There are two main parties in Australia, Labor and Liberal. The Liberal party is somewhat similar to our Democratic party....though in Australia the Liberal party is the conservative party. And as the conservative party, they stuck with the stereotype and chose a twat to be their Prime Minister candidate (Tony Abbott).
The biggest difference I've learned tonight is the way they decide which party is in power. I was under the misconception that they voted for their Prime Minister (PM) the same way we vote for President. And based on who won that election, their party would seize power of the government. What actually happens is that voters vote for their local Member of Parliament (MP) (Congress person) and which ever party wins the majority of seats seizes power of government. So, even though Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, the two up for PM have been the only two people campaigning, most voters don't actually vote for them. (Some do, as they are MPs in their own districts, so if they don't win the PM spot, they will still be in Parliament.) The poor politics part in my opinion is that the MPs, which are the people you actually vote for don't really campaign at all and assume that people will vote for them because of their party affiliation. Which may be why independents and greens are becoming so popular....
This was a special election. Kevin Rudd (Labor Party) was the PM 2 months ago. The party held a political coup and ousted Kevin Rudd and made Julia Gillard PM. It was VERY fast, literally happened over night. Kevin Rudd proposed taxing the mining industry, which is Australia's largest industry. This created a huge uproar and Labor started losing popularity. So Labor decided Kevin was out, and Julia was in. Julia then called the election early (would have been early next year) so she could actually win her seat.
The early election seems to have backfired on Labor. The Labor party has lost more seats than they expected and Australia is now facing a hung parliament. Watching the election results tonight feels very much like watching election results in the US in 2004. They won't know until at least tomorrow, and maybe later, who actually holds the majority of seats. Adding folly to the situation, 4 seats have been won by parties other than Labor or Liberal. The Greens (the largest independent party) historically won a seat in Melbourne, and three other independent candidates won seats, taking away from the main parties. The winning party needs 76 seats to claim the majority, at the moment Labor has 70, Liberal has 71, Independents 4, and 5 seats undecided. Which means, at this point, it is impossible for Labor to win the election. The best they can hope for is a hung parliament. Labor will have to take all 5 seats to win the majority. Innnnteresting.
There is a different sense of tension then what I'm used to from working in politics in the States. Because Labor and Liberal are quite similar, there isn't a sense that the country's going to hell in a hand basket if the opposing candidate wins. Or at least thats how I sense it. Aussie's might feel differently. It does definitely seem like you're choosing the less of two evils though. Julia Gillard does not inspire a lot of confidence in voters, but Tony Abbott is a bit scary. Tony's main running point is "the boat people." Aussie's hate folks that come over on boats...i.e. refugees. Australia's refugees are very similar to the US's illegal immigrant population. While its a serious issue and Australia needs to make sure that they aren't being taken advantage of by people smugglers...Tony Abbott and everyone who hates "boat people" just sound racist. (similar to how people who hate all Mexicans because they may be illegal just sound racist). Abbott's other running point was to end 'wasteful spending' of the Labor party. It sounds a lot like conservatives saying they're "fiscally responsible" but in Australia's case, the Liberal party wants to only guarantee mothers 6 months paid maternity leave instead of a year, and there is absolutely no talk of scaling back their healthcare system. So yea, Tony Abbott may not be the best choice for Australia but it doesn't seem like a whole lot will change now that he's in.
UPDATE: Its been a few days since the election....and still no result! It turns out though that the independents have to choose a party to join. If Julia gets them, Labor wins power. If Tony wins, Liberal wins. So Julia and Tony are courting the independents and throwing money and whatever they want at them to get them on their side. I have a problem with this system. If I voted for an independent I wouldn't want to them to have to commit to a party, they're independent of parties... The other problem is that they are throwing money at them...way too much power for three MPs to have.
Interesting points
- Australians are required to vote. By law. As someone pointed out to me...that kinda goes against everything that democracy stands for...
- Politicians are about 10 years behind on campaign strategy. I saw Julia's speech before the election and she said Tony Abbott oh more times than I could count.
- Australian election season is 5 weeks long. (this one was at least, but Im pretty sure a regular election season would only be about 2 months)
- All elections are held on Saturdays
I don't know how i missed this post! Yikes forcing someone who doesn't know or care about politics??!! That's a recipe for disaster!
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