People power
Never has there been a better time for people to exert their power.
As we have seen, nervous politicians with a very tight margin seem to have a great deal of influence. They can even bring down Prime Ministers.
Whilst the Coalition won 76 seats, 12 of them were by a margin of less than 2% – three of those, less than 1%.
In the 11 seats where Labor was the runner-up (NXT in the other), the difference between the total 2PP vote was 23,527 (at time of writing).
Coalition seats with less than 2% margin include:
Banks
Capricornia
Chisholm
Dickson
Dunkley
Flynn
Forde
Gilmore
Grey
La Trobe
Petrie
Robertson
With about 720,000 informal votes cast, the results could easily have been very different.
It would only have taken a total 27,028 votes in the 12 electorates mentioned to have a Parliament made up of 80 Labor, 64 Coalition and 6 crossbench.
This government, because of their decision to hold a double dissolution, cannot go the full three years The far right might be feeling empowered but their influence can be kept in check.
Get vocal. Pester your local Coalition member with phone calls and emails. Let them know when you disapprove of what their party is doing in government and make suggestions. Sign petitions, join protests, share things on social media, talk to friends and family.
Keep them nervous so they actually work for the people who vote, rather than the lobby groups who dictate and the corporations that donate.
The power is ours and it is time to remind them of that.
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13 comments
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Steve Laing -
Kaye Lee -
Clean livin -
lawrencewinder -
Kaye Lee -
@RosemaryJ36 -
Phil -
kathysutherland2013 -
wam -
lawrencesroberts -
townsvilleblog -
Matters Not -
wam
Return to home pageUnfortunately this only works if you are fortunate to live in a marginal seat. Our dimwit doesn’t even respond to emails. Still gets elected by the sheeple.
Steve,
Even for the ones with a larger margin, it is worth adding to the general voice. If we, in the marginal seats, can keep the pressure on enough for our reps to bring up what we are complaining about, others might then say, yes, people have contacted me about that too.
Hey Steve,
email the PM, cc the marginals, or invidual marginals to make them nervous.
None of them know where you live!
I agree… there is still a level of anger being directed at the Ruling Rabble Mk2 that is unusual so soon after an election… keeping the pressure up just may have a few of the incompetents crack!
Contact relevant Ministers too.
Can someone explain why I get an error message each time I try to share the AIM Network posts on Facebook?
I live in a marginal NSW seat – I emailed my local Liberal MP at least 12 months before the election, almost weekly, but she never, ever replied. My emails were never offensive, always stayed on the point, no name calling, no bad attitude but never a reply. I cc’d every email to Shorten, Plibersek and Di Natale and at times to other specific MPs – they all replied at least as to having received from me. But my Liberal member presumably directed my emails straight to the trash. How do get through such truculence?
Just feeling a bit smug – here in Tassie, we managed to ditch 3 Liberals! And in the Senate enough of us voted below the line to return Lisa Singh, despite party heavies putting her at no. 6 on the ticket! Good example of people power, I think, although, sadly, we’re still stuck with Eric Abetz.
great advice keep letters, facebook, emails flowing.enjoy yourself ‘discussing with trolls!!!
Marvellous result for the new system in tassie. The 6 boys vs the 5 labor women and jacqui. What a triumph,
I hope billy supports them, all the way.
But who will be 6 years and who 3 is in the rub?
Could be some interesting deals?
Maybe turncoat will remember what ‘bipartisanship’ means?
Maybe the loonies, X and pauline will deal seconds?
An old fashioned envelope with a stamp does wonders.
Kaye, in my mind now is the time for the ALP to do something bold that captures the imagination of the 720,000 disenchanted public. Now is the time to open up the party to democracy, internal democracy giving members a free vote not only in the leadership of the parliamentary party, but in the party organization, to allow people of vision and talent be they university educated or not to hold positions of responsibility.
I expect this move would embrace the disenchanted and give everyday people the chance to be involved in policy formation, even to the top levels of that process. It would be a great time to democratize the Labor Party, so that the next election, when ever its held has the Labor Party with strong momentum for a whitewash of this tory four party government, once and for all.
That power lies with the Senators themselves and, as I understand it, there’s no appeal to any outside body such as the ‘courts’. So expect the major parties LNP and ALP to ‘gang up’ to ensure the decision made (the mechanism chosen) disadvantages the likes of Lambie, Hanson and other candidates who simply don’t have the political muscle.
There will be many and varied ‘squeals’ with all types of threats but to no avail.
yea but who would trust the libs not to do a deal with the loonies and X????
got a funny post from my facebook about the census with rabbottians telling me that I should not mark atheist but pick a christian otherwise we might be declared a muslim nation.
Wow that is FEAR with capitals????