EFFIE BATEMAN | Lifestyle | Contact
A disenfranchised millennial has found herself googling a rather standard question about politics this morning, after she realised she didn’t actually know who the Labor Party were.
Born in 1997 and having been only ten years old during the Kevin 07 era, Anita Gibbs (25, dental assistant) has never truly experienced a Labor government in her adult lifetime. And though she isn’t the most politically oriented person, the bombardment of election news has naturally piqued her curiosity and prompted her to make an educated decision on the leader of her country.
But unlike the US, which shows a clear division of beliefs with Republican sand Democrats, albeit, mostly steered by religion, Anita only has a general idea of what Labor and Liberal stand for – and to be honest, there’s a lot of overlap.
Speaking to The Advocate, Anita attempts to sort through her findings and differentiate between the two parties.
“I thought Albo was the leader of ‘The Opposition Party’ – I didn’t know he was the same as Annastacia?”
“I coulda sworn Labor was just a party they have in Queensland and Western Australia” she says.
“But it turns out theres a full on Federal Labor party. It’s so weird, because I never see it in the news”
Unfortunately for Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, Antits’s simple google search of Labor’s history has taken her to some dark corners of the internet.
“So it was originally created to look after the working class and started off as anti immigration to protect the future of blue collar workers, as they deemed that immigrant workers would do labour for less and therefore drive down the minimum wage?”
“Which isn’t the workers fault.. Just the business owners who exploited them, but that’s besides the point.”
“Now Labor is more inclusive and the concept of ‘working class’ has vastly changed, so I guess they’re… targeting socially progressive people and labourers?”
“..which are opposite ends of the spectrum, as anyone who has a tradie dad can confirm they’re not exactly PC friendly haha.”
“But then again, Labor’s views on protecting the environment has the potential to affect labourer’s jobs, which has disenfranchised that demographic.”
“So to combat that, Labor and Liberal have both committed to launching 114 coal and gas mines?”
“Who also share similar views on turning back the boats.”
“Which pisses off the progressives.”
“I don’t know really”
“… Also, who is this Eddie Obeid bloke?”
More to come.
