Good News from Australia

I think that far too often when I write a blog post on my current country of residence, it ends up being negative.  So I want to bring attention to some good news from New South Wales, where a person has won the right to be identified as neither male nor female:

The Australian high court has ruled that New South Wales must recognise a third gender after handing down its decision in the long-running case of Norrie, who has been fighting since 2010 to have a sex change recognised as non-specific.

Notable is the following argument apparently used in court, suggesting that bureaucrats can't count past two:

Among the arguments of the registrar was that it would cause “unacceptable confusion” if state legislation, the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 (NSW), were to recognise more than two genders. The high court rejected the argument.

More seriously, congratulations are due to Norrie, for successfully winning this four-year legal struggle (and winning costs, too)!

News from Oz: Laugh or Cry?

I haven't posted much this year, as I've been busy finishing off a paper (done now, yay us!)  But there've been a number of stories I've seen from the new Australian government that remind me of the type of things I saw from the American right when I was living there.  That's not a favourable comparison, BTW.

Today's news item isn't that bad, indeed by itself provoked a chuckle:

Tony Abbott’s top scientific and business advisers are at odds over the science of climate change with the chief scientist, Ian Chubb, strongly rejecting assertions that climate science is a “delusion” or a result of “groupthink”.

Or, in other words, guy in charge of science accepts science, guy in charge of making money believes in making money at any cost.

Red Mist Descends

I should really know better: when trying to work, don't read news that isn't sport.  I'll just find something that makes me rage too much to concentrate.

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has distanced himself from the South Australian Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, who described abortion advocates as "pro-death" and suggested children raised by single parents were more likely to be promiscuous and law breakers.

Bernardi’s new book, The Conservative Revolution, also argues against other "non-traditional" families including step families and same-sex families, and says the “understanding that children come into families as gifts, not commodities” is missing in the push for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and surrogacy.

It seems the Senator also likes to criticise Islam, for reasons I'm sure are completely intellectual and not xenophobic.

Fucking Hell

At this point, I think Tony Abbot's party is full of stereotypical movie villains twirling their mustaches.

The Coalition is considering reintroducing a cap on university places despite emphatically ruling it out last year while in opposition.

The minister for education, Christopher Pyne, has confirmed he is considering reintroducing the cap on university places as well as abolishing the compulsory fee paid by students to fund campus services and scrapping the targets that were introduced by Labor to allow more disadvantaged students to enter university.

Anti-education: check.  Anti-poor: check.  Add the anti-science policies I've already discussed, and it reminds me of the line from Pratchett: the only thing that depressed him more than his own cynicism, was that sometimes he wasn't cynical enough.

Climate Body Reopens

Tony Abbot made clear his position after winning the election two and a half years ago by scrapping the position of science minister, funds to stimulate green industries and scrapping the Climate Commission, a body tasked with analysing the science of climate change.  In a small piece of good news, the Commission has reopened:

An Australian climate change body scrapped by the new government has been relaunched as a non-profit organisation reliant on public donations. 

 ...

But the group resurrected itself as the Climate Council, saying it hoped "Obama-style" public donations raised online would keep it open

Australia is the developed world's worst polluter per head of population.

Election Records

2008, November 4th: US election.  I was in the US, in my primary residence.  Result: Obama wins White House, Democrats take both houses.  The best possible result at that time.

2010, May 6th: UK general election.  I was not in the UK at the time.  Tories win, and proceed to prove how little they care for the poor.

2011, May 2nd: Canadian Federal election.  I was travelling to a conference, and thus missed the actual election date.  Despite having been held in contempt of parliament for lying, conservative government not only is reelected, but with an increased margin of victory.

2013, September 7th: Australian Federal election.  Despite Australia having enjoyed economic growth during the world recession, the government is voted out in place of an anti-science, homophobic conservative.

I need to stop travelling during elections.

ID Problems

I've been in Australia for two weeks now.  Much as I expected, the stress and worry I was feeling prior to the move evaporated almost as soon as I got here.  That's not to say that looking for a permanent place to stay and wading through the new-job bureaucracy has been easy, but it hasn't put me on edge to nearly the same degree.

One thing that has come up is the issue of ID.  I'm not sure if I just had good luck in North America, but the requirements here for apartments or phone contracts seem perverse.  In general, I'm poorly disposed to any demands more stringent than I needed to enter the bloody country.  But it seems to be popular to use a points-based system where a passport is only half the required number of points.  When I inquired about a mobile phone contract yesterday, I was told I would need:

Beginnings

So.  I've made it to Melbourne.

So far there's nothing about this city to mark it any different from the rest of the English speaking world, but I expected that; such is the nature of globalisation.  And I've barely explored the place, just a few areas around the University.  No killer spiders so far!

Also as I expected, I feel much happier to have finished my travelling without incident.  Even with all the quarantine warnings, the Australian customs and immigration services were friendly (if a little slow).  I flew through LAX, and was questioned more closely by the Americans just for that short trip.  Of course, saying that immigration officials are nicer than the US is very much a low bar to pass; I had to pass through less security to enter a UK naval base than to enter the US!

The one big shock has been the prices here, which are pretty high.  Also, there's one obvious thing that marks being in a different country, the money.  The Australian 2 dollar coin is one of the smallest, which is just weird (compare the Canadian toonie or the UK two pound coin).  But in all, I am feeling optimistic about the next year or three I'll be spending here.