Ask Steph

I woke up this morning to the news that a gorgeous women,  an Instagram celebrity in Pakistan had been murdered in cold blood by her brother.  The headlines screaming out about honour killings and so forth.  So how about this, collective Bad-Ass women of the world, how about we collectively refuse to call these things Honour killings.  It demeans and degrades the word Honour to do so, it implies that there is some kind of twisted honour in being a sociopath whose worth is determined by the behaviour of the property of your family. Girls are property in certain parts of the world let's not forget.  How about we all call it what it is , a murder that's all about male shame. A great big shame for the family for harbouring and promoting murder. Shame for the family because they think women and females belong to them.   Shame for the brother who right now looks sub-human to me, in my angry raging feminist tirade.  Can we stop implying there is something goo...

Oh my , it's tomorrow ! Following on from my previous 2 posts as I attempted to get some info on the smaller parties in my area : Candidate for the AJP , Summary of Twitter Kerfuffle This is my final pre-election post, chock full of last minute important info you will need to know. And a brief overview of the Science Party ( who really seem to have caught my eye )  As you go in to vote tomorrow remember the following  - Preferences do matter, especially if you're not swayed by the scaremongering campaigns.  -Voting for minor parties will not cause instability ( because of the beautiful aforementioned preference voting system) - Please for the love of God, DON'T Donkey vote ( seriously ...don't be a lazy eejot) - You must number ALL the candidates on the green ballot  - you must EITHER pick 6 parties (above the line) , or 12 candidates (below the line) on the white ballot   - You can get a fresh ballot if you make a mistake - just ask...

Ok then, so I'm still waiting for Lee Kavanagh from the Drug Law Reform Party to reply , and haven't managed to track down contact details for Trevor Bishop from Family First. I did leave a request on the Family First website , but they haven't responded. I could probably guess most of Trev's replies though, especially on his party's policies on treating the LGBTQI community with fairness and human decency. My inclination to defend your right of religious freedom strains when you start using your religion as an excuse to enforce your view of how other should live their lives, when it has no effect on you. I can only feel desperately sorry for you, that your marriage and relationship with your children is so fragile that the mere thought of 2 men getting married is sufficient to lay waste to those relationships completely. Also there are several studies , from people without any religious agenda, that backup the reality that children who are loved by their pare...

Righty oh . So I eventually tracked down some candidates from the lists that are available : there are 6 candidates standing for Goldtstein (the electorate where I live.) I've reached out via email to the people that get no airtime from the media, probably because they don't have the same budget as the big parties . Which is weird, because I could have sworn I lived in a democratic country with an independent media ... But never mind.  Below is the responses of Naren , from the  Animal Justice Party.  Naren's profile on the ABC's  website : http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2016/guide/gold/ What are your parties policies in supporting small local businesses to expand interstate, and internationally.  I am a small business owner myself Stephanie. My office is in Elsternwick and I employ three people. I'm in support of policies to help small businesses grow. What is your personal stance on tax incentives to promote local employme...

I've been here 6 years ... I've chosen to become an Australian citizen, and now in a couple of weeks time  I will vote for the first time in federal and state elections. I've done the local elections couple of years ago. Honestly was not impressed with who won, so I moved. That was a joke, we didn't move because a labor thug won our ward, there were a lot more pressing and urgent reasons why we sold the house and moved. But yes, as you can tell, I don't have much time for the labor party.  Here's what I've learned in these 6 years ( for my fellow dual nationals ) :  1) There are many more choices than liberal or labor, the media however goes to great lengths to ensure you don't hear about them.  2) Liberals and labor stand for very little beyond points scoring and keeping power. There are very few debates of substance , and if you want to know what they stand for you're going to have to do a lot of your own leg work.  3) Labor is ...

This is another gratitude post. And this one is a soppy, sappy, love fest for my Mom. My mom is amazing. If anything, my mom is the poster child for resilience. I have never met anyone quite like Cynthia Gaddin. Except perhaps for my friend Maxine Hearn, whose bravery in the face of the hurdles life throws up at her, reminds me often of the strength my mother has. My mom quietly gets up every morning and carries on with her life, facing all the same troubles and demons that leave her exhausted every night.  My Mom gives of her time, her energy and her love to anyone in need. Her daughter (thats me ! ) and both sons have been recipients several times over in the past of her last bit of cash, food, or any other resource that we may have needed along the way. And her grandson is bestowed with everything that Granny could possibly give him in love, attention, guidance, support.   She has very little herself very often, and yet , she will still give to those that...

Not to brag ... Oh who am I kidding, I'm bragging ;) . My Ice Breaker speech went excellently well I thought.  I prepared, practised over and over, even tweaking which stories about me I wanted to tell and how I would tell them.