Regime Change and Other Events

[tcpip]

The big news for Australians at the moment is the results of the Federal election, which has seen the election of the Australian Labor Party with what looks like will be a bare majority of seats. Significant changes on the night included a particularly big swing to Labor in Western Australia, an absolute drubbing of the LNP conservatives in inner-city seats in Sydney and Melbourne, especially to the centrist "Teal" ("blue-green") independents, and the fact that a third of the population are now voting outside the main two political forces, up from 10% thirty years ago. As always, there were a few unexpected results but as a general statement one can safely say that this election result was a massive repudiation of the extreme nepotism, the fundamentalist religious-cultural conservatism, the misogynistic attitudes, the indifference to climate change, and the incredibly wasteful and unempathic economic policies of the LNP government. I think we can be sure in the next months we'll see a Federal Independent Commission Against Corruption, improvements to aged care and childcare, and better environmental policies. I recommend, for accountability purposes, that one should keep a copy of Labor's policies and see if they deliver.

I spent election night with Holly and Luke M out in the Ranges, along with their horses, goats, and giant Italian sheepdogs. Nick L was present as well, whose political knowledge I think is better than mine and between us, we were able to provide a running commentary, finally cracking open the sparkling at around 9 pm when it was clear the Tories couldn't win. Earlier that day I was in the company of the delightful Mel S., as we attended the Queer exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, which seemed an appropriate activity on election day. Also of a political bent, I went to a pre-election union meeting on Thursday evening, followed by dinner with Virginia T, who is an independent local councilor. That was quite a happy reunion, as we hadn't seen each other for more than twenty years. Back in those days, we were both in the "hard left" Pledge faction of the Labor Party. Another interesting convergence is that Virginia and I both held the role of Education Vice President at the same time for student unions (or guild in my case) at different ends of the country.

All this said I am far from as active in politics as I used to be. Decades ago politics was part of my first degree and, as mentioned, I was very involved in student politics back then. I had a bit of a break from it all until I signed up in a moment of dire prescience to the Labor Party just before the election of the Howard government. It wasn't too long before I found myself working for MPs, elected as a State Conference delegate, founding Labor for Refugees, and so forth. However, after working in Timor-Leste my direct involvement tapered off as my profession moved towards engineering and education, and most of my political activity now occurs through Isocracy and the Victorian Secular Lobby, and whilst the latter body is holding its AGM next week, I rather feel it's about time I took a step back there as well. There are other areas of my life that need greater attention, and I think I've done well enough for that body.

Comments

[dewline]

I hope this is truly good news for Australia.

[tcpip]

I think it will be. Albanese is the sort of person who takes his commitments seriously. He has never forgotten where he came from and his victory speech spoke of indigenous reconciliation, equality of rights, and renewable energy.

[catsidhe]

incredibly wasteful and unempathic economic policies

That's a funny way of spelling "corruption". Well, "corruption and performative cruelty".

The main points I take away from this are:

1. It wasn't a vote for Labor, it was a very clear vote against the Libs.
2. The Teals are liberals. Like, small-l liberals like what the Liberal Party keeps gaslighting everyone that it is. And it hasn't been since Howard started and Abbott accelerated listening to the IPA and ACL instead of having their own policy.
3. The Libs who are getting kicked aren't "moderates" except in comparison to the rest of the Liberal Party. The standard you walk past rule makes them complicit in the bullshittery of their erstwhile compatriots, and they get no credit for being the sheet over the portrait of Dorian Grey. The last liberal Liberal in parliament was Petro Georgiou.
4. Those "moderate" Libs being kicked won't "push the party to the right", because the Right were already running it. Them being gone will expose it for what it's been for decades. In an ideal world, the Teals will be the core of a new liberal conservative party, and the Liberal Party can go wither and die.
5. Women can see when they're being told to shut up and get back in the kitchen. Morrison didn't help when he said that he was a bulldozer, "but he would change". Because every domestic abuse survivor who has threatened to leave has heard that exact line, and everyone else knows gaslighting when they hear it.
6. The raving lunatic wing of the Liberals metastasising into One Nation and United Australia and antiVax parties and the like is a direct consequence and result of what the Liberal Party now is, and one can only hope that when it strangles itself and dies quietly and unmourned, that that takes away the source of the infection of our body politic.

There's probably more lessons in there, but this margin isn't big enough for all of them.

[tcpip]

I stuck "corruption" under "nepotism". Either way the ICAC will make life interesting :)


> 1. It wasn't a vote for Labor, it was a very clear vote against the Libs.

Well, 50% Labor and 50% Teals, more or less. WA was very much a vote for Labor, for example (10% swing) and Qld (5%), although Labor didn't exactly make gains there.

> 2. The Teals are liberals. Like, small-l liberals like what the Liberal Party keeps gaslighting everyone that it is.

True that. This said a centrist liberal is far preferable to a right-wing Liberal. It's like the Liberal Movement or the Australian Democrats have finally found their voice.

...

> 6. The raving lunatic wing of the Liberals metastasising into One Nation and United Australia

My biggest concern is those two parties pitch to what should be Labor territory among the outer suburban working/welfare class. Between them, they get around 8.5% of the vote.