By-elections of the 44th Australian Parliament (2013-2016)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Governments do not gain seats in by-elections in Australia and this Government's rather lukewarm honeymoon is over already. KRudd's once formidable personal vote at least partially evaporated this year anyway.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What loses votes in buckletloads more than anything else is open factional infighting. It doesn't really matter who it's between or what the issues at stake are...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's not different to the much more common phenomenon of trade unions with hard left leaderships and should not be regarded any differently. Do the they reflect the political views of their members? Generally speaking the answer to that is a firm 'no' (and probably less than the SDA does its membership, if we're being absolutely honest). Most RMT members are not Leninists, for instance. But the key to power in a trade union* is a reputation for being effective. Trade Unions are not primarily 'political' organisations, remember. The fact that the SDA has the largest membership in Australia - despite the notorious difficulty of organising in the the sectors in which it operates - is a pretty good indication that it is a rather effective union.

_{*Other than an encyclopedic knowledge of The Rulebook, obviously.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That is... one hell of a swing.