The Australian politics/election/whatever thread

I would love not to bother this year....maybe I'll just draw a nuclear submarine being attacked by a ludicrously huge squid-monster thing and write 'THIS IS FAR MORE AWESOME THAN POLITICS!!!' on my ballot paper. :p

Man, this is the worst election choice ever. There's hardly any difference between the main parties anymore. <_<
 
Hidden_Hunter said:
I think if anything this campaign has shown that if you're in a safe seat no parties give a shit
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To some extent yes, but my electorate isn't falling apart at the seams. We aren't being showered with gifts and promises either mind.
(For the record, my seat is very safe Labor)

Hidden_Hunter said:
No offense, but you go to university in Newcastle which comprises of three of the safest labor held seats so I wouldn't really call that a balanced view
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My uni serves the whole Hunter area (including a few marginal seats) and a good chunk of the Central Coast/Sydney (especially the kids who didn't get a high enough ATAR to get into their first uni of choice). Combined with the fact that we have quite a few international students in the class (my tutor is Scandanavian!), I think we have a pretty decent cross section that isn't too biased wither way.

Red_Bull said:
Yup. Someone said we should simply vote to marginalise our electorate so the parties will have to take notice of us later :p

I wont vote Labor. They've been the worst Government we've had, probably ever. All we've had are broken promises and billions spent to fix issues that they fucked up in the first place. Kevin Rudd was a total failure and Gillard was the person behind him. The ship is still sinking and changing the captain wont stop that.
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Funny thing is, I feel a similar way about the Lieral Party, except as their role in Opposition- they were basically a shambles during that entire time and couldn't even pull themselves together properly for one moment until Abbott muscled his way in (in a much worse way than Rudd got backstabbed IMO, but the Libs have conveniently forgotten about their revolving door of leaders now haven't they?)

Labor Party during the last term- meh. Not brilliant, but they didn't wreck the country either. Like I said, I really admire Rudd and Swan for how they handled the economy during that time. Mind you, I equally admire Howard and Costello for their economic management prior to losing office which created the surplus that has seen us through the recession.

Zesty said:
I would love not to bother this year....maybe I'll just draw a nuclear submarine being attacked by a ludicrously huge squid-monster thing and write 'THIS IS FAR MORE AWESOME THAN POLITICS!!!' on my ballot paper. :p

Man, this is the worst election choice ever. There's hardly any difference between the main parties anymore. <_<
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Have to agree to some extent, but the left-wing/right-wing philosophies still rear their heads from time to time. I just hate how this election has been a bitching competiton- basically which leader can slag off the other party better. It's really just appealing to the absolute lowest common denominator, even though they are the majority. Even though i am loathe to admit it (I think my genuine dislike of the man is well known by now!), but Abbott has a good idea with the debate commission/whatever it is, so we don't have these stupid screw-arounds with no decent debates on issues.
 
This election isn't really that much different to the last. I lost count of how many leaders Labour had during the Howard Government. And as for choices between the parties/leaders, they both looked like Mr Sheen:

mr-sheen.jpg

Although Howard did, at least, eat his own ear wax in private .. lol

 
We so should have started the finalgear party for common sense.
 
^ nope, sory!

In other news, great: Democrats sorry for sex offender candidate. They can't even screen their candidates properly?? (and no, i don't think asking them and getting them to sign a declaration is enough, background checks with cops should be done IMO).

Kinda worrying, dunno who to vote for in Senate now.
 
It was just one bloke in the SA seat of Sturt, and he's already stood down. No real reason to change your vote as long as you trust that your candidate is honest and has high integrity. Unfortunately one guy's actions can taint an entire party.
 
I heard Julia Gillard on the radio this afternoon, on one of those light-harted commercial drive shows. Hence they obviously weren't going to ask the big issues, but she wouldn't bloody shut up about Abbott and workchoices. She opened speaking about workchoices, weaved it into the answer of every question hardly subtly and ended on it. Not the best interview I've heard this campaign.
 
brydie76 said:
Kinda worrying, dunno who to vote for in Senate now.
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How about a bloke like Palpatine for the Senate?

sorry couldn't help myself.

actually the election has reached BBC News over here.
Australia election rivals neck and neck​

The election campaign in Australia has reached its final day with the two main parties neck and neck. An opinion poll suggested the governing Labor Party had lost its narrow lead to be tied with the opposition coalition. Julia Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister, is facing a fight to the finish with conservative coalition leader Tony Abbott. Ms Gillard became prime minister in June after ousting her predecessor, Kevin Rudd
But correspondents say she faces a backlash at the ballot box over a range of issues including the way she replaced Mr Rudd and her policy direction on climate change. According to the survey by Newspoll for The Australian newspaper on Friday, voters were split 50-50 between the two main parties. A Newspoll survey on Monday had put Labor at 52% and the Liberals at 48%.

However, most analysts still expect Labor to hang on to power for a second three-year term with a narrow majority. In the run-up to Saturday's poll, Mr Abbott - who leads the Liberal Party - vowed to campaign non-stop for 36 hours to woo more voters away from Labor. "I am running for the biggest job in the country, and if you're running for a big job, you've got to make a big effort," he said. Welsh-born Ms Gillard has warned that the election will be "a real cliffhanger" and urged voters to turn out. "There is a very, very real risk that (voters) will wake up on Sunday and Mr Abbott will be prime minister," she said. "So, tomorrow is the day for choosing." Ms Gillard has been hit by a series of damaging - apparently internal - leaks during the campaign, something that Tony Abbott has cited as evidence of disarray with the Labor ranks. Before taking office, she had been Kevin Rudd's deputy and her sudden leadership challenge in June stunned many Australians. The challenge came as the Labor Party's popularity was sliding in opinion polls. Mr Rudd surrendered without a fight after realising his support among government colleagues had collapsed.

Analysis
Nick Bryant BBC News, Sydney

Tony Abbott is an iron man triathlete and he has turned these final days of campaigning into a test of endurance by going 36 hours without sleep. Nicknamed the mad monk, he didn't even lead his party this time last year and few expected him to come close in this race, let alone turn it into a photo-finish. There is nervousness in Labor ranks and the decision to replace a once-popular leader, Kevin Rudd, with his deputy Julia Gillard has bedevilled its campaign. Recriminations continued for weeks afterwards, and Ms Gillard even had to enlist Mr Rudd's help when she slumped in the polls.
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original article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11033157
 
brydie76 said:
In other news, great: Democrats sorry for sex offender candidate. They can't even screen their candidates properly?? (and no, i don't think asking them and getting them to sign a declaration is enough, background checks with cops should be done IMO).
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rofl .. how bad was the competition in that pre-selection? Was it some guy who keeps body parts in his compost bin??

I'm surprised the Democrats still exist. That whole party came into being solely as the result of Don Chip's personal hatred of Malcolm Fraser .... nothing more. "Keep the bastards honest" was an out and out lie .. "Keep the bastard honest" .. would've been much more truthful.
 
I guess I'm going to have to vote liberal purely on the basis that I hate labor, but abbott has managed to do a lot better than I expected throughout the campaign.

I think Victoria is relatively safe for labor, but Queensland will be a fierce battleground IMO since there's a big backlash against them there and the coalition has gained quiet a bit of ground.

No matter what, this country deserves better.
 
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The more I think about Abbott being PM, the more I think that would be very, very bad for most of the country. In fact, I think he would be a much worse PM than Howard, and I detested Howard. Abbott has the air of someone who doesn't care about small business, education, infrastructure or health care. A Coalition government would probably drive the economy back into surplus within 3 years, but at huge cost to communities.

One thing you learn after going through a few of these elections (and this is my 8th as a voter): it's always a decision between two parties that you don't like, and you just have to pick the one that you dislike the least. this one is no different.
 
I feel similarly disappointed with the efforts both sides are making regarding coming up with even half-decent plans that will benefit this country in the future. I'll be voting Labor, but as I've mentioned already in this thread, only out of support for our local member, Catherine King, who has been around for a bit now and who I think is actually doing a decent job. The Liberal candidate I know nothing about, they've been practically invisible here during the election campaign.

I'll probably vote Greens in the Senate, or not....I don't know. I'd like them in there to moderate whoever (Labor or Liberal) gets in (especially if they block Labor's plans for that ridiculous internet filter), but at the same time, it will feel wrong. I'm no environmentalist. At this point I might as well go 'Eeny meeny miney mo' with the senate paper.

Stupid election. The whole campaign period has been approximately 90% more annoying than the two previous Federal Elections I've voted in, both for dullness, stupidity, childish sniping and lack of direction. Blah..... Like Lurch above I just wanted to see the back of Howard and his cronies those times.
 
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Lurch0001 said:
The more I think about Abbott being PM, the more I think that would be very, very bad for most of the country. In fact, I think he would be a much worse PM than Howard, and I detested Howard. Abbott has the air of someone who doesn't care about small business, education, infrastructure or health care. A Coalition government would probably drive the economy back into surplus within 3 years, but at huge cost to communities.

One thing you learn after going through a few of these elections (and this is my 8th as a voter): it's always a decision between two parties that you don't like, and you just have to pick the one that you dislike the least. this one is no different.
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Abbot comes across to me as a complete retard who has no idea how anything works, or has any care to find out how things work (see some of his comments on the networking). Howard while I didn't like him, his party, his policies and viewed him as a bastard, I would never accuse him of being dumb.
 
Well, I've voted. Didn't have much choice as far as candidates go in my electorate (save the Labor member obviously! :lol:)
 
I've voted too, and I voted to kick our train-wreck of a government out.

Then again, all parties were only varying degrees of train-wrecks, so it wasn't much of a choice. At least our local member is actually half-decent at getting shit done.
 
Voted. Didn't even know we had a Greens Candidate in our area. Oh well.

And since when One Nation was still going in the Senate? :blink:
 
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