Who voted for them?
Knowing, as we do, the dishonest campaign employed by No-Policy Morrison, the question must be asked – who was sucked in?
And the answer is not what you would expect.
It wasn’t rich people seeking to protect the advantage they know they receive through overly generous tax concessions or seeking to have their taxes cut even further.
It wasn’t the people who actually know what franking credits and negative gearing mean.
It wasn’t migrants protecting their children from moral decay.
It wasn’t old people scared of change and longing for the golden days of the past.
An analysis by Nick Evershed at the Guardian shows some very interesting results that should inform future campaigns.
“Electorates that swung harder to the Liberal and National parties are more likely to have higher unemployment, lower income, lower levels of education and fewer migrants”, whereas “electorates that swung to Labor were more likely to have higher levels of education, more young people, more people in work or study, and more people over the age of 80.”
As Labor fell into the trap of talking about the minutiae of unsustainable tax concessions, they failed to sell their message to the very people they would have helped the most.
Those with higher education qualifications, or more political and economic engagement, were able to see through the razzamatazz of the ProMo show.
Those who are concerned about the environment, young and old, recognised the danger.
But those who just want someone to look after them without them having to be involved in thought or deed, handed the reins to Scott the Messiah who tells us that everything is just fine and dandy – don’t you worry about that you people.
The interference run by Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer was also influential in directing preferences to the Coalition. Some of the biggest swings to the government came in coal-mining regions but often via a primary vote for one of the fringe parties.
Labor must change the way they communicate – less about the how and more about the why, less about the numbers and more about the benefits.
None of the current crop of politicians could be genuinely called inspirational so, in the absence of a real visionary leader, it must be a team effort by all of us to identify the challenges we face, to better communicate the needs of our society, to hold our politicians to account, and to explain more simply the path to a better future.
As Bill said, we cannot change the past, but it is our duty to do the best we can for the future.
Maintain the rage and keep the bastards honest.
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Return to home pageGood insights, Kaye Lee, but one must ask, why does one rich selfish media owner wield so much power and influence, why does one corrupt businessman be allowed to use his wealth to mould people’s thoughts and one does why one utterly stupid imbecilic politician appeal to so many mindless voters ? Are Australians so far beyond redemption ?
Sounds just like Trump, Brexit and many fringe democracies nowadays focusing upon (ageing and/or economically challenged) regional electorates (helped by NewsCorp/WIN, ABC News 24 etc.) to vote against confected untruths, dog whistling, cultural issues, urban elites etc. which are messaged constantly, while key issues and policies for society are avoided in favour of special and/or corporate issues to fly under the radar…
I have to concede that sad as I find it and as distressingly dissapointing as I feel it, the Oz “working class” has now become the corporate world’s “Uncle Tom”.
Malcolm X explains it…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Jmw5o9ulA
Kaye, I expressed my fears before the election, because I found that many of the people I spoke to were taken in by the lies. Unfortunately those now in control will not listen to advice when the next downturn comes. Labor proved in the GFC that they could listen and act. We will not see that from this mob.
The power of propaganda has been well illustrated in this past few weeks. Unfortunately we will all suffer for this.
Thanks for all you have done, I will continue the fight.
What we do NOT want is an opposition which lurches ( or even strays) to the right. That would be granting a much more dangerous victory to the undeserving.
Another perceptive article Kaye Lee.
The trend that I see is too similar to the rise of fascism in both Italy (1922) and Germany (post 1933) when the moneyed classes sought to protect their wealth and material possessions from a Communist revolution. (Joseph Carli may comment on this).
The major Italian industrialists backed Mussolini and the 1922 elections were widely regarded as ‘rigged’ resulting in the Fascist government followed by major public works projects pouring national revenues into public infrastructure to the profit of those same industrialists.
The Germany situation was similar, a longer campaign led by the bankers and including the major industrialists like Krupp et al who also benefitted from the major programme of public infrastructure works. The cost was paid by the elimination of middle class savings and the imposition of the Nazi Fuhrerstat. Interference by the US OSS has been postulated given that five US banks that made 35 MILLION POUNDS as loans through Faber AC, the manufacturers of the death gases used in the concentration camps.
In 2019 Australia it was suggested in private discussions post-election that the “Me Generation” has the same mob thinking “myself before the good of the community”. This is a national self-inflicted wound caused by principally COALition handouts to the undeserving wealthy and corporates amounting to about $150 BILLION PER YEAR ad nauseum.
In 1930-1940s Germany, the German people backed the Nazi regime by ‘mob think’ then denied all knowledge of the atrocities after 1945. We are not to that stage in 2019 Australia yet, but the indications are there in the uneven distribution of wealth, opportunity and obvious failure of ‘trickle down’ economic policies is creating an elite political class with parasitic hangers-on who believe that they are entitled to special treatment that should not be available to every Australian citizen and voter in an otherwise egalitarian society.
NEC,
That’s not what the data shows. It was the poor, the unemployed, the uneducated, who seemed to swing this one, though I concede the campaign by corporate advertising may have influenced them
They just want to hear that everything will be fine. Tell them you are the better economic managers and they believe it.
Palmer has admitted his campaign was to ensure the Liberals won the election.
Kaye Lee: If the analysis you refer to is correct, then the strategy followed by Labor should have been the following:
Use the tax “savings” to promise an immediate build of a solar thermal power station of the variety being built in Whyalla + other employment generating projects of a “green” variety (reforestation etc) all for those areas of Queensland with the greatest disadvantage.
Promise an immediate increase in Newstart of $50 (or thereabouts) while the “review” proceeds.
Run hard with the federal ICAC highlighting corruption in the coalition.
That is “if” the analysis is correct, as in “if” the polls were correct. Didn’t Labor’s internal polling etc. tell them those were the main issues in Queensland? What vibes did they pick up in all those town-hall meetings? All that hard work wasted, it seems.
I agree about the malignant influence of big money. What can we do about it? Nothing it seems.
Kaye….Good article, and I think the message is clear for the party (of which I am a member). One point…your ‘Tell them you are the better economic managers and they believe it’ only seems to work for the Liberal Party. On the street I have carried around graphic material on tax as a proportion of GDP, national debt growth under the LNP, and they just do not believe it. Not that I think they are the best indicators of economic management, I must add.
Henry, the reason why Murdoch has control of a very large part of the media is that the rules governing the percentages you were able to own have been slowly changed, bit by bit until we now have a completely undemocratic, biased, totally lopsided media.
How on earth can a better balanced media can be obtained is probably the fight we should all be having.
When attack dog Michaelia Cash said Labor is coming for your ute, I am starting to think some quiet Australians believed her.
Too much emphasis is being placed upon the idea that “Labor ran their election campaign badly”. There have been far worse campaigns, in fact, to my mind Morrison’s was a shallow, conceited boorish one.
Others have argued Labor had too many policies, too confusing for the average punter – whoever the ‘average’ punter is.
I believe Labor had lost before the campaign even began. How else to explain such a win by the LNP in which they won a clear majority?
In spite of an endless stream of gauche, selfish, corrupt and vacant governance, people were not turning to Labor in droves. Sure there are people who voted without thought, but they are not the majority.
The spectre that should be climate change caused not a hesitation in those who voted against their own best interests.
Recent study of the election entrails reveals most of the Coalition voters were unemployed and undereducated. Both problems which will not be addressed in the foreseeable three years.
So how to emancipate these voters from ignorance and apathy?
Not by the Left; in Queensland, any voices hinting at progression, sustainability, retraining was interpreted as being proselytism or “ordering us around”.
Change needs to start with enlightened conservatives – not an oxymoron, they exist, albeit quietly.
Contacting our local MP’s regularly, calmly and consistently for the next three years is something I know I can do. Particularly with the bounty of information from AIMN, the Conversation and many other 5th estate journals, I can, we can, select, copy, paste and send to those who presume to govern. By snail mail and email. Even once a month – that’s around 36 times till the next election. Once a week, would be great, however, I know my limitations and others may not find such prolific action so easy either.
There are some excellent writers here who could help with templates we all can use and tailor to voice our concerns. How about it AIM, it’s one way to fill in the next 3 years?
Like Peter F, I too had feeling that this election was not going to end well for Labor, I said so here and stopped commenting for the election period….
On the election night hubby was surprised that I wasn’t more upset….”I told you so…” was my reply.
I have given up. This win will empower them. This country is about to become unbearable for people like me and you. Sad beyond belief.
We may all laugh at all the Moonshine Hicks in the US who swallowed Trump, but in reality we have a lot of stupid people in Australia too. And until we stop blowing hot air up their a-hole and pretending that they are smarter than they actually are, then we as a society will continue down this path of electing dud politicians with no redeemable features and even less policies.
I know what you mean John Boyd. I too have tried to point out the facts and even something as simple as the LNP have doubled the debt and have nothing to show for it, yet people either just don’t believe you or tell you that it’s Labor’s fault. SWTF???
Honestly sometimes I fully expect these imbeciles to tell me that “You know what would be a good idea? If the government implemented the White Australia Policy as a Final Solution”…….oh hang on a minute???
Fear is the driver. Easy. Remember Labor’s levying of the higher emitters of CO2? Abbott knew what to do.
Call it a carbon tax, the Great Big Tax which would hit everybody.
So too in 2019. The removal of franking credits where retirees were no longer to get reimbursement for payment of taxes for which in fact they did not pay. Call it a “retirement tax”, a name which does not mention franking credits and let all retirees think it is a tax on all retirees whether they had franking credits or nor.
A clever strategy. Well crafted fake news. Add to it the threat of death duties.
More recently. both Abbott and Credlin admitted that the Labor price on carbon was not a “carbon tax”.
Too late, of course. The horse had bolted.
So too, we have the problem of Adani. Adani = jobs, according to the believers. But there is no proof that much will be achieved by Adani directly. Small mining operation, few real workers – but coal is our #1 commodity export raking in billions of dollars a year. Essential for the economy because we need the money, they say
No mention of Climate Change/ Global warming. Yet Queensland is one state which is suffering from the effects of CC/GW . But no one is allowed to say so, especially if they are not Queenslanders. Yet it should be clear that all Australians have interest in the effects of CC/GW.
Surely we can do better with jobs than mining.
It was interesting to see Bob Brown on a panel discussing this matter. While Brown made a plea for all of us the take into account the effects of rampant CO2 emissions and warming trends, there were some there who looked on with glazed eye and the discussion was called to a halt. Something, ironically, about time limits.
It is unbelievable that people still believe that Oz is the only country in the world which has any kind of carbon abatement plan and is going it alone.
China and India are often mentioned as villains, but a closer look at the energy plans, despite present carbon level, shows that they have plans way ahead of Oz by 2030.
Adani is merely a foreign interloper, going ahead of some 17 other miners eager to dig up coal and hip it away to be burnt.
Why does anyone really think that is a great idea. Is it because they are unable to link three ideas in their heads: Adani – jobs – warming.
As someone said: There is no economy on a dead planet.
It is clear that the Coalition will be facing strong winds of reality over the next three years – and clever political word games will not be enough.
..
This simple post election analysis has far more credibility and believability than any of the opinionated self-indulgent grabs, gouging and blaming done by the commercial TV channels 7-9-10, ABC and SBS; when read in the context of propaganda, scare campaign, lies and fraud perpetrated by the Liberals, third parties like Clive Palmer, One Nation and the mainstream press, especially News Corp.
Labor should have been more gracious and cooperative with the Greens and adopted their employment strategy/guarantee for the disaffected workers in Queensland in conjunction with clearer planned winding down of coal and saying no to Adani. Labor would have won anyway if it had been an honest campaign, but addressing this one issue would have been sufficient to neutralise the lies, the worst, most aggressive and deceptive campaign ever mounted by the Liberals.
Those with common sense, sensibility, reason and social/moral compass were always there.
In effect a political irony, that many who swung to Liberal would always have been better off and protected under Labor, as would the vast majority of lower-middle income Australians, if not all Australians in the longer term.
But the self-indulgent opinions and post analyses we see incessantly on our TV and news channels are complete and utter nonsense – Elephants in their own studios.
But we must be kind to real elephants, they had nothing to do with it. Their survival like us, depends entirely on us. But you cannot expect Morrison to understand that, he is now our most significant political extinction factor in Australia, a toothless dinosaur.
I have been trying to avoid the post-election analysis.
For the past few days I had given up and felt the same as Baby Jewels, in despair
NEC ‘s post reflects my feelings… this is how the good people of Germany and Italy must have felt as the forces of Fascism rolled over them.
Whatever happened to my country, and the usually kind, generous people who lived here?
I have come to the sad conclusion that my values, learnt in the bosom of a working class family, are not the “Australian values” that were displayed in this effing horrible election campaign and subsequent loss to progress, fairness and attempt to save the beauty of our land and animals.
Thank you IPA, LIB/Nats and the gullible dead- heads who fell for your lies and misinformation, and your dirty election tricks, for the next 3 years of misgovernment and pillage by the corporates.
This is great: https://ausgov.info/
https://ausgov.info/recipient/advanced_search.php?Entity=Westpac
I’ve donated to help out. The more transparency the better.
Three word slogans (2013), simple negative attack and asking ALP to explain (2019) rather than having prove otherwise. The minute ALP started to explain anything it was lost and they were on the back foot.
The attention span of the majority is measured in seconds and the cognitive ability is even less.
Bills talking pattern and word construction was one reason people did to warm to him. It was not what he said it was how he said it. Content was not relevant.
Now that the Abbort has gone, maybe the LNP will start to focus on the external environment, instead of the political infighting we have been subjected to. I am surprised that Dutton didn’t go as well.
A stronger Labor opposition would call the LNP to account and not side with the LNP on banking reform and other criminal activities. One always lives in HOPE?
Why is it people seem to think that there are no jobs in renewable. Labor never promotes it. The Neocons won’t even mention it.
OK.
I’ll write my own templates and send off my own missives to MP’s. Thought we could unite on something active, we can still bitch about how awful the LNP is and wonder why Labor lost …
With climate change being the No. 1 priority among the electorate, I’m stunned that Labor failed to capitalise on this. They had all the cards, but failed to play even one of them.
” OK.
I’ll write my own templates and send off my own missives to MP’s.”…….Licks tip of pencil…thinks a bit….licks tip forgetfully once again and writes…:”Dear Senator Abetz…..I am writing to you in the hope of persuading you to give some thought to the uneducated and unemployed who voted your party into office. Would it be too much to ask if . . . “
I suspect we’re seeing the ”eating-each-other” (barely) alive phenomenon. As horizons contract, some people double down on competitive rivalry for rivalrous goods. They don’t see the system is their downfall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWUI-94b3iI
Well Michael, the Coalition does not have any policies on climate change, yet they got in…’me no understand’…Pauline and Clive might have been helpful…? Friends in low places…?
Why are Labor and Greens not working together for a better Australia…?
My son sent me this link to friendly jordie’s election analysis.
Some readers may find his language a little offensive but his message is strong, simple and clear.
Maybe the Labor party should hire him for the next election.
Could could have guessed?
Teachers voted for more cuts to education.
Hospital workers voted for more cuts to Hospitals.
NDIS users votes for more cuts to the NDIS.
The unemployed voted to keep Newstart payments low.
Public servants voted for another 3,000 of their own jobs to go.
NBN complainants voted for more of the same second-rate service.
Taxpayers voted to distribute $6billion of their taxes among 60,000 millionaires via franking credits.
People on the average wage voted for those on $200K per annum to get a 16 times greater tax cut than themselves.
Farmers voted to give their water to coal miners and country people voted for less water in their rivers.
ABC viewers voted to continue cuts and possible privatisation for the ABC.
Pensioners voted for further pension cuts.
People in the tourist industry voted to kill off the Great Barrier Reef.
Voters picked apart one set of policies in favour of another set of policies that didn’t even exist.
And so on.
Who will be the first group to complain?
Strange days indeed. We get what we deserve.
Put simply: The country has been right royally screwed over by the idiots that voted Scummo and Crony Co. Inc. back in and the morons will have no-one else to blame when the RRRWNJ’s and big end of town really start liberally (no pun) applying the thumbscrews and brazen bulls this time around.
Posted wrong link – Morris Berman’s the man I think. Richard Wollf takes an optimistic view of collective effort. But Morris Berman see a dying culture – at least the dying culture of accumulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrqCnyKovyE
I wonder how many others received this, by email, before we voted?
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Diannaart 12.42 and 2.07.
Sounds like a good plan.
I already inundate my local MP with emails, questions and template submissions.
And she always answers.
But then I live in a very strong Labor electorate.
I’ve tried the same approach with various Lib, Nat ministers and get an automated reply that they have received my email but as it doesn’t come with a brown paper bag or automatic funds transfer, they won’t get back to me.
Still, I’m in.
Can Morrison spend another three years blaming Labor?
He has promised huge tax cuts, surpluses every year, and no cuts to spending. This is all based on what appears to be unrealistic assumptions about wages growth and consumer spending.
He has boasted that we will meet our emissions reduction targets in a canter yet the figures from his own department say otherwise.
Sooner or later he is going to have to back up the bullshit with some actual results. Sooner or later he will have to assume responsibility.
Given the uncanny resemblance to the 2016 US general elections, the data is not surprising; nor was the result, which some of us had ‘bad feelings’ about from the outset, despite the rosy numbers tossed out by cheap media polls.
Welcome back Kaye. I thought maybe we’d “lost” you.
I don’t think ScuMo will have to back up any of his failings/backdowns for the next three years because the MSM will simply publish as news all of his glowing/lying press releases. Labor will find it hard to cut through any of this bullshit [as they did for this election] and, unless they change tactics, will fail at the next poll. I spoke to some of the young tradies down here and all of them get the Daily Telegraph and listen to Hadley/Jones on the radio. Labor needs to hire strategists who can counter that.
“Sooner or later he is going to have to back up the bullshit with some actual results. Sooner or later he will have to assume responsibility.”
We would like to think so, but unfortunately, that is not how it works! All “actual results” will show that he has delivered. Just see what they say about what they promised even 3 years ago. And no one contradicts it, see?
If you do go out on the street with graphs and charts showing it is all wrong, no one will believe you. Just ask John Boyd. What can we do in such circumstances? I don’t know. I have no answer.
On this very forum I cannot even convince people about the veracity of the 3 sector financial identity. No one is even interested. They think it’s irrelevant or possibly some nonsense. Would I even mention it to some stranger?
No one can see that as long as people are chasing “budget surpluses” they will get manoeuvred into a corner from which they cannot fight the coalition – that is coalition territory. Never mind that they haven’t delivered a surplus in 6 years. They are the ones who can, and Labor never did. End of story.
James,
I had a break away with my bestest girlfriends. At times like this, it is great to remind yourself that the world has wonderful people in it – people who are busy making a difference.
Draw breath and back to the fray.
I heard Annastacia Palaszczuk saying she wants to get on with Adani now. Whats the bet that Matt Canavan gives them a hunk of money to start.
Adrienne Harrow. Thanks for that , the video says it all. Though one set of ‘criminals’ weren’t mentioned, Ch 7, Ch 9 and Peter arsewipe Costello who now controls the SMH and the AGE. Sorry for the crudity !!!
Two years ago i moved my family from Australia to France, believing my young children would get a better education and start in life by not enter the working phase of their lives with a massive student debt. An added bonus for them of learning a 2nd language. It’s hard for me, i miss Oz. But the right call given where Australia is heading now. I do wonder now how it is all going to pan out for ScoMo when the economy tanks, as it is about to. Better hang on people….
Kaye Lee:
It’s worth reading John Quiggin’s take on Adani. The long and short of it is that the mine was and remains uneconomic.
… we have been here before. Most of the approvals[1] needed to begin work were completed in 2016, at a time when both the Queensland and Federal governments were highly supportive (Anna Palaszczuk cut the ribbon at the opening of Adani’s Townsville regional HQ in 2017). At the time, I wrote
In summary, we appear likely to find out what happens when a dog catches the car it has been chasing. Adani and its backers have been denouncing green tape and “lawfare” as the only obstacles to the bonanza they have on offer. Now, the legal and administrative obstacles are gone, so they have only to line up the money, rehire the contractors and announce the starting date. My guess is that this will never happen.
That’s still my guess, three years later. The economics of the scaled down project still don’t stack up, and the problems with finance and contractors are even greater now than in 2016. However, there’s nothing more I can do to influence the outcome, so we will just have to wait and see.
fn1. Obviously, not all of them. But if Adani had wanted to start work in 2016, they could have done so, and, given bipartisan political support, would certainly have found a way to deal with any remaining clearances. In fact, they announced they would be starting work then, and reannounced it in 2017.
Peter Costello also controls the Future Fund.
Total value of Funds (across all six Funds) managed by the Future Fund Board of Guardians now stands at $188bn as at 31 March 2019.
You can bet they start drawing on those to make themselves look better.
Jexpat,
I don’t think they will start unless they get government assistance.
Kaye Lee,
Of course Scummo and company can continue to blame Labor,. Whenever the LNP screws something up badly he’ll find some way to avoid taking the blame and place it in the lap of Labor. Don’t forget they are the reason things are so awful in the first place and only the LNP can save us.
Peter Lewis summed it up on opinion polls. The large number of disengaged and don’t knows, voted for no change. This now we have a Fascist lite gov with a partnership between it and the media to control the message. Dangerous times indeed.
Kronomex, is there anything left that they can blame Labor for?
Kathy the underemployed, unemployed etc are more sustainable to toxic, divisive and fear it is the constant of daily experience fear an empty bread-bin, job insecurity, eat heat or treat and the fear of losing the roof and adding another fear would just push them over the edge. And the media tsars journos patented and perfected the art of toxic, divisive and fear bull horn. Come on does anybody really honestly still believe the media tsar hoovered up print, screen radio sport including for an informed, open, free and fair democracy really, pull the other one. And another thing voters can and vote if fully informed and the information is dolled out by the media tsars, is the democracy of their the who, what how and when the then USA President Woodrow Wilson, “The government which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy” and voters will vote according to the edict of the invisible empire the democracy of trickle down and the rest is history, viscerally angry people ever widening social inequality, disenfranchised and disengaged form the political sphere, unravelling of the social fabric and a people divided against it self well, distrust and contempt for the 4th estate and democratic institutions and truly ready for the messianic Trump and the likes. The rear vision for Australia.
Please recall how then when Australia was on the cusp of being prepared for the 21st century, NBN FTTP, better deal for the natural resource, educating for the 21st century Gonski MK1 etc etc the invisible empire raged to the nth degree against any semblance of a 21st century it was divisive, toxic and the fear barometer at crescendo levels and the voters caved and the rest is history, same play book today and then the voters caved. The then USA President JF Kennedy, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all”, mind voters are not deliberately ignorant they only go on what they being force fed by the invisible empire. If not for organised labour Australia would have been well on the way of the mini USA, Brexect EU etc. at break neck speed.
The LNP will just privatise some/all of the remaining government provided services for a quick cash injection, make some cuts to the ones they can’t, and hey presto, a budget surplus ala Little Johnnies sell-off during his reign of terror. Add in the luck they usually have with global economic conditions and suddenly they falsely look like the magnificent economic managers they think they are.
Ooops apologies meant Kaye Lee
The result maybe a blessing in disguise. The collapse in housing has further to fall and the economy is on shaky ground. Sadly it will all be the LNP,s fault. Though Labor will still get the blame.
“Nobody thinks in terms of human beings.
Governments don’t, why should we? They talk about people and the proletariat;
I talk about the suckers and the mugs.
It’s the same thing.”
– Graham Greene, The Third Man
Adrianne Haddow May 22, 2019 at 3:01 pm
I am sure most people who comment and contribute here contact their local MPs. I was thinking we could work together and persistently send well written and argued letters.
Irrespective of the standard robo-replies. We just keep em going. For the next three years. To keep it simple we concentrate on the most pernicious issues, adding extra when someone does something really repugnant which won’t be long.
That said, I’m not getting the support I was hoping for. All a bit ☹️
But will ask moderator to forward you my email.
Kaye Lee … thank you. I’ve been waiting on your take on the appalling result.
Zathras re the electorate voting against themselves …. exactly! Nailed it.
Diannaart re letter writing … Frydenberg has never once replied to me. Maybe he would if I wrote, “Dearest Joshie, you’re wonderful and I love you ❤❤❤”
Pass the sick bucket.
And I bet the parents running the sausage sizzle at Balwyn Primary school, in the heart of Kooyong, who tried to drum up business by saying the school needs new toilets, also voted for Josh.
I witnessed that because I was there handing out HTV fliers for the Greens. I’d never done anything like it in my life before. Took it on because I was so incensed by the flood of blue monogrammed uniformed footsloggers mustered (or paid) by Josh who all but blocked entry to the local pre-polling venue. On polling day they also seriously outnumbered people handing out fliers for all other candidates combined.
I can’t imagine the poor people of queensland even know that Scomo has abandoned their tax cuts or that electricity prices have risen.
I doubt that many of them knew of the Murray Darling catastrophe or the $80m water buyback that didn’t buy back any water.
They are probably unaware of the dental scheme that labor was proposing, and I am sure they will be ignorant of the new research into coal’s affects on unborn children.
Until there is an effective way to deliver accurate information to queenslanders, scomo will be able to do whatever he likes and snub his nose to the educated and informed.
PS I’ve not heard a word said about the election outside my home – not at work, with friends, in shops. It’s creepy – as if nothing extraordinary happened at all…
not what was expected??? no lib government is ever elected without workers voting for them and almost all liberal governments 1949 to 2019 were elected by scaring workers that labor will ruin the economy and various similar lines of bullshit.
Anyone who knows how a bookie works would have put their money on the libs at 4:1 and doubled the bet at 6:1
As for shorten’s labor, he had 6 years to address the economy lies and ignored every opportunity of taking his concerns to the public. Preferring the safe, quiet corner of the unwatched ABC or the joke of the even less watched question time.
Will Albo succeed? Not if he doesn’t address the ‘truth’, as is believed by society. He would do well to recapture the thrust of his no no no and pick a deputy that is not afraid to kick scummo’s mob in the arse live on sunrise and today.
As for climate change it is too hard to avoid the absolute truth of 100% of science that gives nature as the changer and even harder to explain it. The best and easy to understand danger to our planet is global warming
try this Albo
The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh and India is home to more than 100 million people. Accelerated sea-level rise caused by global warming will give us a lot of refugees
Good news in the early afternoon, when Bowen announced he wouldn’t contest the Labor leadership. Still concerning was that he even considered it – given he was the architect behind some really dumb politically decisions and statements. More encouraging was that some of the political strategists moved quickly to isolate the damage by declaring their allegiances elsewhere.
What about Albo for Leader (best available) and Wong as Deputy Leader (outstanding)?
Thank you Kaye Lee – great article. Can I tell you about my experiences at a polling booth just north of Melbourne, and scrutineering?
The only How to Vote Card available all day was the ALP. More people than usual walked past without even looking to see who it was – with a kind wave of the hand very often. From other years we have learnt that a smart phone is all they need.
When it came to scrutineering (a safe ALP seat) we watched very carefully! Clive Palmer candidates in 2/3rds of the votes had followed their voting intentions; the LNP votes mostly the same; the independent had left the preferences to the voters choice and the Greens went strongly to the ALP. Voters were angry that the LNP were not there with how to vote cards – they even raged with the AEC people in the booth about this! The ALP still gained 64% 2-party preferred, this was down about 2.4%.
Obviously voters were using the phone to vote according to the party! So did they also use the phone to know who they were voting for? Did they use the internet to learn which party they should vote for?
Put all this together – along with the fact that SkyNews and The Australian post their bigoted articles, in great numbers, to facebook. Clive had 3 adverts popping up on my phone AT THE SAME TIME! TRUE! There was so much posted by the LNP about Morrison smiling insincerely at babies and grandmothers, stage managed events for senior retirees from the CWA (sorry CWA!), and groups that were too polite to not smile back and shake his hand – and provide great photo opportunities! They also heard his ‘honest christian’ story — which basically became one lie, followed by another! (Some Christian?) The media story would comment at times with “not true” in brackets – but just get on with the story! Why didn’t the lies make BIG HEADLINES?
This last part is where I believe the most damage was done! The RW media were full on with perpetuating the lies – even the RMIT ABC Fact Check started to call them ‘Zombie Lies’ – they were repeated so often that they couldn’t be stopped! I posted many of the Fact Checker sheets on Facebook – and people with brains ‘shared’ them. But those who would say ‘Oh I don’t know’ – didn’t want to know, and if they did read them, probably they couldn’t understand – or didn’t want to understand! The negative stories, lies, and the RW MSM is where we will have to work – trying to beat them and their lies and one sided reporting!
The last story – as we were leaving the polling booth we ran into a friend and stopped to chat – which lead her to say she couldn’t vote for Bill. Why? Because he was going to open up our borders again! She didn’t want to know that this was not the case, that he was going along with what existed! I wonder how long Medivac will last?
I’m beyond feeling defeated now, I’m fired up – but we need to have plans developed, so for the next 3 years we can work on the problems that will arise due to the LNP not having any policies that will take more than a day and a half to implement! We need to get the disappointed voters and show them how much better we could have been if they had listened to Bill – he won 3 debates FGS!
Hey Judith, I’m a poor person living in Queensland. Pls don’t for second assume to imagine you know what I don’t know about the election outcome & political aftermath… I’m a bit over the fkg holier than thou generalised condemnation. I’m a bloody mess, actually. I’m a mess because I know the whole Coalition shitshow. And btw, I’ve heard plenty of post elec discussion, at the shops, in my street, over the phone. My people are devastated, shocked and saddened
Matters Not,
‘ What about Albo for Leader (best available) and Wong as Deputy Leader (outstanding)?’
Both of them good for any position. I’d add Jim Charmers into the mix….
(I’m afraid though that Oz is not ready for a female with a foreign surname too close to a Leadership…sad…)
Diannaart,
I will try to help by passing on information that might be useful. I also ring and email politicians continually. Most of the Coalition politicians have blocked me from their facebook pages, not because I am ever rude but because they don’t like facts being shared (or lies being exposed). My local member, Lucy Wicks, blocked me about five years ago and has never responded to any of my emails. But we must keep trying.
After an unsuccessful phone call, I sent this email to the Dept of Environment and Energy today.
“Could you please inform me when the next Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory will be published and why there has not been a National Inventory Report published since 2016.”
So disheartened, trying to re motivate myself, listening to friends who voted Liberal telling me Labor wasn’t able to manage the economy no reason why no justification for voting against their own interests a smugness that my team lost politics reduced to a game no wonder I feel down hopefully this feeling will evaporate in time but so hard to keep fighting against the politically unaware
Thank you for speaking up, Rhonda. I have been utterly despondent with this result, (literally in tears for days) and as a Queenslander I find the constant vilification rubs salt into the wound, to put it mildly. I will personally be worse off under the coalition. It makes me feel personally attacked, and this is EXACTLY why Queenslanders vote the way we do. Always told that we are too stupid and rednecky to have a valid opinion. The constant put-downs and insults from my fellow Australians hurt my heart. And I have always voted left. ALWAYS.
Why are you blaming us for the dirty tactics used during this campaign working? None of us ordinary voters were a part of the attack ads and lies, and Queenslanders were not the only Australians to fall for them. When will the time come that we all blame the true culprits instead of one another? BJ was right to do his loathsome gloating – as long as we hit each other instead of scrutinising their corruption – they win. Quexit calls were an utter disgrace.
One in-law from Brisbane has just suggested people to consider Chalmers, other two friends from Queensland (Brisbane) are selling and packing to go back ‘where they came from’…..(Europe)….Sunshine is not enough for them…
tyrannosauruswenz,
I was in Queensland for the election. One of my girlfriends and her daughter worked in Wide Bay, putting up bunting, handing out how to votes and chatting to electors. They copped a lot of abuse and had to stay at the polling booth on Friday night until 1am on Saturday morning to protect their bunting from those who wanted to pull it down. No-one could have been more dedicated than they were.
I also don’t blame those who are concerned about their jobs. We didn’t do a good job of showing that we care about them and that we have a plan to create future employment in the area.
Blame is a waste of time. It’s destructive. We just have to learn how to listen and communicate better. As my husband said to me early on in our marriage when I was on a rant about something insignificant, “Hey, we’re on the same team”.
Kaye Lee May 23, 2019 at 8:22 am
Thank you. I am aware you are a persistent activist. Agree that replies are either not forthcoming or meaningless rhetoric. Being courteous is important, always keep the moral high ground, in spite of deliberate taunts. 🙂
I would appreciate any help you can give. I started this as a thought bubble, I do know I am limited due to disability, but I have to do something constructive, this latest defeat has bitten deeply.
I don’t expect logic or reason from our “representatives”, I do want to remind them regularly, not everyone agrees with minimum government, privatised necessities, business as usual. And when, inevitably, someone really screws up, have something prepared which can be quickly utilised.
Of course, the more people doing this in concert the better, particularly as we are not an formal group, we are from all over Australia, but with common purpose.
I will ask Michael to forward my email details to you.
Diannaart….I’d be only TOO HAPPY to help…perhaps you could get Michael to send me some too?…or perhaps I could write my own…I made the mistake in my last attempt by including Sen’ Abetz’s name where it should have a space for “Whom it may concern”….and I could send it to…oh…say; Michaela Cash….or…Josh Frydenberg…or . . .
dear Rhonda & tyrannosauruswenz. I apologise – I meant to commiserate, not to offend, and to wonder how much information queensland was given on certain issues, and how much it will get from now on. I heard a brisbane person say he hadn’t heard much about bill shorten in the MSM at all during the election. You are fortunate that you have people to debrief and share with. I don’t – I thought I knew the people i work with but apart from wry smiles, guarded looks or downcast faces, i feel very much alone outside my home.
The Dept of Environment and Energy responded to my email very promptly.
“The date of publication of the December 2018 Quarterly Update is a matter for consideration by the Minister, once Cabinet has been sworn in.”
To me, that implies the Minister has been sitting on it.
Also, regarding the National Inventory Report which was due to be submitted to the UN by April 15, “Parties are granted a six week period after 15 April to submit its annual GHG inventory.”
This means it must be submitted by next Monday at the latest but will only detail emissions and removals to 2017.
Labor’s main problem was to fail to connect the current high unemployment, low wages and housing crash in those regions to the current policies of the Coalition, who have been in charge for the last 6 years.
Instead the ALP chose to speak about their own policies rather than trashing those of the coalition – probably because the government had no policies to discuss.
They should also have challenged the constant mantra of Liberal superior economic management at every opportunity, using facts rather than slogans.
There’s a lesson in that for somebody.
Would have voted for Bill, if:-
Pull out of the Climate crap.
Build a coal based Power Station.
Negative gearing the boot.
that’s it for me.
Oh, Kaye, I did.
most of the time, no Politician answers, only the courteouis reply.
Zathras,
I agree. They didn’t even have to get dirty, just factual.
They talked endlessly about reining in tax concessions until everyone thought they would be hit somehow.
They really needed also to highlight the fact that the carbon price brought in $x revenue which was distributed to all of us whilst bringing emissions down.
The Coalition have spent billions of public money but emissions have gone up.
Mark Needham,
May I quote Scott Morrison to you…..
It is “false to think that a new coal-fired power station will generate electricity at the same price as old coal-fired power stations”.
He said existing plants were bidding into the national electricity market at $30 or $40 per megawatt hour while a new high-efficiency plant, which would take several years to build, would be bidding into the system at about $70 or $80.
“So you don’t just open up one down the road and all of a sudden it is producing power at the same price as Bayswater or any of the others,” Morrison said. “That is just not an economic fact.”
Morrison declared the government was not interested in subsidising any source of energy.
“The days of subsidies in energy are over, whether it is for coal, wind, solar, any of them,” the treasurer said.
“That is the way I think you get the best functioning energy market with the lowest possible price for businesses and for households and that is what the national energy guarantee and our energy policies are designed to achieve.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/04/scott-morrison-new-coal-fired-power-station-not-the-answer
Being an overly ambitious ad man, he is now selling you a different story….kinda…provided you don’t care about facts.
Zathras,
‘Instead the ALP chose to speak about their own policies rather than trashing those of the coalition – probably because the government had no policies to discuss.’
The Coalition also kept asking Labor to tell what their policies would cost…My answer would have been: What are YOUR policies and HOW MUCH are they going to cost ?
Goodbye Insiders and hello Rupert –
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/23/david-speers-barrie-cassidy-sky-abc-insiders-host
That pretty well, pardon the swear word, f*cks the ABC completely as The Rupert now asks for the LNP to pay the piper. What’s next on the agenda for the LNP Propagnda TV network? I know, removing Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell because of “bias” although it won’t be couched as such.
The Murdoch will snapping up the soon to be privatised ABC?
helvityni,
Exactly. It goes to show that it doesn’t matter how detailed and prepared you are with policies, once you’re put into a wholly defensive position the best you can hope for is to break even. The average voter seems to want a sideshow rather than informed debate.
They should have spent half their time on the attack and reminding voters that all their problems (low wages, job insecurity, falling house prices, massive waste, potential corruption and an economy in serious decline) were the result of 6 years of Coalition Government and of a Goverment without a plan to address any of those things.
Last time it was all about stopping boats but they seemed to abandon that strategy in favor of photo opportunities and blatantly lying about increased taxes.
It was a wasted opportunity but it won’t take long for people to realise things are now likely to get even worse and baseball caps and excuses are no solution.
Albanese should be relentlessly and continuously attacking them for the next 3 years but also challenging the far right to come up with more than just a list of grievances.
The way that Shorten’s ALP managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is well illustrated by Billy’s antics around a standing independent federal anti-corruption commission.
This is an idea with overwhelming popular support; according to polls over 85% of Australians support the idea.
Despite both the clear public support and the blatantly evident need for tighter oversight, Labor did not pick up the ball and run.
Instead, Shorten first denied the need, then dithered and waffled around the subject for a few years.
Eventually, bowing to pressure, Labor announced plans for an anti-corruption commission (sort of).
The raw term ‘anti-corruption’ was replaced with the fluffy patois of ‘integrity’ (a none-too subtle rejection of the existence of malfeasance), and the plan was unveiled as a vague election promise, rather than an immediate policy ambition.
The ALP’s weak and vague Fabian strategy around the issue of corruption continued even after the coalition lost control of the HoR, with a few Lib-Nat ICAC deniers replaced by defectors and independents who made clear statements supporting the formation of such an investigatory watchdog.
The coalition were thus able to respond to the ALP election promise with a diluted counter-proposal of their own, couched in a variation on the same warm and fuzzy lingo; National Integrity Commission vs Commonwealth Integrity Commission; can you tell the difference?
Thus, the obvious issue of corruption in political conduct, despite being blatantly manifested in so many coalition actions (eg opaque political donations, croney contracts, facilitated water theft etc etc), was an issue where Shorten’s Labor, through an entrenched addiction to self-interest and shifty politicking, self-sabotaged an easy opportunity to exploit overwhelming public support for patently necessary political reform.
Basic politics; having an unpopular leader who shies away from popular policy is not a particularly effective electoral formula.
I have commented about this earlier, the voters are #1 greedy, stupid, ignorant, unable to concentrate or analyse any subject for more than 1 minute,(hurts their brain), are attracted to hoopla, aggressive behaviour, love watching blood sports,(which is why Rugby league is so popular), and equate every real life situation based on who shouts the loudest, who exhibits greater aggression, who panders to sectional religious interests and feeds on their prejudices eg. SSM, religious persecution, who consistently lies through his teeth and makes it sound like a joke, who is openly hypocritical and doesn’t care if he is judged as being so, because he’s got his back covered by the entire MSM, crooked journos, rich patrons and above all, a populace that totally unable to see where they are being conned.
Is there any hope for such a population ?????
Not enough people wanted to care about their neighbour, their country, their planet. Too many people just thought about their own backyard, their own job, their own ban account.
And too many believed Scomo when he told them it was all going to be wonderful.
It isn’t.
I write to my own MP regularly. Not enough if us ever do that.
kronomex
i agree – absolutely horrifying – bang goes any pretense of fair and unbiased
speers is no longer a journalist, he has followed the muckraking line without hesitation – he did apparently pull the one eyed brain dead bogan paul myway up once so maybe that showed his fairness – what rubbish !!
i found insiders mildly lnp biased with the occasional truths, scared to question lnp but going full bore against alp – i dread to think how bad it’s now going to be now – at least henderson can’t gloat he got son in law into gilmore (the only good result of the whole disasterous weekend), i suppose the end of abbott was due but i would rather have seen the end of dutton
well goodbye to insiders and goodbye to ipabc – i’m done
i am absolutely numb with the return of coalition – i cannot see how they can blame labor when the economy crashes down around their ears – how can you cut the public service when the number of people they are supposedly serving are increasing?
ndis – dud, nbn – dud, centrelink – dud, banking royal commission – under the carpet, murray river rort – under the carpet, icac – gone
christian fundmentalist messiah – rapture
Kaye,
I love your knowledge and passion. Unfortunately not enough people hear your words and for many they would disregard them anyway.
For the progressive parties to win public support they need to speak loudly about the right’s shortcomings.
As an aside… my facebook page was dominated by RW lies for the course of the leadup to the election and not one pro labor/Greens was to be seen.