[Linux-aus] Help with a political approach to Open Source please :)

[Mary Gardiner]

On Thu, Oct 06, 2005, James Purser wrote:
> I suppose there is a good argument that the Nationals are a spent
> force politically, especially after the recent Telstra fiasco and
> "Backflip Barnaby".

There's also a good, and older, argument that the Democrats are
similarly a spent force after the GST legislation followed by the
collapse of their leadership and then of their vote. The media has made
both to about the same extent.

Onto the meat then. The Nationals have an interest in promoting and
being seen to promote rural/country interests (I'm distinguishing people
on farms from the much larger number of people in country towns here --
both are the Nationals target voters). These interests overlap to a
point some of the political messages about Free Software, eg building up
local skills and local knowledge, increased equality of access to IT
(the Nationals are sensitive to the idea that their constituency is
disadvantages when it comes to access to information and communication,
hence why there was *any* fuss about Telstra). They are in most (maybe
all now) states and federally in an unusually close Coalition with one
of the target parties already, but they do have a different
constituency.

-Mary