So, when we heard the announcement a couple of weeks ago that Bruce Springsteen was coming to Perth for the first time ever we were very much looking forward to seeing him again.
First of all, I see it as a very positive sign that Bruce and bacon arrive in Perth this year. Perhaps the worlds most isolated city is beginning to reach out to the world a little bit more. If this keeps up, before we know it Perth will have insulation in the houses and a Starbucks on every corner.
Like many in Perth, we were really keen to see "The Boss". The show is taking place in the new Perth Arena that has been functional for several months but is still not quite completed. The arena itself has been the source of some controversy. It was very much over budget and schedule and, because it's location is in the city right beside the main train station, the construction has caused a great deal of clutter and traffic chaos. Plus, many people here absolutely despise the design.
The arena has been called "bold, imaginative, unique and unmistakable". That's all true. But it's also completely out of place with the rest of Perth. This is a building that belongs in Melbourne and it also demonstrates our suspicions that the modern Perth is trying to model itself after Melbourne.
So, that's where Bruce is playing. Then we looked into the prices. For a single ticket in the Perth Arena it ranges from $150-230. So needless to say, we aren't going at those prices. At first blush you might think the prices are so high because it's Bruce (freaking) Springsteen: an iconic, historic performer who's live show has been called the best in the world. But in fact, in most US and Canadian cities the price for this concert is at least half as much. All concerts in Perth are expensive. There are a few reasons for this:
1) It costs a lot of money to move a big concert, including equipment and crew to an island in the south east corner of the planet.
2) Everything is expensive in Australia, even more so in Perth.
The bottom line: we're not going. :(
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There is a very popular soap opera in Australia at the moment. It's been dominating the Australian television screens for about 4 years and is the talk on the radio and around the water cooler the next morning. The plot is a little like Dallas or Dynasty in the 80's. It goes something like this:
About 4 years ago Kevin assumed control of the business. Kevin took over from the previous boss who was in charge for almost a decade and was fairly popular and charismatic. Unfortunately, Kevin is not charismatic but is rather a bit of a nerdy intellectual who has a tendency to be snarky and sarcastic when he is challenged. As a result, the companies shareholders start to lose faith in Kevin almost immediately after he takes over. Kevin's former ally on the board, Julia, sees this as an opportunity to challenge Kevin's leadership and take over. Julia is a charismatic, outgoing, polished leader. She convinces the board that the shareholders would have more faith in her than they would in Kevin in the role of leader. So, Kevin is ousted and Julia takes over. Unfortunately, Julia is all sizzle and very little steak. While she is strong politically she makes many business decisions that alienate her customers and only serve to strengthen her allies on the board. Meanwhile, Tony is an outsider who is trying to take over the company. He is trying to convince the shareholders to sell to him and let him get the company back on track. Tony is a typical corporate raider. He is well dressed, polished and a bully. He was born into privilege and believes that the best way for the company to prosper is to cater to it's biggest, richest and most influential clientèle. Very quickly into her reign, it becomes apparent that Julia is not popular with the shareholders nor the companies client base. As Tony's position becomes more and more credible and his message is heard the board decides that they will turn back to Kevin as leader so that they can stave off the challenge from Tony.
By now I'm sure you've realized that this daily drama is Australian federal politics. Kevin Rudd is the current Prime Minister after ousting Julia Gillard in an internal leadership battle, as the polls were showing that their Labour Party had no chance in the election against the Liberal Party and Tony Abbott with Gillard at the helm. The election itself is taking place in September. The choice for Australians (not us since we're dirty foreigners) is thus:
1) Vote for the liberal Labour Party and their classic "tax and spend" tactics.
2) Vote for the conservative Liberal Party and their classic "cut spending and give tax breaks to business tactics.
Often in Western politics the left and right parties try to paint the other party as falling into the "classic" categories above. Usually, it's not so simple. In Canada, all of the parties are either, more or less, centrist or left leaning. In the US, all of the parties lean more to the right. But in Australia they seem to follow the text-book definition of the political spectrum. There seems to be less pragmatism and more ideology in federal politics here. The result is a messy political system that doesn't really work for anyone and results in a lot of drama but not a lot of good for the Australian public. When the political parties here make me pine for the Canadian federal party's you know it's bad here.
Anyone that knows me knows that I tend to lean a little to the left. I'm more or less a fiscal conservative but a social liberal. So, it may come as a surprise that if I were able to vote in this election I'd vote for the conservative Liberal Party and their silver-spoon bully leader Tony Abbott. The reason is simple. The left here has gone too far left and frankly I don't like their brand of politics. The Labour Party is in close cahoots with the unions here and tend to follow the unions "suggestions". During their time in power and certainly during the election they have made many xenophobic comments like "Australia for Australians". They've raised taxes on non-Australians, even though we were paying a lot more to begin with. They have tried to tax companies that employ non-Australians even though those companies can't find Australians to do the work. They have raised taxes at least 8 times in the last 3 years including the controversial and largely ridiculous Carbon Tax, which does nothing to help the environment. They have raised spending but largely on nothing useful. They have left a budget deficit every year even though the country was going through a boom economy and unemployment was at record lows. And of course, they pander to the most common of denominators: hatred, bigotry and exclusion. I don't know if Abbott and the Liberals will be any better but historically in Australia the most effective governments have been the conservative ones.
As it stands today, Abbott and the Liberal Party have a huge lead over Rudd and the Labour Party. So, it looks like pretty soon there'll be a new boss and the soap opera will begin it's next chapter.
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