[Shaved Monkey]

Australian elections today.
We obviously dont take democracy as seriously .
Probably because we know nothing really changes,we just go through with the pantomime.
Rupert Murdoch has picked every Australian government for nearly 50 years now.

Conservatives look like they will win a second term the polls are close so it could be a hung parliament but hopefully a loss in the senate so they cant get their austerity through.
Basically they are promising slower internet,crack down on the poor,cuts to education and health and tax cuts to rich and corporations.
So it all sounds like good fun.
They currently have a hamstrung, but externally popular moderate leader, who the right wing nut jobs in his party have signed a Faustian deal with, to deliver them to the mother land,in return he gets to live in worse house than the one he owns but gets to have PM on his business card.
If he delivers a narrow win as the polls suggest I assume they will agitate within and remove him,to put in one of their souless snake eyed zombies.

He like all former conservative leaders with half a brain will have a road to Damascus conversion in retirement and go on to be spokes-models for the Greens a far left fringe party that gets 10 to 12% of the vote.

Rinse and repeat
I already voted Greens

[sparky]

.
for the non Aussies , voting is compulsory for the Australian federal elections ,
if no candidate get above the 50% mark ,the count is by "preferences reversal to exaustion" ,

since the two main parties have the system rigged in their favor ,it's a bit of a waste of time.
about twenty small parties exist only to revert their preferences back to the two big ones
those preference reversal are quite often secret and one's doesn't know where the votes end up

both main parties have their sidekicks , the "Nationals" for the Liberals ( really the conservatives )
and the Greens for Labor ( really the democrats )

I spend half an hour carefully choosing the candidates which would not flow back to any of the two amigos
Australian democracy is in terminal decline ,
like a once fair lady evolving into a senile old hag flaunting her faded charms

[SeaGypsy]

Given our first past the post counting system, our protest votes almost never count in the house of reps, but the Senate is still likely to have some non major balance of power members & it's both houses this election.

[peripato]

Given our first past the post counting system, our protest votes almost never count in the house of reps, but the Senate is still likely to have some non major balance of power members & it's both houses this election.

Australia has a preferential voting system in the lower house, http://www.aec.gov.au/voting/counting/hor_count.htm.

A House of Representatives candidate is elected if they gain more than 50 per cent of the formal vote.

First, all of the number '1' votes are counted for each candidate. If a candidate gets more than half the total first preference votes, that candidate will be elected.

If no candidate has more than half of the votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is excluded. This candidate's votes are transferred to the other candidates according to the second preferences of voters on the ballot papers for the excluded candidate. If still no candidate has more than half the votes, the candidate who now has the fewest votes is excluded and the votes are transferred according to the next preference shown. This process continues until one candidate has more than half the total number of formal votes and is elected.

[SeaGypsy]

Makes the double dissolution move look really stupid. Attempting to delete the influence of minor parties appears to be yielding the balance of power in both houses to the minors. Turnbull has egg all over his face. Could easy be headed for a double double dissolution.

[Shaved Monkey]

Im hoping for a Conservative party blood bath first.
Turnballs only job was to deliver government for the right wing nut jobs and he failed
So its going to get nasty.

Though he did deliver the senate with the worst right wing nut job ever

[SeaGypsy]

It sucks but it's good they are all squirming. If they can form a government it will be hamstrung entirely whoever the nominal majority goes to. People are sick of the whole thing & no matter how much we are told the minors are bad for governance, we seem determined to shove enough in there to mess things up pretty well, not enough to get a real change going. A boring election leads to a boring hung parliament & 3 years of boring crap talking government. Or it dissolves again, back to the polls in 6 months & probably the same result. I'm sick of it myself, big-time, either got to go bush or leave this country again soon. The people I invested political energy with here turned out too fricken lazy to even construct policy proposals, no detail. There is scant intelligence in any party here, really quite pathetic. Nick Xenophon getting more primary votes than Labor & almost as many as Libs, in the S.A. Senate is an interesting bright spot. What a shambles.

[peripato]

Why give a f#ck? The whole country is sleepwalking towards disaster...just be ready to be at least 500km from any large city before it blows...as the explosion will be visible from space...

[SeaGypsy]

I know Gas, this might sound weird to you or not, but at the moment, the situation in the US attracts me, not for anything happening at the national level, but the States themselves having more independence than most countries do, certainly far more than Australia does. There are states in the USA I find politically repulsive, others which appear very attractive, affordable, with good job opportunities, cheap land & houses, sensible law & order, fair degree of personal liberty. Australia has become a country where if you want a good job you have to live in an expensive city, where you are monitored 24/7, where a hobby farm is the domain of the rich, where police randomly take body fluids from people by force, where the regions are invariably economically depressed, where every political position has attracted shitheads to lead, where lying is standard across the board.

[sparky]

.
Well the results are in ...Not !
that's the usual rubbish of waiting for a week until every postal is into know what is happening ,
a first glance tend to support the dog breakfast theory of politic !
the Tasmanians voted like inbred brain dead , they would scare the zombies ,
the Queenslanders voted like sharp hustlers ,make me an offer and I will love you until next time
the crows eaters ( South Austraslia) went for the funny marginal as usual .

On the Senate ticket , our very own Johan of Arc , AKA pauline ,
upheld the pride of Australians as a good Kiwi New Zealander than she is

[Newfie]

Do you guys speak English?

I wonder if US politics is as confusing.

So you still don't know who won? Kinda like Gore v Bush?

And it really doesn't matter cause they are all scallywags?

And clueless to resource depletion and limits to growth?

[SeaGypsy]

We don't have direct elections for leader, the leader is selected by the majority of the lower house & consent of the Governor General, Queen`s rep. If there is no natural leader, majority party leader with a majority of seats, horse trading with minors can drag on for weeks.

[peripato]

We don't have direct elections for leader, the leader is selected by the majority of the lower house & consent of the Governor General, Queen`s rep. If there is no natural leader, majority party leader with a majority of seats, horse trading with minors can drag on for weeks.

The Prime Minister is selected by the party that gets enough votes to win government.

[SeaGypsy]

That's the convention, what I mentioned is the Constitutional basis.. Minority government has occurred by spontaneous coalition before & may again.

[SeaGypsy]

Why give a f#ck? The whole country is sleepwalking towards disaster...just be ready to be at least 500km from any large city before it blows...as the explosion will be visible from space...

While at times I agree with your sentiment, I think you are exactly wrong, the grand plan is for the deprived masses to flee north to be exterminated, while the far south fills up with rich buy in refugees. We are the safe haven for the elite, haven't you noticed?

[sparky]

.
for those non Aussies a bit confused , here is as good an explanation as you will get
from the Reuters press agency
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-austra ... KKCN0ZJ0XQ

Pauline Hanson , is pretty much of the marine Le Pen style (minus the humor)
Sarah Palin would not be quite exact , Australians don't like too much religion in their politics.

[SeaGypsy]

Funny, Reuters is now 1 click away from saturation gambling newsmercials.

[peripato]

Why give a f#ck? The whole country is sleepwalking towards disaster...just be ready to be at least 500km from any large city before it blows...as the explosion will be visible from space...

While at times I agree with your sentiment, I think you are exactly wrong, the grand plan is for the deprived masses to flee north to be exterminated, while the far south fills up with rich buy in refugees. We are the safe haven for the elite, haven't you noticed?

Really, you actually believe the "elites" know jack squat abut what's happening? All I see are rich geysers who haven't got a clue about what's going on in the real world, being consistently wrong at every turn.

Anyway this country is not what it used to be. By the time collapse arrives, and I believe it will be sudden, whoever isn't already where they need to be to stand at least a chance of survival will be cactus.

This definitely goes for the elites who are far too busy having a good time at the Restaurant at the end of the universe.