Raising Hell: Can I Count On Your Vote?

"Vote early and often," - John Van Buren, New York lawyer and politician, 1848.

First of all: yes, Raising Hell remains on ice — for now. This last few months has been two sizes to small. Also: No, I am not kicking off Raising Hell again on Substack, especially given the ever-expanding list of actions taken by Marc Andreessen to unwind democracy in favour of installing a weird reactionary monarchy as a kind of nerd-Reich. I still plan to revive it using a platform such as Ghost but with the details TBD.

I am, however, picking up the pitchfork briefly to announce some good news and send out a call to arms. Yes, Saturday is election day in Australia. Many of you may be very much over it but I write now to urge you to exercise your franchise one additional time by voting for me.

No, I am not running at the federal election, but by some good fortune my latest book, Slick: Australia’s Toxic Relationship With Big Oil has been shortlisted for the Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction at the New South Wales Literary Awards. This is a pretty big deal and there are some awfully good books on that list, so I’m really just happy to be included.

But — and it’s a big, hairy butt — there is also a second award, the University of Sydney People’s Choice Award, that includes shortlisted entries across all categories.

And voting is now open.

If you want to support my work, get more eyes on the results of an 18-month investigation that includes a whole chapter on how at one point the Australian oil industry spied on a Prime Minister’s son, throw a vote my way. All it takes is a name, an email address and 30 seconds to potentially make an oil and gas executive somewhere sad, and me very happy. Hell, if you want to go that extra mile, maybe even consider getting a couple of friends to vote. And their friends. And their babies. But maybe not your dead grandmother — that might be going a little far.

You know what to do.

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Before You Go (Go)…

• Are you a public sector bureaucrat whose tyrannical boss is behaving badly? Have you recently come into possession of documents showing some rich guy is trying to move their ill-gotten-gains to Curacao? Did you take a low-paying job with an evil corporation registered in Delaware that is burying toxic waste under playgrounds? If your conscience is keeping you up at night, or you’d just plain like to see some wrong-doers cast into the sea, we here at Raising Hell can suggest a course of action: leak! You can contact me through Signal at RoyceK.11. Alternatively you can send us your hard copies to: PO Box 134, Welland SA 5007

• And if you’ve come this far, consider supporting me further by picking up one of my books, leaving a review or by just telling a friend about Raising Hell!