Senator Andrew Bartlett
Friday, November 11, 2005
 
Remembrance Day
The topics of November 11th are the same as they were last year (and many years prior to that) – the sacrifices of our war veterans, and the dismissal of the Whitlam government. In my own mind, I always add the execution of Ned Kelly and the personal anniversary of my first speech to the Senate in 1997.

To save repetition, I’ll just link to my posts from this time last year – my views are basically the same on all these matters. (for some reason the sites all show zero comments, but each of the posts have some comments from the time)

Remembrance Day :– this has some extra resonance for me following my visit to Gallipoli last month.

The Whitlam Dismissal :- Over at Larvatus Prodeo, they are having a ‘Dismissal Fest’, with heaps of posts from different writers giving their views and reflections (or what Daily Flute, who has a post of his own, calls “Larvatus Prodeo’s bleeding hearts club band”). Mike Steketee from The Australian wrote a good piece a couple of days ago pointing out the fact that a Labor victory at the next election would still very likely leave the Liberals in control of the Senate, recreating the Parliamentary dynamic of 1975 for the first time.

Killing of Ned Kelly :– it is unfortunate that, 125 years later, many countries still carry out executions, as we’ve been debating very recently.

My First Speech :– I recently got tagged for a meme asking me to list my regrets. After having thought about it, I decided I would just be asking for a rubbishing by the mainstream media if I was to honestly answer that one. However, even though I still really like this speech, I do regret starting with such a naff line. There’s also the far bigger regret about not doing more to stop the GST, which I touched on in this post. There’s plenty more of course, but I’ll stop the list there.

Ambit Gambit also has a Nov 11 post today covering the remembrance day and Whitlam issues, which has a couple of worthwhile comments. Some others are on Sam's Study, Bella, Institutional Economics and piss n vinegar.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, November 11, 2005 Permalink
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