The Parties Go On

So we are now at Part 4 of this series which received a bit of a siesta over the past few days as time constraints and bad excuses got in the way. I like to think that this would prevent you from getting bored although politics is actually not that boring. I am going to reiterate the fact that if you have not seen some of the scenes in Parliament you have not witnessed one of the best (well at least most entertaining) moments of Politics. Anyway, continuing on with this series let's get straight to it! As there are only 18 parties left I am going to do nine today and another nine on Tuesday. So that will be why this post will be slightly shorter than the other ones in this series.

Let's begin with the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) is only a small party but with members in all states and territories in Australia. It supports less government control over many aspects of daily family life. It particularly supports a number of policies seeking changes in the areas of family law and child support.

Source: http://www.virginvoters.com.au/parties/non-custodial-parents-party/

The One Nation party is a right-wing political party founded by the infamous Australia Pauline Hanson. It has received much unfavourable coverage earlier this year following an interview one of its candidates gave to Seven News which contained a lot of misinformation. The said candidate has since withdrawn from a political career. It has a long list of objectives I will not name out of the tedious nature of that list.

The Outdoor Recreation Party is a minor party in New South Wales. It represents the outdoor community and interests such as cycling, bushwalking and camping just to name a few. They are committed to less government control over outdoor recreation. They are very opposed to the Greens political party. So much so in fact that in 2013 they added to the end of their party name Stop the Greens.

The Palmer United Party is a new one founded only this year by mining magnate Clive Palmer. Among other things they plan to abolish the contentious Carbon Tax, revise the current refugee policy and create mineral wealth.

Finally, an interestingly named party for this post. Pirate Party Australia represents civil liberty issues. It focuses on copyright reform, internet freedom and ending censorship. It is also a new party having only been registered with the Australian Electoral Commission in January of this year.

Source: http://www.geekinsydney.com/2908/pirate-party-australia-approved/

The Republican Party of Australia is a party concerned with ending Australia's links with the commonwealth and become a republic. Basically it is what it says it is.

The Rise Up Australia Party is a socially conservative political party. It is focused on nationalist and christian conservative issues such as opposing the spread of Islamic doctrine in Australia as well as opposing Same Sex Marriage (if I could vote, I would not vote for them).

The Secular Party of Australia stands for secular humanist ethical principles. They aim to separate Church and State within Australia and promote secularism worldwide. They also stand for other things like human rights and social justice, the maximisation of civil liberties and to defend freedom of expression.

Finally, the Senator Online party has no policies but instead has pledged to conduct online polls for every bill that passes before senate. So in a way they stand for the representation of every Australian in parliament (well at least Senate).

Don't forget to check back on Tuesday for the final part to this series, see you tomorrow!

Easter Holidays with the Relatives

So, as you know, I haven't been posting for a while and that is because I have been at Phillip Island for Easter with the relatives (on my Mum's side). This was far from boring with a fair load of things going on. Anyway, to start it off with, Happy Easter!

This holiday was made evermore fun with Sandy (our dog) coming along with Dad to stay overnight on the Saturday and come home with Dad on the Sunday. This was great and Sandy really loved his time, he provided a lot of entertainment as he kept walking into things (it's amazing how many times he can walk into the wall) because he kept getting distracted, this kept us entertained most of the time he was down.

So our holiday started on the Saturday when we arrived and the first thing to do was unpack and then get ready for church. Oh yeah, my family is Catholic. So yeah, when we arrived at Church it was raining but, as always, the church was hot and so we had to open the windows. This was a problem because during the mass we light tapers (candles for each person) and there was a wind coming in through the windows, guess who sat near the windows? Yeah, we did. So every so often our candles would blow out and we would have to relight them and quickly block them from the wind. Then, just as we let down our guard, the wind would build up again and we would lose the flames again. Another downside is that the only Priest down there is a bit of a cranky ass which can get annoying. He literally said: "Keep the windows open and if you get cold either suck it up or move" and I was just like "what's new?" Then, halfway through what seemed to be the longest mass ever (even for Phillip Island) the Priest announced there would also be a baptism. Needless to say, by the end of the 2 hour service we all had had enough and were ready to head home. From there we watched part of Home Alone (the first one) and then went to bed. Just so you know, even though Home Alone is one of the family favourites I hate the movie because of the kid (main character) which I just don't like which puts me off the whole movie. So yeah, that was Easter Saturday and it was time for bed before Easter Sunday arrived.

So then it was Easter Sunday! We started the morning with our Easter Egg exchange where lots of chocolates were given but Mum always gives us books as well which is really good as now I am reading Beautiful Creatures which is really good! I also got my Mum to read The Hunger Games and she is really enjoying it so score for me! Anyway, back to Easter Sunday. The thing with Sandy is that he is very spoiled and gets gifts for his Birthday, Christmas and Easter. Our pet before him was lucky to get one gift a year! So Sandy is a very spoiled dog and my eldest brother got Mum a sign for Mothers Day that we hung outside our front door which reads "A very spoiled dog lives here" which couldn't be more accurate! So Easter continued and we had an Easter Egg hunt (for my Younger Cousins) but we also collect all our eggs together and split it evenly so it's fair and they enjoy it. It was a great day overall and Sandy was tired by the time he left for home with Dad. We finished off the day by watching the original Annie movie which was actually very good (I hadn't seen it before).

Now we come to the day after Easter which was Monday (Yesterday). This was more of a quiet day with less things to do but we still had a lot of fun. We went for a walk along the beach and I played Halo with my cousins to keep them entertained. That night we decided to watch the whole of Home Alone (for we had only watched part of it on Saturday) which was actually funny because of my Italian grandfather (my Mum's father) who was making some pretty funny commentary. He didn't mean it to be funny but he always likes talking about something like a TV show or movie when it was on and so for Home Alone he kept saying things like "Oh, footprints in the snow" (fascinating I know), "how sweet" and "ouch, that might have hurt a lot". It was things like this which made me enjoy the movie evermore and left me going to bed smiling.

It now comes to today which was basically a day of tidying up before heading home. Nothing interesting really happened today besides going to the beach for a walk when the water was right up to the rocks which made for an interesting dash between the waves to try to avoid getting wet. It provided the walk with some entertainment and when we got back to the house we did some more cleaning and got ready to leave. We got home and I am now writing this post about my time and am watching The Biggest Loser (Australia of course) with Sandy and the Parents.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!