6 - # of Straya threads or # of times we've changed Prime Minister in a decade?

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It's just a shame we won't have a Senator-Online lower house rep in the mix for fun. They wouldn't decide who they'd grant supply unless their fucking app turned in a super-majority to tell them what to think.
 
Yep. I expect that if there is a hung parliament the majority of minors/indies will go with the incumbent as in 2010, but who knows. You can guarantee the Greens, 1-3 of them, will support the ALP, and that Katter will support the Libs. I would be incredibly surprised if Wilkie didn't support the ALP but he'll play hardball in negotiations and drive me up the wall. NXT is a completely unknown quantity and will probably stump for whoever gives SA the most dosh. Would Oakeshott and Windsor dare to repeat their decision of 2010, and would McGowan dare to replicate it?

The blocs I see are Green/Wilkie on the left, or Wilkie/NXT on a no pokies platform, and Oakeshott/Windsor/McGowan as moderate rural indies. Katter, of course, is in a loopy class of his own. I always got the impression Windsor thought him as big a fool as Abbott.

It's hard to say with regard to Windsor and Oakeshott, but the former at least was palpable in his contempt for Tony Abbott, and I saw limited suggestions that feeling did not extend to the present Coalition generally. Also if you're running against Barnaby Joyce, you're pretty much implicitly running against the government, and maybe even vindicating the calls you made in the past.

Oakeshott would maybe just go with the safe choice.

Wilkie is a downright crank but his hatred for the Coalition after the Iraq War, the rise of the national security state and so much else seems to pre-determine the outcome if it came to it.

If Katter had any guts at all, he'd put his anti-free-market talk with Labor and let the chips fall where they may. As it is, Ian Macca On A Sunday Morning would be about as unpredictable in the end.
 
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This is a real independent candidate for the Senate in Victoria: http://www.glennfloyd.org/

Just wait until you get to the bit about psychiatrists. You can see why the guy doesn't have the backing of any party.

I can't stop laughing.
 
It's just a shame we won't have a Senator-Online lower house rep in the mix for fun. They wouldn't decide who they'd grant supply unless their fucking app turned in a super-majority to tell them what to think.

:lol:

It's hard to say with regard to Windsor and Oakeshott, but the former at least was palpable in his contempt for Tony Abbott, and I saw limited suggestions that feeling did not extend to the present Coalition generally. Also if you're running against Barnaby Joyce, you're pretty much implicitly running against the government, and maybe even vindicating the calls you made in the past.

Oakeshott would maybe just go with the safe choice.

Wilkie is a downright crank but his hatred for the Coalition after the Iraq War, the rise of the national security state and so much else seems to pre-determine the outcome if it came to it.

If Katter had any guts at all, he'd put his anti-free-market talk with Labor and let the chips fall where they may. As it is, Ian Macca On A Sunday Morning would be about as unpredictable in the end.

I don't know about Windsor. Sure he thinks Barnaby is a spud, but I imagine he could work with Turnbull. I'd be cautiously optimistic he would give supply to the ALP again but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

I recall Wilkie stringing the ALP along for ages, and I think he is seriously pissed that Gillard then reneged on the anti-pokies legislation she promised him. If he's feeling spiteful he's the sort of MP who would grant the Coalition supply to "teach the ALP a lesson". But boy do his constituents seem to love him.
 
:lol:



I don't know about Windsor. Sure he thinks Barnaby is a spud, but I imagine he could work with Turnbull. I'd be cautiously optimistic he would give supply to the ALP again but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

I recall Wilkie stringing the ALP along for ages, and I think he is seriously pissed that Gillard then reneged on the anti-pokies legislation she promised him. If he's feeling spiteful he's the sort of MP who would grant the Coalition supply to "teach the ALP a lesson". But boy do his constituents seem to love him.

Fair points about Windsor; although remember he's been pretty big on the NBN and it would be... well, polite to say that the Coalition governnment has not handled it brilliantly.

I can't see Wilkie supporting the Coalition. Threatening to, yes. But outside of the pokies (and seriously, the Coalition is going to give him anything worth shit?), there are too many divergences of values and agendas.
 
you are all EDUCATED STUPID ADULTS, FOUR CORNERED CUBIC DAY IS ONLY TRUTH
NAZIS KILLED 6 BILLION, PIG TEACHERS KILL 6 TRRRILLION
 
I actually don't know what you're referring to there, Kieran.
 
look up 'time cube' on Wikipedia. That will explain it all. It is/was a long running crank webpage by some guy called Gene Ray, concerning his incomprehensible theory of a four cornered Earth day. Then look at timecube.com if it still exists, and you'll get it. (the point is, the multi-coloured and multi-sized fonts, the huge text blocks, the rants, the all caps, the threats, it resembles that senate candidate website).
 
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Oh my god why did I not know about Time Cube sooner?! How on earth did I ever miss this?

I'm reminded of the ultimate fundie website, jesus-is-lord.com, which still exists with its massive walls of text. Holy shit somebody has put a lot of time into their super marginal, super judgemental, fire and brimstone theology.
 
Oh my god why did I not know about Time Cube sooner?! How on earth did I ever miss this?

I'm reminded of the ultimate fundie website, jesus-is-lord.com, which still exists with its massive walls of text. Holy shit somebody has put a lot of time into their super marginal, super judgemental, fire and brimstone theology.

Time Cube also inspired a host of parody sites including 'The Learning Triangle'.
 
Ax is there anywhere in Wills that will definitely have a sausage sizzle going?


I always vote at Brunswick SW primary school on Sth Daly and they do sausage sizzles. It's probably the closest polling station to you too.
 
Hahaha I have family in Kaitangata.

I've only been there once as a kid and don't really remember it. But it has a history as a). a coal mining town and b). a dump.
 
Also, the meaning of Kaitangata is unclear but it could suggest a totally dark past. "Kai" means food and "tangata" means people. So is it a name that commemorates a lot of people having a feast... or a cannibal feast?

Both interpretations are valid.
 
I like that column, and it reminded me of a similar(ish) but far more wide-ranging bit by John Quiggin the other day that I ummed and ahhed about linking to. Imagine posting this in FYM:

John Quiggin » Reaping the whirlwind

If you don't try to grapple with the bigger picture, you're (as in people generally) always just reacting to events. OMG look what happened! Oh there's something else! OMG! History, just one damn thing after another, except not quite.

I don't know how the Guardian tolerate Jeff Sparrow, he's reallly not fitting in with the house style there.
 
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I was relying on you to do a bit of a takedown, Kieran, so that Vlad doesn't think I'm any more of a closet Tory than he already does. I thought it was rather a jumble of ideas and below Sparrow's usual quality.
 
Oh I'm not wedded to Sparrow's column, it's not the word of God, it mostly just echoed themes I've been seeing elsewhere (and probably spelled out better elsewhere).
 
I don't know how the Guardian tolerate Jeff Sparrow, he's reallly not fitting in with the house style there.

He's completely unsuited to the UK/International side of The Guardian, but still fits not too badly within the Australian section.

I was relying on you to do a bit of a takedown, Kieran, so that Vlad doesn't think I'm any more of a closet Tory than he already does. I thought it was rather a jumble of ideas and below Sparrow's usual quality.

Yeah, I understand that, and I get where you're coming from - but it's of a higher standard than much of what you get there.

I don't think you're a closet Tory at all, by the way, and that would come with the assumption that I think Greens voters are closet Tories. Besides, FYM seems to be full of aforementioned closet Tories anyway.

Oh I'm not wedded to Sparrow's column, it's not the word of God, it mostly just echoed themes I've been seeing elsewhere (and probably spelled out better elsewhere).

I'm pretty certain a much more indepth piece would have worked more effectively, as looking back it does feel that it's been compressed somewhat.
 
I've finally finished my party reviews. What a marathon. Blatantly Partisan Party Reviews, Index to the Blatantly Partisan Party Reviews,...

I don't think you're a closet Tory at all, by the way, and that would come with the assumption that I think Greens voters are closet Tories. Besides, FYM seems to be full of aforementioned closet Tories anyway.

Heh, it was a tongue-in-cheek comment - though there are a couple of people at work who kind of do think I'm a closet Tory. I even have a bet with one guy that if I'm a Liberal voter in twenty years I owe him a slab of beer, and if I'm not he owes me the slab. I don't even know how anybody could think that I am a closet Tory, unless you define it as "likes representative parliamentary democracy and big government"! My economic views are about as left-wing as they come while still accommodating a free market that complements the state, and my social views are straight-up social liberal or "progressive". I suppose, though, for those who define "left wing" as having some active identification with the working class, as some hardcore Labourites do, I fail that test.
 
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