swimming and sitting on the beach at his grandfathers home was “boring”, and He thinks of Kate, Who got to spend two weeks at home, with her friends, watching videos… despite the fact that Kate was actually bored out of her wits because it rained for two weeks and she didn’t get to go anywhere. (although friends stayed overnight a few times).

And this is what Teachers must raise with Children, our perspectives are always different, and we often think our own lives are a lot less glorious than the lives of others.

Now that’s settled, I want to talk about my holiday… and although my eleven year old self may sigh, I’m actually quite happy to write about it.

I got up relatively early, my bags were already packed and I had a shower.

I fed Vicky before I left and got Katie ready.

Deb turned up early, She’s turned up ready to take me to Her place, in her car. The drive would be something like four hours to the south east of our state, heading for a place which is somewhere near Heyfield in Victoria.

I had been telling Katie, My Malamute, that we would be going out in the car soon, and I think it did get into her doggy mind that she was going somewhere, and she was very keen to get into the car for a ride.

We did a few local things first.

Deb had been hanging out for a Turkish Delight Gelati at the Gelati shop (No spell checker, it’s “Gelati” here in oz, kindly piss off). But I also wanted to drop off a photo for a local photo competition, in Seddon, so we did that, then drove to Yarraville… but the shop was closed, Deb wasn’t happy.

But she did buy some small cakes at Heather Dell, a shop which has been there for decades, going back to when Mum was a kid.

Some people came out of the op shop and started asking me all the usual questions about Malamutes, I don’t mind, it happens all the time, how could anyone who loves dogs not want to talk to Katie? I am very lucky to have her.

We went back to the car and set off

We drove for about an hour, and then stopped at a big servo which had almost any sort of take-away hidden away inside it, No truckie would go hungry there.

I noted that they even sold soft porn DVDs.

I had a chicken sandwich there, and a juice.

Katie had a pee, and was much happier.

I don’t recall what Deb had, but we all had something good, and that was the main thing.

Then we piled into the car and continued.

*** Sorry dear reader, but I was very tired and fell asleep.

 

We continued on to Moe, Which is South-East Victoria, sort of… lots of hills and trees and houses, quite an active small city with a lot of shops.

We stopped for peeing and dropoffs and pick ups and I tweeted a message to Scuzzy that we were nearby and would be at his place in about 30 minutes.

I had known Scuzzi for quite a while, mainly via Second Life, But we’d never laid eyes on each other for real, so this would be interesting.

He tweeted back that He wasn’t expecting company and tore off to do some cleaning.

We drove off, and Deb showed me all the sights of Moe and the Shops, there were a lot of shops, it appeared to me that if you lived in Moe, then you wouldn’t have gone without. It was probably quite a nice place to live.

Confusingly, there was a shop at called Maccas, which wasn’t a Maccas at all… but something else. (Aussies call McDonalds “Maccas”).

We drove for another half an our and found a particular farm gate… Deb stopped and paused, then remembered I was a city boy, and opened the gate herself… I promised to do it on the way out.

There was this, and I’m hesitant to call it this, “road” leading through into the bush, into a gully… it was covered in what may have been quartz, and was full of potholes and bits which scraped the base of Debs car… this was not a place for your standard vehicle, a four wheel drive was what was needed here.

Katie braced herself in the back, and for a moment there was a scary bit where I thought we were going to go off the side of the cliff, but we didn’t.

We came to a separation of the track, one side leading up the hill, and the other down.

We decided to go up, and came to a run down home with lots of glass windows, but no wonder, the view was magnificent. as Deb went knocking on the home, I went outside and took a number of photos, which I made into a panorama once I got home.

I tweeted Scuzzi again, we’d gone up instead of down… oh well, back in the car we got and slowly wended our way down the track.

Scuzzi lived with his dog in a huge concrete house overlooking the lake, it seemed a strange place for a home, but excellent if you needed peace and quiet.

Scuzzi welcomed us, it was nice to see him… He was very informal, which was great because I don’t have a formal bone in my body either, old hippy that I am, and He welcomed Katie too.

Now Katie was looking a bit distressed, and I was thinking that it was just Her finding herself in a strange house… I really should have thought about her more.

Deb, Scuzzi and I sat around the table, and had a cup of tea and a few small cakes which She’d bought in Yarraville (near me) before we set off.

Then katie came romping into the room like a silly puppy, and I realised what had happened before the others had.

Katie had taken a dump inside the house, and it wasn’t a little dump, it looked as though an elephant had left it there.

Scuzzi handed me a fire shovel and I scooped it up and raced it outside, It was cleaned up quickly and forgiven, but still, I really hadn’t been paying attention to Katies body language, She had been in the car for quite a while and was quite agitated once she got out and I had taken her inside Scuzzis home (fearing snakes) too soon.

It was my fault.

*** I’ll write more later ***

 

 

Rally 4 Dec, Melbourne. – Inquiry into Catholic Church, Sexual Assault and Suicide Prevention.

Hi one and all!

You should be receiving either 2 attachments or 2 flyers in the body of this email. If not, please let me know. (Not included with G+/Facebook post)

I am organising a rally on the steps of Parliament on Sunday 4 December, 12 noon for about an hour.

The reasons are to:

1. Continue the push to have the details of the people who suicided in the years following clergy sexual assault to be handed over to the coroner for re-investigation. Things are at a standstill.

2. For the State Government to hold an urgent independent Inquiry into Catholic clergy sexual assault. Other than waiting for the outcomes of the Cummins Inquiry (which may address three issues – mandatory reporting; Working with Children Act 2005 requirements; reporting of child abuse to secular authorities) there is no word from the Attorney-General about an independent Inquiry.

3. The other essential reforms are listed on the second flyer.

The state government’s decision a few weeks to put on hold a public inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is unconscionable and carries a serious risk of further suicides by victims of clergy sexual assault.

After publicity a few months ago about 26 suicides in Ballarat and Box Hill of young men in the years following catholic clergy sexual assaults, family members of more victims came forward about a loved one committing suicide after being abused by clergy. This brings the above number to 35. But clergy abuse-related suicides have not necessarily ended. Many impact statements from other victims of convicted paedophile Robert Best recently revealed ongoing suicidal thoughts and tendencies. And the above number refers to victims of just two clergy.

The church continues to sit on its hands and the state government, which has full knowledge of these facts, is employing delaying tactics. The Attorney-General, it seems, is not taking these issues very seriously at all.

Thanks a lot and look forward to seeing you there.

Any problems with attachments, please let me know.

The best.

Judy

JUDY COURTIN
0418 329 049

A few words about the Carbon Tax

I was on the greens Facebook page a few days ago, and found a comment from someone complaining about the carbon tax, according to this person “The carbon tax won’t do one iota of good as far as the worlds C02 emissions go” or something along those lines.

So… If the tax works, and money is being fed into green energy research, and this country is seen as a World Leader (remember this bit) in green energy production… and small green energy businesses become huge green energy businesses, and smart people are coming in from other countries to help in this exciting field… and therefore Australia is looked at by other countries who go “Hrmm, I bet we could do stuff like that” and then they start doing their own green energy stuff…. then that’s gotta help with those C02 emissions, surely?

I think part of the problem is Aussies hate themselves, no seriously.

You ask an Aussie how they feel about the country, and they’ll tell you they love it.

But then if they sing, a US accent pops out… and when they talk, you get US slang and US words.

You go to buy a biscuit in a shop these days and find it’s a “cookie”.

If the US had done this first, the carbon tax, and we adopted it, it would have been fine… maybe there would have been a few grumbles, but we would have done it because although we’re great innovators, we can’t stand to be the leader.

Remember the black box flight recorder? Aussie invention… Look it up, When the inventor tried to get Aussie airlines to try it, they weren’t interested.

So he took it to the UK, They liked it there, and used it.

They used it in the US too.

It was only then that the airlines here said “ok, we’ll give it a shot”.

And what about that solar power station which was invented by another Aussie, Wouldn’t put it up here would they, but it’s going up in Arizona.

Aussies, I’m sick of us following others like little lost sheep, can’t we be the leaders? design our own plans for the future, sing with an Aussie accent, develop our own slang? Be ourselves?

And have smart people coming HERE to work instead of having to go overseas in order to be noticed?

Just for once?

Wolfie!

Arizona

Bread

I have a problem with Baker’s Delight bread, Not that there’s anything wrong with it, I find it perfectly tasty and buy it every week.

No, My problem, is with, or rather “begins” with, That freebie card that they stamp when I buy things.

And the fault is entirely mine.

This is what happened today.

I asked for two High GI Loaves, and had them sliced.

Then I noticed that I had a free bread on my card, and showed the girl, but she said that I had to spend at least another $1.60 to get the free loaf.

This was fine because as some of you know, I just bought one of those sandwich makers, and if you own one, you’ll know that you can go through bread at an amazing rate.

So I asked for a half-sized, plain white loaf with poppy seeds, which was enough to allow me to have my free loaf.

I also noticed that there were two danishes there, so I got those too.

I took my stuff outside where Katie (My Malamute) was waiting patiently, tied up safely to the hydrant, minding my stuff which I’d just bought from Coles.

I packed everything up and went home.

When I unpacked, I realised that the small loaf was not there.

And that’s it, right there.

Whenever I get a free loaf, something happens to it… I usually leave it on the counter, if not at Baker’s Delight, then the counter at Antipasto… a cafe and deli, just a few doors down.

If I don’t lose the bread, then it gets squashed or some other weird thing will occur.

Today was unusual in that I’d lost an item I had payed for.

I could’ve thrown a tanty when I realised what had happened, but no, it’s normal… I just shrugged and got on with life.

Despite the fact that this happens almost every-time, It’s just typical of me,
and I suppose I just have to laugh.

Perhaps I should give up using those stamp card things?

Wolfie!

Dad songs

I began making my transition from kids music to pop in the late 70′s, suddenly becoming intrigued by Countdown and Sounds Unlimited.

Bands who merely played live were generally ignored for the ones who could provide a video with an interesting story to tell, and although I liked a lot of bands, my favourite was ABBA.

Of course some of the stuff I liked was criticised by my parents for being too monotonous (some of it was) or they couldn’t understand a word of it.

Early on, I thought that phrase meant that they couldn’t understand all the words being sung…. I couldn’t either, but I didn’t care.

But then I realised that what Mum meant was that she couldn’t grasp the concepts in the lyrics, and I admit, some songs do take a while to figure out, and lets face it, we’re still wondering about Knights in White Satin.

Mum and Dad liked 3AK, A Melbourne station housed at Channel Nine, which churned out “Beautiful Music” laid back versions of old and new-ish pop tunes, often played by the 3AK Orchestra.

Now music always kicks you in the teeth, and I would advise kids reading this, never to get too cosy with certain musical ideas, that some are right and others are not.

I hated country music, but found myself being cool with it when Thompson Twins released “You take me up” which featured harmonica, which up till then was never an instrument I wanted cropping up in my songs.

So My music was monotonous.

But when 3AK played the song that we thought went “One callamera, ah-dee-dah one callemera”

* We had no idea what the lyrics were, or what they meant, not being spanish, are they Spanish?

Dad would sing that to himself while in his shed, and I never realised how weird this was until now.

My songs couldn’t be understood, Yet Dad, a Full Australian with no other language apart from English was devoted to “Variety Italian Style” a mid morning “ethnic” program on one of the commercial stations, which featured tour videos and current italian songs.

Dad would also watch the Greek show which followed.

If you’re a kid, be aware of this, it happens with every generation.

and realise that your generation is not any different to any which has passed before, it just seems that way when you’re young and don’t know any better.

People are just plain weird.

My experience with Australian Health Care

I know Americans are grappling with the idea of health care, and so I would just like to talk about my personal experience with it as an Australian.

Now I could go into a lot of detail about Cancer and what My family were going through, but I feel I’ve written about that enough on previous occasions, so will skim most of that. If you’re interested in that though, just go back through my blog and you should find something.

After noticing a little blood coming from my rear end, I consulted my local GP who lubed his finger up, stuck it inside me and found a “toomah”… A small cancer which had to be removed.

Now I hadn’t been well for years and nobody could work out why, but I personally feel that it was mostly due to this, as such, I was already a pensioner, but after finding this, My Doc put me on a disability pension.

I do not have any health cover other than that.

I was examined by two surgeons, I had an ultasound, x-rays and cat scans.

I had my first operation, to remove the cancer and to create a stoma, which a bag would be connected to.

There was also four days stay in Hospital.

We payed for none of this.

Then I got really sick, and took an ambulance to hospital, I was in ER and then foolishly decided I was ok and wanted to go home, which I did.

The next day I was really sick, so Mum suggested I get an ambulance back in, I did… It turned out that I had a bowel blockage. I had a lot of x-rays and two cat scans to see if it was passing, it finally did and I went home.

That was all free.

I began a course of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy, this lasted for about six months, and I was very sick.

I got some pills, one lot was about $30, It was the most expensive and I only took one tablet because I think it made me worse. Most of the medication was around the $5 mark.

After this was over, We got a bill for the Radiotherapy, it was $4000… But after we took the bill to Medicare, the cost dropped to $1000 and I think there were a few other benefits which dropped it further, although I’m vague on that.

The most I had to pay was for my Bags which despite the idea that my stoma operation should have taken place after three months, since I was on Chemotherapy and radiotherapy this was stalled… and then I really just got to a point where I couldn’t handle it any longer.

I planned to keep the stoma for life and just keep buying bags (which were also mostly government-funded).

However, the time came when I got tired of having bags, they sometimes leaked, they were a problem when I showered, and so I had the operation last year.

The operation and four more days in hospital cost me nothing.

Now, Had We (Mum and I) had to pay for the costs of this, we would have been broke, I’m certain of it, and getting the treatment I needed may have been placed at risk.

I am bothered by Americans yelling “Socialism” I wonder what’s wrong with them.

The bottom line is, I’m alive, and I’m not completely broke.

Surely if you were found with a life threatening illness, you would wish to remain alive? and your family and friends would rather you were alive?

And it would be nice to not have to put your house on a mortgage to get there?

I know our health system isn’t perfect, and many Australians will say so, but still, it’s not all that bad either.

This idea that there’s creeping Socialism is just some weird conspiracy idea that some of you harbour, get over it.

Wolfie!

Choices made

I think I would have been around fifteen when I decided that one day I’d become a Disc Jockey at a radio station somewhere.

One of the reasons that I wanted to get into radio, was to meet people who I knew from this side of the speaker or screen, a quick talk would be one thing, but a possible lasting friendship would be another, how cool would that be?

As you may know, I didn’t quite reach my goal, and many times I’ve said that it was my declining health which prevented me from going further, and while there’s some truth in that, I think I had another reason for dropping out.

I loved my family.

You see, new radio announcers generally don’t get their start in the city, which is where I live, but way out in “The Mulga” somewhere.

For those overseas, When an Aussie mentions The Mulga, or a place Beyond the black stump, We mean it’s far away, to put it mildly.

For me, a Melburnian, there would have been a good chance that I would have been posted off to Western Australia, Somewhere North of Perth. Several of my radio school classmates headed in that direction.

And I always knew it was on the cards, but somewhere inside I had this nagging doubt that I was any good, I got a volunteer job on a community station in Melton, Which was about an hours travel by train and bus. I was happy to work there, do my twice weekly show, write, produce and edit reels and reels of tape.

Somehow I never really considered that I’d go any further, I wasn’t being paid, but I was happy and I could go home when it was over.

Then someone at the station dropped the word that there was a scout at the station, the kind who looks for potential talent, and I was supposedly on his or her list.

This was exciting, but also frightening… I realised that I may soon have a full-time, paid job… but where?

It was the question of where which got the better of me, I gave up radio soon after.

The thing I wanted most, was to be with my family.

…

So here I am at home, years later, and the strangest thing is that I’m meeting people via twitter, and sometimes, in real life too. People who I never thought I’d meet in my life, and I love it.

But there’s a tinge of sadness that comes with it.

The person who understood me the most, was Mum, and I know if She had still been here that She would have loved to hear of the People I’ve met and spoken with.

Stephen Tobolowsky, Who has a depth to him which I would never have known about otherwise, Julian Clary a quiet soul who adores his garden, Boy George who seems to be rocketing off at an incredible pace to anywhere on the face of the planet, which I doubt I could have matched even at fifteen.

My Daily exchanges with Carol Duncan and Helen Tzarimas which I cherish, and this insanely long list of names who decided to follow me, famous or not, it hardly matters, it’s astonishing.

These wonderful people help to keep me going, and I am truly thankful for that.

I want to run to Mum and say “You’ll never guess who I met today”, But She’s not here.

Yes I can tell others, but it’s not the same, My parents “got me” it took them a long time, but they eventually did. They knew what I liked and who I liked and I’m sure they would have been impressed that I was finally getting to know people, like I always wanted to do.

While that career in radio passed me by, time with my Family did not, and I have no regrets.

Wolfie!

NSW Votes.

Via Jim Edwards – Clickon Science.

To ensure that you don’t waste part of your vote in the Upper House
Vote 1 – then vote 2 and even 3 – above the line to maximise your vote

Because of the way the NSW Upper House vote is counted, there is a danger that ultraconservatives who support the Shooters, Family First, Pauline Hanson or Fred Nile could win a controlling vote

The Coalition appears headed for a landslide in the Lower House in the NSW elections on March 26. If If Labor plus The Greens plus John Hatton (who has the next best chance) don’t win 10 seats out of the 21 to be elected for the Upper House, then there will be no brake on an ultraconservative agenda that includes privatisation, anti-worker laws, degradation or abolition of national parks, cuts to welfare services, and discrimination against minorities.

This week a group of people from non-government organisations, including unions, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Parents & Citizens Associations, the Rape Crisis Centre, Women’s Electoral Lobby and GLBTIQ groups met to express their concerns about the election.

Their message is: Whatever the parties say to you on their ‘how to vote’ information, maximise your progressive vote by voting at least 1-2-3 ‘above the line’ in the order you choose. This will ensure that any leftover part of your vote will flow on to progressives after the maximum number of your first preference candidates are elected. If you only vote 1 above the line and all your candidates are not elected, your vote will not automatically flow on (as they do in the Federal elections) because of the different way the upper house ballot is counted in NSW.

If you want to vote ‘below the line’, you have to number at least 15 candidates correctly in sequence to cast a valid vote. You can pick your own progressive candidates to vote for.

Counting for the last one or two seats in the Upper House will come down to just a few hundred votes. Make sure all of your vote is counted by giving a thoughtful preference after your first choice.

If you want to maximise the progressive vote in the Upper House on March 26 – don’t waste any part of your vote – give a thoughtful 1-2-3 preference ‘above the line’

Ballad Films

http://www.balladfilms.com.au/

ABN 52 199 403 779
Martha Ansara
1 Hampden St.
Hurlstone Park NSW 2193 Australia
+612 9573 1886 • hotdox@iinet.net.au

www.ozdox.org – the australian documentary forum