Coalition Wins Government

Then Greens and the ALP need to argue their case better on economic grounds. Even among right leaning voters, 71% think climate change is a very important or important issue or aren't sure. More think it is an issue than not.

So you have to make the case for the specific proposals you have, and in Queensland you need to do this without looking like a bunch of inner city leftists going up there to tell them what to do.

 

Totally agree about the Greens and Labour not being able to argue their case better. The leader of the Greens in particular, de Natalli (?) comes across as bland and passionless. I came to the conclusion I had to join the Greens last year and attended three meetings of the local branch here in Nth Tasmania. I observed a closed clique who appeared to be sizing me up for ‘approval’. Having come to the conclusion I didn’t pass the test I didn’t return. Maybe this lot wasn’t typical? But I’m not going back as the feeling I’d encountered some kind of cult rather than a policial party remains with me. The ALP this time around they gave out far too many deteiled policies and too many of them sucked up to their old union base.
As to going up to Queensland looking like a bunch of inner city leftists I’ve no idea how anyone could avoid doing that given the provincial narrow mindedness so common up there. My suspicion is if there’s any hope of ecological and economic sanity taking hold in Australia it will come from disafected Nationals sick and tired of finding their leaders so far up the rear end of the Liberal Party they can’t see daylight.
Problem is time is fast running out .

 

As a general rule the right is big tent while the left is suspicious of allies and desiring of ideological purity.

 

Given the vast majority of those we’d think of as ‘working class’ have deluded themselves they’ve moved up market into the middle class there’s no point in focusing on so amorphous a concept.
The most outrageous aspect of this election was Clive Palmer’s role. Millions he should have paid to his now unemployed workers paid for a saturation anti-Labour blitz. At least the vile piece of s**t didn’t get in himself. Not that Labour didn’t sign it’s own death warrent with an overly ambitious, far too detailed (read large target) list of intentions.

 

Yes, how can Clive Palmer be allowed to have a say in elections? He has proved himself to be a person of bad character and should not be allowed to poke his oar into the process of choosing representatives.
Labour is the party of change. The Liberals like things the way they are. We were too scared to choose a govt which would change things.

 

(read with caution.. speculation ahead )

I think Bill Shorten may have been a victim of the times, the same conservative wave that swept Europe likely just swept over Australia. GetUp had 22 million invested in this election and even though they did sway those who leaned left to help the Greens increase their votes, they probably helped the conservatives more by pushing the centre towards the right. Australians don't like extremists... doesn't matter which side you're on.

So perhaps Getup did cause a divide in our politics... pushed some Labor voters left and the majority right

 

Labor lost on a crusade for fairness - what does that say about us?
https://www.smh.com.au/federal-elec...t-does-that-say-about-us-20190519-p51p17.html

I also think Bill Shorten had the best policies, if voters voted on policies only he would have won. Fact is migration and conservative issues won the day. I think that's particularly the case with Kerryn Phelps losing her seat.

I think it's easier to campaign on populist issues than it is to campaign on policies

 

Yep, agree totes.

 

I am part of Australia...but Mexicans can keep their Green noses out of Qld's business, thank you.

 

OK , but you keep your carbon dioxide in Queensland rather than spreading it over the entire planet in the interests of short term employment.

 

I guess I fart and drive a car but that should not cause you Mexicans any grief.

 

Depends what you’ve been eating. It’s cow farts that are the problem but apparently genetics is about to take care of that with a line of cattle who produce very little methane. Now all we need is a line of humans who fart Chanel no 5.

 

You can spout platitudes all you want, it doesn't change the fact that you have to convince these people in a representative democracy.

Besides, as more data has come in it has become clear that it wasn't just QLD. The ALP saw swings away from it in every state except Victoria and South Australia.

In SA the Libs had a bigger swing towards them than the ALP had toward them.

If you include territories the Libs even had a bigger swing in NT, while Labor got the ACT.

If you add all this up, the Libs gained ground on net in every state and territory bar Victoria and the ACT.

_______________________

So you have the entire country except Victoria and the capital going in one direction, and what are perceived as uptight political insiders and wanky urban hipsters pushing in the other, coming up to their part of the country and telling them they are a disgrace.

If you want to win elections you MUST recognise the optics of this and do better in future. Use local regional candidates to argue on the behalf of Federal ALP/Greens, argue on economic grounds in regional areas, moral grounds in cities.

I see a lot of righteous indignation toward "hick, hillbilly Queenslanders" on social media at the moment. It is easy to forget that they only won a 0.3% swing there.

 

Yeap,
jobs, jobs, jobs.
Enviromental issues, gobal warming and so on, are of no concern at all.
We are the lucky country, aren't we?
And another 3 years of neglect.....
Reg.

 

The "staggering costs of climate change" are coming no matter what we do at this point. The Paris accords, which would have crippled the economies of the West while doing nothing about the very dirty, very booming economies of India and China, would have reduced the future increase of global temperatures... one tenth of one degree celsius. Not reduced global temperatures, mind you, but reduced the future increase in temperatures. Hardly worth crippling our economies for.

I'd be in favor of more nuclear power if I weren't concerned about the huge quantities of fresh water nuclear power plants use. Only 1% of the earth's water is fresh (not salt), but each nuclear power plant uses between 1/2 and 1 billion gallons of water per day per reactor unit. One article said that's about a swimming pool's amount of water each minute. Power plants located on the coast and using desalination plants are better but still turn a LOT of water into steam. Coal plants are also water hogs, but natural gas plants are not, using only 1/8th the amount of water of coal or nuclear to produce the same amount of energy.

The real solution to global warming is trees. We (humans collectively) have been decimating the tree cover for the last century, with the worst damage being done in far off third world countries, where they are more concerned about eating this year than about century-long climate problems. If we can reverse the trend of deforestation, we might start to see some drop in global CO2 levels. (By the by, switching to electric won't take one molecule of CO2 out of the atmosphere.)

Some good news out of New Zealand, scientists there have found a kind of seaweed that when mixed with cows' feed reduces their methane emissions by 99%. Beano for cows! Methane is speculated (all this is speculation, since we don't actually know) to be a worse greenhouse gas than CO2. Perhaps someone will come up with a CO2 scrubber for power plants or a CO2 catalytic converter for cars that will make things better without crippling the economy.

 

Just back on the unemployed for a minute. I do agree govts should be promoting jobs, meaning policy settings should be towards allowing the creation of jobs. But since our economy needs about 5% of people involuntarily out of work we should look after our conscripts better. They're looking after us so we should repay the favour and stop bloody demonising them.

 

Has anyone checked to see how many ads Russia ran there?

 

I'm not sure the Russians could be bothered with us..

 

That's exactly what the Russians would say.......

 

I’m not sure I’d describe the Liberals wanting to leave things the way they are. A number of their policies, such as subsidies for mining company infrastructure, would have Bob Menzies turning in his grave.

 

But they sure as hell will be bothered with Pine Gap...

 

That was some time ago now. It was a very different Liberal party then. It was acceptable to a greater number of voters compared with now.
The current lot are .. well....

 

Actually Menzies tended to hover around 50% to 52% 2PP, occasionally getting around 54%. The Coalition just got 51.8%, not all that different.

They just won what was for Labor and according to all reputable polling the unlosable election. Give the Libs a break, even if it's just for a couple of days.

 

They did win and by a large, if unexpected by everyone, margin.
The modern Liberal party seems to be a very small minded and mean organisation.

 

How so?