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AUSTRALIA’S SADDEST PEOPLE
The SMH’s Adele Horin asks:
Is it aircraft noise, John Howard’s long reign, or being overworked and underpaid that makes the so-called chardonnay socialists of Sydney’s inner west the most disgruntled people in Australia?
Who cares? Just so long as they’re unhappy. Horin is talking about a new survey that compares the relative joy levels of people in all 150 Australian federal electorates. Not surprisingly, lefties turned out to be the saddest of us all:
The academics, journalists, public servants and other “culture workers” who inhabit Sydney’s inner west rated lower than average satisfaction on all questions ...
[Grayndler] MP, Anthony Albanese, said the malaise of his constituents could be explained partly by their sense of compassion.
Academic Robert Cummins, who compiled the scorecard, has a different explanation: “I think it’s the housing prices.” Hey, isn’t the gap between rich and poor meant to make all the poor folks miserable? Apparently not:
The saddest federal electorate is in the heart of Sydney, the richest and most expensive city in the country, while the happiest voters live in one of the nation’s poorest rural electorates.
In a survey that turns the accepted wisdom on its head, one of the most disadvantaged electorates in Australia, the Queensland seat of Wide Bay, has emerged as the one where people are at their most content.
Let’s check out the happiest and saddest electorates, and their federal representatives:
HAPPY HAPPY, JOY JOY
* Wide Bay, Queensland Warren Truss, National Party
* Eden-Monaro, NSW Gary Nairn, Liberal
* Ryan, Queensland Michael Johnson, Liberal
* Higgins, Victoria Peter Costello, Liberal
* Murray, Victoria Sharman Stone, Liberal
* Riverina, NSW Kay Hull, National Party
* Mayo, South Australia Alexander Downer, Liberal
SO SAD, WANT TO CRY
* Sydney, NSW Tanya Plibersek, ALP
* Perth, Western Australia Stephen Smith, ALP
* Gorton, Victoria Brendan O’Connor, ALP
* Hasluck, Western Australia Stuart Henry, Liberal (note: the seat was previously held for three years by the ALP. It’s taking a while for the toxins to work through)
* Werriwa, NSW Chris Hayes, ALP (note: previously held by notoriously happy Mark Latham)
* Reid, NSW Laurie Ferguson, ALP
* Rankin, Queensland Craig Emerson, ALP
* Grayndler, NSW Anthony Albanese, ALP
Seems to be some sort of pattern emerging. (Confusingly, the SMH and The Australian read this survey differently; in the SMH, Grayndler is the saddest zone, while The Australian scores Sydney as saddest. Someone is wrong; most likely The Australian, which in copy counts seven happy electorates as nine and places Wide Bay in NSW.)
More on this at the House of Wheels.
After looking carefully at the statistics and balancing the probabilities, my considered opinion is that the Australian Labor Party has germs.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 12 at 11:47 PM • permalinkHey, I live in Newtown (the electorate of Sydney part) and am very happy, thank you. I’m not an academic, public servant (given the salaries they are on they should be ecstatic) or a “culture worker” (WTF?) but I am a former journalist. I also prefer a good aged Hunter Valley Semillon or a Clare Valley riesling but will drink a Chardonnay if pressed. I’m not a socialist and I drive a 4WD (without a “Not happy, John” sticker on it). I can only conclude that I am a freak.
Posted by Ben Haslem on 2006 02 12 at 11:53 PM • permalinkI am an inner westie (4wding, liberal voting redneck) but am still very sad
I worked out on the weekend that at the same age my parents were richer than me they were simple factory workers and I am a “culture worker”
bring back menzies says I
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2006 02 13 at 12:05 AM • permalinkI’d completely forgotten that Stephen Smith was my local member. Now I really am unhappy.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 13 at 12:08 AM • permalinkOh and all of the lefties do give me the massive shiites.
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2006 02 13 at 12:09 AM • permalinkSo delicious to see the inner city trendies who’ve destroyed a vibrant inner city fabric with their gentrification and latte cool - working themselves into a sleepless lather as the cloak of conservatism envelopes them, choking of their oxygen.
More troubled leftie angst stories please.
Posted by Jay Santos on 2006 02 13 at 12:18 AM • permalinkIts also very interesting how people in the country / rural areas are alot happier.
I bet alot of them have guns and 4wds and didn’t sign kyoto
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2006 02 13 at 12:23 AM • permalinkSpeaking of Inner Westies and their troubles in housing. Sun Herald p53
R Estate section Little lily’s new Lilyfield home.Vendors purchased 2 years ago the property “The Tancreds” but hey, for me reading the article sounds a bit dodgy as they are Cousins “Tancreds” of the Realestate agent and would have known of this little deal and pricing. etc
As a resident in Hasluck, I can confidently say that it’s improving all the time ... or is that the value of my house?
And the added benefit of Stuart Henry as our member is that we don’t have to see Sharyn Jackson’s smashed crab on the news every time the Bomber gets up to yak about some tripe in the coward’s castle.
I was once in Reid (safe left-wing ALP), then, without moving I was re-zoned into Parrmatta (then marginal Liberal under Ross Cameron).
I didn’t feel any happier when the boundary was shifted.
What is the poit about this ‘story’?
Now that that area that I lived in is back with the ALP are people sadder? Mood-swings/swining voters - I don’t see what the point is
Gympie? You want to live in Gympie?
Posted by Bullshit_Mr_Han_man. on 2006 02 13 at 12:51 AM • permalinkOf course, lefties will blame John Howard for their unhappiness, which is understandable, since he is also responsible for boats sinking in Indonesia, in-grown toe-nails, and stickers on pieces of fruit.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 13 at 01:09 AM • permalinkThey’re all happy in Wide Bay because they’re all coffin-dodgers whacked out on PBS giggle pills.
As to the denizens of Newtown and Balmain being over-worked and underpaid, I think ‘Dels been scoffing some of the abovementioned round relaxants.
What sort of a response did they expect from the perpetually indignant and permamently outraged?
BTW- didn’t you know only the truly stupid could be happy while there’s starving orphan gay whales being mocked by nazi cartoonists, and transgendered penguins can’t marry?
Just shows we smart people line in the inner-urban areas, where we can care ourselves into a smug, self-absorbed stupor.
I must be happy because Julie Bishop is my representative and I regard her as a MILF, although I don’t actually know if she is a Mother.
I am rather nervous though because a very small boundary change and I could be in the same boat as Swinnish Captalist. I can’t recall the last time I saw Stephen Smith smile.
The academics, journalists, public servants and other “culture workers” who inhabit Sydney’s inner west rated lower than average satisfaction on all questions ...
How happy can you be, living a lie?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 13 at 02:19 AM • permalinkNow, just as I was really happy, I feel guilty.
I’m gonna move from Hervy Bay to Auburn.
Posted by Mikie Slats on 2006 02 13 at 03:26 AM • permalinkYou see. These comments demonstrate the true problem. The poor fools living away from inner city areas aren’t really happy. They are deluded and brainwashed. How could anyone be happy with refugeees being interned in modern Auschwitzes, comics being tortured for anti-Howard jokes and our children having to live with the legacy of two centuries of brutal European domination of this once pristine continent.
The inner-city dwellers are sad, but their sadness is noble and pure, through its recognition of the true character of modern western capitalist society.
But unlike the inner-city dwellers, the McMansion dwelling drones in Howard’s Heartland will never know true happiness. For they have never felt the soul wracking pain of living in a world without love, pity or artistic sensitivity.
And worse, the inner city dwellers must make up for the sadness deficiency in Howard’s drones. Therefore their pain is increased. They weep for all of us.
Remember that next time you wake up feeling content.
It gets worse. One well-known Australian leftist blogger is driving his readers to commit suicide!
(Blatant plug for my blog, I know, but I just couldn’t pass this one up.)
hopefully that fixed the bolds.
This is the trouble with academics pontificating about people that do not live in inner sydney and thus alien to their understanding. Lower land values is the reason for their happiness? Has this ignorant sap looked at house prices at Bingara (Wide Bay) lately? Ballina? Byron Bay (RIchmond - notice you left that one off Mr Blair - just becuase the nats lost it to the ALP?:))? Adelaide Hills (Mayo), Kenmore Hills, Indooroopilly (Ryan - wouldn’t you call this Brisbane?)?
The real reason is the high population of elderly in these suburbs. I’d feel real happy if I didn’t have to get up early every morning to get to work too.
As a conservative Christian living in an inner City marginal ALP seat I would be happier if we could get lefties off my testes (with apologies to sister ‘Barb’ Nettle).
Posted by platey mates on 2006 02 13 at 06:51 AM • permalinkHardly a surprise. Happiness has never been the left’s (or rather, the intelligentsia’s) goal. Power is their goal.
The way they have tried to grab power is by keeping society divided - between rich and poor, black and white, male and female, gay and straight, religious and secular. It has hated anything which results in people living their lives independently of their authoritarian wisdom.
The result of this division: the desired twin emotions of resentment (for the have-nots) and guilt (for the haves). As long as people are feeling this way, they are less likely to resist the left’s grab for power. Happy people are more likely to resist.
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2006 02 13 at 07:44 AM • permalinkJane knows how to make more people happy in NSW and VIC
Posted by platey mates on 2006 02 13 at 09:13 AM • permalink</b> Inurbanus — A “culture worker” is like a “sex worker” except you get neither pleasure nor satisfaction for your money…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 13 at 10:57 AM • permalinkANOTHER ISLAMIC DICTATE: VALENTINE’S DAY INCORRECT
An Islamic separatist women’s group, known for its fierce opposition to Western-style romance, vowed to prevent couples celebrating Valentine’s Day. “We will not allow anyone to observe Valentine’s Day as it does nothing but spread immorality among youth,” said Aasiya Andrabi, firebrand leader of the separatist Dukhtaran-e-Millat or Daughters of Faith. The group, which supports a 16-year-old separatist insurgency against New Delhi’s rule in Indian Kashmir, is also engaged in a crusade to stamp out immorality in the Muslim-majority region. Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated February 14, is “against our culture and Islamic teachings,” Andrabi said in a statement reported by Current News, a local news agency.
The anti-Valentine’s Day protest Andrabi’s return to moral policing after her release from jail where she spent four months for harassing a couple. The group kicked off its campaign Friday against “Lover’s Day” in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, by raiding half a dozen shops, confiscating Valentine’s Day cards and making a bonfire out of them. The aim of Valentine’s Day is to “pave the way for Western culture to invade youths’ hearts and minds and distance them from their traditional culture and Islamic principles,” added Andrabi. The group has previously smeared black paint on film posters portraying semi-naked women.
Andrabi, who wears a head-to-toe veil in line with Islamic tradition, has also been running a largely unsuccessful campaign to get women to wear similar attire in Indian Kashmir. Kashmirs largely Muslim population is socially conservative, but over the past few years couples have openly dated in parks, restaurants and Internet cafes.
“We want to save our youth from indecency and desire to see them as true followers of Islam. We won’t like them to follow Western culture,” Andrabi said on Saturday.
Moderate and hardline factions of the regions main separatist alliance and other Islamic groups rallied around Andabi when she was in jail and urged her release, saying she was doing a good job fighting obscenity and immorality.
sourced.2006
Go the girls, cover up so you get Respect…. on ya you’re great for the western economy!!
It’s easy to see why the intellectuals are the sadder lot.
Because ignorance is bliss.
On the other hand are the imbeciles heureux.
Posted by John Brown on 2006 02 14 at 10:05 AM • permalinkActually it’s been shown that the differences between electorates in this survey are statistically insignificant. Apparently we’re pretty much just as happy as each other.
Now you can retract all your comments.
Posted by timblairisdead on 2006 02 14 at 08:43 PM • permalink
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I cannot imagine any Australian living in Sydney being happy. Too many people,not enough freedom of space,fear of strangers,having to go too far for a fresh aspect.
I think it would be horrible.