Thoughts on the Australian Election Result
Well, now that the dust has settled on the Australian election... and it settled pretty damn quickly... the result is a bit of a landslide for the centre-left Labor party which absolutely slaughtered the centre-right Liberal party. Well, I would say that the Liberal party sort of demolished itself... it was in as a likely favourite not that long ago... when running as a bit of a Trump-lite was a good idea... or at least in opposition to "woke". But as the election came closer, and Trump started being Trump... well, things unravelled in a big way... and it was harder and harder to run in opposition to stuff...
Anyway, I personally voted Centre-left in the lower house, and independent in the Senate. My personal political views are a bit of a mix of the major and minor parties... so, I tend to switch between the different parties. Most of the time, I will cast an invalid vote in the lower house (the one that determines government..) and a minor or independent in the Senate. This is due to the fact that I think that both centre parties have lost the plot in major ways... and this is something I blame on their desire to emulate American ideas.
But this time, I voted AGAINST the Liberal party (Centre right) because they had done a preference deal with a minor party on the right... and that was something that I felt VERY strongly about. A definite line in the sand for me... even if they said it was just pragmatic and no idealistic... but still, that was a hard hard hard NO for me.
So, come election night... Labor... the centre-left, had won easily and convincingly... and most of the members of my extended family were ecstatic. I was happy, but not that they had completely wiped out the centre-right Liberals. Australia is a compulsory and preferential voting country and so that means that parties need to campaign for the centre if they want to win... unlike some other countries who just need to bring their base out to vote. Still, I do yearn for the European mainland proportional representations...
Anyway, a landslide... in the direction that I favoured... should be a good thing, right?
... no, I think it is a terrible thing. There were things that I disagreed about Labor. The adoption of American "left" (I use "left" in brackets as American left is more like centre-right for most of the world...) ideas... ideas that are well-intentioned but flawed in concept and implementation. And gamed to death... and that don't actually end up helping the people that they are supposed to help.
So, a democracy works best if there is a balance.. and I fear that the landslide victory might be seen as an endorsement of EVERYTHING on their party platform... and without a decent opposition party, things can't get checked and balanced. Too far in ANY direction is crap...
... and the wipeout was real... the Liberal party lost future leaders, and might be out of action for the rest of the coming decade! That is just too long a time without a real opposition, and it might have the unintended consequence of driving people to louder and more fringe parties to try and seek "balance".
So... a win for the party that I voted for... but I feel like it is a bad thing for the future.
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Lesson from Canada and Australia: Conservative parties that try Trump-lite or Conservative in name only policies will be wiped out.
Need to go full MAuGA or go home!
Agreed... but I'm not sure that full MAuGA would work here.
Unless it's a really good wake up call for Liberal to come up with some good policies and listen to what the people want and don't choose a fkn nob head like Dutton. What a debacle for them. I'm sure so many people just voted Labour because they didn't want him.
And yes, I think they wanted a bit of stability in a world Trump is destabilizing.
Look I always vote Greens, because I can't abide the centre, but this time I voted for Labour because I didn't want Dutton. However, I voted for Liberal locally as he was the best candidate for the job and goes around actually listening to what people want.
I like that we all vote (we can always screw up the paper as you know and exercise our right not to) and to be honest, like many people, I was a bit relieved that Australia voted against Dutton as I was getting worried that everyone around me, all my fellow Australians, were actually pro Trump and things were going to get even worse 😂😂
It's interesting, I've seen a few weird takes on Twitter from (hopefully non-Australians...) saying that Australian compulsory voting is coercive from a government... they don't seem to realise that we can just collect our sausage and then eat the ballot paper with it if we want. I think that all of nation voting is one of the best models of election... if only we also got proportional representation as well....
And interesting that you also did a similar thing.... voting Labour as a vote against Liberal. Sort of sad that that seems to have been the way that most people voted... I would rather I voted for something I wanted rather than something I didn't want...
I do hope that the Liberals do reshape themselves... but with such a wipeout, maybe there aren't enough moderates left, and a different lesson is learnt?
Yeah sometimes the criticism on Hive about our compulsory voting makes me feel I'm brainwashed or something as I get quite defensive about it. It works for us and it's better than other countries where they still have the same system even if they protest against it by not voting or the disenfranchised don't get to the polls - and then the president says it's rigged. I mean, I'm not naming any countries here.
Remains to be seen really - I don't like doom saying before it's happened, although it appeared quite quickly with Trump that was perfectly justified.