Honest Government Ad | Our Last Fair Election?
Added 2025-02-22 06:35:32 +0000 UTCDear Patrons
Yes, we're back already with the next Honest Government Ad!
Honest Government Ad | Our Last Fair Election?
First of all, I'd like to introduce you to Liv Rian - the new actor who joins us for this HGA to fill in for Ellen. It's a hard act to follow, but I think she did a top job, considering this is her very first try! If you agree, please help me give Liv a warm welcome here - in the comments section of the YouTube video (where she will see them! As opposed to here on Patreon, where she won't!)
Ok, now let's get serious. Our PM will announce the election very soon, it could be as early as tomorrow, and everyone's playing the "Guess-When-Election-Day-Will-Be" game. (Which btw is a really dumb game: we should have a fixed day, like in the US (except not a Tuesday, that's even dumber!)
So I thought, stuff-it - we're in charge of when the Australien Government announces the election, so let's just announce it today.
While we're at it, I thought our government might like to inform voters how they teamed-up with the Opposition to ram through new election laws that tilt the playing field firmly in their favour at future elections, under the guise of stopping Big/Dark Money in politics. (Which of course do need to be addressed)
As you know, we tried to warn people about Labor and the Coalition's plan to ram these laws through Parliament in this HGA we made in late 2023.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what they did last week.
People who don't follow auspol closely won't have heard about this, and yet it is an incredibly consequential reform which could alter the trajectory of Australian politics - currently defined as it is by a steady decline in the primary vote of the two major parties, in favour of Independents and minor parties.
Which is why this could be the last election at which new Independent and minor-party candidates have a competitive chance of getting elected. So we'd better make this one count.
And that is the long way of explaining why I made this HGA!
As part of the call to action for this video, we've put together a list of some Not-Shit Candidates running in seats across Australia. Most of them are Community Independents. If you are lucky enough to have one running in your federal seat, and you like what they have to say, please consider volunteering or supporting their campaign.
I don't particularly enjoy telling people who they should vote for. But I also know that many people watching our videos often want to know what the alternatives are to the major parties. There's a lot of confusion and MANY dodgy Independent (and not-so independent) candidates out there. (Which is why the Community Independents Project is so important)
More to the point, many Independents struggle for visibility against the much larger campaign budgets and brand recognition of major-party candidates. So I thought it would be only fair to help amplify their campaigns in this way.
I hope you enjoy this HGA. We put it together in just over a week, which is much faster than our normal turn-around time, but that's what we're hoping to do during the election period - publish as many HGAs as possible to keep voters informed.
Some of these might be shorter episodes that are quicker to produce; or they might revist key issues we've already covered - such as this one. (Because as all we know, people forget! Especially when we get bombarded with bullshit election campaigning from all sides).
Either way, we'll be burning some of that good old midnight oil. (We'll rest after election day).
And that is want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who is supporting us now - and especially those of you who have increased your monthly support on Patreon.
Some of you have bumped-up your contribution during the election period, which is not only super encouraging and motivating - it also provides more funds to pay our actors, which means more HGAs between now and the election. So, THANK YOU.
(If you'd like to increase your pledge, you can do so here. But even if you don't, we're super grateful for your existing support at the current level!)
Phwoa, that was a long-arse post. Thank you for reading this far!
I'm going to let you get on with your day now! And I'll catch you very soon, with our next HGA.
Till then, take care
Giordano & team
Honest Government Ad | Our Last Fair Election?
Comments
This "Labor" shower passed in excess of 90% of legislation since 2022 with LNP support. Those hoping for a sizable cross bench after the coming (s)election in May might find that the Duopoly will form a Lib/Lab National Salvation "government". This will end even the pretense of MPs representing their constituents rather than toeing the Party line...according to Donor Diktat. If voting could change anything for the better it would be illegal - no matter for whom one votes, government always wins.
A R
2025-04-23 01:05:22 +0000 UTCThis is gold 🥇
Nicki
2025-04-14 05:43:46 +0000 UTCYeah, I agree 100% it's great for auspol that we are having these conversations!
thejuicemedia
2025-02-26 11:01:26 +0000 UTCIt's all good Giordano, love the Juice Media work and been happy patreon for quite a few years. Actually do think the whole debate around parties and 'independence' is good for Australian politics compared to stale horse race duopoly. Just adding my perspective too, from some involvement I declare Between captured parties, media oligarchs and vested interests, actually looking at policy and how political systems operate for or against public and nature's interest, locally, nationally, and internationally is great Cheers
Peter M
2025-02-24 05:42:36 +0000 UTCThanks Peter, this is helpful input. I didn't know about the campaign budgets you mentioned. Still, I feel like we've spent most of this Parliamentary cycle critiquing Labor's policies (eg. housing, the safeguard mechanism, environment laws, stage 3 tax cuts, etc), from a stance that often aligned with that of the Greens. And for the record, we have no relationship with the Greens (we collaborated with the Bob Brown Foundation on our Tasmania episode last year, but that's about it!) so the reason for this is purely because of an alignment of political interests. But since November, when Trump was re-elected, there has been a clear sense that Dutton now has a realistic path to becoming the next PM. It's still much less likely than a minority Labor govt, sure, but as we saw in the US elections, it's best not to take things for granted. And since the best way of keeping the Libs out of govt - as we saw in 2022 - are the Community Independents, that is why I've felt it would be good to dedicate an episode or two to boosting their profile. If you look at the content we've produced since the last election, you'll see these are the only ones we've made since the Coalition was in power. But as I said at the start, I hear ya!
thejuicemedia
2025-02-24 05:30:18 +0000 UTCThanks Giordano, it is actually a bigger conversation about politics that has been stimulated. FWIW Greens actually work with far lower resources than the community independents ran with, they had or spent avg of $650,000 per seat and the duopoly spend even more, while Greens had avg spend ~$120,000 by same criteria in 2022, not evenly distributed. Greens have been decades of work by many ordinary people on these issues with very little resources aside from people volunteering their time and energy or donations. To be honest I think there should be an even lower cap per electorate on all candidates and greater disclosure. I do think the wealthier seat indies actually get a lot more coverage and support from wealthier people and political interests than Greens ever have. They are also less beholden to any position or policy before an election but actually risk this time being in a position to support a Dutton led LNP govt if polling is close. Which would certainly put some people in a place to reconsider their support as well I'd say. Such is our political system. We can see breaking duopoly interests is important even now for getting any decent reforms.
Peter M
2025-02-24 05:07:19 +0000 UTCThanks John!
thejuicemedia
2025-02-24 01:26:21 +0000 UTCLove your work Giordano and team and yes the community independents are the key to ensuring we don't end up with a stuck system between shit and shit lite.
Kary
2025-02-23 21:55:08 +0000 UTCYeh oddly enough some of us are watching what is happening in the US and are thinking nah yeh nah
Kary
2025-02-23 21:54:09 +0000 UTCCheers! :)
thejuicemedia
2025-02-23 21:31:55 +0000 UTCThanks Peter. I hear you. I feel the Greens, which btw we included in the list, are already very well known to people in every electorate, and have enough resources to promote their campaigns where they need to. Whereas Indepedents running for the first time do not have anywehere this level of brand recognition and thus could do with a boost. We are not telling people to "just vote independent" - there are plenty of dodgy or single-issue indepedents out there. That's not what we are encouraging. The message is to vote for Not-Shit candidates - which of course raises the question, who are Not-Shit Candidates? Which is where the list comes in. The Independents on the list are not just random ones - they are endorsed by the Community Independents Project. They do not have a cohesive set of policies, as that would make them a party and contradict the entire point of being an Independent. But the CIP umbrella does provide at least a set of criteria against which they can be differentisated (as Not-Shit) from all the other Indepedents. Which I think is really helpful and valuable for people might want to vote for someone other than the majors, but not be surre which of the other unknown options on their ballots they can trust! And yes, many of them lean liberal with a small L. But that also makes sense because almost all of these Community Independents are running in L/NP seats that are very unlikely to elect a Greens or Labor candidate. In other words, they are generally not competing for Greens/Labor votes but for Liberal/National votes. (Franklin in Tasmania is one of the exceptions). It's a bigger conversation of course, I just wanted to respond to your message and acknowledge the concerns you raise!
thejuicemedia
2025-02-23 21:31:41 +0000 UTCHi Lea, the list basically consts of Community Indepedents, the Greens and a few others, eg Rex Patrick, Andrew Wilkie, Purplepingers. It is not an exhaustive list, but as mentioned in the post, I wanted to give people some options to consider beyond the major parties. Ellie in Dickson is a strong candidate and super brave to be taking on the malignant tuber. For more info about what makes a Community Indepedent, check out: https://www.communityindependentsproject.org/?utm_source=Community+Independents+Project&utm_campaign=28e7bb1746-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_04_04_56&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-28e7bb1746-647205533&mc_cid=28e7bb1746&mc_eid=f7ca377690#CI
thejuicemedia
2025-02-23 21:08:56 +0000 UTCThanks LLW!
thejuicemedia
2025-02-23 20:58:51 +0000 UTCThanks Anthony! I sort-of ordered them... the first ones are from one of each state/territory, and after that they are grouped by state/territory... until we reach the alread-elected MPs, who i've put at the bottom of the list... But I agree it's not a very clear order... so maybe I'll tweak it!
thejuicemedia
2025-02-23 20:54:16 +0000 UTCGreat work again and welcome Liv, well done. 👏🏽👏🏽
J A Trevelyan
2025-02-23 05:50:59 +0000 UTCThanks again G and the Juice crew for all your work However I really think there's some issue with the uncritical boosting of so-called community independents without any analysis whilst apparently burying Greens or other parties who have a far more transparent and cohesive set of policies to address the shit-fuckery that have been auspol problems for decades Everyone running for representation is political, some Indies actually can be pretty mediocre, parochial or even conservative and have far more money or resources and represent the wealthiest electorates in the country Just voting 'independent' won't bring any cohesive policy or change. Maybe that's what some want. But also seems wrong to believe there is any cohesive position or policy either
Peter M
2025-02-23 02:39:12 +0000 UTCEllen continues to be part of the Juice Media family, but my impression is that she lives interstate, so will feature in less HGAs as a result. She's on patreon & can be supported (if you can afford it.) I love her ethos and as I currently have the means, I signed up. Just look up Ellen Burbidge. Xo
LLW
2025-02-22 18:11:29 +0000 UTCWelcome, Liv! Gawd, I hope you can spread this HGA far and wide! The voters in Oz need to realize that these kinds of political manipulations will only turn your government into a kakistocracy —like we now have here in the Feudal States of Amnesia.
Mark D Larsen
2025-02-22 16:00:29 +0000 UTCWhat? You don't want a copy of our shitty US electoral duopoly? How strange!
DrWex
2025-02-22 13:43:27 +0000 UTCExcellent as always! And Liv is great
John L Smith
2025-02-22 12:42:49 +0000 UTCDid I miss any news about Ellen, since you said she's a "hard act to follow"? 🤔
Leak
2025-02-22 12:32:15 +0000 UTCHim, or maybe Matt Green?
Leak
2025-02-22 12:30:49 +0000 UTCGreat work on getting this out so quickly. A little suggestion for that “notshitcandidates” link. It might be a good idea to group all the State candidates together. e.g. group all the Vic candidates, then all the NSW candidates, all the SA candidates etc. etc.. At the moment, there doesn’t appear to any sort of order to the list. It would make it much easier for people to find all their relevant State candidates, when they’re all grouped together.
Anthony Hortin
2025-02-22 12:01:57 +0000 UTCThis continues to be great work and I'm grateful for all the shitfuckery exposing you do.
LLW
2025-02-22 11:51:36 +0000 UTCWelcome to the team Liv. You all do a great job.
Alan Tyrer
2025-02-22 10:02:08 +0000 UTCLove your work. I have an idea, any chance of a collab with "Jonathon Pie" over in the UK?
Jim McCarthy
2025-02-22 08:51:02 +0000 UTCHi, love the work! can i ask how you compiled the not shit cndidate list? we have a new independent, shes on there (im in the potato electorate so this election is an important one!) so i need to know if shes a ringer or not. Theres clearly a lot of money there, but its very unclear (ive looked) where it is coming from.
Lea
2025-02-22 08:15:58 +0000 UTCNicely done team! Welcome Liv! I hope the shitfuckery occurring in the USA wakes up Aussies to the Christofascist threat that the South African, PayPal bros, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel pose to the world. We cannot let Australia fall! You need a well-hung parliament!
Jason Orcamoon
2025-02-22 07:12:40 +0000 UTCThanks Shirley! Liv won't see your comment here, so if you can, please post it on the YouTube comments, where she will :)
thejuicemedia
2025-02-22 07:03:38 +0000 UTCWelcome Liv! Fantastic job!
Shawn Adams
2025-02-22 06:55:20 +0000 UTCWelcome you are fabulous good first time
Shirley Foster
2025-02-22 06:48:30 +0000 UTCThe election will be after the 25th of March. Chalmers budget day.
Lawrence Roberts
2025-02-22 06:38:52 +0000 UTC
