Australian Federal Elections

[Palmares]

Three or four years had past and it was that time again: election time! :rolleyes:

Anyway, the election was tipped to be a close affair between the two major parties: the Liberal party (which is infact the conservative party) and their coalition partners the National Party (or country party); and the Labo(u)r party.

In my honest opinion, I thought there was a chance of a lesser evil (I don't encourage this, but realitistically I accept it) of Labo(u)r getting power, but to my surprise, the coalition has won again.

I would say more, but this election result has really devastated me. My faith in the people of this world has greatly been strangled. I feel so alienated from everything.

The good thing is that the Greens party has gained more seats, but the coalition has majority power in both the senate and the house of representatives.

What do you think this neo-conservative victory means?

Elections results (http://vtr.aec.gov.au/) (Thanks to apathy maybe for the link)

Just in case you don't know anything about John Howard (the leader of the coalition) here (http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/599/599p22b.htm) is a page of links of his lies.

[Palmares]

Noone cares that Australia is now fucked? :unsure:

[Yazman]

To put it simply, this election has been fucking pathetic, and has reinforced my belief that the Australian public are no better than gibbering idiots.

I'm fucking sick and tired of the Liberal Party and their shit, I really am. With what they're planning to do to this country in the future, I would do anything to get rid of them at this point.

[Hiero]

I dont think many people who vote in this country actually research the policies and then relate them to there status. My friend voted for them and he is planning on going to uni and getting Hecs.

[Yazman]

Exactly, it's just a loop in the system. The lifestyle obsession under consumerism creates political apathy, which then allows for consumerism to expand.

Because people are too fucking apathetic, we have people like your friend who are incredibly ignorant and thus vote for parties which intend to crush them.

[apathy maybe]

Apathy is a big part of it; ignorance is also a big part of it.

But the biggest thing is the lies by the Liberals and the Media reporting them with out pointing out the flaws in the lies.

To tell the truth life won't change much for me, HECS may go up, the hand out from the govt. may go down, but in reality nothing much will change for me. If the Labor party had of win, nothing would have changed for me (most probably).

But for others things will change. With the potential for a controlled upper house, the Liberals (who aren't really liberal (except economically)) can force through the anti-worker laws that they couldn't pass in the last few terms. These will weaken unions even more and make more deregulation possible.

So to those who say elections don't change anything, I point you to the Australia election. Sure both the major parties are capitalist parties, but the Labor party is more worker orientated then the Liberals.

[Palmares]

In regards to apathy, I saw these posters around my uni that had the headline of "Vote 1 Apathy" and such similar things. When I saw them, I was filled with unbelievable anger. A friend of mine said it was a joke, but I couldn't take the rsik, and ripped down all of the posters of this kind I could find.

:angry:

[Lossenelin]

I thought there was a chance of a lesser evil (I don't encourage this, but realitistically I accept it) of Labo(u)r getting power

I know that longing-for-the-lesser-evil feeling well, the Labour party here in NZ hasn't really made things much better for workers, but they haven't made things worse, considering the leader of the National party; who while being governer of the reserve bank advocated the abolishing the minimum wage and commented that the Employment Contracts Act didn't go far enough (the only way it could go any futher would be to completely outlaw trade unions) , I'll probably heave a sigh of relief if Labour gets in.
You'd never catch me voting for them though.

[Beccie]

I was at work when I received a phone call from a close friend telling me that Howard was in control of this country for another four years, I nearly cried. When I woke up the next day to find out that the liberals were probably going to have control of senate I did cry.

The only positive thing that came out of the election was the fact that the greens are now the third major party in Australia. I think that the election result reflects that most Australians are concerned more with themselves and interest rates then they are about their neighbours, I find this highly disturbing. Most my friends voted liberal :angry: claiming that nothing bad had happened in the last 10 years so why change the government?

The fact that the liberal has control of the senate may be a good thing because the population of Australia will experience real liberal policies that negatively impact on their lives (such as the anti-workers policies). This may lead to the liberals losing the next election.... It has been predicted that the AUstralian economy is going to stall over the next four years and interest rate may go up, this might also lead to the liberals losing power.

[apathy maybe]

Hey Beccie, please post in this thread.
http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?s...25&#entry463115 (http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12506&st=425&#entry463115)

I hope to hell that they don't get control of the senete. Mind you things won't really change for me.
Not only will they introduce economically Liberal things, they will introduce conservative social things. I hate them for it.


(And it will only be three years. Why is it that people think that Australian elections are every four years, they aren't!)

[pedro san pedro]

i think that this sums up my sentiments nicely... found in enmore, sydeny