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[alexandertnt]

So who are these "Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party" that supposedly hold some balance of power?

*reads website*

Awww crap, there a stock-standard low-tax-small-government-family-family-family party.

[Max White]

AMEP alone won't have balance, there will be a few minors to contend with if greens + labor oppose liberals.
On that note: Current Senate estimates

Greens to end up with 10 seats, pretty good! I would have preferred to see labor win a few more as well but you take what you can get. The important part is that Greens and Labor will hold majority.

[Jimmy]

Apparently more people cast an informal vote this election than previously.

http://vtr.aec.gov.au/SenateInformalByState-17496.htm

Also interesting to note that this election saw 3.34% less votes for Greens as first preference, 4.14% less for Labor, and only a 1.26% increase for Liberal. Seems more folks are going for outside the major three as their preferred choice.

http://vtr.aec.gov.au/HouseStateFirstPrefsByParty-17496-NAT.htm

[Jimmy]

So, in the week after winning the election, Tony Abbott has promised to send the navy to turn back the boats, scrap the carbon tax and cut green tape in favor of a one-stop shop for mining approvals.

So yeah, stick that in your pipe and smoke it, you green hippie tree-huggers. I heard he's trying to make some time in his schedule to club a baby seal, harpoon a whale and dump some toxic waste in a river too.

[alexandertnt]

Mr Abbott said. ''There's no doubt that economic returns aren't always worth their long term environmental costs. Still, the wealthier a country is, the more readily it can afford to judge money-making opportunities against exacting environmental standards.''

So... The more potentially enviromentally damaging projects we have, the more we can reconsider potentially enviromentally damaging projects?

*head explodes*

[Max White]

But hey, whether he succeeds of fails at stopping the boats, how will we know?

Yes, due to long campaign of using the boats as a political platform, Tony Abbott has decided it is wrong to use the boats as a political platform and will not be giving us any more data about asylum seekers arriving by boat, just so that in a years time when the number of arrivals have continued to increase due to the situation in Syria, nobody fucking knows about it and liberal supporters actually believe it is because the boats stopped coming.

[Dutchling]

That's just absurd.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Even the Republicans usually aren't that blatantly manipulative.

[Reudh]

X-posted from Blargityblarg:

- Invent imaginary threat to facilitate political scaremongering
- Primary proponent of imaginary threat is elected
- realises he can't do shit about the boats, particularly not given the situation in Syria
- Boats? What boats?

Too good not to share.

[Max White]

Even the Republicans usually aren't that blatantly manipulative.

 
Australian Liberals, they are worse than US Republicans.
Actually Australian Republicans are pretty cool guys who are all about freedom and secularism and humanitarianism.

And yes, we do also drive on the left side of the road.

[Owlbread]

Australian Republicans also want a Republic, correct? In the USA they've already got a Republic.

[Max White]

Yea, Aussie Republicans are like Secularists just less militant atheist.
Although our situation is a little different from Scotland. We aren't really being exploited by another country by means of royal ties, we just share the same Queen. In fact having the same royal family if anything is saving us some expense in their upkeep. They mostly object to the idea that we have a monarchy at all on the principle of the matter, can't say I blame them.

I'm pretty sure in the USA they call themselves republicans because the name invoked a feeling of patriotism, easy way to gain support.

[Owlbread]

I recall kingfisher's circular reasoning in his defence of Australia's queen a number of pages ago. How likely do you think the creation of an Australian republic in the future is?

[alexandertnt]

After paying attention to American politics, its hard not to associate "Republicans" with "stupidity".

How likely do you think the creation of an Australian republic in the future is?

Support for it was pretty high, until some royals got married, or something (forget who, never paid much attention to them).

Hopefully it happens before Prince Homoeopathy Charles takes over.

[Max White]

Well to do that we would need to hold a referendum, and passing something by referendum is hard. It is where policy goes to die. Basically we have this rule where to pass it needs a double majority, that is the majority of voters over all, as well as the majority in the majority of states.
There was actually that very referendum in 1999, where as I recall we got a 45% yes vote over all, but I don't remember how the states turned out. It is interesting to note that the proposed new political system was described as a 'minimalist' republic, and many republicans encouraged people to vote 'no' for the sake of getting a better deal later on, so with public attitude generally moving away from royal ties over time and the chance for a more solid system you never know what turn out will vote for it.

Point is it isn't a hot topic right now, people are a little distracted with boats and the cognitive dissidence of being told the economy is crap despite everything pointing otherwise. Still, you never know when it will show up again. Greens are strongly pro-republic and they are looking at picking up another four senators for a total of ten. Might become a wedge issue next election, who knows.

I will say that the fight in Scotland has sparked a little talk over here. Escaping the royal talons might inspire some more confidence for us to do the same, at the same time if we do go republic any time soon I hope it can bring some more hope for you guys.