I have been ashamed and disgusted by the actions of this country since September 7, 2013. Paul Keating was 100% correct in his assessment of the idiot who entered Kirribilli House and became Minister for Women on September 18 of that year.

Before I get to him, though, Kevin Rudd was a man whom, I believe, should have taken note of what Wayne Goss did, especially, as he was a bureaucrat in Goss's Government. From Monday, July 1, 1991, if you were under 23, you had to hold a Learner's Permit to drive a car or ride a motorcycle for six months before you could go for your practical driving test and you had to hold your provisional licence for three years (up from one year) before you could go onto your open licence. I missed that cut-off by six months. Had I been nine months older, I would have only had to have held a learner's permit for six weeks before going for my practical test and had I passed it on Friday, June 28, 1991, I would have probably been told, "You're lucky. Three days later and you'd have to hold your provisional licence a further two years." But had I obtained my Learner's in May, 1991, I would have been able to go for my practical test in July, as it only affected people who went for their learner's permits after July 1, 1991. And, the same as if you went for your provisional licence on or after July 1, 1991.

Kevin Rudd should have said to the detainees on Manus and Nauru, "We will process you and if you are found to be refugees, we will resettle you in Australia." He should NOT have denied asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru the chance to be resettled in Australia at the time he made the announcement.

Perhaps one of the most shameful incidents in our history, apart from a real life version of "AN Idiot Abroad" was in 1999. Like many, I watched the coverage from the Brisbane Tally Room on the night of the 1998 Election and held my breath, but opened a Strongbow in celebration when news was confirmed that Pauline Hanson had lost her seat. (She won Oxley, but decided, due a redistribution, to move to Blair, and she was defeated. She carried on with how the the voting system was unfair, but what she willfully ignored was the fact that 62.9% of the electorate didn't want her even if she scored the most of any one candidate). Having been returned but with a reduced majority, John Howard morphed from "One can be critical without being labelled racist," to "Bordering on deranged," to copying her refugee policy!

The idiot who entered Kirribilli in September, 2013, on a platform of "Stopping the boats" and "Axing the tax!" was also the self-appointed Minister for Women, and one of the most disgusting things said was from Cash, who claimed that the Minister for Women didn't have to be a feminist (almost like saying that a participant in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program didn't have to be pro-Japanese) and that idiot claimed that "Of course I'm a feminist. I have three daughters." (a bit like saying, "Of course I'm pro-Japanese, I've had three Toyotas." a) Okay, I went to university with an older woman who said that her father died in 1993, and up until the day he died, he wouldn't have anything Japanese, however, there were some people who had Japanese cars but weren't pro-Japanese, and, b) not all Toyotas are made in Japan and unlike cars, you don't get any choice over what sex of child you get. My brother hoped for a little girl but with his first, he had a little boy. With his second, he got a little girl).

A former Brisbane Lord Mayor, Frank Sleeman, was a POW in Changi and he refused to meet delegates from Kobe. Some have said that they can understand it, to which I say, the Japanese delegates might not have had anything to do with the guards who mistreated him in Changi, they might not have even been born at the time. Some have said, in hate, that Scotty From marketing wasn't her abuser, and to that I say, "The Japanese delegates from Kobe weren't going to bash Frank Sleeman. And some ex-POWs take it to extreme levels, like saying that they won't attend conventions because they might hear a Japanese voice 53 years after the war, and to that, I say, "Okay, the drinks waiter might be Japanese, and even if the drink waiter's grandfather was a guard in Changi, or on the Thai-Burma Railway, the drink waiter's grandfather was the abuser, not the drink waiter." Some have said, in hate, that Scotty From Marketing wasn't the abuser, to which, I say, if you defend Frank Sleeman but attack Grace Tame, you have double standards."

I had some fool tell me the other day to go and live in China if I thought it was so great, to which I say, I am NOT anti-Chinese, however, I can see through Dutton's preposterous anti-China rhetoric and it would be obvious to anyone who knew some history that Dutton doesn't know much. He talks of unarmed conflict between Japan and China over a group of islands, and anyone who knew anything about that would know that tension between Japan and China over that has been occurring for decades just like between Japan and Russia over the Kurile Islands. Japan and China had the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5, which Japan won and annexed Korea and occupied Taiwan. The fact that Taiwan was a Japanese protectorate for 50 years and the fact that Chiang Kai-Shek moved his KMT party there, after Mao Zedong proclaimed the PRC, has had some bearing on tensions between China and Taiwan. That does not justify Dutton's rhetoric.

People attack older people as "boomers" but what needs to be remembered is, Arthur Calwell, as leader of the Labor Party, was vehemently in favour of the White Australia Policy, it was not until Gough Whitlam became leader that Calwell heard talk from Whitlam, Grassby and Dunstan that the policy was to change. Amongst some of the boomers, Arthur Calwell was seen as more of an historical curiosity than a serious political leader. So, it was some of the boomers who protested against the Vietnam War and Australia's involvement in it, it was some boomers who voted for a party that abolished the White Australia Policy.

I'm not a young man (I'm not an old man, either), but I am right behind the young people when it comes to school strikes for climate change; I am right behind the young people on many matters. I am dead-against Pauline Hanson, and I have people younger than me (Canavan is an example), who are on the opposite side of the political fence.

I have not voted Liberal and was FURIOUS with John Howard over the Tampa Incident. I lived in a world where Sting asked if the Russians loved their children, too. I lived in a world where the Veronicas joined protests against the detention of Baby Asha. I have lived in a world that saw young people rush to register to vote in the postal survey that was a precursor to legislation to make marriage equality a reality. I lived in a world where the face of the No Campaign was told by his electorate, "You won't retire, so we'll make the decision for you. Toodle-oo!" I hope I can live in a world that sees the smiling white men on Treasury benches booted out, especially Dutton.