Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 28, 2024, 4:16 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Aussie Election Results
#1
Information 
Aussie Election Results
Okay so I have so much to say about this, & hopefully stir up a good convo on here with the other Aussies.

First let me say this: What a great day for democracy! Smile

When you hear politicians saying things like "this is not the result we wanted" or similar, and that it's "bad for the rule of government" when they really mean is that it's bad for politicians, especially career politicians, and that's wonderful for democracy.

[Image: OYGN0m1.png]

As you can see above, some electorates are on a knife-edge. At present this electorate (Chisholm) shows a TCP difference of just 49 votes. And yet there are two thousand informal votes! Two thousand of the thus-far counted voters chose not to exercise their voice and say "my vote doesn't count".

Australian Voting

We can be very proud of our system. It is the envy of the world, and not just that it's the innovation of the world as well. We, Australians, invented the secret ballot - which is now universally adopted worldwide. We invented preferential voting, and I'm very happy to say the long-overdue changes to the Senate has finally brought the system back to its Hare-Clark roots. This system was invented and in use from the late 19th century. It also addressed the long criticism that many voters have had that it is a burdensome task to be forced to fill in every box below the line. Even ACT voters didn't like being forced to do that, and we only had 20 candidates in total!

I think the ALP made a huge miscalculation this election by opposing the fairer changes that put preference decisions in the hands of voters, which was always the intention with Hare-Clark, and why the Senate ballot is described as a variation of it". I was very dismayed at the fact that 96% or so of formal Senate votes in the past were people voting on party tickets - which is a 1 above the line and leaves preference decisions to the party. This was always anti-democratic because ordinary people who go to vote will not know where their vote goes, and ultimately Greens preferences got a Liberal Democrat elected to the Senate - as an example.

Senate

Some people are saying the Senate is looking "just as unruly as the last". Abbott is warning of Americanisation of our democracy if the Senate does not function in the way intended (which is to be less partisan). Well one big difference between us and America is that we've never had a single instance of electoral fraud. And we make it easy for people to vote, and don't give them indecipherable ballots (e.g. the Florida Butterfly Ballot). Anyway, the old senate looked like this:

Liberal/National: 33
ALP: 25
Grn: 10
Xenophon: 1
PUP: 3
Democratic Labour: 1
Liberal Democratic: 1
Family First: 1
Motoring Enthusiasts: 1
-----------------------
Total: 76

Noting of course that PUP disintegrated and became: PUP: 1 (Wang); Jacqui Lambie: 1, and my mum's ex-student who couldn't read in high school Glenn Lazarus: 1.

Now I didn't actually make any predictions here about the senate, but I did to friends. I said I expected Xenophon to win 3 or 4 senate seats, Pauline Hanson to win one possibly two, Lambi to hold hers, and the other former PUPs to likely lose their seats, and of course the asshole LD David Leyonhjelm to lose his Senate seat. And that's pretty much what we've seen so far. We won't know the senate results for quite some time yet, but it looks something like this at present:

Liberal/National: 31
ALP: 29
Grn: 9
Xenophon: 3
Jacqui Lambie: 1
Derryn Hinch: 1
Pauline Hanson's One Nation: 2
-----------------------
Total: 76


Of course it will only look like that for three years, and the minor parties would be the ones (for the most part) facing the re-election woes in 2019. Nick Xenophon won't have to re-contest in 2019, and possibly Pauline won't either depending on how she ends up polling. Anyway, until we know how it will actually look we don't know how difficult the Senate will be for a Coalition government - but it doesn't look great on those numbers anyway.

Minority Government?

Unlikely. I wouldn't mind seeing one, but I think one of two things will happen. Either the Coalition will end up winning 76 or 77 seats (and thus have a small majority), or we will return to the polls for a re-election later this year. I think in the case of a hung-parliament a re-election is in the best interests of the Coalition, especially to win back the Tassie seats that fell to Labor.
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK

The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK


"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
Reply
#2
RE: Aussie Election Results
Who the fuck cares about Australia?
Reply
#3
RE: Aussie Election Results
Quote:When you hear politicians saying things like "this is not the result we wanted" or similar, and that it's "bad for the rule of government" when they really mean is that it's bad for politicians, especially career politicians, and that's wonderful for democracy.

Yes, that is one way to look at it.  The optimistic way.


The pessimistic way would be to say that rather than do what is needed for "democracy" they will spend their time trying to figure out how to make the other side look bad for the next round. 

We've suffered through 8 years of stagnation.  The result is not pretty.
Reply
#4
RE: Aussie Election Results
(July 3, 2016 at 2:10 am)Tiberius Wrote: Who the fuck cares about Australia?
Australians?
Reply
#5
RE: Aussie Election Results
(July 3, 2016 at 2:12 am)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:
(July 3, 2016 at 2:10 am)Tiberius Wrote: Who the fuck cares about Australia?
Australians?

Pretty sure they're all too drunk most of the time to care about anything.
Reply
#6
RE: Aussie Election Results
(July 3, 2016 at 2:10 am)Minimalist Wrote: The pessimistic way would be to say that rather than do what is needed for "democracy" they will spend their time trying to figure out how to make the other side look bad for the next round.

Actually the biggest problem that the Coalition had in their campaign was in not attacking Labor effectively. It's really quite interesting, they ran on their policies, and didn't really make any big promises that they couldn't keep. But people are cynical and expect political lies at election time, which is why Labor was able to get away with a huge lie that appeared to have influenced people - Medicare will be gone, gone forever if the Coalition is returned. Where will it go? - It'll be gone!

The Senate changes were a huge missed opportunity for the Coalition. As I've mentioned, they are so much better for democracy, yet Labor ran the lie that they were bad and opposed them. That should have made them an easy target for the Coalition who never once even mentioned "Hare-Clark". It is more democratic and makes voting easier - that should have been an easy argument for the Coalition to execute, and leave the ALP open to attack on their back-room preference deals. And again, Labor did a complete back-flip on their promise not to preference Greens on how-to-vote cards, that should have been easy for the Coalition to attack - and they didn't.

The other thing that went against them was proposed superannuation changes. That saw Tassie fall to Labor - which (ironically) has essentially the same policy. Tassie used to be one of the most anti-Labor places in Australia, because of the ALP shutting down the logging industry and driving high unemployment. Again, I'm not in Tassie, but that should have been an easy local argument for them. Instead of just saying "unemployment is half what it was when we took office in Tassie, blah blah blah" drive the point as to why it was so high under Labor. Both of the Super policies are quite mild in terms of what needs to be done to make Super fairer for "middle Australia" - I would like to see them go a lot further. Not as far as the Greens, but certainly indexing and taxing super on a modest level post-retirement.

Anyway, we can wait and see what comes out of this - but I do hold out hope for a re-election later this year for the House if there's a hung Parliament.
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK

The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK


"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
Reply
#7
RE: Aussie Election Results
OK, so what are the top three issues in Australia?
Reply
#8
RE: Aussie Election Results
To those unfamiliar with Australian politics, think of Labour as almost matching the US Democratic Party in terms of policies, while the Coalition/Liberal corresponds to the US Republican Party.

But the Greens might be the closest to Bernie Sanders in terms of policies even though they seem to get a lot of hate here for being "hippies" and such.

I'm a Greens guy and I'd rather Labour over Liberal. Thats all I'll say.
Reply
#9
RE: Aussie Election Results
(July 3, 2016 at 2:44 am)Irrational Wrote: To those unfamiliar with Australian politics, think of Labour as almost matching the US Democratic Party in terms of policies, while the Coalition/Liberal corresponds to the US Republican Party.

But the Greens might be the closest to Bernie Sanders in terms of policies even though they seem to get a lot of hate here for being "hippies" and such.

I'm a Greens guy and I'd rather Labour over Liberal. Thats all I'll say.
So you're concerned about rabbits, sheep shearing, and vacation time.
Reply
#10
RE: Aussie Election Results
(July 3, 2016 at 3:02 am)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:
(July 3, 2016 at 2:44 am)Irrational Wrote: To those unfamiliar with Australian politics, think of Labour as almost matching the US Democratic Party in terms of policies, while the Coalition/Liberal corresponds to the US Republican Party.

But the Greens might be the closest to Bernie Sanders in terms of policies even though they seem to get a lot of hate here for being "hippies" and such.

I'm a Greens guy and I'd rather Labour over Liberal. Thats all I'll say.
So you're concerned about rabbits, sheep shearing, and vacation time.

If I got your point correctly, I'm not that extreme, but policies are about more than just animal rights and in general I see myself agreeing with the Greens more than with Labour or Liberal/Coalition.
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  2024 US Presidential Election Thumpalumpacus 965 38268 Yesterday at 5:32 pm
Last Post: BrianSoddingBoru4
  Mail in voting/ and election day. Brian37 6 751 October 25, 2020 at 2:47 pm
Last Post: BrianSoddingBoru4
  BREAKING:Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transition of power after Election Day WinterHold 97 4946 October 2, 2020 at 1:50 am
Last Post: WinterHold
  UK general election - right wing Conservative party wins large majority Duty 30 1434 December 16, 2019 at 6:12 am
Last Post: Duty
  trump the republican asks communist china to investigate his potential election rival Anomalocaris 10 1028 October 4, 2019 at 10:18 am
Last Post: Anomalocaris
  Good News from yesterday's election. Brian37 14 1959 November 9, 2018 at 11:57 am
Last Post: Brian37
  State level elections in BAvaria yield ground breaking results Deesse23 0 239 October 15, 2018 at 3:50 am
Last Post: Deesse23
  "Securing America’s Election Act" Has Gotten Little To No Media Attention ReptilianPeon 20 2375 August 2, 2018 at 9:47 am
Last Post: Brian37
  Should Hilary Run In The Next Election (The Unbiased Version) Amarok 67 9251 July 25, 2018 at 9:51 am
Last Post: vorlon13
  Fucking Republicunts Won The Special Election Out Here Minimalist 3 763 April 25, 2018 at 12:48 pm
Last Post: Minimalist



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)