... and what was a pretty unexpected turn, the outcome of the Australian election was decided pretty damn quickly last night. It was expected that there would be a bit of lengthier counting period due to both of the major parties being on the nose, and the huge swing of support going to independents and minor parties... and under the Australian preferential voting system, that would be all the ballots would be re-allocated according to preferences as candidates got slowly knocked out of contention.

However, it appears almost certain that there will be a Labor (centre-left) government in power... after all, the Liberals (centre-right) conceded last night when it became quite apparent that they were far far from contention. Now, the only real question will be whether or not Labor forms a majority government in their own right, or if they will have to act in coalition or negotiation with the huge array of cross-bench independents that were elected.

Either way, I'm pretty happy... the centre-right has been in power for about a decade, the PM is a dick, and they have presided over the widening divide in equality and wealth gap, and yet they still have the gall to tell everything that they are doing better than ever. Well, if you are in the top 1 percent, that is pretty much true... but there are many that doing the exact opposite... and we are not the United States, this is not WE do. Australia goes together as a nation, and if that means holding back a few of the top wealth earners, then that is what needs to be done.

I personally voted for an independent, with preferences going to the centre-left. I tend to be of a swing voter... I find that both of the major parties to be distasteful in their own rights. I'm not a fan of the Right or the Left and their confected "culture" and "identity" wars. In my eyes, you can be an arsehole regardless of whether you are on the Right or the Left.. neither side has a monopoly on self-obsessed dickheads and ideologues.

However.... despite the election turning out in a manner that was to my personal liking... I did note a disturbing trend. Many of the Liberals (centre-right) that lost their seats to the "teal" and independent wave were those in the formerly safe wealthy city seats... and those were the ones that were tending to the moderate faction of the Right. Now that their senior and future leadership ranks have been devastated, I wonder what will be the fallout and lessons learnt for the centre-right party.

In Australia, where compulsory voting is in effect, the party that wins tends to capture the middle. This is in stark contrast to the American system, where getting out the base to vote means that there is a tendency to swerve to your base... which often tends AWAY from the centre. Losing the bulk of the moderate faction means that the Liberals are likely to be led by someone from their "right" faction... which means that the party starts to pull further right and away from the current centre.... and that means that the Labor (centre-left) is more inclined to drift rightwards to capture more of the middle again... with the knowledge that preferences from the Left will not desert them.

So, whilst I'm happy that we have lost our centre-right government... I'm not really happy that they lost so heavily and in the manner that meant that their moderate faction was slaughtered by independents. On the other hand, I'm really curious to see how a potential minority government will work out...

... I'm hopeful, during my time in Europe... I have come to like the idea of proportional representation, as that results in wide and mixed coalition governments which I believe to be a vast improvement on the two party system that is really a feature of Anglo countries. The two party system allows for maximum non-accountability and a sense of inevitable power sharing and lack of differentiation. It is a system that I've come to dislike, as there is no cause to be visionary... but just to wait for the turn at power, and to just blame the other side instead of doing something profound.

So... I'm looking forward to the coming three years... it will be a difficult time given the current world conditions, but I do think that the potential for this particular Australian Labor leader is there to be one for the history books! Hopefully in a good way...

I can also be found cross-posting at:
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Publish0x

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