GY is not a total sceptic…yet. When he graduates, he will see the complete picture emerging.

Dan.

Are ethnic Chinese voting for China in Victoria?

Dan Andrews has been compared with Xi Jinping.

"Victorian Premier Dan Andrews is not yet fully on par with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, but the similarities are too obvious to ignore"

. Both have been utterly callous and dismissive of freedom and human rights.

. Both have ruled over the harshest and longest lockdowns in the world.

. Both have governments that exhibit a deep contempt for religion, especially Christianity.

. Both are power-hungry, and seen as dictators.

Aussie Dan Succeeded because he wasn't, foreign born, Guy. The coalition is on the nose with the average Aussie, because it has swung too far to the right.

They need to reestablish foundational core values. Remain fiscally conservative and socially progressive, as they were when they were founded by Christians with Christian values.

They were the people that ended slavery and child labour. And the dictatorial power of the monarchy.

They stood for personal freedom, a bill of rights, went to war against the Nazis and for freedom. A history with lots to be proud of!

And cannot stand still while the very (Seig Hiel) autocratic forces we went to war with, infiltrate the party and destroy it from within.

Also, our broken preferential system needs to be jettisoned given how easily it's manipulated by the back-room power brokers.

What we need are primaries that decide the leading candidates followed by a runoff by the two leading candidates.

That way candidates will win on outcomes and what they stand for. Rather than at present on how to vote cards among a virtual plethora of candidates, many with unspoken secret agendas, like the power at any price, greens.

That way the moderate middle of the coalition will once again prevail, and labor will need to seriously lift its game to compete.

Sir Henery Boltin told this story. A long time into the future everything including brains will be transplanted.

Anyway, a bloke with terminal brain cancer was seeking a disease-free replacement. Was shown through the brain bank to choose a suitable replacement prior to surgery.

He was shown into this long hallway with brains floating in solution on either side. As he looked, he saw those on the left were priced in the hundreds of thousands and those on the right just a few hundred dollars.

He asked the attendant why the difference? And was told those on the left were hardly used at all and almost brand new, whereas those on the right were almost all used up from thousands of hours of overwork, hence the price difference.
Alan B.

We cannot look in to the mind of each voter.
We cannot appreciate how each one came to his decision.
But we CAN see how the collective cogitation of the voters panned out.
It returned a labor government with a very healthy majority.
That is the bottom line.
Once again, it is the 'total of the tape' which counts.
Everything else is just 'what-if'
Everything else is just a few wisps of straw blowing in the wind.

Face it. For we typical Queensland rightwingers

Dan's success and sincerity Must be tantamount to Communism!

After all Dan Is south of the border.

Following one kick in the arse after another for the Coalition at the ballot box, we have conservative commentators lecturing the Labor Party as to how they must improve, and how the voters hate them so. To compare the corrupt criminal government of Bjelke-Petersen with the Andrews mob is a bit rich. Sure Labor in Victoria had a couple of bad apples, what government doesn't, but Old Joh and his government of cronyism and nepotism was rotten to the core.

Correction, Sir Henery Bolte is correct. Boltin was a nickname given the number of elections where he bolted in.
Alan B.

Scott Morrison as Prime Minister seized power over
Treasury, Finance, Health, Home Affairs, Industry,
Science, Energy and Renewables, and the Liberal Party
bought his explanations that he was merely being
"proactive." While at the same time - the Victorian
Premier is being referred to as - "Dictator Dan,"
because he didn't want Victorians to catch COVID?

Watching the Victorian election it seemed to most voters
that any sense of ethics and sanity had disappeared from
both the mainstream media and the Liberal campaign in
their attempt to discredit Premier Dan Andrews prior to
the Victorian State Election.

Matthew Guy ran a cheap anti Andrews election campaign and
as we saw - it made no difference. The voters decided for
themselves giving Mr Andrews the majority he was seeking.
It was fascinating to watch and either way it's a win for
Victorian and for democracy everywhere.

Attack-dog tactics no longer work. Politics has changed
in this country. Those who persist in using the same
tired outmoded old tactics do so at their own peril.
You can't keep on doing the same things and expect
different results. That comes under the heading of insanity.

Hear, hear and well said, Foxy.
Alan B.

Thanks Alan.

The Tories with their almost 70 years of scare with "the Commies are coming...and Labor with take that fortune you don't have", should be realising these negative "policies" which worked well for them in the past, are no longer viable. Something radical and new is required, they will have to develop positive policies that offer a vision that voters can understand. No more of the crap; "Vote for me, cause the other bloke's terrible!", it no longer works.

As for these conservative commentators giving Labor advice after the election, its like the no selling book by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel; "How To Win A War From The Losing Side".... their book should be; "Winning An Election, From A Losers Perspective".

Well I don't know. I lived through some of Joh's time, & was aching to see him gone. Woke up a bit after hr went, & things started falling apart.

Sure Joh had some problems, & some around him were very much on the take, but our hospitals, police, ambulances, education, water & power were all so much better run, gave much better service, & were cheaper than today. It's about time to reevaluate who was our best premier, & current & recent subjects don't hold a candle to old Joh.

In fact the girls club running the state today are with out doubt, the most incompetent we have ever seen.

"Sure Joh had some problems" Hassy, the criminal class generally do, and there's nothing surer than that bible bashing fool of a Premier Bjelke-Petersen was of the criminal class. Did you know Al Capone gave money to the poor. Just saying.

I think a dictator who is democratically elected automatically nullifies that title, particularly one who increased his majority.

Despite the years of unrelenting media criticism and lies, the black African gang frenzy, the "scandal" over whether he slipped on "stairs or was it steps" and the constant whining from Sky and other commentators the alternative was rejected by the voters.

Time would have been better spent supporting the opposition rather than systematically denigrating the government but then again, perhaps the mood of the electorate is changing and rejecting the notion of negativity for it's own sake.

Dear Graham you write:

“If Daniel Andrews thinks he can keep ruling Victoria the way he has, then he is not listening to the electors of Victoria, and he, or his successor will pay the price. He runs a government that is seen as authoritarian, spendthrift, incompetent, dishonest, but electors generally can’t see any alternative, viewing the Liberals as just as bad.”

Nope.

Here let me fix it for you.

“He runs a government that is seen as authoritarian, spendthrift, incompetent, dishonest, by the Murdoch press and Liberal Party sycophants, but electors generally can’t see any alternative, viewing the Liberals as far, far worse.”

The very slogan in your title “Dictator Dan” dished out with such gay abandon by the rightwing commentariat was no doubt a factor in the election. Victorians got heartily sick of its overuse and hyperbole. And them referring to our state as a laughing stock post the election is just more of the same.

We didn’t buy what they were selling and I am proud of my state for giving the middle finger to the whole bunch.

Andrew managed to out do the Dan-slide of the last election in terms of lower house seats. Sure his primary vote dropped but so did that of the Liberal Party.

You had predicted the Greens would do well, yet with all the apparent disenchantment of the majors they only improved their primary vote by 0.6%. And the Independents got towelled by the Nationals.

And no mention from you of the strong showing of the Socialist party or Family First?

A rusted on paid up active Lib member cousin in Melbourne, familiar with Frydenberg (same electorate), managed to admit that the latter mouthing off at Victorians from Sydney was a significant misstep; borderline authoritarian (that's all the Libs have left?) and counterproductive as many small 'l' Libs deserted ship (like his own constituents, what was he thinking?).

Another point was the glib remark that yes Sky News After Dark is deplorable, but was unable to reply when asked how do the Libs formulate policy vs. outsourcing to think tanks and industry, response was Orwellian.... so he didn't know.

The Liberal Party like the GOP and Tories are 'owned' &/or 'wedged' by their own think tanks and media, but will continue with 'clown car' politics while they do not do genuine and grounded policy development vs. media agitprop, stunts, scare campaigns etc.

It's not just being "owned" by think tanks and whatever that is the main problem with the Liberal Party.

It's their drift to the hard right and the rejection of their moderates that is bringing them undone and internally they are becoming more and more controlled by extremist nut jobs and religious zealots who have been steadily infiltrating them.

Federally that's what gave rise to the "Teals", who are Liberal Blue with a hint of green. They were disaffected traditional Liberal moderates who felt the remaining moderates within the party were not doing their job climate-wise and so replaced them.

Unless they do something the drift away will continue and the remainder will become "One Nation Lite". Some sound and constructive policies would also help but hoping to win by doing nothing but denigrating their opponents didn't work this time.

As for Joh's electoral success, it was highly dependent on favourable gerrymanders which faded over time as seat boundaries were redrawn.

Rache: Agree, Overton window going so far right many of the right are being pushed to the centre and meanwhile some 'think tanks' are difficult to categorise as right or left.

However, IMO Teals were also a symptom of older culture of the Liberal Party since Howard, which has become unfit for purpose and less representative, especially across nominally middle class &/or traditional LNP seats.

Things have changed due to ageing demographics in above median age as more educated and/or diverse baby boomers hit the electoral rolls; although most 'skip' legacy media is yet to receive the memo.....

On 'think tanks' such as IPA and CIS (also Taxpayers' Alliance) are all in the 'US radical right libertarian' Koch (or Atlas) Network (ditto Tufton St. etc. in London), but deemed by many in the US as 'eugenics masquerading as economic theory' to preserve the status quo.

There is even one linked to Koch in Budapest supported by the government of PM 'mini Putin' Orban, the Danubius Institute which welcomes Australian grifters, sorry 'players' anti-EU & tepid on NATO; embarrassingly for 'visitors' US conservative Anne Applebaum called it out after Putin's invasion of UKraine (3 April, Twitter).

Andras.

The Teals are the last remnant of Liberal moderates after the ones in the party were unable to influence policy in ways they wanted and that's why specific ineffective ones were targetted for replacement.

(It's in the name - Liberal Blue with a touch of Green).

They live in traditional Liberal seats and two of them were even the granddaughters of Menzies Ministers so they are hardly lefties, despite the whining protests about them.

If they perform well I imagine more will be joining their ranks.

As for the "think tanks", most are just Lobby Groups and are funded by special corporate interests. They don't look for answers to problems, they just wait until circumstances suit their answers and then speak up.

Rache,

The teals have no relation to the liberals. They are closer to the greens than any other party.