(no subject)

[hnpcc]

Another bloody election.

Why the bastards couldn't have left it until it was due (some time next year) I don't know.

But no. We have an election on Nov 30th, which means that all we're going to get for the next 3 weeks is politics, politics, politics.

And the saddest thing? I don't care who wins this one. Both major parties are almost indistinguishable. Neither are mentioning train lines to Monash. One is led by a Jeff wannabee. One is led by someone no one can remember the name of offhand. The Dems are in disarray, still. I think the Greens may clean up a few seats this time...

The other reason it irritates me is that I live in one of the safest Labour seats in the state. The last time either our federal or state seats changed was after Bob Hawke resigned as PM, and then it went to a pro-Labour independent. (Labour promptly spent $80,000 at the next election to unseat him, and lost all of Queensland and the election.)

The only time I hear from my MP is three weeks before an election. The rest of the three years he may as well be conga dancing for all I know. (Actually the only other time I did hear about him was when the Hun did a report on upgrades MPs had had done to their govt-provided cars. He came in most expensive - those mags are not cheap. Given that he lives near me and absolutely no one has any idea what he looks like when it's not an election time you think he could take the tram to work...)

I don't want the Liberals back in. I don't want Labour back in. I don't want the Democrats back in until they stop acting like the other two major parties. The Nationals are as relevant as the Democrats. The Greens, Shooters, Oms, and the other so small they're not even minor parties would be fun but probably not that practical.

All I want is a government that can operate by consensus agreement rather than bickering, that can avoid party lines and factional politics and general just arseholedness in parliament.

And that will build me a bloody train line to Monash.

For the first time ever I'm considering donkey voting. *sigh*

Comments

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

Donkey voting?

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Voting for donkeys. Clearly.

Well, maybe not.

[gamemaker.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'm wondering too.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

I, too, am mystified.

Is it something to do with getting round compulsory voting? Can one write in candidates? Draw a picture of a donkey on the ballot?

[gamemaker.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the voter pretends they are a donkey, whereupon they fly into a panic in the confines of the voting booth, kicking it into splinters before charging out of the building, braying loudly.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

I think I've sussed it.

From what I understand, people in Australia are forced to vote by law. So even if they don't want to vote for anyone, they still have to vote.

Therefore, if they don't give a toss about who gets in, 'donkey voting' could be voting in a 'pin the tail on the donkey' fashion by randomly jabbing the pen at the paper and voting for whichever candidate it hits.

[damienw]

Draw a picture of a donkey on the ballot?
This is, in fact, correct.

Spoiling or simply failing to mark one's ballot is a time-honoured
way of showing dissent at the (compulsory to turn up) Australian
elections. Note that voting, pe se, is not required.

But explaining clearly to people how to not vote, or encouraging
them to so do, has gotten people into trouble in the past.

I don't know about the status of write-in candidates; I think
generally this doesn't exist.

However personally satisfying donkey voting may be, I think it bespeaks
a certain lack of engagement with the political process, other than
"you all suck". (Hare-Clark voting, with all candidates listed as "last",
(or "first") is equivalent.) But were I voting in an Australian
election, I would be hard-pressed to make a principled choice.

Sigh.

[hnpcc]

What he said.

I really liked the "Put the Bastards last" method of voting (Albert Langer?) but they've made that illegal now... *sigh*

And yeah, I probably won't donkey vote - but it depends on what friggin' candidates we get here this time. If it's one each of the two majors, buggerit, I'm putting them both last.

Unless I get someone from One Notion to put last instead. But that's a bit unlikely in my electorate, unless they want to get lynched outside the polling booths...

Write in candidates is considered spoiling the ballot (I was so suprised to learn that you really could do this in the US - one of many things I learnt over there during the 2000 election) otherwise I'm sure someone would do it.

Mostly I just wish the election was in Feb. Bah, humbug.

On the up side at least the politicians are talking about public transport. They won't do anything about it, but it does at least make a change from the bloody Scoresby Freeway. *sigh*

It's worse than the local elections a couple of years ago. We had two candidates, one of whom was the "official" Labour candidate, and one of whom was a "pro-labour independent". Both were of Greek background, both had full bushy beards and both were for the same things. I have no idea who I shook the hand of at the polling station, who I voted for or who won. Made little difference...

[hnpcc]

Up until reading these comments I honestly thought that 'donkey voting' was a UK slang term as well as an Australian one.

The things you find out purely by accident... :-)

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Have you read Bruce Gillespie's Train In the Distance? If not there's a version here http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8720/trains.htm though it doesn't have the neat map Bruce included when he published it in one or other of his fanzines. I assume he pinched that from The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne which in itself sounds like an interesting read.

I know where you're coming from in regards to local politics. These days I vote for the Greens whenever possible.

[hnpcc]

Interesting.

Had a few disagreements with bits of it though especially:

At one stage there was going to be a line from Huntingdale Station to Monash University (demolishing how many millions of dollars' worth of factories and houses?)

None. Run it down the middle of Huntingdale Rd. There's enough space, believe me. :-) It might bugger up some of the right turning lanes, but hey, who cares... ;-) Failing that you could always run an ariel line at places as in Chicago. I dunno. Paris and London and most European captials were founded long before trains and they still manage a system that works mostly. Melbourne, which was founded with trains, still manages to bugger it up. Argh.

And I still think an outer suburban line could be profitable - although it would be built over the bus companies dead bodies. But then again they only provide the bare minimum of required services and then bugger off for the night so screw them.

And the election continues. *sigh* I'm now ignoring about 4 pages per day in the papers (who cares?), turning the TV off (there's only Survivor, Dark Angel and 24 that I'm watching on the commercials anyway) and not listening to the radio (it helps that my car radio is broken).

I'm still getting lots of flyers by mail though. *sigh*

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Well the election is over and done and gone with a result that I find rather amusing though it's not a good one from your point of view. With such a large majority the government won't feel the need to shift itself to work very hard at all.

[hnpcc]

Yeah it's a bit like that. Talk about one party totally failing to provide any believable alternative and another failing to convince anyone that they weren't a one-issue party. *sigh*

Still, on the bright side, at least I don't have to frantically find the remote every 20 mins to avoid political advertising.. :-)

And there's a new one-issue party, called public transport first. (www.ptu-first.org I think). I went for them on the grounds that they might provide a train line... ;-)

And of course, because my MP got 14,476 first preference votes, and the next person down got 6,108. Yeah, my vote so counts.. :-) take your fun where you can I guess!

And I meant North/Wellington Rd, not Huntingdale. Oops.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

The worst of it the government has control of the upper house as well this time around. If people want something like more public transport put on the agenda I think the upper house is the best option. Especially if the Greens get proportional representation in the upper house. I see the Liberals are against this which shows how much sense it makes.