Hi everyone
A political earthquake has happened here in Australia, like nothing we have seen every before. You may have missed it. Not any more. If there are other Aussies on here, please comment.
I’ve hardly had any sleep, so I could write for hours or keep it brief.
Just to fill you in: in our HoR, we have 151 seats from local electorates. It takes 76 to have a majority, however you can govern with say 74.
The Liberal/National coalition (Trump/extreme right wing/Pentacostal) was on 75, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) on 69 and a few independents.
Well, due to the utter inhumanity of Scott Morrison, the LNP leader on so many fronts (a guy with no soul), Australians got sick of him and booted his government out. They are getting a shellacking of huge proportions and are on track to have the worst result since 1943. That’s how bad they got it.
And not just from the ALP. The Greens are on track for getting 3 or 4 extra seats in the HoR, and a Senator in each state (I think). No third party has had the ability to leapfrog the two main parties and capture lower house seats. But they did. Took them 20 years, but they can build on this.
And the other one are the ones called the Teals (blue + green; blue = conservative). Not all are ex-Liberals. They went for the L/NP in loads of their safest seats, and won 6. I helped out in one (my local), and there was a 14% swing to her from the LNP. She looks like she will win it. It was Australia’s first instance of tactical voting.
We have a preference system of voting. You put 1 in say Greens, and 2 ALP. So if the Greens don’t get enough votes and are knocked out, your vote transfers to the ALP. I forgot the name for this system, but that’s how we do it. So this time, we voted 1 Teal 2 ALP. It was to knock out the LNP. So the L/NP lost out on all their ‘blue ribbon’ seats bar a few, and the previous winner in a blue ribbon seat (Zali Stegalli) got reelected.
And now, they have hardly any talent, and the leftovers are rapid RWers and Aussies are not into extremes (other than the nutcases). So this could be the LAST time the L/NP are in government. I hope so.
Everyone was over Morrison’s photo ops and what did it for him I think in the end was tackling (like rugby) a kid playing soccer and having this stupid fake look on his face, like a smirk but worst. That pretty much sealed the deal.
I am more calm now, but the political landscape is not the same now. In 3 years time, the Teals will strengthen their hold, the ALP under Albanese (check him out) will govern with them and the Greens in mind, and the L/NP will not win. At least, that is how it looks if everyone is smart in the next 3 years.
And news you guys will like, the media acted like Hungarian state media, under the control of Murdoch, a L/NP ex treasurer and another media mogul. The media were insane in their smashing of the ALP. Meanwhile, an ex ALP PM put up a petition for a Royal Commission (yes, royal...) (similar to Congressional Hearings, I think), into the Media. MURDOCH FAILED to get the L/NP reelected yesterday. They are losing influence, not just federally but state too. Murdoch with their front pages just insane, fail to knock out ALP state governments.
Also, a mining oligarch set up a fake party and spent $100m on ads all over the country. Did squat all, the L/NP still got their worst result ever. Now Albanese (‘Albo’) can get on with building up a 21st century economy. Finally.
So the L/NP and the media were pushed out of the way, because no matter how much they made Morrison to be our saviour, no one bought it.
I hope it’s a good omen for you guys. Keep the faith and keep strong. The reactionaries will fk up somewhere along the line like they did here, and 80 years of L/NP look like they’re coming to an end
If you want to keep up with how things are moving and shaking, a very credible site to follow: pollbludger.net/…
Sorry for any typos or grammatical mistakes...