Our Manifesto

Hi.

Our names are Loki and Maz, and we, like our late and greatly missed friend Catherine, want you to vote intelligently. But who are we?

I’m Maz. In no particular order I’m left of centre, a grandparent, a writer, trans, pansexual, a mental health lived experience worker, agnostic, supportive of unions, and supporter of the Arts. I’m committed to holding governments and media accountable and, while I can’t promise complete objectivity, I can promise to deliver the same treatment to every party and independent in this election.

I’m Loki. I’ve been in several political parties and never found one left enough for my liking. I’m a bisexual cis male, and likewise agnostic, pro-Union and pro-arts. I try not to approach anything uncritically, whether I agree with it or not. I firmly believe that objectivity is a goal that can be striven for but never actually reached. That said, in that quest I will seek, strive and not yield.

We don’t expect you to necessarily agree with us, but we do hope your disagreement is well-informed.

We’re here to carry on Catherine’s name, and continue this important work that she started. So like she used to do at Cate Speaks, we will be going through the websites and policy statements of every party and independent in our home state (Victoria), and reporting back on what we find. Where that information is available, we will also report on who is preferencing whom in the Senate.

In Catherine’s manifesto, she wrote:

These are the posts I want you to read even if you personally hate my side of politics, because while these posts are opinionated, they are also as honest as I can make them. I always link back to the website and the policies I’m discussing, if such a website exists, and I make it as clear as I can which parts of these posts are direct reporting and which are commentary, even when my blood pressure is rising steadily. I do think these posts can be useful to people on all sides of politics, so long as they are interested in what the political parties in questions are saying about themselves. I don’t, on the whole, delve into the goings-on in Parliament, or into matters of political strategy because I can’t and don’t claim any true expertise in politics. What I do know how to do is read a set of policies, summarise them, and comment on their contents. You could probably do that too, and I encourage you to do so. It’s time-consuming, but worthwhile.

We couldn’t agree more.