Showing posts with label tony abbott. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tony abbott. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Direction

I try to keep an eye on local, Scottish, and UK national news, but the Australian General Election caught me by surprise, but a nice kind of surprise. The new Prime Minister designate Tony Abbott took the nation by storm, and some shock. The reasons given in the popular media put the opposing Labour Party defeat down to public infighting. It caught my attention for a different reason altogether.

Mr Abbott is obviously his own man, and I get the impression he ploughs his own furrow, like it or lump it, so he has been controversial in many of his views, but he still commanded a massive groundswell for political change. While almost all other ‘progressive’ leaders are lining up behind the movement to legislate for same sex marriage under the smokescreen of equality, this man has the nerve to buck the trend, and not dance to the current mood music of the age. He openly stands for traditional marriage ie, one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

This made me think of the differing directions of our other ‘civilised’ nations. The march to government legislation for homosexual marriage is much greater than any opposition to it. So we can either take it that Australia’s new government takes notice of its people, and acts accordingly, or this same nation is not progressive and therefore a dinosaur! The USA, UK and Scotland have ridden roughshod over public opinion to get this thorny issue out of the way before election time, while Australia took it head on, as an election issue and won. What does that tell you? I know what it says to me. If only there were more leaders with a backbone, like Tony Abbott, and not ones with a wishbone like Barack Obama, David Cameron and Alex Salmond. Not only did Abbott ask what the electorate wanted, he put his reputation on the line, and gave them the risky choice to vote on the subject. Wishbone? No, certainly a backbone!