Australia General Discussion

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Pyne was asked on the Today show if Abbott had the numbers. He stumbled and refused to say.

This is very telling, IMO.

Also, Shorten has already begun to attack Turnbull.

The ALP is getting ready for an election to be called from Tuesday (I doubt it, but better to be ready). I think they would much prefer a double-dissolution, in order to rid them of the current Senate. But I don't think the Government has a trigger at the moment.

Surely a double dissolution would lower the threshold to enter the senate and send even more ... unique individuals into the senate?

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If we really are at the stage where senior ministers are leaking all sorts of 'tony abbotts say the funniest things!' guff to the press, he is dead. Shame - I think his sheer ineptness has grown on me in an odd way. And I do respect him somewhat for sticking up to Jokowi's bizare capital punishment fetish, even if Abbott, true to form, expressed himself in a ludicrously paternalistic manner.

No I think the real issue is that both Bishop and Turnbull have been given high up positions before in the party leadership and both fluffed it. It seems that everybody is willing to look past Bishop's disastrous time as Shadow Treasurer, because she has managed to get the easiest and non-partisan cabinet position.

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More fun: dissident PUP senator Jacqui Lambie is starting her own political party. Important policies all ready highlighted is she is very opposed to Shariah Law being introduced in Australia. Phew.

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to lose one MP to domestic abuse charges is unfortunate. But to lose two? Jesus Christ.

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If I was premier I would immediately call a fresh election and try to make it on moral grounds. I.e. 'I will not be allowed to kept hostage by a domestic abusing rogue for the sake of power' etc.

Probably won't work but better than being strewn along by a Geoff Shaw style bastard (or two, as the case may be)

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I'm guessing WA is particularly hit by the failure of Australia to do anything useful with the (now tapering off) mining boom, and therefore is feeling particularly annoyed towards Abbott's policies.

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Nick Xenephon has announced that his new party will target ministers Pyne and Briggs (among others) in the federal election next year - and may direct his preferences towards Labor if the government screws the pooch on the submarine issue. in theory they should be safe - but the government is extremely unpopular in SA and Xenephon seems far more wily than other wannabe minor party leaders.

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'John Madigan's Farming and Manufacturing Party' must be one of the lamer party names ever.

I m enjoying how every indo is starting their own party.

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Have any pollsters tried seeing how the numbers change if Shorten was replaced with another more popular Laborite?

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The Australian Greens are one of my favourite Western parties. Definitely the best Green Party, overall.

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The Greens are just a bunch of young inner-city Liberals who don't understand how economics work.

Lee Rhiannon = basically John Howard?

I mean, I'm all for criticising hispters but that is a pretty silly statement...

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Yes, I think the PNG solution was weighing on many Melbournites minds that election. I don't think the ALP will take it though (I feel the Greens have proven themselves to be less ephemeral than many other Australian Third parties) .

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The Sarah Hanson Young faction I believe. The Greens (like all Australian parties) are not shy of hiding their factions, compounded of course by the fact that some state Green parties are older than the territorial Greens. That normally puts the right-wing conservationist Greens (Tasmanians, Queenslanders) against the ancestrally left-wing Greens (NSW, WA).

Bandt and SHY are more lefty than the Tasmanians - at the end of the day the Tasmanians are mostly interested in Trees. Milne personally dislikes SHY (not as much as she loathes Lee Rhiannon, but still) and doesn't want her in power.

Ludlam and Waters are good choices for deputy. I imagine they want to raise Waters profile so she won't get wiped out next election.

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Joan Kirner, the first female premier of Victoria, has died.

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'Stop the boats' is possibly the Abbott's governments only popular 'victory'. He cannot sully that, and the Liberals dependence on overly simplified sloganeering has left no room for nuance.

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Could the upcoming Royal Commission roll him or is that all going to be hot air?

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I don't realy understand the government's position? Obviously this Mallah guy is a chump, but "whose side are you on"? "Betraying Australia"!!!!?? Does Tony have aspirations to become a tinpot dictator or something?

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Tony Abbott has banned the CEFC funding both wind farms and small-scale solar, in favour of "emerging technologies".

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Can't some liberal with a brain stab him in the back already?

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Yes, it seems that Christensen's name has come up again and again this parliament.

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So it looks like a binding vote on gay marriage but only after the election (RIP hifly), ALP members no longer have to be union members, some kind of commitment to recognise Palestine and a 50% binding renewable target?


Unfortunately senators will still be picked by old boys' clubs and the boat turnbacks will continue.

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/australian-court-revokes-approval-for-adani-groups-12-2-billion-coal-mine-1438741179

thank you based ornamental snake + yakka skink!

let's hope these noble reptiles kill off this silly project once and for all.

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Lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mBWch9Z7gLw

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Plebiscites are also non-binding so even if one was held and the vote was overwhelmingly in favour Abbott could still decline to legislate on it for whatever reason. It's all a deceptive ploy.

In most developed democracies plebiscites are considered morally binding and it is "political suicide" to ignore their result. Is that really different in Australia? If so, why?

Well sometimes you can make funny retrospective changes, like saying turnout wasn't high enough or it needed a supermajority to pass. And Abbott has nothing, if not a tin ear to public opinion so it's not like public condemnation would change his mind.

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Classic ALP shenanigans. Remove popular incumbent nonfactional woman, replace with some random union guy nobody has ever heard with. Remember last election when Penny Wong almost lost placement to a literal nobody?

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The two large West Australian outback seats should be interesting to see if the renegade Nationals make it. They were quite close in '13 in a very anti-independent atmosphere.