On the 2nd of July, the day of the federal election in so-called Australia,
we glued locks, graffittied and broke the windows of Liberal and Labour MP
offices across Narrm/so-called Melbourne. We did this in solidarity with
those on Manus Island, Nauru and in detention centres everywhere. End the
border & prison industrial complex. End white supremacy.
(via Untitled)
2 July – Pre-election day banner and stencil action in the town of Moe, southeastern Victoria, so-called ‘Australia’.
Sent to us anonymously: Pre-election day banner and stencil action in the town of Moe, southeastern Victoria, so-called ‘Australia’.
Over the past two months some anarchists around Sydney mounted a campaign against politics and the democratic process.
This election takes place in a period of historic disillusionment with the political spectacle and the politicians who represent it, and never before have so many parties been on offer, to direct that mistrust back into the electoral process.
We reject this process in its entirety. Elections are a charade to confuse us about where power lies, and how things can be changed. With the following petty acts of anti-political sabotage, we draw a line.
Thousands of anti-electoral posters were pasted up throughout Sydney.
Hundreds of anti-political slogans were painted across the city.
A dozen banners were tied to highway overpasses.
Political advertising of every party was vandalised, or taken down and later burnt.
Party activists caught spreading political propaganda were confronted, harassed and sometimes relieved of their material.
Unlike every political party we do not measure success based on opinion polls or ballots.
We do not seek to promote ourselves as a solution to capitalism, we do not seek to recruit, we do not want power. We offer no promises. We represent no one.
We intend to encourage the spread of class hatred and collective resistance to the bosses, their politicians and the way of life they’ve sold to us.
We desire the total annihilation of capital and the state.
Fighting for ourselves.
28 June – Election sign theft and defacement comes with campaign territory but in Tasmania one senator has had enough.
Labor senator Lisa Singh has lodged a complaint about the theft of a sign from a Hobart pre-polling booth.
Candidates expect signs to go missing from houses and roadsides during an election campaign, or to have vandals add their own creative touches, but Senator Singh said it was unusual for a sign to go missing from a polling booth.
“You always get a bit of silliness that goes on during election campaigns, signs get defaced in some way,” she said.
“I think you have to roll with that, but to have one actually stolen on a pre-poll booth is a little bit out of the ordinary to be honest.”
Some have expressed their disapproval of candidates in Saturday’s federal election in more creative ways.
A Tasmanian artist targeted Braddon MP Brett Whiteley, covering his face with a gimp mask on a number of signs in the state’s north-west.
In Bass, a slight adjustment to one of Labor’s Bass candidate Ross Hart results in voters being encouraged to vote for the less appealing “Ross Fart”.
Even if candidates wanted to complain about this sort of vandalism, the Australian Electoral Commission said in a statement it was not its problem.
“The short answer is that there is no specific penalty in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 for defacing election signage,” it said.
Displaying candidates’ signs got some public housing tenants into trouble, with complaints resulting in five tenants having to take down signs supporting Labor candidates and independent Jacqui Lambie.
Senator Singh is not saying who she suspects is behind the theft.
“It is a bit peculiar that one was taken from a pre-poll booth, I certainly hope it doesn’t happen again,” she said.
“They are expensive and I guess it’s theft.”
Senator Singh said her office has lodged a complaint about the sign theft, but the commission was yet to receive it.
RE-FACED: Vandals targeted this sign hanging from Tamworth’s Viaduct Bridge.
27 June – CORFLUTES, billboards and banners are the latest victims in the race for New England, with several sides claiming they’re being targeted by vandals.
The Nationals New England campaign team yesterday complained 800 posters had been damaged or vandalised with slogans and photos across the electorate.
However, police said there had been no report made of 800 posters damaged, but a handful of incidents had been reported in recent weeks.
New England Inspector Chris McKinnon said, in addition to Barnaby Joyce’s posters being de-faced, there had been a report to police about independent Tony Windsor-branded corflutes being stolen in Armidale.
“We have received reports of signs being damaged or stolen from various candidates,” he said.
“It is an offence to de-face, damage or steal a sign and inquiries are continuing.”
28 – Motorists along busy Gympie Rd, Strathpine seeing Peter Dutton’s new billboard would have read that the Immigration Minister “kills people in concentration camps” on the LNP campaign billboard of a smiling Mr Dutton with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The billboard also said Mr Dutton “does not represent you”.
21 June – The head of Corrections expects some prisoners will be punished after a disturbance at Mount Eden prison today saw the jail put into lockdown when a group of prisoners in one unit refused to be locked up.
He said prisoners, who were about to be transferred, barricaded themselves on an upstairs landing and it took about 20 minutes for guards to restore order.
Mr Smith was at Mt Eden Corrections Facility on a routine visit and had been briefed about the incident.
He said it’s not uncommon for prisoners in transfer to get upset but order was always restored.
Continue reading “NZ: Mt Eden prisoners built barricades while refusing lock-up”
DISACCORDS 