How to live as a political optimist...

It's increasingly hard to be a political optimist, but here is the speech I want to hear from a politician and this vision keeps me going:

There's been a lot of fear the last few years and its come from all sides, its come from all parties, it's come from my party, my tribe, hell it's come from me. There's been a lot of tribalism over the past few years, and that's hurt us all. As a leader and a representative, I have to own that, it was wrong, I was wrong. At times our science was wrong, we did our best, but in retrospect, we should have done better.

I can't promise I am going to get everything right if you elect me. In fact, I can almost guarantee I will fuck up and I am going to do things that will upset people, things that may not benefit everyone, because our country is diverse, full of diverse opinions and people.

And I can't look back on history and think of one thing that has happened that didn't upset someone. We are driven by different things and different values. It's one of the things I love most about our country.

Here's what I am going to try to accomplish:

1. I am going to listen to those I disagree with, with the same level of respect I listen to my mum and dad. I will really try to understand where that opinion comes from.

2. I will aim to surround myself with people who are ok to challenge me, tell me when I make a mistake and ensure that I am held to the standard that a leader should be held to.

3. I will try to strike a balance, the government is not here to solve every problem, there are a lot of things we can't fix, there are some things only you can fix and there are some things that we can only fix together over time, but there are things we can progress to try to make the world a better place. Finding a balance between protecting our beautiful patch of the world, so rich and full of unique life that is must be protected, while moving towards more sustainable practices and ensure that the transition is sustainable too.

There is a lot you can do to make life less scary now, we need to make better decisions about our health, get outside, get away from the screen, be present for our kids, be kinder to ourselves. Sleep. Eat good foods. Sit and watch the sunset, soak in the sunshine that baths our beautiful country so well.

I really do believe that 95% of Aussies, of all humans, want the same thing, we want to live in peace and happiness (and that looks a little bit different for all of us), we want security to raise our families, we want opportunities to make our kids lives just a bit better than our own. We want that for everyone regardless of colour, age, sex, race, religion, political belief or vaccination status.

I am going to work to bring the discssion back to how to be part of the human tribe, how to be part of this world, this country, this community.

I know there's a lot of you out there that won't believe this, that will mock this, because hey, it's an election right. It's a stunt, it's only empty words. How did we get here? The only way I can think of to start to fix it, is to accept it's a fair criticism. I need to do better, my party, needs to do better. I am going to try but you need to judge me by my actions not my words.

Today, I will make only one promise, because hell, no one politician can promise shit about funding or changes in legislation. I promise to listen, to do better and to admit when I get it wrong.

- The human party

I fear I will never hear this speech, but I promise that I will never stop fighting for it.

Wishing much love to you all