elections, hopefully final one for a bit!

[hnpcc]

So apparently we have a minority government, with the ALP scraping in with 72 seats outright, 1 Green, and three Independents compared to the Coalition's 72 seats outright, 1 nominally WA Liberal-but-wants-to-be-Independent and Bob Katter.

Which means there's 76 declared ALP versus 74 declared Liberal. Well I suppose it could have been closer, but not by much. I mean one less to the ALP and we'd be back to the polls again... so I'm grateful for that small mercy at least!

That of course leaves the question of who they'll make Speaker, which could leave a 75-74 margin, which again - close.

I'm currently involved in an online discussion which has nominated Bob Katter for Speaker, providing he performs the duties while dressed as a banana. This would have the added benefit of focusing attention on Parliament and on Queensland banana prices. Oh and high visibility in case of emergency.

Still, it'll be interesting to see how this one goes. So far I've seen opinions ranging from "won't last 6 months" to "will stagger on for three years". Hard to say actually, I'm somewhere in the middle. I think there's going to be a lot of negotiations happening to get anything done. Worst case scenario of course is that we move into a period of Italian-like governance, with collapsing coalitions being the order of the day. (Worst case in the sense of anything being done, not in the entertainment sense.)

Still. 11 days with a caretaker government and nothing fell to bits that we know of. No rioting in the streets, no hiding in houses. I'm grateful to live where I do.

Now I just have to get through this year's state election... *sigh*

Comments

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

In a strange way Bob Katte would make an awesome speaker, though I doubt they'd get much work done once he started talking and laughing!

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

What's the feel in Melbourne, sick of the ALP too?

[hnpcc]

Victoria has a fairly major swing to the Greens, so I'd say yeah. Part of that is probably due to state issues, part is due to the fantastically bad campaign the ALP ran. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the state election due November - I'm currently predicting they'll lose formerly safe seats to the Greens. But who knows - it's the Libs election to lose, and they've shown previously that they're perfectly capable of doing that.

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

Who is the Liberal leader in Vic? Is he more appealing that Brumby who looks a bit old and tired?