Still Waiting for Government…

And for the latest, up-to-the-minute news on this question, try this website:

www.DoesAustraliaHaveAGovernmentYet.com

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11 Responses to Still Waiting for Government…

  1. Matthias says:

    And the wheels of State still turn on- unless the Mad Katter gets control ,then it will be all over the place,or the Greens think they have mandate and begin to march us back to the caves

  2. Pax says:

    At last a succint statement of where we are at!!!!!!!!!!!

  3. Louise says:

    Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.

  4. Gil says:

    Looking forward to your presentation today!

  5. Peregrinus says:

    Late-breaking news:

    1. It seems that the DLP aren’t quite home and dry for the last Victorian Senate seat; now that they are finally getting around to counting the below-the-line preferences – that’s you, David – it appears that greater name recongition is favouring Fielding, and the Liberals are also picking up votes. If either of them overtakes the DLP before count 21, then the DLP will lose out and one or other of them will take the last seat. My psephological friends tell me that the smart money is on Julian McGauran of the Libs.

    2. The ALP/Greens deal includes an agreement to “consider” legislation to introduce above-the-line preferential voting in the Senate, which is what you were calling for, David. (‘Course, neither this nor anything else in the ALP/Green deal will mean very much if the ALP can’t also do a deal with the Independents.)

  6. Paul G says:

    Does the last Senate seat in Victoria make any real difference? As far as I know, up to June 2011, the old Senate is still in place, and Steve Fielding (or any other senator) can block legislation, and after then, the Greens can block anything.
    That assumes, of course, that anything can get though the coalition of coalitions in the lower house.
    Maybe the best outcome of all this is that whoever forms a “government”, they won’t be able to do much for 3 years.

    • Peregrinus says:

      “Does the last Senate seat in Victoria make any real difference?”
      Only to the DLP or Family First, I think.

      • Paul G says:

        Anthony Green from the ABC election department is now saying the DLP is just ahead in Vic and Family First has an outside chance of winning the last seat in SA. FWIW.
        The biggest sensation of the last couple of days is that Joe Hockey has delivered a respectable bon mot: “Andrew Wilkie has returned to the mother ship!”

        • Peregrinus says:

          Except that Andrew Wilkie’s “mother ship” would be the Liberal Party, the first party he joined, and the one of he was an active member for longest. So maybe Joe’s [i]bon mot[/i] isn’t quite so [i]à propos[/i] as all that.

          If, as the rumour mill is currently suggesting, the ex-Nat country Independents go with the ALP, we start to see a pattern that looks like more than coincidence. I suggest that when someone leaves an established political party for a career as an Independent, they will have [i]more[/i] difficulty dealing with their old party than they do with others. The fact that there is (presumably) some common ground of ideology and policy will be outweighed by the disappointed hopes, hurt feelings, damaged relationships, bitterness and sense of betrayal etc that go with separating yourself from the party you were once loyal to. If this is true, it is easier for the country Independents (and Wilkie) to do a deal with the ALP than with the Coalition – and the deal is more likely to stick.

  7. Matthias says:

    If Labor-Greens are favoured by the Independents then I think the words of the great Labor Party warrior and Christian ,Kim Beazley Snr ,as quoted on Bill Muehelenberg’s site,from a State ALP conference of the 1970s’ need to be rememebered and reflected upon.
    ““When I joined the Labor Party, it contained the cream of the working class. But as I look about me now all I see are the dregs of the middle class. And what I want to know is when you middle class perverts are going to stop using the Labor Party as a spiritual spitoon.”

    • Paul G says:

      Strong language Matthias and Kim, but I couldn’t argue with it.
      I’m sick of this talk about the “new paradigm” and the new consensus politics.
      I’m sorry, but elections are about choice, not consensus. Lenin and Chairman Mao had consensus, provided they decided the consensus. Now Bob Brown will be telling us what the consensus will be.

      Democracy means the public are offered a choice, and they decide via the voting system. I’m sickened by the situation now where we are waiting for uncles Bob, Tony and Rob to tell us on Monday who the PM is. That’s our job, fellas. We didn’t do it properly this time, but this nonsense won’t happen again.

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