With the election now nearly five weeks away, today's Media section in The Australian shows that online political activism is alive and well in Australia. And this Not Happy John! website is setting a few goals of its own (and the Liberal Party can't be too happy with their (sorry) web presence!) Thanks for your continued support.

Traffic builds on election hit meter

Sally Jackson

A FEW voters, mainly left-leaning ones, are turning to the internet for information on the federal election campaign, but not many, judging by website traffic figures from Hitwise. Visits to political websites almost doubled after Prime Minister John Howard announced the October 9 poll date on Sunday. However, this was off an exceedingly low base, with visits to sites in the political category that day accounting for just 0.153 per cent of all visits to the roughly 450,000 Australian websites that Hitwise tracks, up from 0.08 per cent the weekend earlier.

According

I eventually got my hands on your book 'Not Happy, John'. I had been frustrated and angry for many years with John Howard and his 'yes men' government. In some cases, I knew the reasons for my anger and frustration (eg Tampa, Iraq) but generally could not 'put my finger' on it. I just knew there was something rotten about John Howard and the way he was 'leading' this country. I thought he was a fake and could not believe Australians seem to think his lies and deceits were 'normal'.

In your book you articulated and expressed what many of us were feeling but couldn't quite put into words. It's a pity your book can't be compulsory reading (I forgot we were a democracy) for those complacent and apathetic Australians who have made an art form of that old saying - 'she'll be right mate'. For nothing will ever 'be right' again in this country thanks to John Howard.

PS: After reading your book I now know why my letters to The Australian are never printed.

E. Schmid is correct in saying that the big two are just as powerful as one another, in their own ways. Their similarities extend to the enforcement of individual MP's being forced to vote according to 'the party line'.

When I started to vote, I voted for Menzies simply because he actually permitted all members to vote according to their conscience and for the best interests of their electorate. In other words, he maintained a trust that as members of the Menzies government, they would be conservative in nature, but still having the freedom to vote for their electorate.

For as long as I can remember, when a Labor member arrives on the Back bench for the first time, he/she is forced to sign a pledge ALWAYS to vote for the party line.

Margo consistently quotes from Menzies famous 1942 speech, and rightly so, for he was probably the last PM to strictly follow the Westminster Act in Parliament, and oblige all his members to follow Queen's Regulations.

I am a seventy year old female Australian citizen living in Canberra. I have retired from one career and I am now working part-time in a completely different field of work, so I am still quite active and out in the world. I really enjoyed your book and appreciate the research you have put into your arguments. The book provides me with an evidentiary basis for my intuitive beliefs that all is not well in our democracy. You have given me the details about John Howard's government and leadership style that have really bugged me in the past and I am really cross that we have let him get away with this.

I enjoyed your suggestions at the end of the book and I am reflecting on what I can do to act postively to change things that are within my zone of control. At least I can soon begin with my $2 vote!

Margo, you might remember me from your childhood. I was that annoying friend from the backwaters of Dalby - Claire Evans/ Taylor. Your mother Jann alerted us to your book which I immediately rushed out to buy as the title immediately resonated with our feelings on the matter. As one of those who have been grumbling for years but felt powerless to change what was happening, I was moved to protest along with all the others in Brisbane over being forced into war. Your book has definitely inspired me to do whatever I can to claw back the shafts of our poor democracy before it slips forever from our grasp. Thanks.

Margo: I sure do remember you. And we never talked about politics! Thank you, Claire.

You're right about the problems with our democracy being, at least in part, due to the voting population. The sad fact is that many are ignorant of our political systems with this ignorance being aided and abetted, if not inculcated, by the media. The matter of preferences being a case in point.

Once again we are in an election campaign and once again the media in general, and the ABC in particular, is misleading the population in discussing the 'fact' that political parties 'give', 'direct', or 'allocate' preferences.

This is totally inaccurate as voters determine their preferences.

Comments heard amongst my acquaintances in the last 24 hours include, 'I'd like to vote for the Democrats but I'll wait to see who they are giving their preferences to' and 'If you vote for a minor party it's a vote for Howard!'. These from people I consider to be reasonably Intelligent.

I consider the media to be derelict in its duty in continuing to promulgate a common

In 1975 I worked happily and hard on the federal election in the Benelong electorate to assist JWH to enter Parliament. I am a former member of the LPA and held many positions within. Now, all I want to see is his back leaving Kirribilli House, the Australian Parliament and public life. I will become involved in the campaign in Benelong to unseat this scurge on this country.

As a former resident in Hunters HIll (George Street), I worked at the Congregation Church, Hunter's Hill polling booth in 1975 and later years. I am an experienced scrutineer, and, by the way, I am an Aboriginal woman who has been personally insulted by JWH on at least two occasions. The first was when he sent a letter to my partner and me thanking us for the hard yards put in on an election - addressed to Dear Warrick and ... - no name! The second was at a fund raiser in Wahroonga for LPA State when he joined the Grieners Snr and us for lunch and when re-introduced to me almost fell over his

Loved the book, just sorry I've not had the time to get it around more. Unfortunately here we have Patrick (the weasel) Secker as our local member. Get this, the member in South Australian who's ENTIRE electorate encompasses the Murray comes out and says that we should not increase flows. Oops I'd better change what I think I said (he said he didn't really mean it). However with a margin of 17% even the drovers dog would win here, if it had a blue ribbon round it's neck. How do I get the stickers or do I print my own?

Sorry, but anyone who seriously thinks Liberal MP Trish Worth deserves the bollocking she's getting on refugees for her passing 'cats & dogs' comment just hasn't been paying attention.

Trish Worth-Voting-For is in fact one of the few Howard government medium-l 'damps' with a fine public track record on refugees, and she's earned it the hard way by going against the prevailing grain both inside her party room and in most of her local mainstream press (= 1 crappy Murdoch tabloid, basically). Toughish gig for a bleeding-heart.

Oh yeah - she's also quietly achieved a lot of good for specific asylum seeker families, even in cases where mammal-analogies - and now reportedly seeking a pro-bono Rights lawyer to pursue a Class Action - are these cuddly chappies.

Thank you, Margo - you are a national treasure!

Your book makes a strong case against the regressive nasty politics that I've witnessed in disbelief in the last 8 years, and I suspect the issues you've discussed are only the tip of the iceberg!! For some time I've been worrying about the government's willingness to put its own survival ahead of our national interest and good governance in Australia. This has been at enormous cost to our national values of equity and diversity, generosity and community, and it may take decades to repair the damage. I am excited by your idea of more participatory journalism and the increasing role of the internet in making governments more accountable to us.

It's been weeks since I read your book. I have to admit it seems strange to me that some people find it depressing. I personally found it uplifting and hopeful. It simply confirmed what I already knew but there it was, in public, in print for all to see.

It seems that Australians, and democratic populations generally, have forgotten what Democracy is and what it's supposed to be. Margo, your next book should be a Democratic tutorial - 'Democracy for Dummies'? I'm serious. You could write it by interviewing politicians from all parties over a couple of schooners of beer and getting them to declare themselves, to put in print their names and their idea of their contract with the Australian people. What I've gleaned from the Liberal voters I know is that they care more for the money than the system of government, which is to say the product rather than the process. This is not to say the ALP, Dems or Greens voters are not similarly weighted towards their own concerns. There seems

Great book, I would love to see it as madatory reading for all our college and university students.

Now that our political leaders are seamingly joined at the hip never to be separated, there appears to be just one remaining policy where Australia has not aligned itself with our American friends. An American Citizen can still expect the full support of their Government and all its resources to extract them from difficulty anywhere in the world.

If David Hicks had been an American and it was Australia which had jailed him without charge, John Howard would very quickly learnt how little respect America has for his Australia. They would simply recover the guy at any cost, with absolutely NO concern about the impact on our Diplomatic relationship. Our Foreign Minister would probably come out in praise of the America for having the guts to do what he is unable to even contemplate.

Many other countries have negotiated the release of the countrymen for trial in thei

Status Quo, Not good enough!

The Sunshine Coast Daily editorial today has confirmed that the sitting coalition party members representing the Sunshine Coast are likely to be returned with an increased margin. This has shocked me into action. I am still maintaining the rage after the last election.

How deplorable that the lazy, laid-back

We are horribly sorry.

We have sent out thousands of stickers and have hundreds more requests, but Penguin, who have been extremely generous, can not provide any more.

John Valder's NHJ! campaign can though. I think they might charge ya, which means you get the bonus of being able to contribute directly to a very important campaign.

Go to www.nothappyjohncampaign.com to check out his site, or email [email protected], or call 02 9929 6818 or post to
NOT HAPPY, JOHN! Campaign
c/o PO BOX 735 Epping, NSW 1710