So we don't have a thread on this yet? With a week and a bit to go before we elect a national government for the next three years on 2 July, maybe it's time we had one. If you don't live in Australia, you might not be aware this is happening. This election is unusual because the current government has triggered what is known as a double dissolution election, using an obscure part of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia. Usually, we have half of our upper house (Senate) up for election every three years, and senators serve 6 year terms. The lower house (House of Representatives) is elected approximately every 3 years (the government gets to choose the date of the election and sometimes goes to an election early). But in the case of a double dissolution, the entire Senate is dissolved along with the house, which is what is happening this time. The government hopes as a result that they will end up with a Senate more amenable to passing the government's legislation, though I'm not convinced they will end up any better off than they presently are, for a number of reasons. We currently have a Liberal Government (and bear in mind that in Australia the Liberal Party is the conservative one). We're currently on our 5th Prime Minister in the past 6 years, Malcolm Turnbull. Unlike the US, we don't directly elect a person to the highest office. The Prime Minister is simply the leader of the party with the majority of seats in the lower house. The current PM ousted the previous PM, Tony Abbott, as leader of his own party, last year. Abbott was unpopular with many Australians, and Turnbull came to the leadership with some great expectations, being himself more liberal (with a small 'l') than the very conservative Abbott. However, Turnbull himself has been a disppointment to many, who see him as constrained by the more conservative faction of his party. The alternative government is the Labor government, many of whose senior members were in power before the Liberals took over from Labor. Labor has a newish leader, Bill Shorten, who came up through the labour union movement. Shorten rates lower than Turnbull in preferred Prime Minister polls. On a two-party preferred basis, polls have the Labor and Liberal parties neck and neck as to who will win, with control of the Senate as an interesting separate issue. Public opinion seems to be that the Liberal Party will scrape through this election and remain in power for the next three years, but nothing is certain. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of any Aussies here and to discuss the election in general.
I am kind of up in the air, to be honest. Turnbull came in and I had assumed it would be a change from the liberal policies that made Abbott so unpopular to begin with. Instead of a fresh new start, we have more of the same, only with someone more articulate at the helm of the Coalition. People wanted Turnbull and his popularity stemmed from his more progressive ideology. He was more open, more engaged, leaned more towards human rights than against it, he wasn't a religious tool like Abbott was. And he has yet to show any of that strength of his since ousting Abbott. I understands he needs to play nice with the ultra conservatives in the Coalition itself, but really, his tenure as Prime Minister has been bleh. Literally bleh. He hasn't managed to curtail the ultra right wing in the party, Dutton is still the immigration minister (this absolutely baffles me - and I say this as someone who went through stages of anger at Dutton that ranged from mild disgust to absolute hatred and have now reached the point of astonishment that he's actually there still), he is still dragging his feet on marriage equality, the cuts to the social security network, not to mention to things like science and education is appalling. And health.. That really makes me cranky.. His acquiring the position of PM in the last spill has not brought us anything new. It is just more of the same as before, which makes me question if this is the real Turnbull, or if the old and more well like Turnbull was only like that to garner votes and support.. While we can be thankful we haven't seen him in his speedos, he's just bleh.. Shorten... As silly as this sounds, each time he speaks, it's like ugh.. just get on with it already.. that drawn out drawl he effects irritates me. Turnbull speaks to people like he is speaking to idiots. Shorten is not that far behind, that slooooooooow speech, articulating each sound in that slooooooow way just annoys me and literally makes me want to make snoring noises out loud.. That aside, he's okay I guess. A lot wishy washy. And I don't know if 'he's okay I guess' is a quality I should be looking for in that role. But really, what alternative is there? Turnbull? Bleh. He has become Abbott v2 - in a more articulate, less speedo kind of way. As for the Senate, I tend to vote Greens (yes, yes, I know!) or left leaning independents. I used to vote Democrats for the Senate, but well... less said about that the better I guess (*sniff*). The problem I am having is the lack of a candidate that causes at least some excitement from the left (I miss Paul Keating). Instead of the feeling of wax melting slowly each time they speak and say nothing really. I disagree with the refugee policies and how they all fall over each other trying to shift refugees and asylum seekers off shore. I absolute detest that. I detest the fact that neither party has made any effort to deal with poverty and provide better services to the poor. It is sad that our politicians do better while in opposition instead of how they are in actual governance.
Bells: I have a similar outlook to you on this. I think Turnbull has been disappointing since he became PM. When he was jostling with Abbott he wasn't afraid to speak his mind, but since becoming PM it seems he has been gagged by the party. I assume it is largely because he had to make deals with the far Right factions to get the job in the first place. Spending $160 million on a non-binding plebiscite on gay marriage is a colossal waste of money, especially since at least 60% of the population supports it. Parliament should just legislate and be done with it. Once again, I can only assume that Turnbull is hostage to the demands of the religious nuts in the Liberal party. No surprises on sciforums, but obviously I disapprove of the cuts to the CSIRO and education, as well as the deregulation of uni fees. I think that Bill Shorten is essentially well-intentioned, although like many people who have come up in Labor via the union movement I think he has a few skeletons in the closet. He was quite shifty at the Royal Commission, although that was essentially a witch hunt from the start. I disapprove of the current lies being told by both sides of politics: the fiction about privatising Medicare from Labor, and the scare campaign about border security from the Liberal side (when in fact Labor and Liberal have the same policies, and that's a whole other discussion). It would be good to have a leader, or a party, with real vision for a change. But both major parties tend to play it safe and present as small a target as possible these days. Labor has some good people (e.g. Tanya Plibersek would make a good leader), but like the Libs they are often constrained by the factions. In my current electorate, my vote won't make any difference to the outcome in the lower house, but I won't be putting the Libs or Labour first. Will probably encourage the Greens and send a message, even though they won't get in. The Senate is more interesting. I won't be voting 1 for Libs or Labor there, either. Need to keep the bastards honest. Besides, I like shaking up the major parties, and also like having a brake on the untrammelled exercise of power (remember the disaster of Liberal control of both houses at the end of the Howard era). In the Senate I tend to vote below the line, mainly so I decide who to put last on the ballot paper; I tend to work backwards from worst to least-worst. I too was sad to see the demise of the Democrats, and with them the loss of a number of very good Senators. The Greens aren't bad, in general, though are somewhat unrealistic about some issues. And I don't mind Nick Xenophon, either. And how about Ricky Muir and the Motoring Enthusiasts? Ricky has been unexpectedly OK in the job, although I don't think he'll survive this time (but he won't be last on my list by a long way). Being in Queensland, your vote will probably make more of a difference than mine, though. The introduction of the new voting system for the above-the-line votes in the Senate is a good idea and long overdue if you ask me. I am disappointed that so many people still intend to follow a how-to-vote card put out by one of the major parties rather than do the bare minimum research and think for themselves. Still, having to number 1 to 6 in boxes on the Senate paper will maybe prompt a bit more thought than just putting a 1 in the box and getting out of the voting booth as soon as possible. I'm always in there for 15 minutes meticulously numbering boxes from 1 to 100 or whatever it is, while about 100 other people come and go around me.
Queenslander's are not set in stone in regards to how they vote. There is a belief that we are quite conservative, but in reality, out on the street, we (by which I mean people in the city) aren't that conservative when it comes to politics. And from what I have experienced since moving here from Melbourne, is that they can swing to the right as well as to the left in any given election. Our State election is excellent proof of that. Campbell Newman learned that lesson the hard way. Few people here vote along party lines like I noticed in Melbourne at any rate. The general dislike of Newman here is probably why the Labor Party has taken to running advertising campaigns here that tie Turnbull to Newman. From our perspective here, Turnbull's inaction and his current crop of policies which are the same policies that Abbott had adopted and pushed, especially when it comes to things that affect the Barrier Reef and the environment in general, are similar to Newman. We are also very wary of any policies that will be detrimental to our farmers out West who are struggling in the face of severe drought with very little Federal relief. While there is a conservative voting bloc out West, that voting bloc will vote with the left if the conservatives continue to fail to support the farmers. We saw that with Bob Katter's party supporting Labor in the State election instead of the more conservative coalition. To wit, Queensland can go either way in any given election. We will support the Greens when it comes to things like protecting parts of our pristine environment and we will vote with the conservatives or with Labor depending on what their policies are in any given election. There is a distrust of Federal politicians here, simply because of Abbott and his push to lead by his personal ideology instead of what the populace wants, and because Turnbull has been so, well, bleh (not to mention Rudd's terrible tenure as Mr Popularity). We expected more from him. We expected a general push away from many of Abbott's religious inspired policies and a definite push to protect the pristine areas of the North and to protect and support the farmers out West. None of that has come to pass with Turnbull taking over the leadership. The cuts to the CSIRO are also unpopular here, because farmers and environmentalists depend on the CSIRO quite a bit, especially during times of drought. Cuts to health and education are felt here, because we have a high percentage of retirees who live here, and because of the many who live here with school aged children. A portion of why Newman was voted out so soundly, is because of his deep ties to Abbott and with Turnbull not really veering away from those awful policies and instead, keeping the very policies that made Abbott so hated, could see a shift in Queensland voters. We may find Shorten bland, but Turnbull maintaining Abbott's policies could see voters here at least, preferring Shorten. His choosing to pursue policies that push fear and hatred are also not well regarded here. We went and voted today. And the Senate ballot paper... It was 4 times the width of the booth. It is ridiculous. It isn't in order. It required several minutes trying to locate my preferences, top or bottom. In the end, I just went with the 1-6 on the top, simply because the bottom proved to be a maze for the Queensland ballot. I had to take my time simply because there were too many to actually find and because trying to juggle the ballot paper made it even trickier. In the end, it was just frustrating.
It's quite unwieldy to vote below the line unless you go in well-prepared. Numbering 1-6 on top is at least an improvement over just putting a 1 and effectively handing your preferences to whichever party you selected. My parents have just voted, too. I spent some time trying to convince them to think about their Senate vote, because given the double dissolution there will inevitably be seats up for grabs that will not be nabbed by the major parties. I think only about a 7% primary vote (or is it less than that) is needed this time around to get a Senate seat. But they were content to just follow a major party's how-to-vote card - in both houses. I must say that I find it frustrating that so many otherwise-intelligent people view the exercise of their democratic rights as a burdensome chore that is best done as quickly as possible then forgotten. Ultimately, we get the politicians we deserve, in part because of this.
I'm a Labor man through and through, and hope Labor does win and have accordingly voted that way...I'm not entirely confident though. I dislike both Turnbull and Shorten and would have preferred that Anthony Albanese had got the job as opposition leader. When Turnbull ousted that p*&*^ Abbott, I felt relieved but now see he is being controlled by the extreme Liberal right, probably part of the plan to get him in. While I do believe Labor is running a scare campaign re Medicare, there are many elements of truth in what the Libs may do with medicare...making it harder for Doctor's to bulkbill for one. No I don't trust them on the score of Medicare. The Great Barrier reef is another issue for me and I believe all stops need to be pulled out to help secure its viability as long as possible. The Libs will not take that as seriously as they should. Education is the third issue that I see as important and again, the Libs are dicey on that score.
We are fortunate to have two wonderful parties to chose from and addition various minor parties. The two potential leaders make it difficult to chose. Who ever wins no doubt will look after the interest of all Australians in a dedicated manner. And we get a change of PM so often you dont have time to remember their names. Lets get it over with so we can find out the new taxes they havent thought to mention yet. Alex
On many issues, both main parties do hold the center ground and a sort of merger of policies, is sometimes apparent. Promises by both sides do seem to go someway to looking after and repairing damage already done on the Great Barrier Reef. That is a prime issue being a world heritage listing.
The recent mention of giving the states taxation rights was strange presumably the fall back position will be an increase in the GST. The fact that they each promise change and then dont do anything can only be seen as a good thing. Bring in Pauline at least she can run a fish and chip shop. But none of them will stop price gouging on petrol so I rate them as ineffectual. I just cant get passionate about politics these days... But thats a good thing... for me. Alex
Ah the memories of that "please explain".. Suffice to say, I am aghast at the mere thought of Pauline Hanson. The fact that she has managed to worm her way back onto the ballot made me want to weep.
If racist propaganda is making it, then yes, you have a point that anyone can make it. She is a hack and I suspect the majority of people know she is only in it for the money.
I have been fortunate to notice some TV adds only one for each side. No meat. Except for the add authorisation etc at the end you could think both employ the same writter. Maybe it is just me but it all seems so... ordinary. At least when its over we can get back to the only thing that matters... Changes in leardership. Alex
I cant believe it but I just had a call from Julie Bishop. I presumedit was a recorded telemarketing thing as recently had a few "survey" robot calls. Could it really have been Julie? I hung up unfortunately before hearing it out. Has anyone experienced a political recorded call? Or have the Libs panicked and have sort me out and I have dashed their call for help? I must be dreaming they cant be serious. Alex
The sizzle.. The time old tradition of sausage sizzles on election day and Bunnings Hardware stores every weekend. On election day, it is a tradition. Queue up to vote, vote, then rush out and get the sausage sizzle and if you are in a community with bakers, maybe even a piece of sponge cake or home made lamington. You walk back to the car, often with kids in tow, each with their sausage sizzle and if the kids nag enough, a coolish can of lemonade/fanta/cola, as you struggle to eat the sausage sizzle while walking, juggling car keys and children and hoping like hell the sauce does not drip down onto your clothes and quietly hoping that the sausage is cooked all the way through and if you get one on a slice of bread instead of a bun, that the bread does not fall apart.. It's tradition. It is how it is done.. Today, while checking out the news on election day, I came upon this.. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! What.. The.. Hell..? Who in the hell eats their sausage sizzle from the middle?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
My Mrs has some tomato sauce stains to get out of my cream sweater. No Lamingtons here though! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I pre-voted, and they had a sausage sizzle going outside during the pre-vote. And yes, I did get one. Every election, without fail. Be it pre-vote or voting on the day. And I go prepared with extra serviettes in the car. Tradition. On election day, one of the booths around here has home made cakes and lamingtons. It's worth going to vote on the day just for those. Did you see Anthony Albanese dancing? Once seen, can never be unseen. But Shorten and that sausage sizzle.. That will stay with me for a long time.
