Election Mandate

As Prime Minister, one of Kevin Rudd's first actions was to ratify the Kyoto protocol. The first action of Tony Abbott as Prime Minister seems to be to dismantle the Carbon Tax. I personally find this change disturbing. He has also begun his 'Stop the Boats' policy despite International Law and Mahfudz Siddiq, head of the Indonesian parliament's foreign affairs commission being quite scathing about the 'boat buy back' scheme saying "Obviously he (Abbott) doesn't understand diplomacy or bilateral cooperation... Indonesia is not Australia's colony whose people can be bought for another country's interest."
Abbott's Indonesia Gaffe

Some commentators and those within the Labor party have complained that Abbott has stated he has a mandate for these types of changes. It was certain that he himself similarly complained just after the 2007 election when the Labor government said it had a mandate for change.

So does an incoming government have a mandate? It has been suggested that as the Liberal Party in itself received less than 50% of the vote that Abbott has no mandate. However the Liberal Party is a part of the Liberal National Party - a coalition. The Liberal Party does not field candidates in seats where there is  National candidate and vise versa. This is completely different with Labor and the Greens who will both field a candidate in an electorate. In fact the leader of The Greens, Christine Milne has said that we are not in the business of giving votes to Labor.

Another comment has been that The LNP only got into government on preferences. We have a two party preferred system however and while much of the Australian population doesn't understand exactly how it works, they do take it into consideration when they vote. For example many Green voters would most likely have voted differently if only the first preference counted and this would be the same for other minor parties - Palmer United and Family First.

So as much as I, and many, many others don't like it Australia did vote in the LNP and with a fairly substantial majority.  Does this mean we stop fighting for the things we believe in? Of course not! If we believe Australia will be a better place when asylum seekers are treated fairly and when there is action on climate change, we should fight for it - no matter what the Australian public voted for. And to that end I urge you to sign these petitions. We can still make a difference.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-liberal-party-of-australia-reconsider-your-plan-for-a-fttn-nbn-in-favour-of-a-superior-ftth-nbn

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/tony-abbott-and-the-lnp-save-the-school-kids-bonus

http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/campaign-for-carbon-pricing