Australian Federal Election 2010

[Troy]

The Australian Federal Election is this Saturday and it should be a close one.

I certainly won't miss the constant television advertisments and leaflets that come in the mail. The one thing that really bugs me is that both major parties focus on attacking the other party rather than promoting what policies they will bring in and what good they will do. I would love to have an election where each party focused on the positives rather than the negatives.

Labor are the sitting party but recently replaced their leader giving Australia it's first female Prime Minister. Julia Gillard will be aiming to become the first elected female Prime Minister. Liberal have come from nowhere and have one of the most unpredictable members as leader and surprisingly he is being seen as the stable leader of the two parties.

It will be close with Liberal's gaining a lot of support in recent months however it may not be enough to cover the swing required. Plus it is the Australian way to not want change too soon whilst also wanting change after too long if that makes sense. This party has been in for one term and so will most likely be given another shot.

I will vote for Liberals as their policies are closer to my beliefs on how to run a country than Labor.

Any other Australians on the forum?

 

[Troy]

I did my bit for democracy and voted this morning.

Nice and simple, one sheet for voting who you want as your local member of parliament. Eight names on the list and you have to number them from one to eight, I voted Liberal, Climate Skeptics, Family First, Liberal Democrats, Australian Democrats, One Nation, Greens, Labor. Then there is another sheet for the Senate, you can either put one number on the top line and your vote will go to that party and then follow their preferences. Or you can write the numbers 1-42 below the line saying what order you want it to be. I chose to put just one vote above the line, for Liberal.

Now that is out the way, I will find out tonight what the results are. Everything is indicating it will be close so it might be a few days before the full result is known since postal votes will need to be counted.

 

[Troy]

Wow this has been an exciting count.

At the end of the night it was showing that there will be a hung parliament the first time since WWII. This may also be the first time since 1931 that a government only sits for one term.

Liberal have done a fantastic job to cut a lead of 17 seats to an even pegging now. There will be some counting in the next few days to determine a few close seats.

At the moment Labor 70 seats, Coalition 72 seats, 1 Green, 4 Independents and 3 undecided. It is looking like Labor will have 72 and Coalition 73. Then the Greens will certainly go with Labor and it will be up to the Independents.

This is unprecendeted though in Australian history and a clear indication that the public aren't happy with the current government. It will be an interesting week coming up.

 

[Troy]

Just to update everyone, Labor took the victory in the end. They had 76-74 seats after one Greens candidate and three independents went with them and one went with the Coalition.

Finally things are sorted, the independents took too long making that decision. It won't last though, we will be back to the polls within eighteen months because they only have the minimum of seats, it will be tough trying to get legislation through.