Fight on Progressive Australia... Good Message to the Left everywhere

For those of us in Australia who believe in progressive values, these are horrendous times.

But writing 10 Things has made me realise that there are a lot of us around. And without wanting to get too mawkish, hopefully you’ve also realised that there's actually a load of us out there who think we could stand to treat each other with a good deal more kindness.

And, as I’ve said before, a look at the last 50 years of Australian history makes clear that the progressives do win, eventually (although now is the time to protect Medicare and accessible education: those are wheels that it’s going to be expensive and difficult to reinvent) - but we do have to fight, and it’ll take an annoying length of time.

But: we on the Left are a fun bunch to be around, as a rule. We’re funny and we’re friendly and we tend to like a drink, and we work well together. And, at the heart of it, we just straight up like human beings. And as I said before, we’re pretty damn motivated right now.

So what can you do? Well, share information among your networks, be kind and funny and compassionate in your public and private lives, and freakin’ well turn up at rallies and marches since you have a goddamn responsibility for those who can’t. Throwing money at folks like the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is also a nice idea.

And we’ll get through the next two years together, because you know what? People are generally pretty great.

There’s a lot of battles yet to win - like, a stupid number of battles on a huge number of fronts - but we can win ‘em. Honest. And it’ll be mightily worth it.