Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi #7

[Axver]

This is why I'm not afraid of Pauline Hanson. She's so cartoonishly shit. Does she have true believers? Sure, course she does. But not enough to storm the Bastille, I fear.

My mum lives in a small rural town near Port Macquarie and reckons that the majority of people she speaks to either voted Pauline in 2016 or are so mad at Turnbull that they will at the next election.

This is why I do not live in rural areas.

 

[Axver]

THE DEPUTY LEADER OF THE NATlONALS HAS REFERRED HERSELF TO THE HIGH COURT BECAUSE SHE THINKS SHE'S A BRITISH DUAL CITIZEN OH MY GODDDD WHERE WILL THIS END.

 

[Kieran McConville]

My mum lives in a small rural town near Port Macquarie and reckons that the majority of people she speaks to either voted Pauline in 2016 or are so mad at Turnbull that they will at the next election.

This is why I do not live in rural areas.

Meh. There's opportunity there, if someone were prepared to put in the legwork. As you noted, these - anecdotal - acquaintances are mad with Turnbull.

 

[Kieran McConville]

So, in unrelated news, it's still winter. Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in.

 

[cobl04]

I'm in Sydney and it's real nice. City's a fucking shithole of course but the weather in Melbs over the past few weeks has been atrocious.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Well here it's just cold. Oh, it fools you a little, for a day or two, but then it turns cold again. Sunday night I had two doonas and a blanket on top of which I was fully clothed in heavy pyjamas, and i still never really warmed up. Or maybe that was Saturday night. It all bleeds into one at this point.

We had a bit of this last year too. Owing to certain peculiarities, the exact piece of the world where I am sitting received recurring waves of what can only be called wintery weather well into October and even November of last year. This is a problem, because in winter all the skin on my face starts flaking and peeling like I'm in the late stages of radiation poisoning.

 

[Axver]

I'm so fucking happy to be in Melbourne tonight I can't even describe.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I'm in Sydney and it's real nice. City's a fucking shithole of course but the weather in Melbs over the past few weeks has been atrocious.

Do tell... why is it everyone thinks cities within their own country are total shitholes? [emoji23]

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Sydney smells and every house costs at least $1 million to buy.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I don't think my own city is a total shithole. It's quite a pretty town in parts, and the bracing mountain climate is a relief during much of spring and summer, compared to the surrounding lowlands, let alone the long coastal plain that effectively starts at Withcott.

That said, winter grinds my ass.

 

[kabigon]

In winter I look forward to summer, and during a heatwave in summer I look forward to a little bit of winter.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Yeah well, that I could have added, in different words. There are probably three weeks out of the whole year where I'm really, actually, comfortable.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Sydney smells and every house costs at least $1 million to buy.

Sounds like NYC.

 

[Axver]

Well fuck me the High Court has permitted the executive to defy the will of the legislature and run this joke of a marriage equality postal survey.

It's like they don't understand the separation of powers or ministerial responsibility to parliament. Fucking hell.

 

[intedomine]

A lot of the damage has already been done, with regards to the alienation of homosexuals as part of the NO campaigning, so let's just get this YES vote in.

It surely can't fail.

 

[Kieran McConville]

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...iage-change-in-australia-only-comes-with-pain

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Bloody hell, NZ.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...reasons-to-be-cheerful-despite-jacinda-effect

“He has got the experience, and I think there is no way I would vote for Labour at the moment, she [Ardern] may be quite a nice little lady but she’s got no experience behind her,” says Gillies.



“There will always be people that are sleeping in cars, poverty is there for ever, but he has done a lot. Poverty has got worse, of course, but he’s done a lot … it doesn’t matter who gets in; they’ll still have the same problem.”

"He's done good despite all these things getting worse but I'll still vote for him because I'm shit-scared of change."

 

[Axver]

It's going to be close. The polls have been pretty volatile, but it's increasingly apparent that New Zealand First, ugh, will determine who forms government - or, perhaps more to the point, the determining factor is whichever party is willing to swallow their pride (and bile) to give Winston whatever stupid thing he asks for.

The frustrating part is that National have been straight-up lying about Labour's proposed water tax (it's not going to have even a hundredth of the negative financial hit on farmers that the Nats claim) and about there being a hole in their budget (literally no reputable economist agrees with the Nats' analysis), among other things, but they just have not been held to account.

On the other hand, advance voting has been massive. So even if opinion is swinging a little back to Bill English right now, we've already had over 40% of votes cast.

My gut suspicion is that this is the victory before the victory - to take the Australian version, 1969 rather than 1972. Jacinda will form government in 2020. But I'm hoping that Labour and the Greens can persuade the Māori Party to change their support and that those three poll well enough to form government without needing Winston. One key point - and another one that the Nats lied about, without being held to account - is that the party with the most seats in parliament is given no special allowance to try to form government first. The Nats probably will be the largest party, but Labour have an equal right to attempt to form a grouping of parties that enjoys confidence and supply.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I think there's quite a few victories-before-the-victories going around in the anglosphere world these days (we'll set America to one side).

Australia 2016
Britain 2017
maybe New Zealand 2017

A lot of things could look very different in a few years' time. They'd bloody well want to, because this entire decade, the 2010s, is essentially a writeoff.

 

[coolian2]

Voted, but due to our funny laws I can't say who I voted for.

 

[Axver]

Voted, but due to our funny laws I can't say who I voted for.

Well played.

It's good to be outside New Zealand today, so that I can tell everyone in the country to vote, and vote Labour or Green. Preferably Green, but as long as they crack the 5% threshold the outcome's roughly the same either way.

 

[coolian2]

My electorate vote was different but I doubt it will make a difference in Northcote

 

[Axver]

Yeah, I always vote Labour electorate and Green list. I'd like to vote Green for Mana, especially since Jan Logie is my local Green candidate, but we all know it's a two-horse race and I need to cancel out my father's National vote (though I suspect he didn't vote Nat in 2014 and might not this year either, he sounded more aligned with Jacinda than Bill when we last spoke).

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Voted, but due to our funny laws I can't say who I voted for.

Are you worried?

 

[Axver]

He's not a famous sportsperson so he's probably fine. But last time three sportspeople got in trouble for posting on social media who they voted for before polls closed!

 

[Kieran McConville]

I thought that just meant he didn't know who he voted for.

Like 'I can't say if I like Evil Dead II'.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

The "Straight Lives Matter" protest in Sydney had an attendance of about 10 people today. Outnumbered by their PA equipment.

 

[Axver]

The "Straight Lives Matter" protest in Sydney had an attendance of about 10 people today. Outnumbered by their PA equipment.

New Zealand election isn't looking flash, definitely not as flash as I hoped. Labour has recovered a very good proportion of the vote, but the National vote has held up strongly. I'm afraid they will be able to cobble together a government. But if they get less than 57 seats (or various complicated permutations involving overhangs) then Winston Peters and New Zealand First get to play kingmakers. And if that happens... god, who knows what he'll want.

And the Māori Party might be gone, wow.

 

[coolian2]

Well I'm going to kill myself now.

 

[Axver]

I can't believe this. Who the hell is voting for National in these numbers? How the fuck do they have ~57 seats? I just don't get it. The tragedy is that it seems most of the vote for Jacinda has come from the Greens - and, more pleasingly, from NZ First(?!?) - than from the Nats.

But with the Māori Party possibly gone, even 58 isn't enough without Winnie.

But FUCK. What the hell. WHAT THE HELL.