"You know, Bush really f*%ked things up for everyone."

~ Intoxicated Sydneysider

While riding the skyrail in Kuranda, Megan and I shared a gondola with a couple from Western Australia. We learned a bit about the politics of the country. In WA, they don't like those "East Coast elites" (i.e., Sydney, Canberra, etc.) telling them what to do or how to live. One of the hot-button issues was daylight savings - the east coast cities preferred them, according to this couple, while working citizens from their area opposed it. They alluded to the fact that citizens are required to vote or else they face a fine.

But what interested me was how similar the arguments there are to the arguments here. The details may differ, but the ideas are the same. What role should the government play in our lives? What responsibilities belong to the government, and what belong to us alone? (We had another conversation about politics our last night in Sydney with a young person, drunk, who stole Megan's olives without asking; this drunk woman's main point: "You know, Bush really f*%ked things up for everyone.")

I uploaded more pictures to flickr. I wasn't very discriminating as I took picture after picture.