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If one thing defines me, it's that... I'm a lucky bloke.
I had great parents, a first class (middle class) upbringing, a quality education, and enjoyed excellent health (and excellent health care when I needed it). We lived in an area with nice neighbours and plenty of green space, I always had enough to eat and every opportunity to be involved in sporting and cultural groups. I later received a quality university education which cost me a few thousand dollars, I've had the opportunity to work in public health care around Australia for more than 20 years and to meet a range of interesting and diverse people. I've also been fortunate enough to work on occasion with Indigenous people on better health outcomes for their community.
In the early 1990s I had the opportunity to work in the US for several years and to see the differences between their health care system and ours. I lived and worked in Chicago, where the Bulls were unbeatable and the Winter weather was unbearable. On the streets, on the buses, on the train, and in the area where I lived I encountered: the working poor, the homeless, violent and dysfunctional neighbourhoods, inequality, and overt racism. For the first time I saw situations where the quality of policing, health care, and education was dependent on where you lived, what job you had, and how much money you made. At the same time I saw a different side of Americans. People who didn't believe they lived in the greatest country on earth, people who expected more (not less) from their government, people who felt there was a better way to run education, health care, law and order, and foreign policy. Great people who knew they'd been promised something better, and felt they deserved a lot better.
It made me angry. It made me want to come home, to a place where I honestly believed those injustices didn't exist. At least not at comparable levels.
When I came home, I looked at my country as if through fresh eyes. I began to realise that we do have problems, significant problems, with race, with equality, with fairness, with access to education and health, with homelessness, with poverty, with significant numbers of working poor. We weren't a classless society, and we didn't live in a meritocracy. That didn't make me angry, it made me sad and disillusioned. And it made me do.... essentially nothing.
In my time overseas I'd managed to slip off the electoral roll, and I was pleased to not have to participate politically in a society which had let me down, or to vote for politicians who were all the same, and who weren't prepared to alter the status quo.
And then something really important happened... John Howard was elected PM. I saw in Howard someone who represented the polar opposite of everything I believe in and everything I believed my country stood for. I saw him set about changing the country into a nation built in his image, not mine. I saw things that had disappointed me, start to alarm me. I saw the fabric of my country change... quickly and significantly. And it made me want to do something.
I re-enrolled to vote. I was happy to show up on polling day and have my say. I spoke with people about what I believed our nation should be, and what it shouldn't be. A lot of them told me what they thought. And on many things we agreed with each other and disagreed with Howard. I became progressively more politically engaged and better informed. And I voted... mostly for the Greens.
And then another big event occurred. The Bligh government was decimated in the recent State elections. I'd seen what Howard had done when he was given control of both houses, and with no Senate in Queensland (which unfortunately was Labor's doing in 1922) I had grave fears for my state. Those initial fears have now been exceeded by the Newman government.
So in April this year, I joined the Labor party.
I joined because I thought the party needed my skills, my voice, my efforts... my help. I joined at a time when membership was sinking, morale was low, challenging times were ahead, Clive Palmer was trumpeting its demise, the critics were loud and they seemed to be everywhere, but most importantly I joined because... the party's values are my values.
When I look back on the things that have made the biggest difference in my life, they have been things which Labor made more accessible for everyone. As physically beautiful as this country is, without all the changes the Labor party have brought this isn't a place I'd like to live. I don't agree with everything the party has done, but being a member means having a voice in the great things I believe the party still has to do.
Being involved also feels much better than disengagement, agitation or activism at the edges.
I believe there are many things we need to change or improve to make this an even better, fairer, kinder, and more prosperous nation for ALL. I believe Labor is a part of the solution, and I want to play a part.
I believe that every Australian has a right to be as fortunate as I've been, and I'd suggest that the Labor party believes the same thing.
That's my story. Others have their own, unique 'Labor story'.
What's yours?