posted 11-19-98 04:27 AM ET        

In the US we have a beer called Fosters. A friend of mine went to Australia and could not find the beer or anyone who knew about it. Do you know about the beer that sells itself as "it's Australian for Beer mate".

What are the major issues that your political candidate yack about. I really have no idea about the issues that you all think important.

posted 11-19-98 05:13 AM ET            

That being said, most of the rest of Australians that I know personally are actually really nice and friendly and completely (un-racist) .. they have pretty much the same social issues as the typical European or North American but get alot more sun !!!

posted 11-19-98 07:31 PM ET            

Yes, Fosters is an Australian beer. Though the tale behind it is a rather ammusing one. In Australia, almost no-one drinks the stuff, and no, I am not kidding when I say that. Fosters is a marketing miracle by Carlton and United breweries (I think), whereby they managed to export the stuff that no-one here would touch with a barge-pole to every country in the world.

That's why when we go overseas, and someone offers to buy us a Fosters, we generally say "thanks, but no". On top of which, when we travel, we want to try out the local varieties.

As for the bloke that didn't know about Fosters, all I can say is that either he must be very young, or very out of touch. Fosters first came out, oh, about 10 years ago now, maybe a bit longer. I was a bit young back then, so it is a bit hard to be too sure. But if he was young, he may not have heard of it...

Interesting statistice: Aussies are inthe top 3 beer consuming countries int he world, along with Germany, and some Baltic state whose name I can't remember. I think that's based on beers per capita, not total consumption.

Political issues. Well, it is rather funny to me that for a country that has to vote (no, we don't have an option like America, we HAVE to vote), a lot of the young (ish) people like myself are very politically, um, challenged. Um, maybe apathetical is a better idea. Most of us just consider our politicians to be so incompetent that we think voting for them just encourages them.

For argument's sake, I get lost every time you Yanks start talking about the right or left wings, conservative and, I dunno, whatever the opposite is. Like, what the hell is the conservative right? I have no idea.

We have two main parties, Labor, and the Coalition. The Coalition is made up of an alliance of two parties, the Liberals, and the Nationals. Labor is very blue-collar worker-ish. They're the party that backs unions and the like, and have been in power for the last 3-4 elections, up to the previous one, about 3 years ago.

Anyway, despite my apathy, we do have issues which we find important of course. Just recently in the election a couple of months ago, the main issue was the introduction of a GST. The Coalition were backing a GST, and Labor were against it. The coalition were in power, and Labor's main policy was no GST. Strangely enough.

Anyway, then along came One Nation, a political party based on "One people, one Nation". A lot of their views were seen as racist, and indeed a lot of their policies were aimed at "foreigners" or "immigrants". Policies such as a total ban on immigration of any sort saw them as being called racist, which was a bit unfair, based on the policy itself.

However, there was a lot of racist undertones to the party. I was never really too sure about what they really were for, and against, and I found it hard to make an informed decision. All I really got to see was the very vocal stuff in the media. However, it was almost impossible to tell how biased it was. I sort of stuck clear, as I tend to think that where there's smoke, there's fire, and there were a lot of people saying she was racist.

But as I said, I really didn't bother trying hard enough to find out what their real policies were. And of course, they attracted all the rednecks, which just gave them a worse name.

Anyway, in the state elections in Queensland a few months before the Federal elections, One Nation grabbed quite a few seats in the Queensland parliament, enough that neither of the main parties could form a government. But in one of the most extraordinary pieces of politics in history, Labor and Loberal at one point actually stated that they would join together, rather than give One Nation the balance of power.

So, in the end, I can't remember exactly what ended up happening (it is Queensland, and I am a New South Welshman (state of New South Wales), so I really don't follow interstate politics too much). But I don't think they got any sort of power, though they did get about 10-15% of seats.

Anyway, onto the federal elections. One Nationw as tipped to get quite a few seats in the Senate, and a few in the Lower house as well. However, in another first, Labor and the Coalition actually gave their preferences to each other, rather than One Nation, and in the end, One Nation got no seats int he lower house, and all of 1 seat in the Senate.

It was seen as a major blow to racism in the country, though that is just the media hyping everything again. In fact, even the One Nation leader, Pauling Hanson, lost her seat in the Lower House, even though she was first in the primary voting. Preferences from the two major parties forced her out by a narrow majority.

So, in the end, the Coalition got back in, and it is a GST for us. Except that the bloody Democrats (a minor party that exists only in the Senate), is blocking the government's legislation.

The govt wanted a 10% GST, accross the board, including food. The democrats are refusing to budge on their stance that food should not be a part of the GST. The government of course argues that in being voted in, it received a "clear mandate from the people" on the GST. It has only been a month or two though, and from what I see, not too much is really going on, though the Coalition wants to get the legislation through before Christmas, with it being introduced sometime just before the Olympics.

Actually, just realised that above where I have been saying "the lower house" I should have been saying the "House of Representatives", which is comprised of the Lower and Upper Houses. Apart fromt he fact that the Lower House is more important than the Upper, I have no idea what the heck the two of them do.

As I said, some of us youngsters are very apathetical about government. We don't seem to have the fascination with it that a lot of Americans seem to.

As to DJRREBEL's statement about racism, I don't really know how true that might be. Most younger people like myself are quite non-racist, though I suppose it is funny, in that we do joke around about it quite a lot. I talk about "bloody Yanks" a lot, but it is just poking fun at them, in no way am I being serious. And I think that is where a lot of the misconception comes from.

As a country I think we are actually quite liberal. We have fairly loose immigration policies, and in fact we have a very high percentage of "immigrants" in our country. Going back 100 years or so, about 70-80% of our nation was of Anglo-saxon, or Anglo-Irish, well, basically of "white" extraction. Note that when I say that I am not being racist, just trying to describe something.

Anyway, today that number is down to about 50%, and most of that is due to immigration. So, as I was saying, as a country, I think we are quite open in our views. As I look around me at work, I work with persons of the following extractions dirsctly in my team:
One Indian or Pakistani (never asked him)
Three Asians
Two Russians
Four "whites" (for want of a better term)

And I get on well with all of them. No problems with them, and I think they have no problems with me. I don't judge them on the colour of their skin, I judge them on their actions and personality. I like to think that a lot of Australians are just like me. But maybe that's just me being naive.

One thing I do know is that we have very little racial villification, such as the KKK in America, Apartheid in South Africa, or the separatists in Canada. There's the occasional incident, but every country has it's bad apples.

All in all, what with the KKK in America, ther teratment of the native Americans and the Blacks, and the French people in Quebec(?) in Canada wanting to separate, I always find it rather bemusing that people label us as racist. I think we all have our problems with racism, and personally I don't think that Australia is any more racist than any other country.

And doesn't it strike you as funny that countries such as China or Japan make it impossible for us to emigrate there, and yet when we try and suggest the same, we are suddenly racist?

Interesting...