Australian federal election 2022

[Pies4shaw]

I will have referred to it in relation to some previous election or other - my favourite is Douglas Adams' take in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish:

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”

Thus, you have the necessary and sufficient explanation of voter behaviour in modern western democracy - "if they didn't vote for a lizard, the wrong lizard might get in".

[pietillidie]

Any interesting policies yet, or is it another small target campaign?

Nothing yet, it's the battle of the un-electable v the un-electable.

It doesn't matter who wins, it will just be more of the same.

Speaking of small-target campaigns, you should have seen Albo’s puff piece in the Murdoch tabloids earlier in the week, PTID. Goal number one is to convince middle-class suburban Christian voters that Labor doesn’t ideologically diverge from the Coalition in any meaningful way. (Oh, I forgot to mention, there is no goal number two.)

https://www.themonthly.com.au/the-polit ... 01/go-woke

It's astonishing given how many things need doing that it ends up like this. Listening to what Looney Putin said today about Westen 'wokeness', which is his latest bizarre deflection, shows this stuff actually works. The trick is to get people vehemently sorted into sides over a hopelessly minor or completely imaginary slight or threat so you can avoid engaging anything difficult.

[Pies4shaw]

It's what politicians do. It scarcely warrants comment, beyond comedy and derision.

[#26]

How are we feeling about the budget?

[David]

Seems pretty run of the mill from the limited coverage I've seen. We're certainly a world away from Abbott/Hockey 2014. And, of course, this is an election budget, so one can't expect too many nasty surprises for people in lower tax brackets.

[David]

Fierravanti-Wells of course has her own axe to grind and is on the way out at any rate, but one can't help but feel the sharks are circling around Morrison now:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-30/ ... /100949996

[David]

[stui magpie]

Seems pretty run of the mill from the limited coverage I've seen. We're certainly a world away from Abbott/Hockey 2014. And, of course, this is an election budget, so one can't expect too many nasty surprises for people in lower tax brackets.

I read a decent analysis in the Age, definitely an election budget, by the time most people realise some of what they've been given with 1 hand is taken back later with the other.

Best part seems to be incentive for apprenticeships

[David]

Happening on 21 May, for those (like me, admittedly) who get excited about such things! A mere 40 days of annoying, endless ads to contend with.

[stui magpie]

Albo off to a flying start.

Short time ago Morrison got pinned for not knowing the price of bread and milk, this morning Albanese didn't know the current unemployment and reserve bank cash rates.

Hardly a criminal offence but not a great start when Morrison is harping on the Economy. Conceded a free kick on the goal square in the opening 30 seconds of the game.

Age test, are you smarter than a politician https://www.theage.com.au/national/elec ... lea#p53lea

I got 7/10.

[swoop42]

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... lle-miller

This is what people should really be talking about today.

She was a mature aged married Liberal staffer who elected to have an affair and one who seemingly only had a problem with it when it didn't end the way she hoped.

Why is she being paid a whopping $500,000 of taxpayer money for her bad life choices?

Either it's simply hush money ahead of the election and the taxpayer shouldn't be the one footing the bill for what is essentially the dirty laundry of the Liberal party or Alan Tudge did do something that justifies the payment and the government needs to come clean with Tudge sacked.

[David]

A great piece on the new wave of independents, what they stand for, and what their actual prospects of victory are:

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/202 ... -power#mtr

[David]

Also, George Christensen has quit the LNP and is standing for One Nation in the Senate:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-13/ ... /100986990

Edit: bizarrely, he appears to have been assigned the statistically unwinnable third spot on the ticket, which kind of makes you wonder what the point of the exercise is (and also why he didn't just stay in the house of reps and count on his existing personal vote in Dawson to give One Nation a rare lower house seat). Seems like he actually has no intention of being elected?

Edit 2: Okay, it's all starting to make sense now (roughly $100,000 of sense, to be precise) …

https://twitter.com/lanai_scarr/status/ ... 4175004679

[David]

[stui magpie]

Christensen's motive is entirely plausible.

On the Gotcha questions, I have no time for Bandt, gotcha questions have long been a part of election campaigns and politicians need to be prepared.

I recall I think it was John Hewson being tripped up over something about a cake when trying to sell a GST.

Now we're getting some policy, I'm curious what others think of Albo's plan for 50 new GP superclinics to take pressure off ED's. I think it's a bad and expensive bunch of white elephants. If ED's are genuinely overcrowded with non-emergency cases, there's easier and cheaper ways to fix that, but those people aren't causing Ambulances being backed up, they're just taking up ED seats.