EXCHANGE INTERFACE

It's been a week, even over here.

Creatively focusing is difficult right now, particularly where the ordering of thoughts is necessary. So writing is hard. Quilting is easier, but still difficult.

This morning, I went to the new independent candidate's launch. I kind of wanted to see what she was like, because I hadn't heard of her before this.

She seems nice. A little less polished than the kind of politician we're used to: our current member of parliament is 100% lawyer. I swear, his hair is brylcreemed. It looks like a damn helmet. She's a mum and a businesswoman. Divorced at least once, must be remarried at least once.

HILARIOUSLY, she has the wife of a former conservative MP on her team! I am gathering that politics around that dinner table is most definitely Not A Thing right now...

I spoke with her afterwards - there were perhaps 60-70 people at the launch, most were volunteers already involved. I didn't get a chance to ask the questions I wanted, mostly because I didn't know how to phrase them, and it's kind of difficult to ask as bluntly as one would like. But she seemed like someone pretty decent.

I took a corflute (placard, sign) and will put it up tomorrow morning. See if I get any conversations out of it? IDK.

I need to type up the notes I put into my phone at least, which are as follows, dumped from my evernote:

The V couple, R and...? About how they got into V. Action is the antidote to despair.

HR - the wife of R talked. The constitution of Australia, about the PH post office closer and the absence of leadership. Time for change. The swing is on.

A guy from banking finance, talking about his history, but his concerns abut the energy transformation. Sustainable economy. Fossil fuel lobbyists, swarmed, zero corp tax paid by exxon on 16bn.
Conversations about politics. The importance of the community led communications.

KH: cancer survivor and advocate, someone who T has helped personally. Talking about the importance of medical funding.

TB
Time for change. LC KUR BRW national parks, surrounded by LNP on all sides. development czars. Time to stop talking and start doing.
Cost of Living, government is doing nothing. Getting kids back to school is pricey. Increased funding for Medicare. No support for families during medical crises. Broader issues mean an increase in mental health failures.
Talking won't resolve the DV issue.
Times up for pd with the nuclear power system
Climate and bushfire. This is our new normal. Times up for JL his heart isn't in it anymore. BRW isn't his concern.
It's their time. Our children's time, to have a future that can live into, that they can be proud of.
K couldn't raise a response from either of the LNP members
It's your time. It's our time. Time for less talk, more action. Put the ppl first. To deliver for BRW.

I am wondering how many people I can get with simply "put the indie first, then LNP second. If the indie bombs, you're gold".

IDK, I'm having another crisis of personal likeability tonight. Convinced that everyone is out partying and none of them have invited me. That I'm just not the person that people actively specifically think that they'd like to include. *sigh*

--

Anyway, I have just asked my FB friends if they know what the Shirley Exception is. So far, 6 for 'no', although one went to look it up and said "she knows the concept, but didn't have a name for it". She's also a lawyer. I'm curious whether people on here know.

I would expect more of us to know, mostly because we are the kind of people who end up classified in the Shirley Exception by our friends and family and colleagues and so forth, and the Shirley Exception does not protect us.