Stand up and be counted

Last month, the Australian census was on. I only realised this the day it was happening, since there we suddenly reports in the papers. In a bit of a flap, I hunted around to see what I had to do, only to discover that if you live overseas, you don’t take part.

With nearly a million Aussies living abroad, this seems like a mighty gap when it comes to counting our nation.

So this year, an Adelaide academic is conducting a survey of us expats. Will be fascinating to see what profile it draws.

I was especially amused by the competitive angle pushed by the organisers in their recent press release. Playing to our most basic instincts, they turned it in to a competition with New Zealand. Seems the Kiwis did a similar thing earlier this year and got 18000 responses. So far, the Australian one has about 5700. We’ve got some work to do, so if you know some Aussies living overseas, send them the link!

Shane

Some good news in Australian politics

The Queensland state election was held on the weekend. Whilst Premier Peter Beattie was returned, the good news was the result for the Greens. Although hard to get in the mainstream media, Ben Oquist has the news on his blog.

The Greens had a great result, increasing their vote 20% on the 2004 poll. Of course the mainstream media have made little of this. True to form, the Greens were talked down leading in the poll, as happens so often, then polled strongly on the day.

With Family First winning less than 2%, One Nation just 0.6%, and the Democrats not even appearing in the summaries on ABC online, there is now no question that the Greens are the third and growing force in Australian politics. Exactly what the country needs.

Shane

I thought so!

Things have been a little quiet on this blog recently. Too much work on the plate, but get ready for a bit of a flood of catch up posts.

And speaking of floods, the news this week confirmed what I suspected - that August really was a very damn soggy month here in the Netherlands, and certainly didn't feel like summer.

With a monthly rainfall in Augsut of 185mm, this was basically three times the average of 62mm. Fortunately June and July were great, and right now we are having a burst of autumn sunshine. Fingers crossed it lasts!

Shane