Australian Election

[pErvinalia]

Greens for me in both houses. They are the only main progressive party left in Australia.

[JimC]

Utter lunatics in many respects, but I suppose their hearts are in the right place...

[pErvinalia]

They most certainly aren't lunatics. They are basically equivalent to the Hawke/Keating Labor party. In fact they are so respectable now that many Greens supporters are seriously upset with their "sell out" to capitalism. Coalition are most certainly lunatics, and Rudd is one as well (with his stupid policy on the run bollocks).

[Audley Strange]

No, he's pissed them off greatly with a series of ridiculous unilateral policy decisions relating to the stream of refugees coming through Indonesia. He's also pissed off PNG where we are hiding refugees for the time being. He described the Syrian civil war as "baddies vs baddies". Fuck, I could go on for thousands of words. The man is an utterly contemptible buffoon who is a homophobe and a sexist. The fact that he's looking like getting voted in here is causing a lot of despair on the left. What the fuck has gone wrong with our country to look to take such a big step backwards?

What happened was obvious, you just don't want to see it. Your left, much like ours was seized by greedy one note opportunists. The people didn't abandon the left, they voted for them, if anything the left has pretty much abandoned the common man and reasoned thinking not just in Aus but globally. It's why there are calls here for a new left party.

Elmer Rudd Vs The Black Abbot though, ugly choices.

[Svartalf]

I have decided to vote for the Sex Party.

More bang for your buck.

That kind of party has nothing for me, when they are not the far right advancing under the cover of naked girls.
Last elections, I voted for the Pirate party.

[pErvinalia]

No, he's pissed them off greatly with a series of ridiculous unilateral policy decisions relating to the stream of refugees coming through Indonesia. He's also pissed off PNG where we are hiding refugees for the time being. He described the Syrian civil war as "baddies vs baddies". Fuck, I could go on for thousands of words. The man is an utterly contemptible buffoon who is a homophobe and a sexist. The fact that he's looking like getting voted in here is causing a lot of despair on the left. What the fuck has gone wrong with our country to look to take such a big step backwards?

What happened was obvious, you just don't want to see it. Your left, much like ours was seized by greedy one note opportunists. The people didn't abandon the left, they voted for them, if anything the left has pretty much abandoned the common man and reasoned thinking not just in Aus but globally. It's why there are calls here for a new left party.

Elmer Rudd Vs The Black Abbot though, ugly choices.

I think Australia has the distinction of having the first "3rd Way" "New Labour" left party in the world. The Labor party under Hawke and Keating in the late 80's. We haven't had a proper left since then. Essentially, the Greens are now the workers party and also the party of the farmer. They are the social progressives and have policies concerning humans, not economic units like the other two majors.

[pErvinalia]

But fuck, I'm falling off my perch. I'm not sure if I can get to tomorrow so I can put all this cuntery behind me. I'm starting to think I got PTSD from the Howard years and the current batch of backward conservatives are triggering me. I wish they could spoiler themselves. Cunts.

[Audley Strange]

No, he's pissed them off greatly with a series of ridiculous unilateral policy decisions relating to the stream of refugees coming through Indonesia. He's also pissed off PNG where we are hiding refugees for the time being. He described the Syrian civil war as "baddies vs baddies". Fuck, I could go on for thousands of words. The man is an utterly contemptible buffoon who is a homophobe and a sexist. The fact that he's looking like getting voted in here is causing a lot of despair on the left. What the fuck has gone wrong with our country to look to take such a big step backwards?

What happened was obvious, you just don't want to see it. Your left, much like ours was seized by greedy one note opportunists. The people didn't abandon the left, they voted for them, if anything the left has pretty much abandoned the common man and reasoned thinking not just in Aus but globally. It's why there are calls here for a new left party.

Elmer Rudd Vs The Black Abbot though, ugly choices.

I think Australia has the distinction of having the first "3rd Way" "New Labour" left party in the world. The Labor party under Hawke and Keating in the late 80's. We haven't had a proper left since then. Essentially, the Greens are now the workers party and also the party of the farmer. They are the social progressives and have policies concerning humans, not economic units like the other two majors.

Yup. The late 80's, that was when I first started getting involved with left politics. By the mid-nineties I realised I preferred crooks who didn't pretend to give a fuck.

[Clinton Huxley]

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see...."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said Ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
Douglas Adams, in So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (1984) Ch. 36

[Tyrannical]

So, probably no one in Australian politics that I'd like. Well, not like there are very many American politicians that I like.

[Audley Strange]

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see...."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said Ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
Douglas Adams, in So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (1984) Ch. 36

I'd never read that.

Hmm... and V was from 1983.

I'm seeing a pattern to David Icke's singular psychosis and worldview.

[Clinton Huxley]

Tony Blair has a dislocatable jaw. Fact.

[charlou]

I have decided to vote for the Sex Party.

More bang for your buck.

I liked their ad, but do they or do they not intend to preference One Nation?

[JimC]

OK, I've voted...

But of course, since it was a secret ballot, I can't tell you who I voted for...



One reflection; the local ballot place (run and staffed by employees of the Australian Electoral Commission) was a Church of Christ. Not in the actual nave with pews etc., but in the large room next door. However, the queue wound through the front doors, past posters with the usual "Praise the Lord" banalities.

Since at least a couple of the minor parties on offer were very Christian in orientation, one wonders about subliminal effects...

Usually, most ballot places are local primary schools, but not this year...

Anyway, it's pounds to pennies I'll wake up tomorrow morning and Tony Abbott will be the fucking PM...

[Faithfree]

One more cup of coffee and I'm off up the street to get ticked off the roll. The nearest polling place is in the so called leisure centre at the far end of the street.