Australian Politics thread [merged]

[🏅Dooks]

Greens and Independents starting to become as relevent as the Libs. Preferences and swings to alp knocking of heartland Lib seats. Prahran, Hawthorn & Caulfield. Box Hill, Ringwood and Croydon to a lesser extent.

Thats whats happens when your ethos narrows to far right christians at a fed level and fear based politics.

The city is growing.and the top end is creaming it. People want infrastructure. The Coalition has failed to communicate that it is an option the people want.

Out of touch.

[Assange Tiger 😎]

[mightytiges]

The pre-polls and postals have seen the Libs hold onto some of their blue-ribbon seats like Brighton that looked like falling on Saturday night. Still a huge flogging though. The LNP will be lucky to win 28 seats and they've been decimated in the upper house. Federally, if this is repeated, they will lose government easily just in Victoria alone forgetting about Qld. This result will only split the moderates and conservatives further apart.

The Greens are the other losers. Don't pretend to be for public transport when you vote against the lease of the Port of Melbourne which as funded the level crossing removals and other rail infrastructure upgrades.

Labor looking at 55 seats in the lower house (out of 88) and around 19 in the upper house (one short of half the seats). They'll be glad about the latter as it seems there will be a fair few micro parties that will win upper house seats despite getting very few first preferences. 

[Diocletian]

As Kim Beazley Snr once said:

"When I first joined the Labor Party it was made up of the cream of the working class. When I left it was made up of the scum of the middle class."   

Mind you, both major parties as well as the Nationals and the Greens have long since abandoned their original charters...

[mightytiges]

With free TAFE encouraging those who don't want to go to uni to go into a trade plus all the infrastructure building creating thousands of construction and other trade jobs, it could be argued that it's pretty pro-"working class" state government. 

Anyway, another day and another self-inflicted wound on the other side of politics up in Canberra. The split between the moderates and conservatives is widening with one moderate Liberal MP quitting and another caught bagging the conservative faction for trashing the party's brand. Morrison wants to have an early budget in April for a May 11/18 election but the question is will the Federal government last until them? It won't happen (yet) but in theory the rest of the House of Reps, which combined is now a majority, could bring down the government at any time.

[one-eyed]

Victorian Legislative Council (upper house) results. 11 on the crossbench.

Labor                    18
Liberal/National      11 (10 Lib, 1 Nat)

Derryn Hinch Justice   4
Transport Matters      2
Greens                      1
Animal Justice           1
Sustainable Australia  1
Shooters, Fishers       1
Lib Democrats           1

https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/vic-election-2018/results/legislative-council/


Aside: A couple of examples of block voting above the line where a first vote of just 1% or less can still get you a seat in the upper house thanks to preference wheeling and dealing. If you don't do the preference horsetrading then you miss out even if you get far more first votes.

                    1st votes           prefs       total votes
Trans. Mat.  1,719 ( 0.6%)    65,085       66,624 ... quota achieved

                     1st votes          prefs       total votes
Trans. Mat.  3,693 ( 1.2%)    60,279       63,972 ... quota achieved

                     1st votes         prefs       total votes
Sus. Aus.    3,562 ( 1.3%)    52,847     56,409  ... quota achieved
Greens      35,827 (12.8%)     1,187     37,014 ... no quota achieved


https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/vic-election-2018/results/emet/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/vic-election-2018/results/seme/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/vic-election-2018/results/smet/

[Assange Tiger 😎]

Good to see the Lib Democrats getting amongst it

[Diocletian]

Sustainable Australia 

[Assange Tiger 😎]

[mightytiges]

Here we go again. The infighting continues.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/turnbull-weighs-in-on-pms-request-to-reendorse-members/news-story/a7100da9360e4e0ee86418c27bf9ac27
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/craig-kelly-s-expletive-laden-rant-exposes-depth-of-liberal-party-tensions-20181202-p50jra.html

And just when you think it couldn't get any worse ........... it does lol.

https://www.9news.com.au/2018/12/01/09/45/abbott-open-to-return-as-pm

[1965]

Here we go again. The infighting continues.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/turnbull-weighs-in-on-pms-request-to-reendorse-members/news-story/a7100da9360e4e0ee86418c27bf9ac27
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/craig-kelly-s-expletive-laden-rant-exposes-depth-of-liberal-party-tensions-20181202-p50jra.html

And just when you think it couldn't get any worse better ........... it does lol.

https://www.9news.com.au/2018/12/01/09/45/abbott-open-to-return-as-pm

corrected for accuracy 

[mightytiges]

Back on the Vic election results, a picture tells a thousand words (especially in Melbourne).

Here we go again. The infighting continues.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/turnbull-weighs-in-on-pms-request-to-reendorse-members/news-story/a7100da9360e4e0ee86418c27bf9ac27
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/craig-kelly-s-expletive-laden-rant-exposes-depth-of-liberal-party-tensions-20181202-p50jra.html

And just when you think it couldn't get any worse better ........... it does lol.

https://www.9news.com.au/2018/12/01/09/45/abbott-open-to-return-as-pm

corrected for accuracy 

lol

Mind you two more S44 breaches (and resulting byelections) could be the final tipping point if the crossbenchers vote to send Crewther and Dutton to the High Court.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/legal-advice-on-liberal-mps-business-interest-raising-doubts-on-his-future/news-story/89ae32a14b82b2c5d8342843da30ee29

[mightytiges]

Another day and another idiot in the federal government causing self-inflicted damage.

You've got to feel for his wife and family right before Christmas. So much for him preaching family values  .

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/andrew-broad-built-himself-a-pedestal-then-fell-off-it-20181217-p50mr4.html

[Assange Tiger 😎]

Who cares

[1965]

Another day and another idiot in the federal government causing self-inflicted damage.

You've got to feel for his wife and family right before Christmas. So much for him preaching family values  .

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/andrew-broad-built-himself-a-pedestal-then-fell-off-it-20181217-p50mr4.html

He was one of the first to call for Barnaby to quit.


Might turn out ok for the Nats. A safe seat going begging, rumour is Bridget McKenzie may make the switch to the lower house.


And if you want a bold prediction...


After the next election; Julie Bishop as Liberal Leader and Bridget McKenzie as leader of the Nats.