Local elections.
Thanks. Yeah I meant to go back and correct that.
She was picked by the Liberal party as a candidate in this seat by the Prime Minister himself (usually there is a formal party pre-selection process which was thrown away here), for the sole purpose of trying to make the election campaign into a culture war. Her comments regarding transgender women in sport (an issue that has very little practical importance, here in Aus at least) were pushed to trigger the left-wing media and make everyone’s discussion about transgender women in sport instead of, you know, the million mistakes of the current gov and their plan to leave the country and planet significantly worse off for everyone’s kids and grandkids (and I am not even exclusively talking about the environment here: housing costs, insecure employment standards, huuuuge budget deficits, etc.).
She is best ignored unless she actually wins the seat which is very unlikely.
I don’t wanna jinx anything and it’s early but it seems like it looks good for the Greens so far. .
(Image from Guardian live coverage)
Edit: This from ABC (not the US network) .
What’s the Coalition? Can you give an explainer for us dumb USians?
Fair warning, I’m an American too :P
Coalition is the Liberal party and right wing independents the Nationals (another right wing party. Liberals in Australia are the conservatives.) Scott Morrison is the PM. They’ve won the last three elections. :/
Labor are Democrats essentially.
Seeing a lot of “teal,” which I think are conservatives but concerned with climate change.
So far anyway it does appear as if climate did play a role in this election as the Greens are eating into Labor votes too.
If Labor doesn’t form a coalition with the Greens then I think that results in a hung parliament. I don’t see why they wouldn’t though.
\0/ For our Aussie posters, this has got to be a huge f’in relief.
Dammit.
Good election for the environment!
Greens have taken some lower house seats from labor and the liberals. They have gained senate seats.
Even more importantly, there are a whole bunch of ‘teal’ independents beating liberal party mps in what were safe conservative seats. Climate change is their number #1 issue! Your could really bring structural change to Australian politics towards better care for the environment and ending the climate wars even.
To make it clearer for you yanks, this is like wyoming voting a climate change independent for president or something haha.
Ps conservative pm lost, labor will form a government.
Ok but what does this mean in down-under-language where “Liberals” are conservative?
Sorry to be confusing, on my phone and busy celebrating!
I am using conservative in the general sense of a right wing asshole, liberal party is conservative yeah.
You have something to celebrate!
I’m just teasing. Congrats!
So I may have to take back my earlier disparaging comments about my fellow Queenslanders - as it looks like we’re on track to elect not just one, but three Green MPs! And a Green Senator. I am genuinely astonished.
It is interesting how the Teal independents flip the 2 party script. They are well funded and credible, and so very white, targeting Liberal strongholds, focusing on climate action, and won. The Australian Greens have the same issue appealing to teal voters as New Zealand Greens: both these parties are also big on social justice and indigenous rights, so teal voters who only care about climate change and conservative in nature are unwilling to switch to the Greens.
I am going to have to excuse Brisbane when insulting the intelligence of Queenslanders now…
I agree… every country needs a political movement that genuinely cares about the environment and climate change, yet is moderate on every other issue. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue in my view, and I welcome any usually right-wing voter who now decides to prioritise the environment. It’s such an important and urgent issue, we need to unite no matter our former political stripe and push together.
Anecdotally I know a bunch of people who’s views on issues match the teals. Unfortunately, for half of them the Murdoch media turned them against the Teals for no good reason, even when they match their political views perfectly. It’s amazing what propaganda can do to a human brain.
Seeing Pauline Hanson lose her seat to the Greens and Albanese beginning his victory speech with an endorsement of the Uluru Statement made for a beautiful weekend.
This is really neat -
While Labor did not win in a landslide the Coalition lost in one - and there was a huge swing against them in WA. What happened there?
Interestingly all of the ‘teal’ independents that won are women. They seemed to have campaigned on two issues - climate change and corruption. (I can’t find where they stand on other issues.)
Another thing that stands out is the urban/rural divide (especially in Queensland.) That exists everywhere now. What is the deal with rural voters? I can only think it has to be education.
We’re boned in the US as it’s impossible for 3rd parties to win even at a local level. (So much wrong with our political system. I was shocked to learn that Albanese becomes PM on Monday! No transition, just let’s go.) And while I agree environmental and climate change issues ideally shouldn’t be a partisan issue, vested interests will make sure it remains one. (Even now on twitter the preponderance of right wing responses are that climate change is a hoax.)
PS
One last thing. No one who lost claimed voter fraud, stolen election or any of the other bullshit that’s been normalized in the US.
https://twitter.com/mcopelov/status/1528227629832323074?s=20&t=ifX5FYCV-8UwaM3KPl7Vlg
In a nutshell, Mark McGowan and Clive Palmer.
Labor runs WA at the moment, Mark McGowan is the WA Premier and they held the reigns during COVID. During that period and with generally very high levels of support from the WA constituency, he fought for and maintained tougher border controls to minimise risk of COVID spread into WA, in turn lowering the need for more invasive controls - generally fewer lockdowns, fewer mask controls. WA’s COVID outcomes were by far and away the best in the country, yet all you’d hear about is how NSW response should be the bar for measuring success.
Clive Palmer runs the One Australia Party, but is also a mining sector magnate. He really wanted more open borders in WA as it affected his business (despite the likes of Rio/BHP/Woodside et al being supportive of WA’s border controls). He worked with the (Liberal) Federal govenement on failed court cases to force open the WA border. He also had some business leases/contracts not approved/revoked by the WA Government (unrelated to COVID/borders), which he took exception to and sued the state for some ludicrous, state-bankrupting amount.
Then there is the ever-present arguments of WA not being returned it’s fair share of GST contribution, though not sure how much that played into this election cycle.
They aren’t too specific on their stance on other issues - but they are pitching themselves to be moderates or centrists who are in parliament to achieve progress on these two issues. Alot of people voting for them are conservative voters who would have voted Liberal their whole lives, and they are switching now because they are sick of the climate change denialism and regressive social values of the current Liberal party. It’s an amazing phenomenon and gives me hope for the future.
It will be interesting to see where hte Liberals go from here. If they want to win back the affluent seats they lost to Teal independents, they will need to change their views on the environment and corruption and some social issues. HOWEVER, the liberals that lost their seats from the Teals were the more level-headed ones, so the party is now made up of even more deplorables (perhaps not US republican level deplorable, that is a very high bar). The leader they are likely to elect next for the party is even more right-wing than the last one.
Yes… some of the hard-right minor parties were spreading election fraud disinformation before the election, but it never gained any traction and not many people vote for them. It is really good that the Liberal party here in Aus only try to subvert democratic institutions in much more subtle ways than what goes on in the US.
Of course, if the US goes the way of Trumpian fascism then it won’t matter how relatively more sane we are in Australia as our fate is tied to you.
Here’s an absolute stonker of an opinion piece by the National broadcaster’s Annabel Crabb on what the Liberals didn’t do right regarding women:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-23/election-2022-morrison-women-vote/101089978
Succinct and devastating.
Poor Annabel lost her brother to suicide mere weeks ago - god knows how she’s operating at any level.