Australian federal election

[Ozlsn]

22 hours ago, Smee said:

After following the US election on here, I am endlessly thankful for preferential voting. 

I know, right? I was getting really annoyed this morning by a commentator saying "and he only got 30% of the primary vote" - so what? He got more preference votes than the next person down, so basically he was more preferred than the candidate who came in second. It also gives space for swings against incumbents while retaining seats (my seat swung towards the Greens, still ALP) which wouldn't happen in a first past the post system - the minor parties would get nowhere and there is no incentive to try and stay central to capture the widest range of preferences and win the seat. (Of course Carnavan, Panai and Crellin are convinced talking the Libs further right is the key to winning but they are idiots.)

Agree with @Smee that both major parties lost votes due to climate change being a high priority for voters - I hope the teal, green and other independents can force some real action there.

The Nats I think will spill the leadership and - assuming they don't go with yet another batshit and possibly alcohol impaired "leader" - start working with the Teals and quite possibly the Greens to get things through for their electorates. It's that or stay in the wilderness entirely and I think there are few very pragmatic and more central Nats who would prefer to leverage off being a large minor party rather than a junior coalition partner.

Still, we'll see - and can I just say how happy I am that Clive and Pauline are both out? 

[Ozlsn]

Dutton as Opposition leader, for real. Sheesh. And the poor man had his feelings hurt by being compared to Lord Voldemort by a nasty lady. Amusingly I didn't realise they were referring to his appearance there.

Looks like we have a wafer thin majority government, I'm interested to see what the Nats do. The bullshit campaigning has already started for the Victorian election in November, give it a rest already.

And the MSM can also stop asking "what Labor did wrong". They won government, even with a swing against them in some safe seats. If you want them to say "oh sorry, we shouldn't beaten the God awful Coalition" you'll be waiting a while.

[Smee]

Ughhh Dutton as opposition leader. I hope that bites them.

Greens took Brisbane and its still not certain if Labor have Macnamara so it seems to me that the country as a whole is not moving further to the right, making Dutton a bad choice. But that could just be wishful thinking.

[Ozlsn]

They don't have a lot of options given their insistence on XY and white*. Despite Carnavan (and Crellin and Panani)'s bullshit the issue is not that the Libs lost votes to ON, or UAP or any of the other far right vanity parties, it's that they lost votes to more centrist independents in the wet Liberal-held seats, and to the Greens in seats that were Really, Really Bloody Angry about the response to the floods, covid and climate change in Qld. And in those seats people who voted Ind or Green didn't necessarily preference the Libs second even - whereas people who voted ALP did preference the non-Lib candidate second. A lot of voters who would normally vote ALP/Green in Kooyong preferenced the Independent candidate first, as the best shot at changing the seat. It's hard to understate how angry people were at Frydenberg after some of the comments around covid and lockdowns.

In retrospect I am amazed that they didn't roll Morrison before the election - he was utterly toxic across Australia (except Cook**, apparently) and given that even the Nats are having conversations about he affected their vote (along with Joyce) I'm kind of surprised he served the full term.

*it strikes me that the Libs in some respects would be better served by having Chester or McCormack as Opposition Leader of a Coalition as they are both far more centrist. Never going to happen though, and the Nats may find it works in their interests to work as a minority party block with whoever aligns best on each issue rather than being tied to the Libs.

**Wtf is wrong with that electorate, seriously? Also Dutton's and New England. They did nothing for you in 9 years, wake up already.

[Katzchen24]

27 minutes ago, Smee said:

Ughhh Dutton as opposition leader. I hope that bites them.

Greens took Brisbane and its still not certain if Labor have Macnamara so it seems to me that the country as a whole is not moving further to the right, making Dutton a bad choice. But that could just be wishful thinking.

My personal hope is that Dutton is just a knee-jerk reaction. I'm really hoping that the Nats will remove Joyce on Monday, and he'll be replaced by Littleproud. Littleproud isn't great (one of the few pollies to publicly speak against legalising same-sex marriage, although it seems he voted for it because his electorate were majority in favour) but he does have some decent positions on climate actions. If the Nats are greener, then the Libs are going to have to follow.

There's slim pickings on the far right, Libs would do far better to concentrate on the centre right.

Edited to add: I am very firmly in favour of same-sex marriage. I don't endorse Littleproud's position on it at all. I'm more of the view that nearly anyone is better than Joyce. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Katzchen24
Clarification

[Ozlsn]

On 5/29/2022 at 1:17 PM, Katzchen24 said:

Littleproud isn't great (one of the few pollies to publicly speak against legalising same-sex marriage, although it seems he voted for it because his electorate were majority in favour) but he does have some decent positions on climate actions

Well they dumped Barnaby, finally. I am still disappointed that East Gippsland won't be featuring on the news as much, but I share the hope that the Nats will at least support action on climate change.

Dutton and Ley though.. ergh. I can't see the party becoming more centrist with those two.

But I am still very happy with this photo:

Spoiler

 

It is a majority parliament but I hope also one that will listen and respond.

[Ozlsn]

OK given yesterday and today's revelations about our former PM I had to jump back in this thread. I honestly cannot work out what they were thinking. If it was to back up portfolios in case of covid... well, maybe, but then why all the secrecy? Why not spread it around a bit rather than Morrison being sworn in into five (and counting) ministerial portfolios?

Seriously no wonder the federal covid response was so weird if there were two Health Ministers, one of whom was also acting as PM, and one of whom may or may not have been aware there were two of them.

As for the jumping in to override a decision in the resources portfolio - that needs a lot of further information to come out. The whole thing is utterly bizarre.

On the positive side Twitter is having a field day over it, and The Chaser and The Shovel are having a ball. 

Spoiler

 

Anyway @Smee, @adidas, @Katzchen24 and anyone else I've missed ... I can't be the only one laughing in a kind of horrified way here? 

[Katzchen24]

21 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

On the positive side Twitter is having a field day over it, and The Chaser and The Shovel are having a ball. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Anyway @Smee, @adidas, @Katzchen24 and anyone else I've missed ... I can't be the only one laughing in a kind of horrified way here? 

I am so here for it!!

I don't understand the need for secrecy or the appointments either. Isn't the whole idea behind having a 2IC means you've got someone responsible as understudy? I can say I really don't understand which laws and policies govern these kinds of appointments but it seems really dodgy. If we had a federal ICAC maybe we could get some answers as to why he did it.

Imagine how upset evangelicals would get if there was a secret government making decisions behind their backs about...... oh, my bad. Nothing to see here.  

This is my favourite one from the Chaser, and they are definitely living their best lives at the moment.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Katzchen24
I needed to add actual commentary to my response.

[Smee]

Explains (more) why the libs didn’t/don’t want a federal icac. I hope that happens.

Thanks for the Twitter laughs. 
 

[Smee]

[Katzchen24]

Oh FFS..... From Scomo's presser today (screenshot from ABC News)

Spoiler

I can't think of any way to summarise his attitude, except maybe "It was none of your business then, and it still isn't now." 

 

 

[Smee]

His Wikipedia page has updated:

 

He’s just so… ugh. I really thought he might resign when they called the presser, but I guess he’s too arrogant.

[adidas]

When I heard him say “that’s not my job” I never imagined all the other jobs he fancied having on his resume. What a farce.

[Ozlsn]

 

Yeah he's not just an incompetent narcissistic idiot, he's a fundie as well. I need to rewatch that QAnon ep of 4 Corners.

[Ozlsn]

I am laughing so hard at this.

[Katzchen24]

It's always Jenny's fault.

[Smee]