Why the fuck would you buy into a gated community in such a foul area? Especially if houses outside your little paranoia palace are selling for half what you pay. Surely it makes more sense to get a little cottage in, say, Leichardt and rationalise that for a little less space you might be buying something that won't end up being worth less than you paid for it. I just can't see how these things would succeed in the south west... surely people with money are seeking to avoid that area. Very confusing.

In other news, I'm going to go crazy if I hear that Labor ad about services for "working families" one more time, and I've only heard it twice. Are families who, for whatever reason, don't work, less entitled to education and medical care? Should they let a 000 operator know when phoning that they live on welfare and therefore the police should take their sweet time investigating whatever crime it is being reported? What about the single and childless? Should we just bend over and grin as we ask the government to really make it hurt? And I know it's not just bitter single resentment rearing its ugly head; speaking to my mother over brunch yesterday I realised that we shared not only an order of pancakes and smoked salmom scrambled eggs, but also a hatred for this relentless pandering to the fucking aspirational class family. She mentioned that when she was still working on her education and had two kids under five, a husband who earned very little and mountains of debt, the government gave her nothing. She didn't care as she knew that soon enough she'd be earning enough to pay her way, and very well too. She reasoned that government assistance was for those who were less well off than her. Did you hear that? She looked at her frustratingly broke situation and realised that she was indeed fortunate and that the government did not "owe" her a new VCR or a trip to Bali. Extraordinary.

My cousin's in the same boat she is at the moment except, instead of getting an education and raising two young kids, she's at home on her arse and "raising" two older kids. Her husband's on a fairly low income, though, just like my father was, so she constantly complains to everyone who'll listen that she needs this tax benefit and that family payment, and cheap prescriptions and all sorts of shit that she probably doesn't deserve. There's no mention of her getting a job, or at least volunteering her time somewhere. Instead it's all "me, me, me, me, me, I have a family and I should get a bunch of free shit, gimmee!"

Anyway, this just really annoys me. I may just wipe my bum with the voting form and call it a political protest.