I’m now out of my cast, off my crutches, and back to work, so consequently my blogging has once again suffered. However, I’m still watching the news cycle with some incredulousness.

Of course, we here in Australia are now in the midst of our electoral campaign. We go to the polls on the 3rd of May 2025, and it’s looking quite interesting. I posted a little while back about our system, but to recap:

Compulsory voting – to make sure everyone has a say. You can choose to make an invalid vote if you wish, but in my opinion, if you don’t vote, then you have no right to complain.

Preferential voting – order your preferred choices. For more in depth info, look here. But this means that you can vote for absolutely anyone you wish, and your vote is still counted. This is how minor parties become major parties.

Our Prime Minister is the leader of the party which wins the majority, (sometimes this requires a coalition of parties to form a majority) of seats in parliament in the lower (House of Representatives) house. He/She is also a candidate for their own electorate, but they are chosen as leader by their party.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the ABC’s Vote Compass, and it’s back again. It’s well worth taking a look.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/vote-compass You answer a series of questions, and it plots you against the policies of our four major parties – Labor, Liberals, The Greens, and One Nation.

And of course today, was apparently ‘Liberation Day’ in the US. I have no idea how applying tariffs to the rest of the world is going to liberate the people of the US, except perhaps in the form of liberating the money in their bank accounts and placing it into the US government coffers, but I did (amongst the ongoing eyebrow raising) have a good giggle at one point.

Heard Island. The McDonald Islands. Norfolk Island. All hit with tariffs.

Heard and McDonald Islands: Population zero. (Except for the wildlife, many of whom are penguins.)

Norfolk Island: Population – 2,188. Exports – none. Imports – tourists. (Am actually considering a holiday there myself.)

If you want the whole story, with interviews, head here.

However, the penguin memes are truly outstanding.