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

Back to Reality

I have been reading quite a few strange posts after the election. Someone said Labor should block every bill in the Senate and take the coalition to court over the results of the election as they were illegal. Why? Because it released it's costings after the media blackout leaving other parties no right of reply. Others have even said that, in various areas Labor out-polled the coalition. 

I don't find this kind of discussion very helpful.  It doesn't help,  as Jesse Richardson put in his Open Letter (http://dontbeafuckingidiot.com/open-letter.html ), to go off on 'sweary rants' As he writes we need to convince people  and persuade them that a progressive government is better than a conservative one. 

With this in mind, in my blog, I will attempt to be persuasive and positive where possible. I believe the facts and just the facts will be more than convincing enough without resorting to 'sweary rants'.

Election Hangover

Today Australia has a new PM and God help us. Tony Abbott will be the worst PM Australia has ever had.  Australia what were you thinking?  As much as I wish to spend the next three years hibernating or calling  myself a kiwi, I will instead be keeping an at least weekly blog containing Abbott's gaffes,  errors,  lies and poor judgements. I am sure I will have a wealth of information to choose from.

So how did we elect such an idiot?
Maybe it's because we have a population more interested in voting for 'Australia's got Talent' than for their national leader, for the way their country will be run for the next three or more years.
Maybe it's the people who base their voting decisions on who provides them with a good sausage sizzle or has a good sounding name on the card.
Maybe people just believe everything they read in Murdoch's papers.
Maybe people were so concerned about perceived failings of one party they didn't check the failings of the other.
Maybe people would rather complain when things go wrong, than make an informed decision.

For the record I campaigned against Howard in 2007 and again against Abbott in this election. I have patches of sunburn and my legs are sore.  But my electorate was one of the few to increase its Labor vote.
I am really hoping Abbott will be a one term PM (or less) and I hope you will join me on working to make that happen.

More news to come.
J