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The federal election has been called for November 24th. I will be very interested to see which demographic John Howard decides to bribe this time. Will it be first-time parents? Home buyers? Small business? Parents of school-aged kids again? He's probably got every vote he's going to get from immigrant-bashing, employer-bribing and fiddling with tax brackets, and he's still 18% behind on two-party-preferred voting. He'll have to start sending out anti-terrorist fridge magnets again.
One great thing about our electoral system is preferential voting - I can vote for the Greens, then if they don't have enough votes to win, my vote goes to my second preference, and if not them, then my third and so on. My vote will probably end up with Labor (yes, they spell it without the u!) and the grey-faced Liberal party hack that represents my district will almost certainly win, as he has in my area for over 40 years. He's David Hawker, the current Speaker, notorious for censuring and throwing out Opposition MPs, and letting his own party get away with whatever they please. I met him once, and, expecting the usual politician-style Handshake of Power, shook his hand very firmly. In fact, he had an unpleasant, damp and limp handshake, and I rather crushed his knuckles. In retrospect, this pleases me.
Leftist comedian Rod Quantock is hoping that the Liberals win, but only to watch John Howard lose his seat (which is very possible!) and have to hand over power and go down as only the second sitting prime minister to lose his seat. Personally, I want what we had in the mid-90s - the balance of power in the Senate held by the minor parties, though this time by the eminently sensible Greens, rather than the Democrats who have since gone mental and eaten their young. The worst case scenario would not be a Liberal landslide, which is highly unlikely without another Tampa or SIEV-X incident for racists to wank to, but for the balance of power to be held by a real whacko like Pauline Hanson, the insidious Family First party or another super-conservative like Brian Harradine. That would be extremely bad news for human rights of all kinds, immigration, the environment, education and pretty much everything else I care about. Then again, my scenario of the Greens holding the balance of power is probably a lot of people's worst nightmare!
Vote smart, mourn the Langer system, and don't forget to vote below the line for the Senate!
One great thing about our electoral system is preferential voting - I can vote for the Greens, then if they don't have enough votes to win, my vote goes to my second preference, and if not them, then my third and so on. My vote will probably end up with Labor (yes, they spell it without the u!) and the grey-faced Liberal party hack that represents my district will almost certainly win, as he has in my area for over 40 years. He's David Hawker, the current Speaker, notorious for censuring and throwing out Opposition MPs, and letting his own party get away with whatever they please. I met him once, and, expecting the usual politician-style Handshake of Power, shook his hand very firmly. In fact, he had an unpleasant, damp and limp handshake, and I rather crushed his knuckles. In retrospect, this pleases me.
Leftist comedian Rod Quantock is hoping that the Liberals win, but only to watch John Howard lose his seat (which is very possible!) and have to hand over power and go down as only the second sitting prime minister to lose his seat. Personally, I want what we had in the mid-90s - the balance of power in the Senate held by the minor parties, though this time by the eminently sensible Greens, rather than the Democrats who have since gone mental and eaten their young. The worst case scenario would not be a Liberal landslide, which is highly unlikely without another Tampa or SIEV-X incident for racists to wank to, but for the balance of power to be held by a real whacko like Pauline Hanson, the insidious Family First party or another super-conservative like Brian Harradine. That would be extremely bad news for human rights of all kinds, immigration, the environment, education and pretty much everything else I care about. Then again, my scenario of the Greens holding the balance of power is probably a lot of people's worst nightmare!
Vote smart, mourn the Langer system, and don't forget to vote below the line for the Senate!