Australia General Discussion 2.0

[Barnes]

Cory Bernardi's one-man-band, Australian Conservatives, is set to merge with Family First. Well that lasted long.

EDIT: The initial headline was misleading, Family First will be absorbed by AC at the state and federal level. However, Lucy Gichuhi will apparently still stay in a rump Family First. How silly.

Family First is a joke anyway. Bernardi's new party seems to be very SA-focused. Mark my words, in six years, the Conservatives are going to dissolve when Bernardi runs back to the Liberals.

I never thought, and still don't honestly, he'd last outside of the Libs before 2022. The amusing thing is that he only has name recognition in SA and Xenophon with his merry band of unknowns have really stollen the air from the "anti-establishment, keep the bastards honest" niche.

[Lachi]

Cory Bernardi's one-man-band, Australian Conservatives, is set to merge with Family First. Well that lasted long.

EDIT: The initial headline was misleading, Family First will be absorbed by AC at the state and federal level. However, Lucy Gichuhi will apparently still stay in a rump Family First. How silly.

Family First is a joke anyway. Bernardi's new party seems to be very SA-focused. Mark my words, in six years, the Conservatives are going to dissolve when Bernardi runs back to the Liberals.

Let's be honest, the Conservative party is too.

[GoTfan]

Cory Bernardi's one-man-band, Australian Conservatives, is set to merge with Family First. Well that lasted long.

EDIT: The initial headline was misleading, Family First will be absorbed by AC at the state and federal level. However, Lucy Gichuhi will apparently still stay in a rump Family First. How silly.

Family First is a joke anyway. Bernardi's new party seems to be very SA-focused. Mark my words, in six years, the Conservatives are going to dissolve when Bernardi runs back to the Liberals.

I never thought, and still don't honestly, he'd last outside of the Libs before 2022. The amusing thing is that he only has name recognition in SA and Xenophon with his merry band of unknowns have really stollen the air from the "anti-establishment, keep the bastards honest" niche.

Precisely. Xenophon is on the path to becoming the populist champion he thinks of himself as. He's considered the populist outsider here. He's already more relevant than the Australian Democrats,  and is pretty well liked in here in SA. The only reason Bernardi was elected is those who don't take their vote seriously vote for the Senator at the top of the ticket, and Bernardi was always at the top of the Liberal ticket here.

Mark my words, he'll be a Liberal again before he's up for re-election, and then he'll lose his seat because the Liberals don't exactly play nice with defectors.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Why don't Family First cooperate with Fred Nile's lot in NSW?

[Lachi]

A former Liberal Party state director has said in an interview that the Liberals could be 'decimated' If something does nit change.

Link: http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2017/04/27/liberal-party-insider-speaks-out/?utm_source=Responsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20170428_TND

[GoTfan]

Why don't Family First cooperate with Fred Nile's lot in NSW?

Because Family First holds some unusual positions for a right wing party. For insance, they want to ses Nauru and Manus Island closed and refugees processed onshore.

[Lachi]

HEMP NOW CONSIDERED SAFE TO CONSUME BY FEDERAL GOVT.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/health-ministers-approve-the-legalisation-of-hemp-for-human-consumption-20170427-gvttq3.html

This also means that  hemp will also be considered legal to sell and consume.
 
Hemp has almost no THC, unlike Marijuana, so if you where to consume a product that includes hemp, you probably won't get any side effects from it

[Lachi]

Well, budget day is on Tuseday, and another blow for people. Funding for unis are to be cut, fees are going up, and Abbott's 100,000 dollar degress are coming back.

Can we just have another election now, we already know people want this to end.

[Lachi]

The victorian state budget for 2017/18 was released today.

The things the state government has done, and it has a good sized surplus to boot (1.2 billion surplus for 2017/18, with a projected 5 year surplus of nearly 9 billion)

The 2 major priorities currently for the current Labor government is improving the standard of public transport across the entire state, and tackling crime. The budget for crime has increased by a whopping 2 BILLION dollars, and funding for various transport projects across the state is up by around that much as well.

Here is the overview papers for the full budget, the full budget can be accessed at the bottom link.
Overview: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/budgetfiles201718.budget.vic.gov.au/Overview.pdf

Suburban: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/budgetfiles201718.budget.vic.gov.au/Suburban.pdf

Rural & Regional: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/budgetfiles201718.budget.vic.gov.au/Rural+and+Regional.pdf

Link to budget: https://www.budget.vic.gov.au/budget-papers

I must also say that I made an error with my last post. Federal budget day is next Tuesday, it was not today.

[Lachi]

A poll released today says that 40% of people polled could potentially flip their vote if the coalition doesn't do anything about it by the next election.

The same poll also shows support for a SSM plebiscite has fallen to just 27%.

http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/gay-marriage-could-cost-coalition-government-galaxay-research-poll-shows/news-story/fa7c6e20a170995a56773396fe725601
(Don't read the comments, unless you want to be exposed to all this homophobic garbage)

[GoTfan]

A poll released today says that 40% of people polled could potentially flip their vote if the coalition doesn't do anything about it by the next election.

The same poll also shows support for a SSM plebiscite has fallen to just 27%.

http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/gay-marriage-could-cost-coalition-government-galaxay-research-poll-shows/news-story/fa7c6e20a170995a56773396fe725601
(Don't read the comments, unless you want to be exposed to all this homophobic garbage)

[DavidB.]

So I haven't followed Australian politics since the election. Why is nothing happening with regard to gay marriage? Wasn't there going to be a referendum?

[IceAgeComing]

There's not a majority in the Senate to pass a referendum - Labour,  the Greens and the NXT Senators oppose it because they don't think that a referendum is needed or wanted; and I also think that some oppose it from the right as well.  Unless the Libs have a change in heart it looks like it might have to wait until the ALP get into government sadly

[Lachi]

So I haven't followed Australian politics since the election. Why is nothing happening with regard to gay marriage? Wasn't there going to be a referendum?

It was not a referendum, as marriage is not a constitutional issue. It wuld have been a NON-BINDING plebiscite, which would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, would have been divisive, and several MPs were going to vote no regardless of the result.

Btw, we already know that nearly 80 percent of Australians support SSM, which would make the whole thing pointless anyway, and show something we already knew.

[Lachi]

I have a question for everyone.

In, which Labor member do you think is the closest analogue we have to Bernie Sanders? This includes policy, personality, everything.

[Phony Moderate]

Turnbull's premiership is a lesson for those on the left who think a President John Kasich or a Prime Minister Ruth Davidson wouldn't be so bad.

[Lachi]

Turnbull's premiership is a lesson for those on the left who think a President John Kasich or a Prime Minister Ruth Davidson wouldn't be so bad.

This. They might be nice people out of politics, but they would be useless as leaders.

[Lachi]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-21/pauline-hanson-under-fire-repulsive-bigoted-comments-autism/8640328

Ready for PHONy to nosedive in the polls.

[GoTfan]

I have a question for everyone.

In, which Labor member do you think is the closest analogue we have to Bernie Sanders? This includes policy, personality, everything.

It's a difficult one. I met with Tanya Plibersek once, and she expressed an admiration for Bernie, but I can't think of anhone else.

[morgieb]

I have a question for everyone.

In, which Labor member do you think is the closest analogue we have to Bernie Sanders? This includes policy, personality, everything.

When you take background/personality into account? Honestly can't think of a good one in the Labour party. Closest in politics overall might be Bob Brown, but he's obviously retired and was a Green.

[Lachi]

So, reachTEL have released a poll in their own partisan ways for next years state election in Victoria, and they are showing that the L/NP is up 53-47.

Well, they would, but I don't trust a poll that has NO PRIMARY VOTE FIGURES!
And also, like the last one, it is tucked away behind the paywalls of News Corp's newspapers, but literally nowhere else...

[Lord Halifax]

So, reachTEL have released a poll in their own partisan ways for next years state election in Victoria, and they are showing that the L/NP is up 53-47.

Well, they would, but I don't trust a poll that has NO PRIMARY VOTE FIGURES!
And also, like the last one, it is tucked away behind the paywalls of News Corp's newspapers, but literally nowhere else...

Its paid for by the Lib/Nats afaik, which means its garbage.

[GoTfan]

Meanwhile here in SA, Weatherill is taking banks to task, taxing them to pay for roads, bridges, education, and so on. Good move.

Naturally, the banks are now throwing everything to Marshall and the Coalition. Turnbull and Xenophon are saying this will stagnate the economy.

I used to like Nick. I hate him now.

[MaxQue]

Meanwhile here in SA, Weatherill is taking banks to task, taxing them to pay for roads, bridges, education, and so on. Good move.

Naturally, the banks are now throwing everything to Marshall and the Coalition. Turnbull and Xenophon are saying this will stagnate the economy.

I used to like Nick. I hate him now.

Then, can you answer my years-long astonishment to people liking Xenophon. He seems to be a autoritarian paranoid freek to me.

[GoTfan]

Meanwhile here in SA, Weatherill is taking banks to task, taxing them to pay for roads, bridges, education, and so on. Good move.

Naturally, the banks are now throwing everything to Marshall and the Coalition. Turnbull and Xenophon are saying this will stagnate the economy.

I used to like Nick. I hate him now.

Then, can you answer my years-long astonishment to people liking Xenophon. He seems to be a autoritarian paranoid freek to me.

People thought of him as different. The stunts he pulled made him seem more real. He was the populist defender of the people that was needed during the Howard-Rudd-Gillard-Rudd-Abbott years. Part of the problem I think, is his obsession with his new party. He's more concerned with winning seats than he is putting the right ideas forward. Moreover, he has a certain magnetism about him, kind of like Trump in a way.

People thought of him as someone who'd stick up for the. Someone who'd fight to keep their jobs here. Someone who's populist rhetoric seemed real. I was one of them.

In the chaos a few years ago, he seemed to offer some semblance of stability. People were sick of Liberal and Labor, and he seemed to offer the only alternative to them.