Round and round the mullberry bush…

The monkey chased the weasel...

Okay, I've been busy, and so tardy with the blog, so I missed out on blogging the election being called last Sunday. After waiting so long for the election to be declared and the 'real' campaign to begin, it's a bit of a let-down to finally be election mode. So much so that I can't seem to muster much excitement about it. Don't expect a blow-by-blow account of the campaign from this blog!

Don't get me wrong. I most certainly will be goaded into writing something here about the election campaign by the inevitable stupidity or dog-whistling expected in this campaign. I wonder though if I'll spend more time yelling at the TV than blogging about this.

On the other hand, the thing that has got me tied up in knots is that the Liberal Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews, has decided to cut the refugee intake from African countries because – he claims – some from certain Africa communities are not 'settling' into the "Australia way of life" successfully enough – i.e integrating and assimilating! Yes, I know it's old news, but I've been so confounded by the bare-faced lying and racist scapegoating by the minister that it's been hard to put fingers to keyboard on this.

I'm glad that Cast Iron Balcony managed to do so, and I'm also pleased to see the massive public outcry against the minister's decision and the lack of evidence behind his claims – and his capitalising on the tragic, senseless and apparently racist killing of a young man who was a refugee from Sudan.

The organisations who are campaigning to support refugees and migrants from African should also be congratulated.

I hope to follow this further. I don't want to let this just go away.