Australians come to their senses – March 24th will be remembered as the day they collectively said “we’re tired of this sh**” Commenter “truthseeker” writes in comments:
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Anthony,
You may want to refer to Jo Nova’s latest post about the results of a state election down under.
Now for all of you nice people from the USA who may not think state elections are that big a deal if you do not live in that state, please remember that we only have 6 states and 2 territories, not 50 like you guys. We just had an election in Queensland, one of our most economically important states, especially for mineral wealth representing about a quarter of the population. Before the election the Labour (think Democrat) held a small majority in the 89 seat Lower House (House of Representatives).
With over 70% of the vote counted, the results are;
Liberal / National Party coalition (think Republicans – sort of) – 78 seats
Labour (think Democrat) – 7 seats
KAP (new party – think TEA party with less logic and more strangeness) – 2 seats
Independents – 2 seats.
A mini-van will have more seats than the previously incumbent Labour party in the new parliament.
I have one word for this … OUCH!
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Jo Nova writes:
Those devastating Queensland Election Results: Voters hate lies and the Carbon Tax
UPDATE: Is this a record? Has there ever been a loss this bad in Australian history? Conservatives likely to win 74 seats of an 89 seat parliament.
Labor was reduced to only 11 seats in 1974, and on latest counting tonight appeared set to retain only nine seats. Some analysts put the figure even lower, at seven. This would mean Labor falling short of official party status and relying on the incoming LNP government to grant it party offices, staff and resources. The Queensland Greens failed to win a seat and suffered a fall in support. [The Australian]
This is thread for all those who want to comment on this election. According to Bolt, things are not just bad, they’re seriously awful for the Labor Party. Newspoll says LNP (conservatives) 55%, Labor 26%. Channel Nines polls says Labor could be left with less than 10 seats!
The ABC’s election predictor at 8:26 has LNP on 67 seats, Labor on four, others five, doubtful 15. Absolutely catastrophic for Labor. The current leader of the Labor Party in Queensland is Anna Bligh facing a 13% swing against her, and will need preferences just to stay in Parliament.
March 24, 2012, will be remembered as the day the electorate delivered a decisive, devastating blow to an incumbent Labor government. Courier Mail
For non-Australians, Australia has seven states (technically 5 states and 2 territories), and in 2007 all the States and the Federal Government were Labor. Currently Liberal (meaning conservative) governments have won NSW, WA, and Vic and now look like taking a landslide in Queensland. These are the four largest states.
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Andrew Bolt has this update:
Queensland election – and why it spells death to Gillard
Andrew Bolt March 24 2012 (5:52pm)
Here is the bottom line from the rout of Labor in today’s Queensland election – the line that spells doom for Julia Gillard, too.
Premier Anna Bligh, 2008:
I will not kick (Queensland households) when they are down and I will not abolish the petrol subsidy.
Three months after the 2009 election:
THE Bligh government will scrap its 8.35 cent per litre fuel subsidy and hold a multi-billion dollar fire sale of State-owned assets to offset a plunge in revenues during the global financial crisis.
And that was already that, as the next Galaxy poll showed, two months later:
There has been a dramatic swing to the Opposition, with a 59-41 lead on a two-party-preferred basis – a 10 point swing from the March 21 state election… And Ms Bligh’s popularity rating has hit an all-time low for a Queensland premier at 33 per cent.
Remind you of anyone?:
Anna Bligh broke a pre-election promise, and hiked up people’s bills. She immediately lost the public’s trust and never regained it, although got a brief sugar hit during the 2011 floods.
Julia Gillard broke a pre-election promise, and is already hiking up people’s bills. She immediately lost the public’s trust and never regained it.
The analogy still not close enough?
Sky News exit polls show voters were most concerned about the Cost of Living (69 per cent), followed by Delivery of State Services (63 per cent), Carbon Tax (44 per cent)
How do you think Gillard will do in Queensland next year?
Why does everybody forget Tasmania? Somebody show ’em the ‘map’ (obscure Aussie joke: ‘Map of Tasmania’)
States: NSW, QLD, VIC, SA, WA, TAS
Territories: NT, ACT
Gail, from where I’m standing, you do have someone decent to vote for, but the problem is, assuming he won -which is implausible, Congress would vito every bill.
Back home, nobody is going to wake up- you kidding? The problem with the environmental movement in Australia, was that it was too precipitous. -probably marketed poorly. One would be naive to believe the Liberal party are opposed to a carbon tax, ie. government revenue. The issue was simply watershed and one-upmanship over Labor.
To say that ‘Australian’s don’t like being lied to’; as I have read, is absurd. Politics and duplicity go hand in hand.
I oppose the carbon tax but, the party who are chiefly against it (for political expedience), is a dismal alternative.
But that’s Democracy for ya.
WUWT readers should be careful not to get carried away too much about this result.
The Queensland election was NOT a referendum on the carbon tax. Most political commentators have stated that the election was fought primarily on state issues. These include:
* The cyclic time for change nature of politics (The Queensland Labor Party has won every state election since 1989),
* A much more co-ordinated force by the conservative side of politics by amalgamating the Liberal and National Parties into the LNP so that there was only one conservative candidate opposing Labor rather than often 2, together with the bold move of parachuting a popular ex-Lord Mayor of Brisbane Campbell Newman into the party to contest a marginal seat, and
* The performance of Queensland State Labor itself over the last 3 years and its subsequent election campaign.
There are however many federal implications that can be tied to what has happened in Queensland. One of the main ones is that Anna Bligh (who is a direct descendent of Capt Bligh of the Mutiny on the Bounty), a very talented and capable media performer broke some major election promises. Two of these were the “fire sale” of public assets such as a port authority, coal terminal and rail lines (which upset her own ranks) and the abolishment of the 8½ cent rebate on petrol which had made petrol prices in Queensland cheaper.
The main point here of course is that the electorate do not forget about politicians who make promises and then break them and Julia Gillard’s carbon tax deceit is the obvious parallel that comes to mind. There are also analogies between Bligh and Gillard in irresponsible big spending, accumulation of debt and adoption of green policies which have damaged the Labor brand and confused the electorate as to what the party stands for.
Yes, there were many voters who were angry about the carbon tax and about 50% of voters on exit polls said that it was a factor. How big a factor however I believe is a matter of conjecture.
What happens next however will be more crucial. Julia Gillard will now face the premiers of 3 big mining states – Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland who will opposing her carbon tax (and mining tax) when they next meet in Canberra and it will be interesting to see the extent of their public campaigning against it.
I have said this before here I think and that is if world attitude towards taxing carbon does not change much in the next year, Gillard will have no alternative but to reduce her $A23/tonne price or her government is doomed. But even if she does, provided Tony Abbott can maintain a unified opposition and improve his own personal standing, she and the carbon tax are doomed anyway.
Looked at the LNP platform & I’m with John of Kent & Paul Homewood:
(typical): A Liberal National Government will establish an Emissions Reduction Fund to support CO2 emissions reduction activity by business and industry.
We will support 140 million tonnes of abatement per annum by 2020 to meet our 5 per cent target.
They also apparently intend to heavily subsidize solar power/other alternate energy.
Sorry, but I don’t see the cause for celebration here and that’s sad because it means being trapped. I suppose the electorate could just keep turning the installed government over, hoping that someone different will finally turn up (kind of the way I feel in the US of A), however all that does is allow a new set of politicians to enrich themselves at the public trough. I mostly lost the incentive to vote in federal elections when one side wants to regulate CO2 and the other wants total lack of any effective corporate oversight (especially the 600 trillion derivatives market and market robo trading) and thinks that “free market” fraud will take care of itself. Both sides (and many of the sub agencies) also owe their soles to their corporate overlords.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/#morelink
http://www.theotherschoolofeconomics.org/?p=2499
Mike Busby says:
March 24, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Technically, you only have to turn up. You are not compelled to vote. The point us well made, however.
cost of living is cited as the primary reason for voting lnp. the primary reason for cost of living increases is higher energy costs. electricity prices have gone through the roof because-
1 /REC certificates, or the renewable energy subsidy scheme. how does this work-
http://www.energymatters.com.au/carbon-trading/recs/index.php
“The RECs system was originally implemented to encourage an additional 9,500 GWh of renewable energy generation per year by 2010 as part of the Renewable Energy Target. Renewable Energy Certificates will play an even greater role in the recently announced renewable energy targets to be achieved by 2020 via the Solar Credits Program.
How the new Renewable Energy Target works
The government has implemented a target of 20% renewable energy sourced electricity by 2020
The current RET requires 9500 GWh of renewable energy to be delivered by energy companies
The 20/20 target requires 45000 GWh
1MWh of energy equals 1 REC, so 45,000,000 RECs will be generated to meet the 2020 target
To meet the target, energy companies must surrender RECs into their holding account at the end of every calendar year at an amount representative to 20% of their market share
If energy companies don’t put sufficient RECs into the holding account, the company is fined at a rate much higher than the REC value ”
2/ years of infrastructure neglect by the labor government coupled with an increasing population, and the subsequent selloff meaning private companies having to deal with the mess to provide the expected service.
what government could possibly turn a mining boom with a population boom into a credit rating downgrade, massive debt with no great infrastructure spending? and they blame this on a political cycle!
Labor party advocate steadfastly ‘avoids reality’ anyway she can in this segment (BOLT):
“It’s not about the lies by Julia or Anna … it’s – it’s about … there will be demonstrations and Labor stands for the working people …”
Riiiiiiiight …
.
In New Zealand, our major newspapers are owned and controlled by Fairfax media – unless you live in and around Auckland.
For those of us under Fairfax’s censorship, not one single mention of the Queensland election no matter how I search.
The NZ Herald has it buried a little at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10794497 but still fairly easy to find
To be honest, until I read this Post, I had no idea there was even a Queensland Election being held!!
Seems as though Rudd may have a lot to answer for – or be praised if this goes National!!!
Andi
Near as I can figure Bob Katter is basically a Rick Santorum sort – heavily social-con but otherwise more government-interventionist/populist than conservative.
It’s strange when foreign election-watching becomes a spectator sport, but every time I woke up last night I grabbed the phone and refreshed the Courier-Mail’s election-tracker page, then dozed back off a bit happier.
The longer Gillard holds out in Canberra, the worse things get for Labor in the states. Amazing, ain’t it?
Why is the ONLY ad I’m seeing on WUWT lately that of the League of Conservation Voters?? I thought ads were targeted to my browsing habits. I don’t visit other climate blogs…
Go ahead and say it LT: “nest sitters”. Not on-the-move risk-taking ‘hunters’ ready to risk both life and limb, assuming the risky ‘point’ position in an advance or charge …
.
We are living in interesting times. The so-called “Élites” have this bizarre belief that Truth doesn’t matter. One way or another they justify lies by some “the ends justify the means” logic. They make promises to win elections, and turn right around and break their promises, because they feel it is OK to lie. It won the election, didn’t it? The ends did justify the means.
More ordinary people know Truth matters. Many live paycheck to paycheck, with poverty and even the skullish face of hunger peeking around the corner on a daily basis. One small mistake and they will be facing a harsh Truth: Being cold, hungry, and desperate.
People who face such Truth know it is best to face the Truth, and deal with the Truth, and that involves facing very real facts and very real figures. It does not involve the fabrication of facts and figures that is rotting the field of Climate Science, and turning it into a pathetic pseudoscience.
These ordinary people, who know Truth can hurt, and that Truth is best faced head on, are the voters who the “Élites” think they can make false promises to, and lie to, and forever fool. However you cannot fool all of the people all of the time, and these voters eventually do rise in wrath.
At this point it is not merely voters who are rising in wrath; it is Truth rising in wrath. However the Élites, amidst their amazingly dunderheaded denial of Truth, are likely to decide the voters are simply wrong.
After all, they have already demonstrated they think voters are fools, who can be fooled by a promise which is broken as soon as the election is won. And, if they have such contempt towards the average man, what is to keep them from deciding democracy is a bad idea, and nullifying the results of elections?
These people have already demonstrated they are bad. What is to keep them from stepping further into the quagmire of evil?
We are not merely living in interesting times. We are living in dangerous times.
Stand by the Truth, and Truth will stand by you.
This has nothing to do with anti-AGW sentiment in Australia. Shame on Australian commenters here for encouraging the idea that the state elections are indicative of anything on the federal political landscape. It is simply not true – John Howard, for example, had no trouble being re-elected as Prime Minister despite the majority of states being under Labor governments only a decade ago. That isn’t to say that the ALP’s days aren’t numbered in Canberra, but it’s disingenuous to equate a state election primarily about economic mismanagement with federal climate change policy.
how they elected the bunch of losers in the first place is the truly scary part.
why does it say my post is waiting moderation ? it wont get any moderate no matter how long you wait …
Many Aussies like to write “Labour” to annoy Australian Labor Party people. It’s a way of signalling that you are a dissident – very important because Labour politburo types think that everyone should just do as they say. A classic example of this occurred when Julia Gillard formed Government. She basically told Tony Abbott, the opposition leader, that now she had won, he had to go along with what she wanted. When he declined, Labour began a bizarre campaign (which they persist with) of calling him Dr No, the sore loser. I think its another thing that’s backfired on Gillard because the electorate aren’t that stupid. They expect him to say no and to present an alternative. (I just wish he’d bite the bullet and kill the Liberals out of date climate change policy – three years has been a long time in the climate debate and there’s no need to have even a lip-service policy anymore for what has been demonstrated to be a non-existent problem).
Thank you, Anthony. I think your spelling is correct.
Chris has it right, the state poll had nothing to do federal climate change policies . The stagnation of a party after 14 years in power was the only real issue. The LNP had a similar backlash after their last stint.
I hate to be a wet blanket but I think the following is true:
‘The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy.’ – Carroll Quigley in “Tragedy & Hope”.
The two major parties can be controlled. That’s why the media always demonise any new party that emerges as ‘racist’, etc. The media portray your Tea Party as nutters, but with the internet we can find things out for ourselves.
But Chris, Andrew Bolt states the opposite and he’s the poster boy for the AGW movement in Australia. Watts also relies heavily on him as a correspondent.
whoops -that’s anti-AGW 🙂
Andi Cockroft
It took me 60 seconds
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/australia/news/headlines.cfm?l_id=15
I use to live around the corner from that Van! A great day in Australian politics too!
Joe Ryan
Funny you should mention that.I was reading this article just before I came to WUWT.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/danish-tv-host-mocks-obama-his-rhetoric_634403.html
The TV host again turns to the tape, this time showing President Obama in the Oval Office with Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg. “I’ve said this before, but I want to repeat: Norway punches above its weight,” Obama says.
The tape roles yet again. “We have no stronger ally than the Netherlands,” says Obama. “They consistently punch above their weight.”
“That’s fairly typical of the way that Danes have punched above their weight in international affairs,” President Obama says at a press availability in the Oval Office with Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark.
Dear Labor Party:
All your base are belong to us.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/political-climate-heats-up-as-newman-wages-war-on-derm-20110718-1hkk2.html
Queensland’s environment minister has accused LNP leader Campbell Newman of trying to score cheap political points rather than accepting scientific advice on climate change.
Labor’s Vicky Darling defended the work of the Department of Environment and Resource Management after Mr Newman yesterday said Queenslanders had “lost faith” in it during a speech at the LNP state conference.
“If Campbell Newman was backing science, he would back climate change instead of falling into line with Tony Abbott and the other deniers,” Ms Darling said.
Mr Newman yesterday told LNP delegates that Queenslanders had “lost faith” in DERM.
“It’s a department without true leadership, a department that’s more about political ideology than science,” he said.
Last night Mr Newman stuck to his stance.
“The feedback I have received as I get around the state is that under Labor, Queenslanders have lost confidence in DERM,” he said.
Mr Newman said the LNP would take scientific advice from Geoffrey Garrett, Queensland’s new chief scientist, if it won the next state election.
“Our plan, which we will detail further over coming months, will see the chief scientist properly in charge of science policy and the government’s applied science efforts, not the [state government 2020 planning scheme] Q2 shame that currently exists,” he said.