Sunday, November 30, 2014

Local news - conservatives lose out, Greens gain in Victoria


Tides turn. We've just had state elections today.

It's no surprise that the Labor Party was elected back in after the conservatives, the Liberals in coalition with the Nationals, had been governing my home state of Victoria for a while. The Victorian Liberals aren't the same as the Federal Liberal Party - they are much less conservative here. However they had their problems and it was predicted they'd miss out today. Which they did.

A lot of the credit can probably go to our dismal Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, even though this is a state, not a federal election. The interesting bits was the election of a Greens candidate to the seat of Melbourne. It's the first time a Greens candidate has been elected to the Lower House. And there could be more, but it's too close to call just yet. The other interesting result was the likely loss of a rural seat (Shepparton) from the conservative party, the Nationals. The swing against the Nationals in that seat is currently sitting at 32.5% - which is massive. It's not unlike what happened in my electorate of Indi in the Federal election, when Cathy McGowan was elected.

State elections are not really anything to get too excited about.  What the result does show is that pendulums swing. And governments can't count on conservative voters. The Federal government should be getting a bit nervous, as should the conservative government in Queensland, which from what I read is not very popular either.

1 comment:

  1. FORMER Victorian premier Jeff Kennett unloaded on the Abbott Government last night as a “shambles’’, admitting it was major factor in the defeat of the Napthine government.

    Sunday Telegraph: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/victorian-election-former-premier-jeff-kennett-blames-abbott-shambles-after-wipeout/story-fnii5s40-1227139589183

    'Shambles' is about right, but let's not forget 'bunch of comic-opera science-denying pseudo-Tea-Party extremist buffoons.' They deserve to go down more than Napthine did, and they consequently deserve to go down harder than Napthine did.

    Newman's cut from the same cloth as the feds, and one can only hope he'll be dealt with accordingly. More rational Libs - the ones that actually resemble 'conservatives' if the word means anything anymore - have a real problem; their national leader is the Greens' and Labor's greatest asset.

    ReplyDelete

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