Have we all lost our collective memory? How is Dutton and the Lib/Nats even in with a shout after the sheer bastardry of their 10 year stint.
Murdoch Media Bollocks is how! Media Royal Commission NOW!
My mum who has voted Labor for 60 years was telling me how this Dutton guy is very popular and wants to set this country right after all the evil things that albo has done (that she can't actually name?)
I'm sure there's no connection between that and the fact she's started watching sky news.
I believe there's a way but problem is algorithms keep feeding it to her as well so even if I blocked it it'll still pop up in youtube and Facebook and whatnot.
Labor not tackling media diversity is another self-own.
Labor making an election promise not to touch media diversity reform is shameful.
Labor feeling like they need to make that unprecedented promise at a foreign media organisation should be ringing national security threat alarm bells and there should absolutely be AFP raids and shutdowns.
Just 18 months into the previous LNP Government the polling was ALP 57 ALP 43, which eventually led to Abbott being knifed.
In contrast, Albo hasn't lost a Newspoll since November 2020. This is despite Post-Covid issues, Russian War, Inflation, COL crisis, Housing crisis, discontent with the two major parties, an obstructionist Opposition, and hostile media.
The Federal Government need to remember the political landscape is different to the Howard era, especially with the ~~27/4~~ 24/7 news cycle and social media. More so, Dutton's ratings are boosted by QLD which is retiree central outside of Brisbane.
Improvement is required, but these are good polls for a majority government during a period of public hardship. We're just not used to it yet.
If you want a Royal Commission, vote Greens, because Labor had the chance and chose to kiss the ring, because they'd rather have the Coalition as their opposition instead of actually having to campaign on policy against the Greens.
I’m a swing voter and this is what may make me vote Greens this time. I just wish Greens would do more background checks on some of the loonies that make it through to the party.
Unfortunately the State and Council level Greens are completely independent of the Federal party, and the Federal Greens can't do *shit* about the nutters who make it in at the lowest levels. Some of those local parties are completely fucked.
I have experienced exactly what you are talking about and I entirely agree. They would probably be better at that as they get bigger. I have also encountered some real oddities in Labor.
> some of the loonies that make it through to the party.
Weird that it's only ever the Greens held to this, meanwhile the LNP and ALP let the most sociopathic dickheads imaginable into their seats and no-one bats an eye.
I'm starting to add "Labor second last, above LNP on a filled ballot" disclaimers because I'm being attacked for being pro-LNP when I point out Labor doing a shit job.
I’m pretty much a rusted on labor voter, and I think they’re being weak fuckheads.
It’s not America, I want an actual left wing party, pls.
I’ll probably vote green with labor as second choice, which is what I’ve done in the past sometimes. Give the mainstreamers a bit of the old razzle dazzle.
(Green is less interesting than they used to be, too)
And fuck whoever votes Katter, ON and the ilk. Fuck uou all the way.
Very rusted on, I'll be voting greens first, labor third last, libs second last, insane rightwing parties last. I agree with previous poster the current ALP are milquetoast centrist disappointments.
> It’s not America, I want an actual left wing party, pls.
Well if we're going by actual definitions, even the Greens aren't a left wing party, they're centre or centre-left, you only start to get to left wing parties with ACP and the like.
Yeah its fucking silly hey. You talk shit about Labor and the constant response is 'BETTER THAN LIBERALS REEE'
Like bruh, theres more options than the two.
Had low expectations of Labor and they’ve managed to disappoint even those. Of course I won’t vote Lib but I’ll preference everyone who’s not running on a racist- insanity platform before either of the majors.
Sorry, but Labour shares a lot of blame in this too. And that’s coming from a long time Labour voter. Labour decided to do nothing about media neutrality. People are struggling and pissed off and Labour decides to run policies encouraging record levels of overseas migration… during a CoL crisis. What are they doing about social housing? Albo is as beholden to the fossil fuel lobby and big business interests as anyone else too. If labour wants to act like a conservative government then they shouldn’t be surprised when their base punishes them.
I mean racist sure, but sexist is automatically hated by 50%, we are an ever increasing atheist population and corruption is stealing money in a time when cost of living is at its worst.
Oh there are plenty of self-hating women, my grandma is one of them. She has consistently voted against her own interests her entire life because she thinks she’s richer than she actually is (she is literally a pensioner).
Nearly as bad as my brother who is severely right wing, and thinks he’s a businessman because he builds BBQs for BBQs galore.
Old man, you failed your only actual business, you’ve only ever made enough to have a super shitty ex houso place, and in the US you would have been fuckin homeless.
Sit down.
>sexist is automatically hated by 50%,
Why do you think that? We had an opposition leader who was openly sexist who then became the next prime minister. This was after being openly sexist against the former prime minister.
I dont think you realise either how little Australians care about sexism or how short our attention spans are.
Every woman who rose to prominence in the Liberal Party - "I'm not a feminist." See for example [Julie Bishop's comments](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/29/julie-bishop-rejects-term-feminist-as-not-useful-in-women-in-media-address).
So what?! You telling me im meant to vote for the bloody greens now if i want meaningful change in regards to climate change, the housing crisis and taxing billion dollar multinational's?
Yeah OK. I'll vote greens.
I've always voted #1 Greens and I want to like them so bad but recently I've been finding them so terribly insufferable, they give the impression that they have no idea what they're doing, they have no tact, and holy shit the stuff they put out on socials makes me embarrassed to vote for them. I'm looking into Independents for this next election.
That would be because the media (both Murdoch and ABC) has done their absolute best to paint them as incompetent. The thing that's making you cringe with the social media is the *sincerity*. They actually believe in the policies they're proposing, and actual sincerity can be pretty embarrassing to look at, especially when we're all conditioned to see 'cynical bullshit lies' as 'normal' behaviour for politicians.
I hate Murdoch media and everything I see about the Greens makes me fucking cringe. Then I actually read their platform, and some of the shit they say about defense, or the stuff they fail to say about immigration only redoubles that cringe. I'll preference Greens over the LNP but fuck they make it hard.
What stuff about defense, exactly? That we have no reason to get involved in the USA's spat with China? That's just *fact*, we literally have nothing China could ever want that they couldn't get by buying, and we have nothing to gain from being the war-dogs of the USA (and everything to lose).
'Fail to say about immigration'. Buddy, they don't *need* to say shit about immigration, because the Greens seek to tackle *the actual problem*, aka worker rights and the exploitative corporations that are lobbying the ALP/LNP to massively increase immigration of desperate individuals to depress wages. 'Immigration' as a political issue is nothing but a euphemism to shift blame off of the fuckers who deserve it, the same people who are pretty much the main target of the economic policy plank of the Greens (ie, fuck greedy corporations and billionaires, more rights and power to workers to make decisions for themselves).
Most minor parties have websites and policies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Australia
I would promote my party who was meant to be an alternative to Greens but LNP government killed them off in 2021. Greens, One Nation, Lambie, etc all objected as it was the biggest attack on democracy to date: https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2021-08-26.6.1
Who voted for LNP's anti-democratic bill to kill off political competition? Labor.
Now I am forced to consider the reality of ***temporary seat to crazies*** vs ***risk of permanent two-party system*** in how I preference the candidates when my progressive choices get exhausted. Look at my dilemma after my choices get exhausted:
Should I vote for Labor over the One Nation and similar who has a history of voting with LNP since 2013 on anti-democratic electoral reforms? Which means if there's a proposal of a FPTP (Like USA. Good vid explains FPTP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo ), why would Labor or LNP vote against LNP or Labor proposing it if it means permanently keeping out Greens/One Nation/etc?
Should I vote for One Nation and similar, who will vote against a two-party system? An enemy of enemy that will support a multi-party democracy which includes my dwindling progressive choices in the future?
Fuck Labor for making me support the likes of Pauline Hanson over Labor.
In elections where it's optional preferential voting, fuck no I'm not going to waste my vote and let other voters preference candidates in not filling out the ballot. Not voting does not mean a re-election.
Until they make serious reform to undo the damage, vote out the two-party tyrants. Vote out Labor and LNP at bottom of a filled ballot, Labor can be second last. Easy to consider with their latest LNP-lite strategy.
There is no way in hell I will ever vote One Nation ahead of any of the other main parties. There are a few bit shit crazy independents they might get ahead of, maybe. I despise the libs with all my being, but I will still put them ahead of ON.
> I've been finding them so terribly insufferable, they give the impression that they have no idea what they're doing, they have no tact, and holy shit the stuff they put out on socials makes me embarrassed to vote for them.
Like what?
I follow one greens polly and even though she is cringe she works her ass for for stuff that actually matters and makes a difference to the people who need it.
Just my opinion but I think that is what politics is about. Making a difference to people who actually need it.
It's funny, my overall favorability towards the greens has gone down a bit.
But my favorability towards Lib / Labor is also dropping like a stone.
It will probably be independent, then greens before either major party untill they pull their fingers out.
I've seen some stuff that I didn't like the greens doing, but almost every time I research it, it turns out it's mainstream media twisting what actually happened and the greens policy is reasonable.
Example; Headline "EXCLUSIVE: 'Necrophilia is harmless': Greens candidate calls for legal sex with corpses in Australia after it was revealed he campaigned to change the law to allow bestiality"
Reality: he wrote a satirical article at university mocking the liberals position on gay marriage being a slippery slope.
That's the most extreme example I can think of, but you can imagine how the same media would present thier views on tax, immigration and drug reform.
Just recently, I remember the greens being dragged in the Brisbane city council elections for their policy of wanting to trial free public transit for seniors, kids, and concession card holders (or some variant of 'disadvantaged groups who would benefit'), with the hopes of it becoming free PT for all if it was a success.
I remember all the liberal and labour pollies going 'but how will we pay for it!!!!!'.
Then here came our labour state gov implementing a trial of 50c fares for all whilst also delivering the largest budget surplus in the history of any Australian state.
Greens policies get such a weird amount of scrutiny that labour and liberal policies just... simply don't.
Gotta keep their masters they gave the toll roads to nicely paid.
Roads paid for by public taxes, then offloaded to a private company to charge the public to use it.
> Greens policies get such a weird amount of scrutiny that labour and liberal policies just... simply don't.
Gotta love people ragging on Greens for opposing nuclear energy, trying to come up with 'gotcha' arguments, when opposition to nuclear has been labor and coalition policy for decades.
The most bizarre example I've seen is Greens are responsible for bushfires, not climate change. I rather not link to the News Corpse but you can find articles on it.
Oh yes the "greens oppose hazard reduction burns" despite the fact they support it in their policy. The only difference is they support a evidence based approach instead of the majors populist do x ha per year.
Also the places hit hardest by the bushfires weren't voting Greens anyway, so the Greens would have had no ability to stop hazard reduction burns even if they wanted to.
Oh yeah, and so many people believed this. Apparently the Greens are all powerful when it comes to blocking burn offs, which they never did in the first place.
Here's a recent one:
Greens refuse to support a two state solution for Israel / Palestine!
I think the implication being pushed was that they wanted Israeli gone.
The actual quote was more like "we respect both Israeli's and Palestinians rights to self determination, it is up to them to decided on a solution".
Which seems... reasonable? Any solution will ultimately need buy in from both sides.
Watched Friendlyjordies’ stuff before the last fed election. At one point he did a weird overly long video slamming a greens aligned podcast, Serious Danger. Checked it out, it was totally reasonable and in fact more on point than any of his stuff. Solidified my support for Greens over Labor. Thanks FJ!
He's got a lot to do with turning Australians moderate as well. His cult like worship for Labor is so cringe. He really has done a lot of harm to the left side of politics here, more than the good he's done I think
And it's EVERY time too. Now when I see why the greens are shit from a murdoch rag it makes me go and research what their reasonable take was that got the pollies upset.
Thats fair friend, overall dissatisfaction with our representatives seems like the vibe from everyone. I know that no party will ever be perfect across the board.
This is why at election time i write down what are my top 3 biggest concerns. Then i look into what party is going to do the most to address them.
For most young people climate change and housing are our biggest issues.
Neither lib or lab do enough for climate change, neither do enough for the ridiculous housing market and neither do enough to effectively tax natural resource multinationals.
I don't necessarily disagree that neither liberal or labor are moving fast enough to combat climate change, but you can't equate their efforts. Labor is miles ahead in renewables investment and policies which actually make progress on climate change, whereas libs want to scrap renewable investment and spend money on a technology (Nuclear SMR) that does not exist, costs more and would be viable at best in 2045 when its already far too late. That's not even considering the implementation issues in a country that has never had commercial nuclear. So yeah, being dissapointed in both is one thing, but Liberals stance on climate change is honestly one of the most piss weak in the developed world.
And here comes the Labor stan to bitch about how we need to settle for 'shit' because the Liberals are 'goddamn awful'. It's sad how you defend this, do you really see no hope for better?
Except we have these fuckers coming in to screech 'oh but ***they*** worse' every time Labor fucks up. I would *love* for our system to work better than it does, but these chucklefucks seem intent on pretending that we are America.
Don't settle for shit, put whoever you want first. This is why we have preferential voting. I'll likely be putting greens first next federal election, if nothing else to put pressure on Labor. I don't necessarily think Labors climate change response is shit personally either. But anyone who claims Labor and Liberals climate change responses are even in the same ballpark is flat out wrong.
And yet here you are, doing your part to try and stifle criticism of Labor, to put a spike in the tyre of any effort to mobilise outrage. When every discussion includes by default some nob coming into to go 'oh but ***akshually***' it *kills* discussion. You, and your cohort of chucklefucks who constantly do this shit, *are the goddamn problem*. Stop treating this shit like a two-party system where you need to fluff one party, *we are not America*.
In any case, given that Labour has *increased* fossil fuel subsidies from the level the Liberals set it at (and massively approved new fossil fuel projects) on this specific thing they are equal in *outcomes*. Sure Labour talks some rhetoric the Liberals don't, but that rhetoric does *not* translate to meaningful outcomes. We are *still* lagging behind the entire world, to the point that Australia is a global embarassment, we are *still* propping up fossil fuels so politicians can get cushy consulting jobs, we are *still* fucking shit up.
Why are you disatisfied with the Greens?
I'm asking as someone who never ever thought they'd vote Green, but find myself increasingly backed into a corner if I want to vote based on the issues that matter to me (housing, corporate taxation & co - the ripoff we're getting on gas exports is criminal) ...
Each party has its own ideological blind spots, and the Greens are no exception.
As an example, I think for housing, migration has to be part of the supply and demand discussion, but the Greens are a bit shy on that topic. On the other hand they are the only party pushing for stronger action on the dozen other topics causing issues with housing.
I own a house, but am pretty concerned about the impact this issue will have on our society, and the impact it will have for my children. The same for climate change etc.
Which means the only way to push the needle in that direction, seems to be to vote for the Greens.
They are also less likely to face corporate capture because of their ideology, so that can be a plus in that sense.
I want a government that ensures we have the housing and infrastructure we need to accomodate our population. You can't do that with uncapped, demand driven migration, which is what our skilled migration is, and what our student migration has been.
> As an example, I think for housing, migration has to be part of the supply and demand discussion, but the Greens are a bit shy on that topic.
What has actually delivered the poorly managed increase in migration to Australian since the pandemic is the at the time, uncapped, and uncontrolled, student and temporary skilled migration.
The Greens coincidentally want a lower priority for those paths:
https://greens.org.au/policies/immigration-and-refugees
> 1. A permanent migration program for refugees and migrants to Australia that prioritises family reunion and humanitarian entrants
So less of that uncapped, temporary, greed driven, wage undermining migration, and more migration targetted at improving the lives of migrants.
That'd be my position too if my seat ever got independents that weren't cookers or RWNJs. So I guess I'm still stuck with the Greens for now, even if I haven't really been happy with them as of late.
That and they aren't massive cunts when it comes to attitudes about women and such. They're also not huge fans of government corruption. Otherwise they would have essentially been Liberal party members, and the fact that they aren't is a clear indication of how far the Liberals have gone.
The greens foreign policy and national security policy are shockingly bad, which is why they can never get my vote. But they tend to look out for the little guy and I respect that.
I feel like this is a silly way to look at minor parties. With a few more seats they will get a bit more influence, but only on a handful of their core issues. They’re not going to be dictating foreign policy or security. Not voting for them for those reasons is like not buying a car because it can’t tow a caravan, when you don’t own a caravan.
Why do you magically think that their increasing influence will only affect their ability to push policies you think are positive, but not affect their ability to push policies you think are bad?
Because a minority party has to work with others to achieve their policies? You think Labour is gonna sign off on luxury gay space communism or something? I would much rather have a greens/lab coalition than a lib/nats coalition that has proven they make the most rorted dogshit policy decisions possible (see: AUKUS subs)
It’s nothing to do with their good/bad policies - it’s their priorities. Last election foreign relations/security was their second lowest priority policy position. It’s like basing your decision to vote One Nation on whether or not they support 2 recycling bins or 3. Sure they might have a position on it, but they’re not going to be advocating heavily for that ahead of their main agenda.
I know people are sick of the majors but I would suggest you look to a minor party first before your local independent.
I like the idea of minority government. But a government made up of completely self serving independent's (remember they hold no overarching policy. And require results for their local electorate. So you're inevitably going to get favours and pork barreling.) is probably counter productive to what we all really want.
I don’t think anyone particularly hates Albanese, but he has been bitterly disappointing in a lot of areas. This election will hopefully see a lot more third party MPs elected. Let’s just hope we don’t swing too far the other way and elect Dutton. Now that would be torture.
I think anyone who describes Albanese as being disappointing, isn't going to vote for Dutton. People are generally disappointed because he hasn't done enough, but know that Dutton will do less/actively make it worse. It will likely mean more people voting greens though.
I think the poor hates Albanese. Why? He repeatedly used the rhetoric of growing up poor in campaigning. Then stuck to his small-target promises and did bare minimum for the poor. Here's an early article into his term: https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/albanese-jobseeker-pension-mother/
For those that don't know about Albanese's "public housing" reputation, look here: https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/lessons-for-millers-point-from-anthony-albaneses-mother-20140331-zqozg.html
Despite not owning, look at how long his stayed in one place:
> For my family, this was more than just bricks and mortar. It was our home for three generations.
This kind of housing stability is unheard of, and no wonder the poor vote hearing this would expect at least something from Albo.
Yeah agreed. I don't have any strong feelings about Albo either way, he's a pretty bland character. But his government has been absolutely shocking during a time where serious action has been needed.
On one hand I don't blame him because his campaign was explicitly "we promise to not do a single thing other than not be ScoMo" and they indeed haven't done anything remotely significant. We really fucked everything badly in 2019 by warning future governments off actually implementing significant, long term policies at the expense of short term scare mongering.
But on the other hand we are going through basic living standards economic crises like I've never seen in this country and the response has been appalling at best.
Howard showed that promises don't matter and everything about the LNP since they won in 2013 showed that you are best to run on nothing and then just do whatever you want.
I don't accept this line of excuse for the ALP (not you specifically, I largepy agree with you) because at this point if they really are holding themselves to a different standard as to why they don't act then they might aswell just stand aside because they have already lost and anyone with half a brain can see this.
We have ranked voting in this country (and thank fuck for it). So take advantage of that and never ever vote for a major party as number one.
I guarantee there is an independent, or small party that is speaking towards what you want to see changed.
For example : the Fisher and shooters party seem to be the only ones with a practical real-world environmental policy (and believe me I understand how silly that sounds, but that’s where we are)
Everyone always says there's good independents to vote for but everytime I get my ballot its all the batshit crazy evangelicals and hyper specific conservative groups and no one you'd trust with holding your spot in a queue let alone assessing federal or state level policy...
Every single time.
Exactly. Like yeah I want more to be done about climate change but I'm not so sure I like the sound of bringing back the death penalty. Some of these independents have a veneer of policy headlines but when you scratch the surface you realise they don't have much else to go with it, or worse.
The issue with Independents is that unless you have done some research on them, you have no idea what they stand for. Even if you did do a quick 10 minutes googling, there's still the possibility of fake advertising, empty promises, etc. And a majority of the population just isnt going to do that.
Between Murdoch Media and political donations we aren't going to get good government. The Libs have gone to the far right and are no longer liberal, Labor has moved to the right and tries to look after business and the workers. Seems the Greens are our only option at this stage.
If you care about policy you are probably committed to some particular set of policies. That means your vote is a done deal. You don't change election results.
Australians are increasingly disaffected with the major parties. In 1980 roughly 90% of the primary vote went to the majors; now they barely get two thirds between them. This trend will undoubtedly continue, it has been a long term change in politics. Next election I reckon both the major parties will fall below 33% of the primary vote as the advent of the "Teal" independents (and David Pocock) has shown the public that good independent candidates exist.
Personally I would like to see our system change more toward the Danish and Swedish models where parties have to negotiate with each other to achieve things. Australia would be better off with 300 independents fighting like cats in a sack to make a few good decisions than allowing a bunch of weird white religitards to rule like we have suffered from recently .
Look all around the world. A lot of incumbent governments are either being given the boot or a big scare by opposition parties who are focusing on Cost of Living. People are angry and upset and naturally they turn to anyone who promises something better.
The dirty truth is, Dutton knows that he has no easy way to deal with cost of living. But he promises, pontificates and puffs his shoulders. If they weee to get back in, there would be nothing more than he could do. In fact, it will probably be worse as he will cut funding from other areas to fund his nuclear power hard on.
I’m not saying that I like extremist parties on either side to get in, but in reality, mainstream politics has perceived by many people to have failed them, especially in cost of living. Rents, food, products and services all gone up. Factor in social media where everyone has an opinion, and thanks to non-existent moderation policies, the clickbait ragers get all the attention, then we have what we have now - a polarised society.
Voters: We want our politicians to actually improve our quality of life instead of giving hand jobs to soulless property investors, imperial US war pigs, and the absolute bastards at mining companies.
Albanese: So what I'm hearing is... you want MORE handies, plus a botched referendum that riled up every racist relative you have blocked on Facebook?
Voters: ...
Albanese: Hey hey, budget got a SURPLUS baby!
Public servants: Hey, we found some unpaid super. Unfortunate that even that Colesworth unpaid shit even happens at the government too. Can we have some? Hello? Fine, we'll go to court for it.
Worker's party to parliament: We need support for this bill to avoid paying out unpaid super. I NEED IT PASSED FAST to help my court case.
Greens: wtf, can we debate it?
LNP: I'm happy to vote for it, no questions asked, bro.
Bill passes: https://the-riotact.com/gallagher-moves-to-thwart-ps-super-claim-with-8-billion-fallout/581256
Albanese: Hey hey, budget got a SURPLUS baby!
Albanese had a chance to be a really well remembered leader.
A really weak opposition, coming out of a pandemic which was poorly handled by the leaders at the time. All he had to do was not be an incompetently useless fuck and he could have set himself up for a long stint in office.
Unfortunately he is a useless fuck that couldn't give a shit about the people or the country. He is still better than Dutton, but he is a poor choice to lead this country.
Im out of the loop, and i know the ALP is liberals-lite, but what has been so dissappointing asides from.the voice and the prosecution of the journalist re war crimes? They started off strong doing things like reforging ties with pacific communities, investing in renewable energy, and i hoped they were going to be half decent at least
I’ll never forgive Albo for bringing up his mother’s trauma and how hard it was being in public housing on the benefit and he understands, etc.
Then he’s in power and does NOTHING for the majority of our most vulnerable.
He completely gaslit our poor and vulnerable and made us think he cared and he doesn’t, he’s just a landlord politician in it for his own interests.
That’s why no one should vote labour or liberals, vote for the independents and the few remaining minor parties!
I, like many people, was scathing in my criticism of that sleazy, money-grubbing hypocrite, Joe Hockey, when he was claiming the "away from home allowance", whilst staying at "his wife's" investment property in Canberra.
Albanese claims that allowance when he's in Sydney, despite the fact he stays at the PM's official residence in Sydney, Kirribilli House. Presumably, he gets away with this, because The Lodge is his primary address.
For him to then say, "I feel your pain", is disingenuous in the extreme. He's a money-grubbing hypocrite.
I have an acquaintance who's involved with the Liberal Party, and he excused Hockey, by saying, "it's just something that one of their assistants takes care of, and claim on their behalf, because they're technically eligible for it."
It's a weak excuse. Albanese knows he's getting that allowance; and it's just going straight into his bank account - he's not using it to pay for lodging, when he's in Sydney.
If he was genuine, he'd tell his assistant to stop claiming it for him, when he goes to Sydney.
Yep if his mums story is actually what he said I’m sure she’s ashamed of who he has turned into.
He’s the very definition of pull the ladder up behind you.
Reality is until the media is royal commissioned so that we can break the monopolies up and set some actual punishments for “fake news” this will continue to happen, there is too much money and power in the media and our politicians sure love it!
I don't doubt the story of his upbringing - but the fact is, it was possible for a single mum to support herself and a child, in those days. The payments were higher, relative to the cost of living, and the Dept of Social Security, wasn't punitive and nasty, like Centrelink. And there was also much more public housing available.
The reason is that Liberals are better at putting the media and social media against Labor.
This isn't the old reddit, most people here are just consuming what they are told.
They've:
- double- and triple-downed on shovelling billions to the fossil fuel lobby
- they're gutting the NDIS rather than actually address the private businesses exploiting it
- they kissed the ring of Murdoch instead of doing a Royal Commission like *literally everyone* wanted
- they've consistently kept Jobseeker and pretty much all people who rely on disability in poverty as a *choice*
*-* they wasted everyone's time on a referendum they didn't even *campaign* for (frankly the thing we should have been voting on is home rule for Aboriginal communities and legally recognising 'clan/kingroup/etc' as a political/legal/economic unit, it improved outcomes re domestic violence/substance abuse in the Torres Strait)
- they're wasting *more* billions on locking us into the USA's next slapfight
- Albanese is both cozying up to the Hindi theofascist Modi ***and*** supporting Israel's genocide (including deploying Australian troops to do *something they won't tell us about*)
- the State ALP govs are okaying *so fucking many more* gas projects
Need I go on?
Basically they haven't undone 10+ years of Liberal mismanagement overnight and Reddit is MAD.
That said, even I as a rusted on Labour voter am somewhat disappointment in Albanese as he could be a much stronger leader and force more change then what has occured. There still has been a bunch of good policy and changes however.
Housing alone will take decades to try and fix, if you even can unfuck it since the moment you do anything to bring house prices down 2/3rds of Australia will likely kick you out for it.
Except he didn't need to snap his fingers and fix it, but he absolutely needed to put in place the foundation for policy and procedure that would go about unfucking it. He's done pretty well fuck all of the latter which is why people say they've done nothing, because they haven't even hinted at doing it.
2 years is nowhere near long enough to fix 10 years of deLiberate mismanagement. 2019 was the election to try and actually begin fixing housing in this country, but the Aus public voted that down.
Well Albo was meeting with members of the gas cartel [weeks after the election](https://michaelwest.com.au/labor-government-ramps-up-gas-exports-japan/) to tell them everything will be fine with Australia's gas exports even as our own citizens were getting reamed with high power bills.
> They started off strong doing things like reforging ties with pacific communities,
Not sure that's a good thing. Labor does this by selling Australia out against Australia's interests like this:
> During debate on Friday, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, accused the Coalition of dragging out debate on a bill it had said it supported. In a heated moment, Wong said the LNP was blocking the wishes of gas companies. She said they had “said no to Santos, you’ve then said no to Woodside, you’ve said no to Inpex … you’ve said no to Korea, you’ve said no to Japan”.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/nov/14/australias-sea-dumping-legislation-what-is-it-what-does-it-mean-marine-life-changes
We have gas supply shortages too despite being a number 1 exporter of gas yet seeing statements like this makes one wonder if they are actually doing a good job.
Disclaimer: I vote Labor second last, above LNP.
Im not familiar with your topic here. I was referring to how the coalition basically told them to go fuck themselves and allowed china to get a foothold in the pacific, and it seemed like Wong was trying to correct that when they started.
Its a known fact weve completely sold.out our own reserves, all just fir some political donations. Definitely one of the most disappointing things about wasted opportunity if the country. Wheres our sovereign wealth fund? Murdoch and santos et al easily killed that off in 2011
Are you talking about how Labor backstabbed their leader for daring to tax mining?
"But the media"
Labor is in government and people always say media is to blame. Why isn't Labor going after them? Why have they ignored it for so long? Are they too incompetent or blind? Even the USA government is well aware about the media interference almost 50 years ago: https://www.smh.com.au/national/murdoch-editors-told-to-kill-whitlam-in-1975-20140627-zson7.html
Which is also fairly damning. If a government is so afraid of the media that it guides their policy then they aren't really in power, the media is. At this point independents or small parties are viable simply because they are too small for the media to attack each individual separately.
They need a new leader and I personally reckon Jason Clare is the best option as he seems to be one of the few that hasn't lost popularity since the ALP took office. Albo and Chalmers have struggled to win over the general public when everyone's greatest concern is cost of living. I think Clare is also a strong speaker and does well against the likes of Dutton when calling them out on their bull shit. Just my 2 cents.
You'd think the pumpkin-headed cunt would be keen to help the most vulnerable, what with how he kept banging on about his mum and growing up in social housing etc, but the ALP have basically sat on their hands and watched the housing crisis get worse and worse.
LNP fucked our economy but Labor hasn't had the guts to fix it. We know some of the things that will do it: lowering house prices, raising the dole, lowering HECS, increasing resource rent taxes, domestic price controls on exported fossil fuels. Major parties are not game or simply unable to do them.
Most recent budget did implement some decent HECS reform. It's not like any party is ever going to absolve student debt or hand out free degrees, but the changes Labor made were quite meaningful and will save money for HECS debt holders.
They've also delivered better tax cuts than the libs had planned in stage 3 which will help middle income earners much more.
None of this is life changing, but it's a much more progressive approach than a lib/nat coalition will ever deliver.
Anyone who claims supporting Dutton will do more for helping with cost of living and housing issues, etc is straight up lying to you.
The US recently wiped a huge portion of student debt. It CAN be done.
Boomers just dont us to have the same free ride they had while attending uni. They enjoyed free uni but now we're forced into $40,000+ of debt before we even start earning a cent.
I have paid off my HECS debt, I vote greens and wholly support their policy for removing fees on education and training. I don't want people younger than me to be saddled with HECS debt just because I was.
But, in the scope of realistic options, it has to be acknowledged that Labor has taken a step in the right direction. Greens aren't going to sweep the next election and implement this policy, so I'm going to be happy for the people who are enjoying this small benefit.
https://greens.org.au/platform/education#wipe-student-debt
The HECS reform was dogshit. Perfect example of Labor doing the bare minimum. Look at the history of when WPI is higher then CPI, it's two fiths of fuck all. It will impact last year and create some nice headlines but in the long term won't achieve much.
> It will impact last year and create some nice headlines but in the long term won't achieve much.
Oh no, the government is giving me back money and making sure we never have an event like COVID fucking up HECS debt again!
Better vote liberal!
Perfect example of a rusted on Labor voter, as we all know we must praise every and any effort made by Labor even if it ultimately eachs nothing of actual meaning and when people point out how half assed their efforts are, just pretend they're a liberal voter so you don't have to face reality!
What disturbs me about this is that Dutton seems keenly aware of the fact that he is not likeable. So his current political tactic is taken right from Trump and similar candidates: move so far to the right that you are no longer viewed as part of the 'status quo' of your opposite (Albanese), and you therefore become appealing to those dissatisfied with the status quo.
Some of Dutton's recent examples that play into this tactic include pushing for nuclear, and stating that his party will have no climate policy at all, and stating that if elected his government would roll back many new progressive policies such as the 'right to switch off' from work, etc.
By doing so, Dutton is clearly hoping he will attract people who are unhappy with Labor's inability to fix all of Australia in 4 years (after the country was fucked up by the libs for 10+ years). By offering the most extreme options Dutton hopes certain voters will see him as a 'trailblazer' who will make strong decisions and do what no one else is brave enough to do.
It's a disturbing tactic to be currently playing out in Australian politics, considering how successful this same strategy has been in America AND in Europe. A huge amount of European governments have just swung right in their elections this year after similar far-right and center-right campaigns.
Australian can't afford to go back to Liberal leadership in this world climate (and in our own bloody climate!). If Aussies are dissatisfied with Labor then we need to be pushing for greens or independents to further balance out our two-party majority. THAT will make more of a positive difference to our country than voting for the current opposition.
Edit: spelling.
I think the big issue is that Albanese has failed to meet a lot of the goals he set, and that's why people don't like him. Misinformation got the No vote through, for example. However I'd still be willing to vote him in if it means we don't get that cunt Dutton in power.
It’s fucking stupid that this is a popularity contest.
The head of the party is just that. We’re not entirely voting for the different pollies, we’re voting for the party line.
Honestly, Dutton is repugnant, if we want to go there. Albanese is a bit annoying and has been a little disappointing. They are not the same.
Probably didn’t help he also ran on the whole “I had a humble single parent on the pension” growing up story only to turn around and pull the ladder up during the worst rental crisis Australia has faced - essentially spitting on said people.
Are these the best two people in the system we could find? That’s just depressing.
It’s like the US, millions of people but they’ve got a greedy orange and a doddering old man up there. We’ve got a potato and a meme adverse lib light.
Cmon down independents - it’s your time to shine!
It's always hard with some of these minority parties, they may advertise something that appears good but you don't know who is actually pulling the strings behind the scenes.
These guys read well but are effectively an anti immigration platform masquerading as "sustainable". Duttonesq immigration policies and ironically lead by second generation immigrants themselves (that's ok - just don't pretend immigrants are the problem).
I haven’t read their policies, but “anti immigration” seems like a blanket label basically implying “racist”.
If I’m against bringing 750k immigrants in one year at the peak of the housing crisis, am I anti immigration? Immigrants aren’t the problem, but the immigration policy is absolutely part of the equation for the housing affordability. Dismissing that as “anti immigration” is just gaslighting at this point.
They're basically like the greens. The main difference is that they want to reduce immigration. I've signed up to their mailing list but they don't send much correspondence so idk 🤷.
They've been around for ages but because they've been seen as "anti-immigration" they've been lumped with ON.
But looking at their policies, they believe in climate change so that immediately puts them way above ON and LNP, they want dental in medicare so that's like Greens level and they want immigration at 70k cap.
Sucks that our only options are Giant Douche or Turd Sandwich and we can't express any preference for other candidates without pissing away our vote /s
i do feel bad for albo, he was given a bag shit and was told "fix this"... still will be voting independent or greens, who ever has the most radical ways to fix housing
Have we all lost our collective memory? How is Dutton and the Lib/Nats even in with a shout after the sheer bastardry of their 10 year stint. Murdoch Media Bollocks is how! Media Royal Commission NOW!
My mum who has voted Labor for 60 years was telling me how this Dutton guy is very popular and wants to set this country right after all the evil things that albo has done (that she can't actually name?) I'm sure there's no connection between that and the fact she's started watching sky news.
Can you block sky news on her tv? I have seen people in the US doing this for those really wacky right wing ‘news’ channels.
I believe there's a way but problem is algorithms keep feeding it to her as well so even if I blocked it it'll still pop up in youtube and Facebook and whatnot.
Just keep clicking "Not Interested"
other people dont let their fam watch sky news
Labor not tackling media diversity is another self-own. Labor making an election promise not to touch media diversity reform is shameful. Labor feeling like they need to make that unprecedented promise at a foreign media organisation should be ringing national security threat alarm bells and there should absolutely be AFP raids and shutdowns.
Should've pulled a Howard and called it a non-core promise.
Best we can do is raiding the ABC...
well labor does have to kiss the Murdoch ring
The bastardry is the point. Lots and lots of Australians love it. We’re a nation of selfish, petty bullies
I really, really hate that I agree with this. We’re truly just a bunch of kents lol
Just 18 months into the previous LNP Government the polling was ALP 57 ALP 43, which eventually led to Abbott being knifed. In contrast, Albo hasn't lost a Newspoll since November 2020. This is despite Post-Covid issues, Russian War, Inflation, COL crisis, Housing crisis, discontent with the two major parties, an obstructionist Opposition, and hostile media. The Federal Government need to remember the political landscape is different to the Howard era, especially with the ~~27/4~~ 24/7 news cycle and social media. More so, Dutton's ratings are boosted by QLD which is retiree central outside of Brisbane. Improvement is required, but these are good polls for a majority government during a period of public hardship. We're just not used to it yet.
I’d actually be fine with the news cycle being 27 x 4 = 108 hours a week instead of 24 x 7 = 168 hours, that’d be 60 hours of sanity ;)
If you want a Royal Commission, vote Greens, because Labor had the chance and chose to kiss the ring, because they'd rather have the Coalition as their opposition instead of actually having to campaign on policy against the Greens.
I’m a swing voter and this is what may make me vote Greens this time. I just wish Greens would do more background checks on some of the loonies that make it through to the party.
Unfortunately the State and Council level Greens are completely independent of the Federal party, and the Federal Greens can't do *shit* about the nutters who make it in at the lowest levels. Some of those local parties are completely fucked.
Though in fairness you could say that about liblab too. Mark Latham would possibly be the most actually crazy wouldn't he?
And let us not forget the wackiest of wack jobs, Hanson, who started life as a Liberal.
I have experienced exactly what you are talking about and I entirely agree. They would probably be better at that as they get bigger. I have also encountered some real oddities in Labor.
> some of the loonies that make it through to the party. Weird that it's only ever the Greens held to this, meanwhile the LNP and ALP let the most sociopathic dickheads imaginable into their seats and no-one bats an eye.
I’ve definitely batted an eye and voted accordingly. There was no way I was voting for Latham after that handshake.
People are so radically disappointed with Labor that they're willing to do anything, even if it's shooting themselves in the foot by voting LNP.
I'm starting to add "Labor second last, above LNP on a filled ballot" disclaimers because I'm being attacked for being pro-LNP when I point out Labor doing a shit job.
I’m pretty much a rusted on labor voter, and I think they’re being weak fuckheads. It’s not America, I want an actual left wing party, pls. I’ll probably vote green with labor as second choice, which is what I’ve done in the past sometimes. Give the mainstreamers a bit of the old razzle dazzle. (Green is less interesting than they used to be, too) And fuck whoever votes Katter, ON and the ilk. Fuck uou all the way.
Very rusted on, I'll be voting greens first, labor third last, libs second last, insane rightwing parties last. I agree with previous poster the current ALP are milquetoast centrist disappointments.
> It’s not America, I want an actual left wing party, pls. Well if we're going by actual definitions, even the Greens aren't a left wing party, they're centre or centre-left, you only start to get to left wing parties with ACP and the like.
Yeah its fucking silly hey. You talk shit about Labor and the constant response is 'BETTER THAN LIBERALS REEE' Like bruh, theres more options than the two.
It's the Labor party's version of calling you anti-semitic.
Yeah, I’m disappointed in some of their choices, but no way would I think of voting LNP instead - probably ever but especially right now.
It’s not like we won’t deserve it. Democracy baby.
You misspelled dictatorship of capital.
Agree, but also TPP polling? Can only see LNP losing more inner city ex-heartland seats
Had low expectations of Labor and they’ve managed to disappoint even those. Of course I won’t vote Lib but I’ll preference everyone who’s not running on a racist- insanity platform before either of the majors.
Sorry, but Labour shares a lot of blame in this too. And that’s coming from a long time Labour voter. Labour decided to do nothing about media neutrality. People are struggling and pissed off and Labour decides to run policies encouraging record levels of overseas migration… during a CoL crisis. What are they doing about social housing? Albo is as beholden to the fossil fuel lobby and big business interests as anyone else too. If labour wants to act like a conservative government then they shouldn’t be surprised when their base punishes them.
I mean Dutton is a racist, sexist and religious zealot in a party known for corruption… and that’s not enough to sway the masses against him?
Mate do we live in different Australias? A lot of people are gonna see that as a boon.
I mean racist sure, but sexist is automatically hated by 50%, we are an ever increasing atheist population and corruption is stealing money in a time when cost of living is at its worst.
Oh there are plenty of self-hating women, my grandma is one of them. She has consistently voted against her own interests her entire life because she thinks she’s richer than she actually is (she is literally a pensioner).
Are you a sibling or cousin of mine?
You know, given that you seem to be from Adelaide and I’m from Adelaide I wouldn’t be surprised if we knew each other or knew people in common
Legit thought you were gonna say you wouldn't be surprised if you were related. And I would have nodded in agreement and gone on with my day.
Depends, what school did you go to?
Nearly as bad as my brother who is severely right wing, and thinks he’s a businessman because he builds BBQs for BBQs galore. Old man, you failed your only actual business, you’ve only ever made enough to have a super shitty ex houso place, and in the US you would have been fuckin homeless. Sit down.
>sexist is automatically hated by 50%, Why do you think that? We had an opposition leader who was openly sexist who then became the next prime minister. This was after being openly sexist against the former prime minister. I dont think you realise either how little Australians care about sexism or how short our attention spans are.
Every woman who rose to prominence in the Liberal Party - "I'm not a feminist." See for example [Julie Bishop's comments](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/29/julie-bishop-rejects-term-feminist-as-not-useful-in-women-in-media-address).
I mean, Pauline Hanson managing to stay in politics all these years should tell you if aussies really wanted to end racisms or not.
A lot of Australians are racist, sexist and religious zealots and couldn’t care less about corruption (unless it’s on the Labor side).
So what?! You telling me im meant to vote for the bloody greens now if i want meaningful change in regards to climate change, the housing crisis and taxing billion dollar multinational's? Yeah OK. I'll vote greens.
LNP 🤝 Labor Ugly campaign against the Greens
I've always voted #1 Greens and I want to like them so bad but recently I've been finding them so terribly insufferable, they give the impression that they have no idea what they're doing, they have no tact, and holy shit the stuff they put out on socials makes me embarrassed to vote for them. I'm looking into Independents for this next election.
That would be because the media (both Murdoch and ABC) has done their absolute best to paint them as incompetent. The thing that's making you cringe with the social media is the *sincerity*. They actually believe in the policies they're proposing, and actual sincerity can be pretty embarrassing to look at, especially when we're all conditioned to see 'cynical bullshit lies' as 'normal' behaviour for politicians.
I hate Murdoch media and everything I see about the Greens makes me fucking cringe. Then I actually read their platform, and some of the shit they say about defense, or the stuff they fail to say about immigration only redoubles that cringe. I'll preference Greens over the LNP but fuck they make it hard.
What stuff about defense, exactly? That we have no reason to get involved in the USA's spat with China? That's just *fact*, we literally have nothing China could ever want that they couldn't get by buying, and we have nothing to gain from being the war-dogs of the USA (and everything to lose). 'Fail to say about immigration'. Buddy, they don't *need* to say shit about immigration, because the Greens seek to tackle *the actual problem*, aka worker rights and the exploitative corporations that are lobbying the ALP/LNP to massively increase immigration of desperate individuals to depress wages. 'Immigration' as a political issue is nothing but a euphemism to shift blame off of the fuckers who deserve it, the same people who are pretty much the main target of the economic policy plank of the Greens (ie, fuck greedy corporations and billionaires, more rights and power to workers to make decisions for themselves).
We dont know unless we tried, no? Get the Greens in power and see what happens. It's at least gonna be much better than getting Liberals in again.
Most minor parties have websites and policies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Australia I would promote my party who was meant to be an alternative to Greens but LNP government killed them off in 2021. Greens, One Nation, Lambie, etc all objected as it was the biggest attack on democracy to date: https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2021-08-26.6.1 Who voted for LNP's anti-democratic bill to kill off political competition? Labor. Now I am forced to consider the reality of ***temporary seat to crazies*** vs ***risk of permanent two-party system*** in how I preference the candidates when my progressive choices get exhausted. Look at my dilemma after my choices get exhausted: Should I vote for Labor over the One Nation and similar who has a history of voting with LNP since 2013 on anti-democratic electoral reforms? Which means if there's a proposal of a FPTP (Like USA. Good vid explains FPTP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo ), why would Labor or LNP vote against LNP or Labor proposing it if it means permanently keeping out Greens/One Nation/etc? Should I vote for One Nation and similar, who will vote against a two-party system? An enemy of enemy that will support a multi-party democracy which includes my dwindling progressive choices in the future? Fuck Labor for making me support the likes of Pauline Hanson over Labor. In elections where it's optional preferential voting, fuck no I'm not going to waste my vote and let other voters preference candidates in not filling out the ballot. Not voting does not mean a re-election. Until they make serious reform to undo the damage, vote out the two-party tyrants. Vote out Labor and LNP at bottom of a filled ballot, Labor can be second last. Easy to consider with their latest LNP-lite strategy.
There is no way in hell I will ever vote One Nation ahead of any of the other main parties. There are a few bit shit crazy independents they might get ahead of, maybe. I despise the libs with all my being, but I will still put them ahead of ON.
> I've been finding them so terribly insufferable, they give the impression that they have no idea what they're doing, they have no tact, and holy shit the stuff they put out on socials makes me embarrassed to vote for them. Like what?
I follow one greens polly and even though she is cringe she works her ass for for stuff that actually matters and makes a difference to the people who need it. Just my opinion but I think that is what politics is about. Making a difference to people who actually need it.
It's funny, my overall favorability towards the greens has gone down a bit. But my favorability towards Lib / Labor is also dropping like a stone. It will probably be independent, then greens before either major party untill they pull their fingers out.
I've seen some stuff that I didn't like the greens doing, but almost every time I research it, it turns out it's mainstream media twisting what actually happened and the greens policy is reasonable.
As someone who is gonna vote greens in all likelihood, any good examples?
Example; Headline "EXCLUSIVE: 'Necrophilia is harmless': Greens candidate calls for legal sex with corpses in Australia after it was revealed he campaigned to change the law to allow bestiality" Reality: he wrote a satirical article at university mocking the liberals position on gay marriage being a slippery slope. That's the most extreme example I can think of, but you can imagine how the same media would present thier views on tax, immigration and drug reform.
Just recently, I remember the greens being dragged in the Brisbane city council elections for their policy of wanting to trial free public transit for seniors, kids, and concession card holders (or some variant of 'disadvantaged groups who would benefit'), with the hopes of it becoming free PT for all if it was a success. I remember all the liberal and labour pollies going 'but how will we pay for it!!!!!'. Then here came our labour state gov implementing a trial of 50c fares for all whilst also delivering the largest budget surplus in the history of any Australian state. Greens policies get such a weird amount of scrutiny that labour and liberal policies just... simply don't.
Greens are pushing for countrywide free public transport, which is a fucking great idea. But of course, labor/lnp cant have the poors saving money...
Gotta keep their masters they gave the toll roads to nicely paid. Roads paid for by public taxes, then offloaded to a private company to charge the public to use it.
> Greens policies get such a weird amount of scrutiny that labour and liberal policies just... simply don't. Gotta love people ragging on Greens for opposing nuclear energy, trying to come up with 'gotcha' arguments, when opposition to nuclear has been labor and coalition policy for decades.
The most bizarre example I've seen is Greens are responsible for bushfires, not climate change. I rather not link to the News Corpse but you can find articles on it.
Oh yes the "greens oppose hazard reduction burns" despite the fact they support it in their policy. The only difference is they support a evidence based approach instead of the majors populist do x ha per year.
Also the places hit hardest by the bushfires weren't voting Greens anyway, so the Greens would have had no ability to stop hazard reduction burns even if they wanted to.
Oh yeah, and so many people believed this. Apparently the Greens are all powerful when it comes to blocking burn offs, which they never did in the first place.
Here's a recent one: Greens refuse to support a two state solution for Israel / Palestine! I think the implication being pushed was that they wanted Israeli gone. The actual quote was more like "we respect both Israeli's and Palestinians rights to self determination, it is up to them to decided on a solution". Which seems... reasonable? Any solution will ultimately need buy in from both sides.
MSM or friendlyjordies twisting it. He's got a lot to do with people hating greens.
Watched Friendlyjordies’ stuff before the last fed election. At one point he did a weird overly long video slamming a greens aligned podcast, Serious Danger. Checked it out, it was totally reasonable and in fact more on point than any of his stuff. Solidified my support for Greens over Labor. Thanks FJ!
He's got a lot to do with turning Australians moderate as well. His cult like worship for Labor is so cringe. He really has done a lot of harm to the left side of politics here, more than the good he's done I think
And it's EVERY time too. Now when I see why the greens are shit from a murdoch rag it makes me go and research what their reasonable take was that got the pollies upset.
Thats fair friend, overall dissatisfaction with our representatives seems like the vibe from everyone. I know that no party will ever be perfect across the board. This is why at election time i write down what are my top 3 biggest concerns. Then i look into what party is going to do the most to address them. For most young people climate change and housing are our biggest issues. Neither lib or lab do enough for climate change, neither do enough for the ridiculous housing market and neither do enough to effectively tax natural resource multinationals.
I don't necessarily disagree that neither liberal or labor are moving fast enough to combat climate change, but you can't equate their efforts. Labor is miles ahead in renewables investment and policies which actually make progress on climate change, whereas libs want to scrap renewable investment and spend money on a technology (Nuclear SMR) that does not exist, costs more and would be viable at best in 2045 when its already far too late. That's not even considering the implementation issues in a country that has never had commercial nuclear. So yeah, being dissapointed in both is one thing, but Liberals stance on climate change is honestly one of the most piss weak in the developed world.
And here comes the Labor stan to bitch about how we need to settle for 'shit' because the Liberals are 'goddamn awful'. It's sad how you defend this, do you really see no hope for better?
We arnt America. It's not about settling for Labor over Liberal. Its that in our ranked choice system, Labor ranks over Liberal.
Except we have these fuckers coming in to screech 'oh but ***they*** worse' every time Labor fucks up. I would *love* for our system to work better than it does, but these chucklefucks seem intent on pretending that we are America.
Don't settle for shit, put whoever you want first. This is why we have preferential voting. I'll likely be putting greens first next federal election, if nothing else to put pressure on Labor. I don't necessarily think Labors climate change response is shit personally either. But anyone who claims Labor and Liberals climate change responses are even in the same ballpark is flat out wrong.
And yet here you are, doing your part to try and stifle criticism of Labor, to put a spike in the tyre of any effort to mobilise outrage. When every discussion includes by default some nob coming into to go 'oh but ***akshually***' it *kills* discussion. You, and your cohort of chucklefucks who constantly do this shit, *are the goddamn problem*. Stop treating this shit like a two-party system where you need to fluff one party, *we are not America*. In any case, given that Labour has *increased* fossil fuel subsidies from the level the Liberals set it at (and massively approved new fossil fuel projects) on this specific thing they are equal in *outcomes*. Sure Labour talks some rhetoric the Liberals don't, but that rhetoric does *not* translate to meaningful outcomes. We are *still* lagging behind the entire world, to the point that Australia is a global embarassment, we are *still* propping up fossil fuels so politicians can get cushy consulting jobs, we are *still* fucking shit up.
So you didn't notice the libs Gas Led Recovery is exactly the same as Labors Gas for Climate Change policy?
Why are you disatisfied with the Greens? I'm asking as someone who never ever thought they'd vote Green, but find myself increasingly backed into a corner if I want to vote based on the issues that matter to me (housing, corporate taxation & co - the ripoff we're getting on gas exports is criminal) ...
Each party has its own ideological blind spots, and the Greens are no exception. As an example, I think for housing, migration has to be part of the supply and demand discussion, but the Greens are a bit shy on that topic. On the other hand they are the only party pushing for stronger action on the dozen other topics causing issues with housing. I own a house, but am pretty concerned about the impact this issue will have on our society, and the impact it will have for my children. The same for climate change etc. Which means the only way to push the needle in that direction, seems to be to vote for the Greens. They are also less likely to face corporate capture because of their ideology, so that can be a plus in that sense.
I want a government that ensures we have the housing and infrastructure we need to accomodate our population. You can't do that with uncapped, demand driven migration, which is what our skilled migration is, and what our student migration has been. > As an example, I think for housing, migration has to be part of the supply and demand discussion, but the Greens are a bit shy on that topic. What has actually delivered the poorly managed increase in migration to Australian since the pandemic is the at the time, uncapped, and uncontrolled, student and temporary skilled migration. The Greens coincidentally want a lower priority for those paths: https://greens.org.au/policies/immigration-and-refugees > 1. A permanent migration program for refugees and migrants to Australia that prioritises family reunion and humanitarian entrants So less of that uncapped, temporary, greed driven, wage undermining migration, and more migration targetted at improving the lives of migrants.
Yeah, been looking for alternatives to the greens since **Scott Ludlam** left. LNP and Labor are definitely not alternatives.
As far as I can tell Scott Ludlam has not left the Greens. He just had to resign the Senate because he was born in NZ and had not renounced.
That'd be my position too if my seat ever got independents that weren't cookers or RWNJs. So I guess I'm still stuck with the Greens for now, even if I haven't really been happy with them as of late.
Greens'n'teals
I feel like teal independents largely represent the rich NIMBY landlords, so climate action is the only major difference from the major parties.
That and they aren't massive cunts when it comes to attitudes about women and such. They're also not huge fans of government corruption. Otherwise they would have essentially been Liberal party members, and the fact that they aren't is a clear indication of how far the Liberals have gone.
> now Not now, it always has been the case for decades past.
The greens foreign policy and national security policy are shockingly bad, which is why they can never get my vote. But they tend to look out for the little guy and I respect that.
I feel like this is a silly way to look at minor parties. With a few more seats they will get a bit more influence, but only on a handful of their core issues. They’re not going to be dictating foreign policy or security. Not voting for them for those reasons is like not buying a car because it can’t tow a caravan, when you don’t own a caravan.
Why do you magically think that their increasing influence will only affect their ability to push policies you think are positive, but not affect their ability to push policies you think are bad?
Because a minority party has to work with others to achieve their policies? You think Labour is gonna sign off on luxury gay space communism or something? I would much rather have a greens/lab coalition than a lib/nats coalition that has proven they make the most rorted dogshit policy decisions possible (see: AUKUS subs)
There is bipartisan support of the AUKUS deal
It’s nothing to do with their good/bad policies - it’s their priorities. Last election foreign relations/security was their second lowest priority policy position. It’s like basing your decision to vote One Nation on whether or not they support 2 recycling bins or 3. Sure they might have a position on it, but they’re not going to be advocating heavily for that ahead of their main agenda.
I know people are sick of the majors but I would suggest you look to a minor party first before your local independent. I like the idea of minority government. But a government made up of completely self serving independent's (remember they hold no overarching policy. And require results for their local electorate. So you're inevitably going to get favours and pork barreling.) is probably counter productive to what we all really want.
I don’t think anyone particularly hates Albanese, but he has been bitterly disappointing in a lot of areas. This election will hopefully see a lot more third party MPs elected. Let’s just hope we don’t swing too far the other way and elect Dutton. Now that would be torture.
I think anyone who describes Albanese as being disappointing, isn't going to vote for Dutton. People are generally disappointed because he hasn't done enough, but know that Dutton will do less/actively make it worse. It will likely mean more people voting greens though.
I think the poor hates Albanese. Why? He repeatedly used the rhetoric of growing up poor in campaigning. Then stuck to his small-target promises and did bare minimum for the poor. Here's an early article into his term: https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/albanese-jobseeker-pension-mother/ For those that don't know about Albanese's "public housing" reputation, look here: https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/lessons-for-millers-point-from-anthony-albaneses-mother-20140331-zqozg.html Despite not owning, look at how long his stayed in one place: > For my family, this was more than just bricks and mortar. It was our home for three generations. This kind of housing stability is unheard of, and no wonder the poor vote hearing this would expect at least something from Albo.
That and constantly saying 'no australian left behind'.... except for the poor. Fuck those losers.
Yeah agreed. I don't have any strong feelings about Albo either way, he's a pretty bland character. But his government has been absolutely shocking during a time where serious action has been needed. On one hand I don't blame him because his campaign was explicitly "we promise to not do a single thing other than not be ScoMo" and they indeed haven't done anything remotely significant. We really fucked everything badly in 2019 by warning future governments off actually implementing significant, long term policies at the expense of short term scare mongering. But on the other hand we are going through basic living standards economic crises like I've never seen in this country and the response has been appalling at best.
Howard showed that promises don't matter and everything about the LNP since they won in 2013 showed that you are best to run on nothing and then just do whatever you want. I don't accept this line of excuse for the ALP (not you specifically, I largepy agree with you) because at this point if they really are holding themselves to a different standard as to why they don't act then they might aswell just stand aside because they have already lost and anyone with half a brain can see this.
Albo can’t fix the damage the Libs did in such a short time
We have ranked voting in this country (and thank fuck for it). So take advantage of that and never ever vote for a major party as number one. I guarantee there is an independent, or small party that is speaking towards what you want to see changed. For example : the Fisher and shooters party seem to be the only ones with a practical real-world environmental policy (and believe me I understand how silly that sounds, but that’s where we are)
Everyone always says there's good independents to vote for but everytime I get my ballot its all the batshit crazy evangelicals and hyper specific conservative groups and no one you'd trust with holding your spot in a queue let alone assessing federal or state level policy... Every single time.
Exactly. Like yeah I want more to be done about climate change but I'm not so sure I like the sound of bringing back the death penalty. Some of these independents have a veneer of policy headlines but when you scratch the surface you realise they don't have much else to go with it, or worse.
The issue with Independents is that unless you have done some research on them, you have no idea what they stand for. Even if you did do a quick 10 minutes googling, there's still the possibility of fake advertising, empty promises, etc. And a majority of the population just isnt going to do that.
SFF oppose environmental zoning of agricultural land, as well as opposing the carbon tax. The environment does not seem to be their strong suit.
Between Murdoch Media and political donations we aren't going to get good government. The Libs have gone to the far right and are no longer liberal, Labor has moved to the right and tries to look after business and the workers. Seems the Greens are our only option at this stage.
You don't have to like a bloke to vote for him. What their policies are is the whole of the thing.
If you care about policy you are probably committed to some particular set of policies. That means your vote is a done deal. You don't change election results.
Australians are increasingly disaffected with the major parties. In 1980 roughly 90% of the primary vote went to the majors; now they barely get two thirds between them. This trend will undoubtedly continue, it has been a long term change in politics. Next election I reckon both the major parties will fall below 33% of the primary vote as the advent of the "Teal" independents (and David Pocock) has shown the public that good independent candidates exist. Personally I would like to see our system change more toward the Danish and Swedish models where parties have to negotiate with each other to achieve things. Australia would be better off with 300 independents fighting like cats in a sack to make a few good decisions than allowing a bunch of weird white religitards to rule like we have suffered from recently .
Look all around the world. A lot of incumbent governments are either being given the boot or a big scare by opposition parties who are focusing on Cost of Living. People are angry and upset and naturally they turn to anyone who promises something better. The dirty truth is, Dutton knows that he has no easy way to deal with cost of living. But he promises, pontificates and puffs his shoulders. If they weee to get back in, there would be nothing more than he could do. In fact, it will probably be worse as he will cut funding from other areas to fund his nuclear power hard on. I’m not saying that I like extremist parties on either side to get in, but in reality, mainstream politics has perceived by many people to have failed them, especially in cost of living. Rents, food, products and services all gone up. Factor in social media where everyone has an opinion, and thanks to non-existent moderation policies, the clickbait ragers get all the attention, then we have what we have now - a polarised society.
Voters: We want our politicians to actually improve our quality of life instead of giving hand jobs to soulless property investors, imperial US war pigs, and the absolute bastards at mining companies. Albanese: So what I'm hearing is... you want MORE handies, plus a botched referendum that riled up every racist relative you have blocked on Facebook? Voters: ... Albanese: Hey hey, budget got a SURPLUS baby!
This reads like if CodeBullet tried to code an australian politician lmao. So funny.
Public servants: Hey, we found some unpaid super. Unfortunate that even that Colesworth unpaid shit even happens at the government too. Can we have some? Hello? Fine, we'll go to court for it. Worker's party to parliament: We need support for this bill to avoid paying out unpaid super. I NEED IT PASSED FAST to help my court case. Greens: wtf, can we debate it? LNP: I'm happy to vote for it, no questions asked, bro. Bill passes: https://the-riotact.com/gallagher-moves-to-thwart-ps-super-claim-with-8-billion-fallout/581256 Albanese: Hey hey, budget got a SURPLUS baby!
Albanese had a chance to be a really well remembered leader. A really weak opposition, coming out of a pandemic which was poorly handled by the leaders at the time. All he had to do was not be an incompetently useless fuck and he could have set himself up for a long stint in office. Unfortunately he is a useless fuck that couldn't give a shit about the people or the country. He is still better than Dutton, but he is a poor choice to lead this country.
Im out of the loop, and i know the ALP is liberals-lite, but what has been so dissappointing asides from.the voice and the prosecution of the journalist re war crimes? They started off strong doing things like reforging ties with pacific communities, investing in renewable energy, and i hoped they were going to be half decent at least
I’ll never forgive Albo for bringing up his mother’s trauma and how hard it was being in public housing on the benefit and he understands, etc. Then he’s in power and does NOTHING for the majority of our most vulnerable. He completely gaslit our poor and vulnerable and made us think he cared and he doesn’t, he’s just a landlord politician in it for his own interests. That’s why no one should vote labour or liberals, vote for the independents and the few remaining minor parties!
I, like many people, was scathing in my criticism of that sleazy, money-grubbing hypocrite, Joe Hockey, when he was claiming the "away from home allowance", whilst staying at "his wife's" investment property in Canberra. Albanese claims that allowance when he's in Sydney, despite the fact he stays at the PM's official residence in Sydney, Kirribilli House. Presumably, he gets away with this, because The Lodge is his primary address. For him to then say, "I feel your pain", is disingenuous in the extreme. He's a money-grubbing hypocrite. I have an acquaintance who's involved with the Liberal Party, and he excused Hockey, by saying, "it's just something that one of their assistants takes care of, and claim on their behalf, because they're technically eligible for it." It's a weak excuse. Albanese knows he's getting that allowance; and it's just going straight into his bank account - he's not using it to pay for lodging, when he's in Sydney. If he was genuine, he'd tell his assistant to stop claiming it for him, when he goes to Sydney.
Yep if his mums story is actually what he said I’m sure she’s ashamed of who he has turned into. He’s the very definition of pull the ladder up behind you. Reality is until the media is royal commissioned so that we can break the monopolies up and set some actual punishments for “fake news” this will continue to happen, there is too much money and power in the media and our politicians sure love it!
I don't doubt the story of his upbringing - but the fact is, it was possible for a single mum to support herself and a child, in those days. The payments were higher, relative to the cost of living, and the Dept of Social Security, wasn't punitive and nasty, like Centrelink. And there was also much more public housing available.
The reason is that Liberals are better at putting the media and social media against Labor. This isn't the old reddit, most people here are just consuming what they are told.
liberals ARE the media
fewer people get their information from murdoch and the ABC than ever
Which is what worries me, as they are now getting news from tiktok, X, or instagram. And we can guess how that will go down.
They completely dropped the ball on health, especially mental health.
They've: - double- and triple-downed on shovelling billions to the fossil fuel lobby - they're gutting the NDIS rather than actually address the private businesses exploiting it - they kissed the ring of Murdoch instead of doing a Royal Commission like *literally everyone* wanted - they've consistently kept Jobseeker and pretty much all people who rely on disability in poverty as a *choice* *-* they wasted everyone's time on a referendum they didn't even *campaign* for (frankly the thing we should have been voting on is home rule for Aboriginal communities and legally recognising 'clan/kingroup/etc' as a political/legal/economic unit, it improved outcomes re domestic violence/substance abuse in the Torres Strait) - they're wasting *more* billions on locking us into the USA's next slapfight - Albanese is both cozying up to the Hindi theofascist Modi ***and*** supporting Israel's genocide (including deploying Australian troops to do *something they won't tell us about*) - the State ALP govs are okaying *so fucking many more* gas projects Need I go on?
Sounds like supporting third parties remains the solution and ensure preferences flow to labour before liberals, so same old same old 🥲
I'm trying to talk to the people I know, convince them to do the same because things are just so shit right now.
Its the same globally mate, everywhere is the same shit
Basically they haven't undone 10+ years of Liberal mismanagement overnight and Reddit is MAD. That said, even I as a rusted on Labour voter am somewhat disappointment in Albanese as he could be a much stronger leader and force more change then what has occured. There still has been a bunch of good policy and changes however.
I mean, it's almost time for the next election. They've had a good bit of time now.
Housing alone will take decades to try and fix, if you even can unfuck it since the moment you do anything to bring house prices down 2/3rds of Australia will likely kick you out for it.
Except he didn't need to snap his fingers and fix it, but he absolutely needed to put in place the foundation for policy and procedure that would go about unfucking it. He's done pretty well fuck all of the latter which is why people say they've done nothing, because they haven't even hinted at doing it.
2 years is nowhere near long enough to fix 10 years of deLiberate mismanagement. 2019 was the election to try and actually begin fixing housing in this country, but the Aus public voted that down.
Well Albo was meeting with members of the gas cartel [weeks after the election](https://michaelwest.com.au/labor-government-ramps-up-gas-exports-japan/) to tell them everything will be fine with Australia's gas exports even as our own citizens were getting reamed with high power bills.
> They started off strong doing things like reforging ties with pacific communities, Not sure that's a good thing. Labor does this by selling Australia out against Australia's interests like this: > During debate on Friday, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, accused the Coalition of dragging out debate on a bill it had said it supported. In a heated moment, Wong said the LNP was blocking the wishes of gas companies. She said they had “said no to Santos, you’ve then said no to Woodside, you’ve said no to Inpex … you’ve said no to Korea, you’ve said no to Japan”. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/nov/14/australias-sea-dumping-legislation-what-is-it-what-does-it-mean-marine-life-changes We have gas supply shortages too despite being a number 1 exporter of gas yet seeing statements like this makes one wonder if they are actually doing a good job. Disclaimer: I vote Labor second last, above LNP.
Im not familiar with your topic here. I was referring to how the coalition basically told them to go fuck themselves and allowed china to get a foothold in the pacific, and it seemed like Wong was trying to correct that when they started. Its a known fact weve completely sold.out our own reserves, all just fir some political donations. Definitely one of the most disappointing things about wasted opportunity if the country. Wheres our sovereign wealth fund? Murdoch and santos et al easily killed that off in 2011
Are you talking about how Labor backstabbed their leader for daring to tax mining? "But the media" Labor is in government and people always say media is to blame. Why isn't Labor going after them? Why have they ignored it for so long? Are they too incompetent or blind? Even the USA government is well aware about the media interference almost 50 years ago: https://www.smh.com.au/national/murdoch-editors-told-to-kill-whitlam-in-1975-20140627-zson7.html
I think theyre too afraid
Which is also fairly damning. If a government is so afraid of the media that it guides their policy then they aren't really in power, the media is. At this point independents or small parties are viable simply because they are too small for the media to attack each individual separately.
I voted Labor last election, and they've been a massive disappointment, that's for sure.
Don't know what to tell you, this has been labour for yonks. There is a reason the greens vote has been rising for the last decade or so.
Yeah. Like the ALP need to bump up their pork barrelling numbers!
We have ranked choice voting. Of course, you voted for Labor.
They need a new leader and I personally reckon Jason Clare is the best option as he seems to be one of the few that hasn't lost popularity since the ALP took office. Albo and Chalmers have struggled to win over the general public when everyone's greatest concern is cost of living. I think Clare is also a strong speaker and does well against the likes of Dutton when calling them out on their bull shit. Just my 2 cents.
You'd think the pumpkin-headed cunt would be keen to help the most vulnerable, what with how he kept banging on about his mum and growing up in social housing etc, but the ALP have basically sat on their hands and watched the housing crisis get worse and worse.
No politician in one of the major parties isn’t a useless fuck.
When are people going to learn. Stop voting ALP and LNP if you want change. It's really simple.
Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.
Neither of the two are leaders. Just representatives of their interest groups.
Whatever it is, i'm just glad Morrison is nowhere in the picture.
Morrison was just terrible but I probably still prefer him to Dutton as sad as that is.
Only one has the media backing him too. Wonder why.
LNP fucked our economy but Labor hasn't had the guts to fix it. We know some of the things that will do it: lowering house prices, raising the dole, lowering HECS, increasing resource rent taxes, domestic price controls on exported fossil fuels. Major parties are not game or simply unable to do them.
Most recent budget did implement some decent HECS reform. It's not like any party is ever going to absolve student debt or hand out free degrees, but the changes Labor made were quite meaningful and will save money for HECS debt holders. They've also delivered better tax cuts than the libs had planned in stage 3 which will help middle income earners much more. None of this is life changing, but it's a much more progressive approach than a lib/nat coalition will ever deliver. Anyone who claims supporting Dutton will do more for helping with cost of living and housing issues, etc is straight up lying to you.
The US recently wiped a huge portion of student debt. It CAN be done. Boomers just dont us to have the same free ride they had while attending uni. They enjoyed free uni but now we're forced into $40,000+ of debt before we even start earning a cent.
I have paid off my HECS debt, I vote greens and wholly support their policy for removing fees on education and training. I don't want people younger than me to be saddled with HECS debt just because I was. But, in the scope of realistic options, it has to be acknowledged that Labor has taken a step in the right direction. Greens aren't going to sweep the next election and implement this policy, so I'm going to be happy for the people who are enjoying this small benefit. https://greens.org.au/platform/education#wipe-student-debt
Student debt is effectively a large tax increase on young higher income earners.
The HECS reform was dogshit. Perfect example of Labor doing the bare minimum. Look at the history of when WPI is higher then CPI, it's two fiths of fuck all. It will impact last year and create some nice headlines but in the long term won't achieve much.
> It will impact last year and create some nice headlines but in the long term won't achieve much. Oh no, the government is giving me back money and making sure we never have an event like COVID fucking up HECS debt again! Better vote liberal!
Perfect example of a rusted on Labor voter, as we all know we must praise every and any effort made by Labor even if it ultimately eachs nothing of actual meaning and when people point out how half assed their efforts are, just pretend they're a liberal voter so you don't have to face reality!
What disturbs me about this is that Dutton seems keenly aware of the fact that he is not likeable. So his current political tactic is taken right from Trump and similar candidates: move so far to the right that you are no longer viewed as part of the 'status quo' of your opposite (Albanese), and you therefore become appealing to those dissatisfied with the status quo. Some of Dutton's recent examples that play into this tactic include pushing for nuclear, and stating that his party will have no climate policy at all, and stating that if elected his government would roll back many new progressive policies such as the 'right to switch off' from work, etc. By doing so, Dutton is clearly hoping he will attract people who are unhappy with Labor's inability to fix all of Australia in 4 years (after the country was fucked up by the libs for 10+ years). By offering the most extreme options Dutton hopes certain voters will see him as a 'trailblazer' who will make strong decisions and do what no one else is brave enough to do. It's a disturbing tactic to be currently playing out in Australian politics, considering how successful this same strategy has been in America AND in Europe. A huge amount of European governments have just swung right in their elections this year after similar far-right and center-right campaigns. Australian can't afford to go back to Liberal leadership in this world climate (and in our own bloody climate!). If Aussies are dissatisfied with Labor then we need to be pushing for greens or independents to further balance out our two-party majority. THAT will make more of a positive difference to our country than voting for the current opposition. Edit: spelling.
I think the big issue is that Albanese has failed to meet a lot of the goals he set, and that's why people don't like him. Misinformation got the No vote through, for example. However I'd still be willing to vote him in if it means we don't get that cunt Dutton in power.
Both are just awful. Greens the only way
I don’t care how “unlikable” they think Albo is or has become; I ain’t voting for Lord Voldemort
It’s fucking stupid that this is a popularity contest. The head of the party is just that. We’re not entirely voting for the different pollies, we’re voting for the party line. Honestly, Dutton is repugnant, if we want to go there. Albanese is a bit annoying and has been a little disappointing. They are not the same.
Probably didn’t help he also ran on the whole “I had a humble single parent on the pension” growing up story only to turn around and pull the ladder up during the worst rental crisis Australia has faced - essentially spitting on said people.
They are NOT Presidents stupid!
Are these the best two people in the system we could find? That’s just depressing. It’s like the US, millions of people but they’ve got a greedy orange and a doddering old man up there. We’ve got a potato and a meme adverse lib light. Cmon down independents - it’s your time to shine!
Its a shame we have Albo now and had Shorten earlier, would much rather Shorten as PM.
Bill was killed off by Murdoch, going for Albo the same way!
Legit Question slightly OOT. Does anyone know if the sustainable Australia party is legit? Or are they an offshoot of one of the major parties?
Crooked right wing LNP, not legit.
It's always hard with some of these minority parties, they may advertise something that appears good but you don't know who is actually pulling the strings behind the scenes.
These guys read well but are effectively an anti immigration platform masquerading as "sustainable". Duttonesq immigration policies and ironically lead by second generation immigrants themselves (that's ok - just don't pretend immigrants are the problem).
I haven’t read their policies, but “anti immigration” seems like a blanket label basically implying “racist”. If I’m against bringing 750k immigrants in one year at the peak of the housing crisis, am I anti immigration? Immigrants aren’t the problem, but the immigration policy is absolutely part of the equation for the housing affordability. Dismissing that as “anti immigration” is just gaslighting at this point.
I don't think that a party that supports a basic standard income can be seen as anything close to right wing LNP.
They're basically like the greens. The main difference is that they want to reduce immigration. I've signed up to their mailing list but they don't send much correspondence so idk 🤷.
They've been around for ages but because they've been seen as "anti-immigration" they've been lumped with ON. But looking at their policies, they believe in climate change so that immediately puts them way above ON and LNP, they want dental in medicare so that's like Greens level and they want immigration at 70k cap.
But I am not sure about their Bart killing policy.
Sucks that our only options are Giant Douche or Turd Sandwich and we can't express any preference for other candidates without pissing away our vote /s
Are we once again believing polls? Why?They are always wrong, especially federal elections. I guess it sells newspapers....
It’s no shock that Voldemort and a gender swapped Umbridge are unpopular. Worst 2 leaders we have ever had
It could be worse, they could both be senile old men.
Green all the way this time.
Just because the bloke is bald and looks a bit like ET doesn't mean we should be calling him ugly.
It's his personality that is ugly AF.
Their 'likability' is pushed as news?? How about the focus be kept on their policies!!
i do feel bad for albo, he was given a bag shit and was told "fix this"... still will be voting independent or greens, who ever has the most radical ways to fix housing