tcpip | (West) Australian Politics, Social update

(West) Australian Politics, Social update

Well it seems that the National Party have decided to support the Liberals in Western Australia. Alan Carpenter has resigned which is a shame as he was a very decent individual who had the very unusual ability (among politicians) to listen to others and to admit mistakes (although he certainly should not blame himself for the appalling Labor campaign). The incoming premier, Colin Barnett, does not have the competence of Carpenter making Dr. Nelson's comments that this represents an "outstanding result .. for good governance" a joke that will end in tragedy.

Which is just as well that the Federal Liberal caucus has seen fit to remove him from the leadership in favour of Malcom Turnbull. As a completely rarity, Turnball actually is a liberal Liberal. He's more than a bit of a toff (as Australia's richest parliamentarian) and there's a gulf of experience between him and working people. When it comes to matters like abortion, stem cell research, climate change, the apology to Aboriginal Australia, superannuation to gay couples and so forth, he's certainly progressive. His weakness is that when such issues collide with the lure of the dollar, he'll choose the dollar - such as the case with the approval of Gunn's Pulp Mill.

Weekend was very enjoyable. Had an evening of many drinks and trashy videos with

severina_242,

_zombiemonkey and

caseopya, although the latter was a little worse for wear on the journey home. The following day

imajica_lj was a little late to gaming (he did turn up), so I ran an impomptu Call of Cthulhu session of "I Want You To Kill The Ice Cream Man", which is an brilliantly simple story. Tonight will be spending dinner with

arjen_lentz. At some stage I really should take him up on the excellent MySQL training he offers.

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I've nowhere else I wanted to put this, so I wondered about your opinion on "natural morality".

For starters, that's not natural morality which is a long-standing tradition in its own right. Secondly, to claim that emotions have little to do with the answers given is contextually inappropriate. For example, the question that "Would you drive your boat faster to save the lives of five drowning people knowing that a person in your boat will fall off and drown?" is going to be different in reality to the abstract.

Ultimately, moral reasoning is not a science, as one cannot derive the rightness or wrongness of actions based on their facticity.

liberal Liberal.

This monkey is confused.

In Australia the Liberal Party has a small liberal wing (often called "Deakinite liberals"), a large monetarist wing and a bunch of religious lunatics. Essentially a right-wing party with a small centrist faction.

They are appropriately and respectively called "the wets" (because they're sensitive and teary), "the dries" (because they only care about statistics) and the "the uglies" (because they're secretly jealous of better looking people showing a bit of leg.. or more)

small liberal wing

Liberal in the current European (neo-liberal) or in the classical liberal (and I don't mean Atlantic Libertarian).

I am still getting my sea legs on politics outside of the US and Canada (although I have a fairly good grasp of UK and Mexican politics).

Classic liberal. Wikipedia gives a good summary of Liberalism in Australia.

I always heard that the wet/dry difference was what they believed would happen to their feet if they attempted to walk on water.

Where do the uglies fit into that schema?

the Federal Liberal caucus has seen fit to remove him from the leadership in favour of Malcom Turnbull.

Who cares? This guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQufJNhNtv0), that's who.

That's truly odd... I wonder what he was caring about?

Rocky Horror Picture Show? Not inherently trashy. Singing and dancing whilst drunk to the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Perhaps a tad trashy ;-)

Slap your arse and sing it! "I'm just a sweet transvestite!!!!"

Oh, it's inherently trashy, no doubt about it. But the right sort of trash.

I'd love to meet Nell Campbell in person. Apparently she lives in Australia again.

I'd love to meet Richard O'Brien.... he seems charming, intelligent and open minded.

It would hard being anyone in that film and not being open-minded :)

must go see the live production!

I'll be in that - it looks better and better the more that I hear about it.

Interesting what you say about WA politics. I've just come back from Perth and found that Carpenter seems to be widely disliked and distrusted....

He was honest enough to admit the hold that the factions had over the cabinet and was prepared to admit that he was wrong on the Iraq war. His ban on MPs having anything to do with the Burke faction was supported widely. His popularity and supported premier status remained high during the years.

The well-placed

cranky_nick makes some very worthwhile comments about the quality of the Labor campaign. Based on Carp's performance and relative popularity and the outcome, I would say it's the campaign's fault.

due to LJ oddness, previous attempt at posting was done anon.
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I'de agree with that. They didn't learn from the last federal liberal campaign and they went really negative rather than pushing the good things that they did.

Personally I liked Carpenter, and I liked the way there was at least an attempt to control those elements of the party that served their own interests.

I will not happy if they put Ripper in as the next opposition leader, and the alternatives arn't much good either. The Labor party really suffered from a lack of depth this election and I think it was that lack of credible personalities that undid them at the polls.

Now all I can do is await the announcement of the north-south uranium canal project funded by mining royalties... because we know it will happen.

due to LJ oddness, previous attempt at posting was done anon.

I noticed :)

They didn't learn from the last federal liberal campaign and they went really negative rather than pushing the good things that they did.

Yes, that is true. The Labor Party had managed the state quite well. There was no need for a change in government. Then why the panicked response from Stirling St?

Now all I can do is await the announcement of the north-south uranium canal project funded by mining royalties... because we know it will happen.

I was going to say the Lang Hancock canal but apparently there's already a railway. I'm surprised it hasn't been blown up.

My Mum (who lives in Woodbridge) reckons it was Daylight Saving that killed labour's chances of re-election. Knowing W.A., I think it would be a factor.

I sometimes wonder whether people who think daylight savings makes the curtains fade faster should be allowed to vote.

This said, daylight savings is possibly a factor if you're milking cows in pitch darkness... But of all things to make a deciding vote on!

Well, she is in her 70s, and has many friends with the same opinion. It may just be a generational thing.

I'm very disappointed with the way the Nats went, I must say. For all their blather about representing rural areas and wanting the best for their electorates, they really let down their voters by going with the Liberals.

I've not got all that *much* against the Liberals, mind, although I do vote Labour. It just strikes me as wrong that the Nats would turn down the *better* offer, Labour offering not only to meet their 25% demand, but promising around a billion dollars more over the course of the next four years.

I guess the federal Nats have more influence than the state Nats have integrity.

Yes, it is a disappointing, albeit not surprising. Especially, as you say, with the different offers on the table. "Independent" indeed!

As Greylock has pointed out, in his colourful language:

Within 24 hours Barnett fucked over the world by allowing uranium mining in WA.

Within 48 hours he's not only pulled a policy backflip by deciding to no longer support a Royal Commission into the Varanus Island fire (which he was calling for while in opposition), but has gone back on a pledge that city infrastructure programs won't be impacted in an effort to pay the Nationals bribe.

This is a fantastic start to Government.

I, too, am curious of your impression of Carpenter as "a very decent individual", something which many WAians would not agree with. He's been obstinate in his approach of jobs for mates, to the detriment of the party, and in particular a certain eastern metro seat who lost a popular hardworking member, who'd transformed a marginal seat onto a safe seat, when she was dumped by Alan.

Sure, he was no Costa, but he was also a very poor choice to follow Gallop, or be allowed unchecked power as he was.

I am not saying he was a complete angel, and to be sure like any other Premier he wanted his people in safe seats, although I am unsure which seat you're referring to. But his "keep away" approach to Burke is surely a positive, and quite a brave one, given the influence of that crook on the WA Labor Party. Also, I think this comment of him changing his view on Iraq, certainly a bigger picture than even the WA state election, is illustrative:

"I realized that my analysis, my knowledge was just so shallow and so deficient."

How many political leaders are prepared to say that?

yeah turnbull is totally untrustworthy but he does have a good understanding of economics.
havto admit that nelson did grow on me but he was never going to win an election, he was just a caretaker as the wa libs didnt like turnbull and wanted to delay his rise to leadership.

in state politics labor had hung on too long in wa (and nsw) had lost vision become corrupt etc and had to go

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(West) Australian Politics, Social update

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