OH HELL YES, THANK YOU AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC

**Kargath** · 11-25-2007, 01:46 AM

2007 Federal Election - ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The conservative government that's ruled Australia for 11 years just got defeated in a landslide yesterday.

I've been waiting years of my life for this. I'm not sure of which side of politics SD and Missy swing to, but I for one couldn't sleep for smiling last night.

As an interesting (and excellent) addition, it looks like John Howard is set to become only the second sitting Aussie PM in history to be voted out of his own electorate.

***Ace Mercury*** · 11-25-2007, 11:44 AM

I remember seeing this on the news; it looked like the incumbent was really going to cry when he made his defeat speech.

Chunky Kong12345 · 11-25-2007, 12:41 PM

As an ignoramus of politics as a whole, what was wrong with the conservative government?

**Kargath** · 11-25-2007, 06:29 PM

Ohhh, let's see ... amongst other things, they:
-Cut back large portions of our public health system
-Sold off most of Telstra, our public telecom company (forever screwing us over for connectivity)
-Drove racism back into public acceptance (helped along by the One Nation party)
-Went along with the US in invading Iraq for the sole purpose of currying favour with your government, ignoring street protests involving millions of people
-Signed a "free trade" deal with the US that gave your rather bloodthirsty pharma companies a leg up here, but did almost nothing to lower tariffs on products going from Oz to the US
-Brought in sedition laws that actually made it illegal to "urge disaffection" against the Government - effectively making it illegal to protest or criticise the government
-Instituted the "Pacific Solution" - sending refugees off to island and desert detention centres for years on end and denying them access to the legal system
-Banning universities from collecting compulsory service fees (and therefore shutting down most not-for-profit services on campuses across the country), just because it believed that a lot of the leftist activity was centred at universities
-Instituted indefinite secret detention, without necessarily needing a trial
... and the list goes on and on.

79.1% of the Bennelong electorate counted, and John Howard is still looking like losing his seat.

**Prince Toad** · 11-25-2007, 07:05 PM

*applauds* Go Australia. Hopefully we can do something similar next November.

**Kargath** · 11-25-2007, 07:16 PM

^Heh, we only really hear about your presidential elections over here - what's the state of your upper and lower houses?

**Prince Toad** · 11-25-2007, 07:35 PM

Democrats won both in 2006, which seemed promising at the time, but they haven't managed to get a whole lot accomplished since then. Maybe it'll be better if a Democrat takes office, which seems likely at this point.

**Crazyswordsman** · 11-25-2007, 09:06 PM

^The Dems are putting more pressure on Bush now and forcing him to veto more and more bills, which is a plus. Congress was actually able to override one of his vetoes, and they came close to overriding two more.

I don't know much about Australian politics. Care to give me the lowdown on what's going on there? Because I'm curious and I think it's important to know what's going on in countries around the world. -CSM

That Guy · 11-25-2007, 10:10 PM

^ he gave a rather nice overview a few posts above you dude.

**Kargath** · 11-25-2007, 10:34 PM

Well we don't have a president, I believe the term for our system is a representative monarchy.

The lower house is called the House of Representatives, and is essentially a proportional representation system where each MP is supposed to represent an equal percentage of the population.

The upper house is called the Senate, and was originally supposed to represent state interests but has now essentially morphed into a "house of review".

We have a Governor-General who represents the Queen of England, and he has rather large power, though he doesn't use it by convention.

The seven parties you'd hear about are the Nationals (the "bush" party, conservative and protectionist), the Liberals (conservative, free-market ideologues, allied with the Nationals in what's just called "The Coalition"), Labor (trade-union based party, strong socialist links, socially middle-of-the-road), the Greens (far left green activists ... think land rights for gay whales etc), the Democrats (centrist, almost nothing left of them now after what Meg Lees did, but they were founded on the principle of "keeping the bastards honest"), Family First (known front for the Assemblies of God cult), and One Nation (infamous racist, nationalist party founded by a chip shop owner). Labor and the Coalition are the major contenders, though sometimes one of the other parties can grab the balance of power.

The House of Reps and half of the Senate were up for election just this weekend, and Labor just won in a massive landslide. At the last election, the Coalition managed to get a majority in both the Senate and House of Reps, and promised not to let the power "get to [their] heads". Well ... it did, and they pushed through industrial legislation that stripped away large swathes of rights and tried to get most people off the awards that function as our minimum wage safety net. This was rather unpopular, and with the addition of a new leader for Labor who was not slow or insane certainly didn't help them. The fact that some ministers were talking about making even more radical changes scared many of the public ****less.
The Coalition just couldn't make up the gap in the polls since Kevin Rudd became Labor leader. Further gaffes in their campaign made it even worse for them, and heres a couple:
Abbott ends tough day with 'bull****' rebuke - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The death sentence for the Coalition ... a race-based false flag operation in a star candidate's seat - MP laughs off husband's role in mail scam - Federal Election 2007 News

... I spent more time on that than I meant to. Off to clear my devWATCH

**Crazyswordsman** · 11-25-2007, 11:10 PM

This all sounds worse than anything the Republicans would ever do. -CSM

**Kargath** · 11-25-2007, 11:14 PM

There is one good thing the Coalition did though - toughed gun controls after the Port Arthur massacre. That's something no American politician would dare touch.

**Crazyswordsman** · 11-25-2007, 11:23 PM

Especially after the NRA comes to Columbine the day after the shooting and talks about why we all need to have guns in our hands. -CSM

**Kargath** · 12-12-2007, 12:55 AM

... k, it's now official that the PM lost his seat. This is bloody incredible ... delicious, I'd say.
* Kargath rides off into the sunset cackling madly

11-25-2007, 01:46 AM	#1
Kargath THE QUESTIONATOR (Polls Mod) Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: kargath64.deviantart.com Gender: Posts: 4,725 Thanks: 447 Thanked 178 Times in 132 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 15,379.31 Bank: 273,030.12 Total Points: 288,409.43 Donate	OH HELL YES, THANK YOU AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC 2007 Federal Election - ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) The conservative government that's ruled Australia for 11 years just got defeated in a landslide yesterday. I've been waiting years of my life for this. I'm not sure of which side of politics SD and Missy swing to, but I for one couldn't sleep for smiling last night. As an interesting (and excellent) addition, it looks like John Howard is set to become only the second sitting Aussie PM in history to be voted out of his own electorate. __________________ Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? -Clifford Stoll

11-25-2007, 06:29 PM	#4
Kargath THE QUESTIONATOR (Polls Mod) Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: kargath64.deviantart.com Gender: Posts: 4,725 Thanks: 447 Thanked 178 Times in 132 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 15,379.31 Bank: 273,030.12 Total Points: 288,409.43 Donate	Ohhh, let's see ... amongst other things, they: -Cut back large portions of our public health system -Sold off most of Telstra, our public telecom company (forever screwing us over for connectivity) -Drove racism back into public acceptance (helped along by the One Nation party) -Went along with the US in invading Iraq for the sole purpose of currying favour with your government, ignoring street protests involving millions of people -Signed a "free trade" deal with the US that gave your rather bloodthirsty pharma companies a leg up here, but did almost nothing to lower tariffs on products going from Oz to the US -Brought in sedition laws that actually made it illegal to "urge disaffection" against the Government - effectively making it illegal to protest or criticise the government -Instituted the "Pacific Solution" - sending refugees off to island and desert detention centres for years on end and denying them access to the legal system -Banning universities from collecting compulsory service fees (and therefore shutting down most not-for-profit services on campuses across the country), just because it believed that a lot of the leftist activity was centred at universities -Instituted indefinite secret detention, without necessarily needing a trial ... and the list goes on and on. 79.1% of the Bennelong electorate counted, and John Howard is still looking like losing his seat. __________________ Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? -Clifford Stoll

11-25-2007, 07:16 PM	#6
Kargath THE QUESTIONATOR (Polls Mod) Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: kargath64.deviantart.com Gender: Posts: 4,725 Thanks: 447 Thanked 178 Times in 132 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 15,379.31 Bank: 273,030.12 Total Points: 288,409.43 Donate	^Heh, we only really hear about your presidential elections over here - what's the state of your upper and lower houses? __________________ Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? -Clifford Stoll

11-25-2007, 10:34 PM	#10
Kargath THE QUESTIONATOR (Polls Mod) Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: kargath64.deviantart.com Gender: Posts: 4,725 Thanks: 447 Thanked 178 Times in 132 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 15,379.31 Bank: 273,030.12 Total Points: 288,409.43 Donate	Now you know! Well we don't have a president, I believe the term for our system is a representative monarchy. The lower house is called the House of Representatives, and is essentially a proportional representation system where each MP is supposed to represent an equal percentage of the population. The upper house is called the Senate, and was originally supposed to represent state interests but has now essentially morphed into a "house of review". We have a Governor-General who represents the Queen of England, and he has rather large power, though he doesn't use it by convention. The seven parties you'd hear about are the Nationals (the "bush" party, conservative and protectionist), the Liberals (conservative, free-market ideologues, allied with the Nationals in what's just called "The Coalition"), Labor (trade-union based party, strong socialist links, socially middle-of-the-road), the Greens (far left green activists ... think land rights for gay whales etc), the Democrats (centrist, almost nothing left of them now after what Meg Lees did, but they were founded on the principle of "keeping the bastards honest"), Family First (known front for the Assemblies of God cult), and One Nation (infamous racist, nationalist party founded by a chip shop owner). Labor and the Coalition are the major contenders, though sometimes one of the other parties can grab the balance of power. The House of Reps and half of the Senate were up for election just this weekend, and Labor just won in a massive landslide. At the last election, the Coalition managed to get a majority in both the Senate and House of Reps, and promised not to let the power "get to [their] heads". Well ... it did, and they pushed through industrial legislation that stripped away large swathes of rights and tried to get most people off the awards that function as our minimum wage safety net. This was rather unpopular, and with the addition of a new leader for Labor who was not slow or insane certainly didn't help them. The fact that some ministers were talking about making even more radical changes scared many of the public **less. The Coalition just couldn't make up the gap in the polls since Kevin Rudd became Labor leader. Further gaffes in their campaign made it even worse for them, and heres a couple: Abbott ends tough day with 'bull**' rebuke - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) The death sentence for the Coalition ... a race-based false flag operation in a star candidate's seat - MP laughs off husband's role in mail scam - Federal Election 2007 News ... I spent more time on that than I meant to. Off to clear my devWATCH __________________ Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? -Clifford Stoll

11-25-2007, 11:14 PM	#12
Kargath THE QUESTIONATOR (Polls Mod) Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: kargath64.deviantart.com Gender: Posts: 4,725 Thanks: 447 Thanked 178 Times in 132 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 15,379.31 Bank: 273,030.12 Total Points: 288,409.43 Donate	There is one good thing the Coalition did though - toughed gun controls after the Port Arthur massacre. That's something no American politician would dare touch. __________________ Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? -Clifford Stoll

11-25-2007, 11:44 AM	#2
*Ace Mercury* Marshmallow Knight ☆ Supermod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Southern Ontario Gender: Posts: 19,039 Thanks: 366 Thanked 1,548 Times in 801 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 105,127.23 Bank: 17,427,533.14 Total Points: 17,532,660.37 Donate	I remember seeing this on the news; it looked like the incumbent was really going to cry when he made his defeat speech.

11-25-2007, 12:41 PM	#3
Chunky Kong12345 WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!? Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: ogmftwbqq Gender: Posts: 16,786 Thanks: 62 Thanked 307 Times in 222 Posts Points: 193.57 Bank: 130,262.32 Total Points: 130,455.89 Donate	As an ignoramus of politics as a whole, what was wrong with the conservative government?

11-25-2007, 07:05 PM	#5
Prince Toad PC Mod Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,420 Thanks: 43 Thanked 56 Times in 47 Posts Points: 44,885.04 Bank: 23,214.76 Total Points: 68,099.80 Donate	applauds Go Australia. Hopefully we can do something similar next November.

11-25-2007, 07:35 PM	#7
Prince Toad PC Mod Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,420 Thanks: 43 Thanked 56 Times in 47 Posts Points: 44,885.04 Bank: 23,214.76 Total Points: 68,099.80 Donate	Democrats won both in 2006, which seemed promising at the time, but they haven't managed to get a whole lot accomplished since then. Maybe it'll be better if a Democrat takes office, which seems likely at this point.

11-25-2007, 09:06 PM	#8
Crazyswordsman RPG Mod Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Booyaville (yeah!) Gender: Posts: 8,164 Thanks: 560 Thanked 403 Times in 272 Posts Points: 141,044.71 Bank: 39,667.72 Total Points: 180,712.42 Donate	^The Dems are putting more pressure on Bush now and forcing him to veto more and more bills, which is a plus. Congress was actually able to override one of his vetoes, and they came close to overriding two more. I don't know much about Australian politics. Care to give me the lowdown on what's going on there? Because I'm curious and I think it's important to know what's going on in countries around the world. -CSM

11-25-2007, 10:10 PM	#9
That Guy Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: lo-ca-tion; Noun- 1. a place or situation occupied: That house is in a fine location Gender: Posts: 5,885 Thanks: 316 Thanked 358 Times in 295 Posts Points: 3,468.83 Bank: 51,350.79 Total Points: 54,819.62 Donate	^ he gave a rather nice overview a few posts above you dude.

11-25-2007, 11:10 PM	#11
Crazyswordsman RPG Mod Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Booyaville (yeah!) Gender: Posts: 8,164 Thanks: 560 Thanked 403 Times in 272 Posts Points: 141,044.71 Bank: 39,667.72 Total Points: 180,712.42 Donate	This all sounds worse than anything the Republicans would ever do. -CSM

11-25-2007, 11:23 PM	#13
Crazyswordsman RPG Mod Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Booyaville (yeah!) Gender: Posts: 8,164 Thanks: 560 Thanked 403 Times in 272 Posts Points: 141,044.71 Bank: 39,667.72 Total Points: 180,712.42 Donate	Especially after the NRA comes to Columbine the day after the shooting and talks about why we all need to have guns in our hands. -CSM

12-12-2007, 12:55 AM	#14
Kargath THE QUESTIONATOR (Polls Mod) Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: kargath64.deviantart.com Gender: Posts: 4,725 Thanks: 447 Thanked 178 Times in 132 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 15,379.31 Bank: 273,030.12 Total Points: 288,409.43 Donate	... k, it's now official that the PM lost his seat. This is bloody incredible ... delicious, I'd say. * Kargath rides off into the sunset cackling madly __________________ Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? -Clifford Stoll