Emerging From The Darkness In Oz
Cathy Wilcox’s excellent political cartoon Out of the Dark is a beautiful work which requires almost a decade of Australian context to appreciate.
Imagine if you will, you lived in a country where for the past almost-decade, your country was run by a crew of conservative cronies whose corruption was not investigated by the complacent media who reinforced their power by giving them a free ride in the newspapers, and the opposition party leader kept getting cut off during TV interviews by biased reporters. It’s bad enough that the Sun King Rupert Murdoch is still meddling in our affairs from across the ocean through Foxtel, Sky News and his myriad tabloids, Channel 7 and Channel Nine are in lockstep with the conservatives as well, hence it’s difficult to hear any shred of a leftist message outside of social media which the powers that be want to regulate to our democracy’s disadvantage.
If you’re not Australian, the sudden relief washing over our nation at the moment doesn’t make any sense. Americans might be able to compare it to the pressure released once Joe Biden won against Trump, but then again American exceptionalism causes the yank mind to ignore what’s going on down under until another mass shooting happens and former prime minister John Howard is dragged out of the woodwork to argue for the success of the gun ban/buyback scheme. How soon we forget that for almost ten years, Australian politics has consisted of Question Time televising old men bellowing at each other and achieving very little to confront the major issues like climate change and housing affordability which affects multiple generations of our country’s population. 2013-2022 was a weird, awful time to be an Australian, where nothing was normal or okay. Tony Abbott ate a row onion, Barnaby Joyce cheated on his wife and had a kid with his mistress, Gladys Berejiklian threw taxpayer’s money at Wagga Wagga because she loved her boyfriend Daryl who let her down. You could take an afternoon nap, and have a different prime minister than the one you had before, because leadership spills were a constant threat to the stability of the two major parties.
And yet, after almost a decade of squabbling and in-fighting, the trash has been taken out and for once the adults seem to be in charge again. No more Scott Morrison photo ops where he tackled a child during a soccer match. No more having to sit through YouTube ads for Clive Palmer and Craig Kelly’s United Australia Party espousing conspiracy theories about the World Health Organisation and blaming the Labor Party for all manner of things. I couldn’t bear to watch the news at night during the election for the sake of my mental health, I had no faith Albo was gonna win this one, and I spent weeks depressed staring at the bedroom wall as I doom-scrolled on my phone for hints of hope. Jade Crypt of Wonders is a website which has an ideological slant towards Taoist philosophy and theology, so you can imagine my delight when the Liberal Party hammering war drums about China bit them in the arse regarding Chinese voters who didn’t appreciate their roots being demonised by the federal government. I might be a white guy who converted to Taoism because an art gallery gift shop sold me a copy of the Tao Te Ching, but I do not endorse this anti-Chinese rhetoric the Liberal Party has been dog-whistling to their hard right racist voters (as opposed to the moderate teals who left the Liberal Party for being sexist to women). My gods are Chinese now, Scott Morrison, I will choose them over you any day.
The election night did not turn into a hellish Don’s Party situation as I feared, Liberals lost seat after seat to Greens and Independent candidates, even in the stronghold of North Sydney they weren’t safe. Trent Zimmerman had his concession speech earlier on in the night, which led to the Josh Frydenberg concession speech where you could see his wife on the verge of tears because they hoped Josh would be Scott Morrison’s replacement as Liberal leader. When Scott Morrison conceded, there was joy in the room as me and my friends yelled insults at the television and bid farewell to one of the worst Prime Ministers Australia ever had. When Anthony Albanese did his victory speech, I was already home to my parents’ place but I was glued to the TV watching Albo reference the Uluru Statement as one of his first major issues he wished to tackle. There was mention of kindness, and governing for people no matter what religion they are. Well, Albo, I never thought you could do it, but you got my vote. Now close down Manus Island and Nauru pronto.
I’m not sure I can put into words, however I’ve tried here, how relieved I am at the election result. The threats against the NDIS funding my family relies on and Labor axing the Cashless Debit Card for Centrelink payments was a mighty weight off my mind. As a disabled person struggling with bipolar on top of autism spectrum disorder, my ability to pay rent to my parents through welfare makes me feel like less of a burden to my family and society at large. Even as a fan of Welcome to the NHK (both the anime and the light novel it’s based on), there’s a limit to the amount of hikikomori-ism I am willing to justify in my online behaviour.
2022 has been hard for me, I’ve had a few doctor’s appointments and now have to strap a CPAP machine to my face to treat my severe sleep apnea which my health insurance refused to pay for. I can’t say I sleep like a baby, but I don’t choke myself awake as often. Here’s hoping the rest of the year treats me better, and this election result is an omen of good things to come.
