Temporary Nomad

Australia’s federal election was held yesterday and was a resounding success for the Australian Labor Party, as well as not too bad for The Greens. The Liberal Party, in power for more than 11.5 years under John Howard has suffered a huge swing against it. So we now have a Prime Minister called Kevin.

Mike and I were politically active this time, also the first time I’ve actually voted in person at a polling booth since the 1998 election, three days before I left to go overseas. We handed out fliers for a group called GetUp! Not a political party, a campaign group, which was asking voters to restore balance to the senate (Australia’s equivalent of the Eerste Kamer or House of Lords), which has been dominated by the Liberal party for some time and as result has been rubber stamping all their legislation, rather than acting as a house of review.

We can’t possibly know if we made a difference, standing there handing out fliers and pencils all morning, but it looks like South Australians will have two senators from minor parties, one Green and one independent, so perhaps we helped that to happen. You can see online exactly how our booth, Tusmore, in Sturt, voted in the senate.

Who knows, maybe we convinced someone who tipped the balance. At least I feel we did our bit for democracy this time.

Amongst all the trips to exotic locations and new employment opportunities, Mike and I have also been working on finding a place to live. And this week it seems we’ve finally found it.

This could be our new front door!

While we haven’t actually signed the lease, we do have an appointment to sign and as Mike has said countless times – for once in our lives we seem to be a real estate agent’s dream tenants: it’s amazing what expecting a baby can do for your status.

I’m especially looking forward to romping around in the great big backyard, which is quite a bonus given it’s only a 10 minute stroll through the parklands to the city centre:

Out the back there’s even a lemon tree.

So now, after a year with no fixed abode we’re looking forward to having room for visitors to stay. And, of course, finally finding out what on earth we put in all those boxes we shipped back to Australia so long ago.

Image credits: Bowman Morse

The Australian newspaper tells it like it is.

Prime Minister Howard, on the eve of his electoral downfall, has finally started listening to me swearing about his policies over my breakfast, The Australian newspaper reports today. Calling me a radical for holding that a free and civilized country requires a legal system with habeas corpus, due process, and the presumption of innocence, Mr Howard continued “by not being scared witless by the threat of evil terrorist masterminds plotting to blow him up, Garrett obviously shows he has no love for his country, doesn’t understand economics, and has the brain of a pea.”

“I hope he chokes on his weetbix reading about the latest pronouncements by Kevin Andrews, my immigration minister”, he added.

Complaints that the PM’s office has been illegally taping my breakfast outbursts have been rejected on the grounds that “anyone deemed to be a radical by the PM are an obvious threat to national security. We can’t just have the people making rational judgments. This is an election!” a government spokesperson reported.

The PM’s office claims it has passed on my comments concerning the article to the ASIO Department for Extreme Voter Terrorism Fear, and for swearing, has reported me to my mother.

I’ve started working at one of the coolest companies in Australia, Carbon Planet. And that’s official – they’re finalists in the ‘Social Capitalist’ category of the 2007 ‘Cool Company Awards’.

It’s a great place to work, and we’re helping to save the planet at the same time. The Carbon Planet mission is

“to enable every individual and organisation on the planet to eliminate their global warming impact.”

and you can do it straight away by offsetting your own personal emissions by buying carbon credits direct from Carbon Planet.

Within a couple of weeks of starting I was already being asked to lend a hand at various different things, including staging a video-conference via iChat to illustrate how much friendlier to the environment it is than flying to meetings. The photo ended up on the front of the latest newsletter!

So, now all you Europeans can feel better about coming all the way to Australia to visit us!

UPDATE: Carbon Planet has made the finals again for 2008 of the ‘Cool Company Awards’ in the ‘Social Capitalist’ category. And the Carbon Planet schools education program has also just gone live. Check out Operation:Coolenation and become a Planet Saving Super Hero!