Thought I would start a thread on the election. If this group is similar to the population at large at least 25% of you have probably voted by now, and for the rest of us there are only two more days to go.

So now is a good time to start working out what happened, and why.

You all know how I will be voting, and I won't volunteer a reason here at this stage because I don't want to bias the conversation in any way.

Apart from SA having little effect on federal elections, you wouldn't know there was an election in my electorate, where most voters are happy to keep feeding the laziest, most useless Labor bludger in Parliament.

The uniparty has agreed not to put up any corflutes (at least that's a blessing), and there has been zero campaigning, apart from a flyer from the sitting bozo, and one from some unknown female pretending to be standing against him for the Liberals. Nothing from the Greens and the other 3 or 4 loonies on the ticket.

I will be putting the sitting member last. I'm sure he will still get elected, so my first preference doesn't matter.

In the Senate, I have been able to draw up a list of 12 below the line without having to include Liberal, Labor, Greens or anyone else not at least pretending to be conservative.

To sort things out for good we should split Australia into a conservative half & a woke half for a term just to test which system works !
This could be done by State vs Federal i.e. when there is a Federal Labor Govt all Staes automatically get a conservative Government & vice versa !
The way it is now will never produce an outcome for the good of all !

There will be a multitude of questions asked in Noalition circles as to why, when all the old reactionary men, on OLO voted for Dud Dutton to man, and he still didn't win! Despite the bombardment of anti Labor propaganda on the site, articles mostly by old reactionary men.

"If this group is similar to the population at large" Yeah.... ah!...right O'...similar in what way?

Heard some rumours regarding a couple of Qld High Court Judges quitting years before their due age.
Early jitters of what will be exposed from a Qld type DOGE perhaps ?
I wonder if that will impact last minute voting ?

.

Dear Graham,

.

I voted just over a week ago and I have to admit that I could not bring myself to vote for my fellow Queenslander, Peter Dutton, because of his inadmissibly cruel treatment of asylum seekers when he became minister for immigration and border protection. Stopping the boat people arriving in Australia is one thing (which I totally approve), treating them cruelly is something else (which I totally disapprove).

As you know, Scott Morrison had held that portfolio prior to Dutton. It was during Morrison’s term of office that the senate passed the most punitive refugee laws Australia had ever seen, giving the immigration minister unprecedented secret and unchallengeable powers. Abbot subsequently passed the portfolio to Dutton who carried out his mission with a total lack of humanity for the asylum seekers imprisoned indefinitely in offshore detention centers.

Prior to that, you will recall that Dutton had been Health Minister. A survey of 1100 doctors conducted by Australian Doctor magazine nominated Dutton as Australia’s worst health minister in 35 years. One GP was quoted calling Dutton the “dullest, least innovative, and most gullible” minister he had ever seen.

I just could not bring myself to vote for him as Prime Minister of Australia.

.

If there is still any sense left in the Australian electorate, Labor should lose because of Albanese’s disgusting, lying, anti-Semitic, woke, hard left, incompetent and contemptuous regime. If the awful creature is rewarded for his incompetence and bastardry over the last three years, the next three years will be Hell.

And don't forget Wong's 'inevitably' of the Voice.

Albanese says 'no', but he lies about everything.

Watch this for evidence of MSM bias.

https://youtu.be/1u8JyrilX0Q?si=aTdSYWTn5vxrKP-1

I will never ever, ever, ever vote for a Liberal National Party Coalition after their disgusting and cruel treatment of asylum seekers and those effected by the outrageous Robodebt. Never ever forget what cruelty they have willfully inflicted on those less fortunate.

As a person who supports progressive politics, I voted Greens one Labor two, the sitting LMP member on a 3.4% margin is a nice bloke, spoken to him many times, and probably doesn't deserve to lose his job, and I don't think he will.

The Big two parties offer little in the way of nation building and long term future planning, Labor is a little better than the Coalition, but only marginally. The areas of health, education, social welfare, housing and infrastructure should be a focus. If a government claims it can build nuclear power plants, then surely it can build homes for people. On militarism, laughingly called defence, in my opinion we should be a nonaligned nation, for 50 years I've believed we cannot trust America and the latest developments should be a wakeup call to that fact. ANZAS, AUKUS, nuk subs, is just another load of nonsense. Foreign aid, I support a doubling of foreign aid, particularly to our Pacific neighbors.

What's there to say about why we vote, Graham?

- I vote because it is my duty to try and minimise the harm done by politicians, since that harm is presumably actioned in my name.

Ideally there would be no politicians, hence no harm done and no need to vote. Alternately, if we had an overt dictatorship which doesn't claim to do whatever it does presumably in my name or for my benefit, then we could also save ourselves that nuisance called "elections", that does not make a difference anyway.

So between elections I never care about political parties and I never even know in advance which parties/candidates I will be voting for next, but once I receive my ballot papers in the mail, the action begins:

First I list the areas of government-harm I am most concerned about, then allocate maximum points for each area: negative for supporting that specific harm, positive for proposing to eliminate that harm, zero for saying nothing about it. Then I open up the principles and policies web-pages of all parties on my ballot-papers and mark the parties accordingly on each issue, then add up the points and list my preferences accordingly.

This time around, it so happened that my highest score was given to a party I have not heard of before - "Australian Citizens Party", and so they topped my preference list.

Next elections - who knows?!

You are all arguing about the least important problems.
The economy is energy, never a truer word said.
Madrid yesterday Sydney tomorrow.
There seems to be a gradual dawning that renewables cannot do the job.
That recently released open letter to Australia should be compulsive reading.
In one part of that they show that to get to a full renewables system
would cost between $7 Trillion and $9 Trillion !
When you look at the cost of batteries of the scale required I can see
where they got the costs.
You do not need fancy modelling software to understand that.
Even a simple hand calculator will tell you that.
Just look at the daily KWHR and see how much a battery to carry the
whole country for just one day would cost at $1 a watt/hr.
That was the cost a while back but it is probably higher now.
It is illegal at present to call for tenders for nuclear power stations.
If Labour gets in it will be a further 3 years before the process of
getting tenders will be postponed.

The Net Zero Australia report — prepared by the University of Melbourne, University of
Queensland, and Princeton University, advised by the Australian Conservation Foundation and
Climate Council, and sponsored by the Minderoo Foundation — estimates a full renewables-only
transition would cost between $7 and $9 trillion over the next 35 years, including the
government’s “green hydrogen superpower” plans.
This is the equivalent of up to $850,000 per household—a figure quietly buried by its own
supporters as it would bankrupt the nation.[https://www.netzeroaustralia.net.au/wp-
content/uploads/2023/04/Net-Zero-Australia-Modelling-Summary-Report.pdf

You’re badly misrepresenting the report, Bezza.

Yes, the Net Zero Australia study mentions a $7–9 trillion investment - but not in the apocalyptic, renewables-only, household-bankrupting way you're implying. That figure spans 35 years and includes both domestic decarbonisation and a massive build-out of energy export infrastructure. It’s about positioning Australia as a global clean energy superpower - producing hydrogen, ammonia, clean iron and aluminium - not just keeping the lights on with wind and solar.

Framing that as “just for batteries” isn’t analysis - it’s sleight of hand.

Your $1/Wh battery scare line doesn’t stack up either. The report doesn’t propose storing the nation’s entire daily energy use in batteries. It outlines a diversified strategy: pumped hydro, gas peakers, demand flexibility, transmission upgrades - and batteries, working together.

You also leave out a key detail: the report only sees a role for nuclear if renewable growth is severely constrained or nuclear costs plummet. So no, we’re not being held back from a silver bullet.

And that "$850,000 per household" figure? Pure cherry-pick. It’s a crude division of national investment by household - ignoring that:

- Most funding is expected from private capital, not taxpayers;
- The costs are offset by avoiding climate damage, energy import bills, and shrinking fossil exports;
- And it’s a once-in-a-generation nation-building effort to future-proof the economy.

You don’t need modelling software to see what this is really about. It’s not cost - it’s comfort. And anything that disrupts it gets spun as a disaster.

"It’s about positioning Australia as a global clean energy superpower - producing hydrogen, ammonia, clean iron and aluminium - not just keeping the lights on with wind and solar."

Total fantasy, John. Rolls Royce and several other multinationals are in the process of developing production line nuclear reactors within a decade, and you are cautious and skeptical of a positive outcome. You question the safety of nuclear power, endorsing the lies of anti-nuclear activists. You question the ability of Australia to build nuclear as fast as renewables despite the fact that the French built nuclear generation six times faster and thirty-five years before the Germans built wind and solar.

Wind and solar development is way behind what is needed. Projects cannot get funding. Green hydrogen is uneconomic and probably never will be. Electricity prices are skyrocketing, and the blackout in Spain and Portugal suggests that the grid stability issues with large amounts of intermittent wind and solar input are far from resolved. Yet you think powering Australia's electrical grid with wind and solar to not only be viable, but the fastest and cheapest and most reliable source of energy? Renewables are the path to economic ruin and national destitution.

For me, it is about plentiful, cheap and reliable energy, freedom of speech, and respect and equality for all Australians. Cult leader Albo has taken the path away from those objectives during his term of incompetence.

Truer words have never been spoken:

“The Opposition has been disappointing …… but when we vote on Saturday it's a judgement on the past three years of compounding failure. And Albanese should be punished for it”.

Fester,

The Net Zero Australia report was produced by top universities and models multiple options (including high-nuclear), yet renewables come out ahead on cost, scalability, and timelines in every scenario.

Rolls-Royce might promise SMRs within a decade, but that’s been said for years. No commercial SMRs exist, and even Rolls-Royce doesn’t expect one before 2035. Meanwhile, renewables are already the cheapest new energy and are being built now.

Your well-worn France-vs-Germany example is still misleading. Again, France’s nuclear buildout was a top-down, state-led, centralised government effort in a different regulatory environment - yet even they're still investing heavily in renewables now. Germany’s mistake was relying on Russian gas, not wind and solar.

There was no actual blackout in Spain or Portugal. It was a grid separation caused by a fault and was quickly resolved, and initial assessments have confirmed that Wind and solar weren’t to blame. In fact, during the recovery, renewables helped stabilise supply, undercutting the claim that they’re inherently unreliable. Your blackout claim was debunked within hours.

Of course green hydrogen isn’t cheap yet. Neither was solar in the beginning. Costs fall with scale. Waiting around doesn’t make it happen.

And throwing in “freedom of speech” and “cult leader Albo” adds nothing. This isn’t about personal grievances. It’s about managing a global energy shift that’s already well underway.

If you genuinely care about affordable, reliable energy, then that’s great. But dismissing proven tech while romanticising theoretical nuclear is not a serious plan.

ttbn,

Yes, Labor deserves criticism for dragging its feet on key reforms. But pretending the problems are all their doing, while ignoring the wreckage they inherited, is either selective memory or deliberate spin.

Very quiet in here. ahahahaha

Another lieberal leader loses his seat. LOL

Bet he comes out and says its rigged.

Dutton killed the lieberals for a decade at least. Good one spud.

There are many factors that contributed to the Coalition’s election loss. But one of the most significant, in my view, has quietly slipped under the radar:

Labor’s deliberate strategy of “boring competence.”

Understanding the emotional mechanics of the modern right, Albanese took a "dull and steady" approach to starve the outrage machine of fuel. This weaponised dullness gave conservatives very little material to work with:

- No grand ideological crusades
- No fiery culture war rhetoric
- No personal overreach or media blow-ups
- Minimal exposure to gotcha moments or out-of-context soundbites

With no real scandal or spectacle to exploit, the right was forced to manufacture outrage by inflating minor issues into crises, inventing sinister motives where there were none, and using culture war narratives that made them look increasingly unhinged to swinging voters.

Sharri Markson’s recent editorial was a perfect example of how that desperation looks in action:
http://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/sharri-markson/sharri-markson-officially-endorses-peter-dutton-to-be-prime-minister/video/1e7c62ee1af26174728e51cb14f0a3db

We see the same dynamic play out here on the forum daily: breathless vitriol aimed at Albanese over things that either never happened or have been wildly distorted.

Labor clearly learned from past mistakes. Julia Gillard became a lightning rod for the right even while attempting to implement basic reforms. This time around, Albanese deliberately didn’t give them a villain.

And it worked.

Now that shiteforbrains Australians have rewarded the worst PM and worst government ever, they really can't whine anymore about cost of living, cost of electricity, cost of housing etc. They have declared that mass immigration is OK, and there is no need to defend the "best country in the world".

Two positives - Dutton’s gone, and the increase in Labor seats has rendered the Greens and Teals irrelevant.

The polls and MSM were wrong again. Labor has gained seats, and the Coalition was down to 35 seats when I went to bed last night.

I have all I need or want, and a limited time left, so the rest of you go and f..k yourselves. You deserve everything coming to you.

.

Dear ttbn,

.

Cheer up old chap. I guess I am not the only one who felt that Albanese was a pretty lacklustre performer as prime minister but that Dutton was even less qualified for the job.

That said, I don’t think “shiteforbrains Australians” are the only ones who voted for Albanese and his government. The ALP’s winning margin speaks for itself.

And, unique feat in Australian political history, the Liberal Party has been decapitated.

.

How much is a vote worth?

High immigration is a sure winner; Labor imported a million favourable votes over two to three years: That’s the simplicity.

Thirty percent of the country survive largely on welfare payments, which they will not jeopardise by voting for Liberals.

Thirty percent of the population is comfortably wealthy; the Liberal cohort, and the balance are living very insecure lives, servicing high mortgages or high rents, long and expensive commutes to employment, and constrained family budgets, which will not be improved by voting for a political party with little idea how to share the wealth and security among the masses; where balancing the books is the priority, and least likely to cause waves for the rusted on wealthy, and as a further aside, pathetically anti union and doggedly pro employer.

When times are tough, the tough get going, and obviously Labor win the tough metal award!

You really are a scumbag titibean. You lost fair and square. No one is buying the fascist rights lies and fearmongering.
The sooner boomers like you just go towards the light the better off the rest of us will be.
Selfish, greedy, hateful cowards, scared to death of black people, chinese, women, gays and anyone with even the tiniest bit of empathy.

Well fu too dhead. Your time is over and the lieberals are done too, probably till after even I am long gone. You will never see another lieberal PM. Even then the way things are going its more likely to be a national than a lieberal. ahahahahaha beetroot for PM yeeehaaw.

The "shiteforbrains" are all on your side mate and until you lot wake up you will be trapped in your trumpian nightmare world of hate and fear. Or just go towards the light I dont care anymore.

Good win by Labor, the local LNP member got rolled, brought in some new Labor blood, which should be a welcome change. Good to see Mr Potato Head got mashed here in Brisbane!

mikk, I wouldn't call ttbn a "Boomer", he always been a "Gloomer", let the Old Fart sod off and go cry (once again) in his beer. He was a big supporter of the Trumpet Of Parrots, what new name will Fat Clive think up next, on 'Insiders' it was suggested, the Flugelhorn Of Failures, seems fitting.

The Liberal Party, well take one look at the pathetic line up of individuals as possible "leaders" to replace The Dud Dutton; 'Squizzy' Taylor, 'Squeaky" Ley and a couple of other nondescripts, the lot not worth a pinch of you know what.

If the last election didn't do it, maybe this one will. BUT then again, how do you wake up a dead corpse. I think seeing that Old Fart Little Johnny Howard at the Liberal Party wake says it all, a reactionary mob, with no progressive ideas, led by a bunch of incompetence's.

The Australian people do not want a government from the 'Pig Iron' Bob era, led by backward thinking conservatives with their focus on division through propagating hate in society with a focus on culture wars.

I have 5 grandchildren, aged between 18 and 25, who voted in this election. They would not in their wildest nightmare vote Coalition. Why, they don't see the Coalition as relevant to their personal asperations, or Australia's future. R.I.P Noalition.

Gone are the “silent majority”, the “forgotten people”; the majority of Australian voters are morons. They moan and groan about the ‘’cost of living’ the ‘cost of electricity’, and just about everything else, then they reward the lying bastards responsible for their moaning and groaning.

If they are not morons, then they actually want to see this country more like Russia or China, and they hope that they will soon be relieved of the inconvenience of having to vote. Uncle Albo will do it all for them, just like Uncle Vlad and Uncle Jinping. He - and Dutton - both pulled out the totalitarian lie that “Australia is the best country in the world”, trying to get the morons to tear-up about an inanimate object when it's people that make or break a nation - and Australians are more your breakers than makers.

So, another three years of even more lying about “climate change”, “cheap” wind and solar, “reconciliation” AKA racism, houses that will never be built - all the BS of the last three years, on stilts.

The morons have been given options. They don’t have to vote for the uniparty.

The only good thing to come of this election was the overdue humiliation of the Greens.

Of course, my generation has lived the good life, and benefited from the good old days that no longer exist. It is succeeding generations that have stuffed everything up, and it is they who will suffer. Ha de ha bloody ha. Serve them right.

In the meantime, I don't think that I will bother voting if I'm still around for the next election. The specimens putting themselves forward are as moronic as those voting for them.

ttbn,

You are certainly a sad Old Fart, nothing positive to say, always negative. Well, with Labor given a resounding mandate, lets see them work positively for the future of the nation. Its unfortunate that there is no robust opposition, good government requires good opposition. The only bright spot for you was the loss of Green seats in the lower house, when Labor does well, the Greens do badly. On the other hand you should look at the Senate result, where the Greens will hold the balance of power, but will work cooperatively with the Labor Government to pass progressive legislation, a good thing.

p/s I hope Jacqui Lambie wins her Tasmanian Senate seat again. Labor looks a good chance to oust her and win a third seat.

.

Dear ttbn,

.

The fact remains, as Aristotle said, that though we may be critical of democracy, the case for rule by the many based on the superior wisdom of the multitude “perhaps also involves some truth”.

.

ttbn,

May be the "silent majority" were never really there. Maybe they were just the echo of your own beliefs, bouncing back at you by media outlets and online spaces designed to comfort, rather than simply report.

If you spend enough time inside an echo chamber (Sky News, curated Facebook threads, rage-blog punditry) it starts to feel like the whole country agrees with you. But they don’t. And every time that bubble bursts at the ballot box, you’re left wondering how Australia became so unrecognisable.

Outside that chamber, people aren't moaning because they want a dictator or socialism or whatever bogeyman is trending this week. They’re moaning because life’s tough, wages are stagnant, and the world’s changing fast. And when offered the choice between a party feeding that anxiety with conspiracies and culture war tantrums - or one trying, however imperfectly, to govern with steadiness - they chose the latter.

Your bitterness isn’t just about losing. It’s about the growing realisation that your generation doesn’t set the tone anymore, and your worldview doesn’t have the following you were told it did.

So when you mock younger generations and laugh that they’ll “suffer” for it, it doesn’t make you look wise or defiant. It makes you look like someone who climbed the ladder, kicked it away, and now cheers at the thought of others falling.

Dear Ttbn,

«and they hope that they will soon be relieved of the inconvenience of having to vote.»

Indeed an inconvenience when we all know that voting makes no difference, that one of the twins, either Tweedledum or Tweedledee, will rule over us anyway.

In theory we just voted for parliament which is the legislative council, in order to determine the laws we are forced to live under, which affect us daily, but in practice when both major parties are not disputing these laws, they ask us instead to vote as to who between the two of them manages their state better:

Well, why are they asking for my advice? I am not an expert on state-management, that is none of my business really because as far as I am concerned there better be no state at all!

No, I don't want to see this country turning more like Russia or China - I do care a lot about the laws that affect my life, but since I cannot influence them anyway, it is best if I am left out of it all.

Given the undemocratic nature of the Australian electoral system, any major party that would announce that "if you vote for us then this will be the last elections you will ever have to participate in", would win a great landslide victory!

Just a quick note to the usual arseholes offended by, and frightened of, opinions they disagree with - I have no interest whatsoever in your opinions of my own opinions. And, tearing into me will not make you less dumb than you all are.

Had the weak Dutton, or whoever was pulling his strings, undertaken to dump Net Zero, and get out of the Paris Agreement, instead of banging on about nuclear power, indicating that he agreed with the loony Left that coal is bad and the CO2 scam is real, he would have fared better than he did.

One of these days, we might get politicians who want to do what is right for Australia, not what is right for their chances of getting elected. If we can get people like that, they will most certainly be elected.

In the meantime, none of the self-interested scum are worth voting for. Not that the arseholes referred to - the ones who spend most of their very limited abilities attacking other posters instead of dealing with the topics - deserve any better than what we are stuck with, and what they stupidly voted for.

In the meantime, you arseholes: Paul 1405, Banjo Patterson, John Daysh and Yuyutsu, who regularly attack me (and others) personally, go f..k yourselves, you small-minded ignoramuses. You have never risen above snotty-nosed preschool bully status.

Dear Ttbn,

«Paul 1405, Banjo Patterson, John Daysh and Yuyutsu, who regularly attack me (and others) personally»

I actually agreed with you - why yes, most Australians would indeed be happy to be relieved of the inconvenience of having to vote.

ttbn,

I cannot understand your thinking. You are always commenting on the uniparty, stupid people and what not, so why such disappointment with an outcome you foresaw but have no control over. That's democracy.

My main concern is with the destructive pursuit of wind and solar, but despite having no control of the outcome as with everyone else here, I see no point in getting too upset as I believe the problem to be self limiting. All the hype I hear has no substance when I look at the IEA country stats and observe the incredibly slow pace of development. Projects here would not be possible without the huge handouts, and even with them the economics are very marginal once the generating capacity starts to exceed the average demand, which is why development is drying up.

The French roll out of nuclear was six times faster half a century ago than the wind and solar roll out is currently. The thought of production line smrs in the near future leads me to believe that the rate of the French roll out will be exceeded. Australia has the opportunity to advance instead of being impoverished with Chinese solar panels and wind turbines.

https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/new-nuclear-age-united-states

Fester,

What? I'm not supposed to be disappointed that ‘stupid people’ rewarded the worst government ever? I don't understand why you can't understand that, no matter what your personal beliefs and feelings are.

We do have control. About 18 million voters have control over who forms a government. They just don't exercise that control, mainly because they listen to lying politicians. And they stupidly believe that any group outside the uniparty is bad - all because they believe the lying, career politicians of that uniparty. Laziness and apathy play a part also.

If you have no control, as you say, there is no point to your existence. You are not alone in your attitude to unreliable, grossly expensive electricity. But as long as those millions like you are convinced that you have no control, you are letting bastards like Bowen and Albanese get away with murder. How do you think Russians, Chinese and, say, Iranians got into the position they are in? Because they were convinced that they had no control.

And, because you and others reckon you have no control - shrugging everything off as “democracy” - you are going to end up under a totalitarian yoke just the same as the people mentioned above. Democracy is not a natural state: it has to be fought for - something you and too many other Australians don't want to do.

Stop fooling yourself that just voting for the same sorts of hacks every three years is “democracy”. It isn't.

ttbn,

I do what I can. I voice my opinion, but I am realistic about what I might achieve, and I believe that to be insignificant compared to other factors in the developing world. Would you have me tie myself to a wind turbine of wave banners protesting the murder of koalas?

The point I would make is as much as I dislike the constant lying from the likes of Albo and co or the fact that many get sucked in by it, there is not a lot I can do about it. The same sort of thing happens the world over and prompts countless discussions of the whys and wherefores of it all. A life signifies little as Macbeth noted, but that does not mean that it cannot be meaningful or enjoyable for the person living it, like this poem for example:

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

.

Dear ttbn,

.

You wrote :

« What? I'm not supposed to be disappointed that ‘stupid people’ rewarded the worst government ever? »
.

No, you should not be disappointed if stupid people did that, ttbn. You should only be disappointed if intelligent people did it.

Happily, they did not.

The landslide was clearly not an expression of enthusiasm for Albanese’s lacklustre politics. It was a rejection of Dutton’s Trumpian proposition.

.

Just go towards the light boomers. Your world is gone and its not coming back. You had your time and used it to screw future generations. Well those generations are here now and they are calling the shots. Your backward, insular and outdated attitudes are obsolete like the rotary phone and the horse and cart and as we learned on the weekend no one under the age of 70 is going to vote for the lieberals hateful garbage ever again.

Good luck with tehan or susssssssan or the dunce from Hume. Maybe the odious wilson clown will scrape in and you can have him. LOL None will even touch Albo and most likely lose even more seats next time. Get used to it.

Banjo, what Australia, err Dutton did to the illegal migrants is of
nothing compared to what the illegal migrants are doing to Britain.
They are systematically removing Britain from the British !

“there is not a lot I can do about it”, you say Fester. If only everyone who says that could get together, they could do something about it. It's a cop-out mate.

“mikk”, another coward who can't address anyone directly, but misuses the silly ‘boomer’ to describe people he despises, doesn't know that people to whom that word is directed were not born until 1946, after ‘war babies’ like me. He and his fellow ingrates, who think the world started only after they were born, will soon enough be subjected to the scorn and disrespect they heap on the elderly now.

What Australians wants is an Opposition that is centre right, one that offers alternate progressive policies to those of the centre left, that is not happening at the moment. There are still a few progressive moderates within the Liberal Party that could form the basis for a TRUE Liberal Party. Until the moderates reassert themselves the alternative opposition will be consigned to wander in the political wilderness for a very long time. The election of a new Liberal Party leader will be the first sign to indicate if the party is going to try and rebuild itself as a truly progressive party. With the four names touted thus far, me thinks not.

For people like ttbn and others, who hanker for the "good old days", that they constantly view through the the lens of their "rose coloured glasses", there are radical right wing parties that pander to their self-centered ideals.

p/s That Dutton/Littleproud thought bubble called nuclear power has been totally rejected by Australia, and should be the first "policy" consigned to the rubbish bin of history.

ttbn,

Democracy a copout? Putin carries a lot of clout in Russia, but I don't think that it helps the Russians much.

Fester,

No. I clearly said that you were copping out with your 'nothing I can do' routine.

The demise of the Liberal Party is an opportunity for the Nationals to also desert them and oppose them in all seats at the next election, possibly doing deals with One Nation. All the tiny grandstanders like Family First, Libertarians, People First etc could also get over themselves and sign up to a single Conservative Party as the only way to save Australia from the raging socialism of Labor Party.

Despite the fact that, with less than 40 seats, the Liberal Party is buggered, the usual rusted-on fans are still waffling about “the part of Menzies”; “John Howard”; “who will the next leader be”. The only reaction to the last one is: they don't have anyone who could even lead a conga line, let alone a political party.

Dutton has provided the evidence that the Liberal Party needs knocking in the head for good, and replaced it with an alternative to socialism. The difference between the uniparty members is zero.

“The Liberals have become smug, elitist, unrelatable, arrogant, bland, directionless, and left-leaning. It would do them good for their better half (Nationals) to lead while they regroup and seek out fresh talent”. (Alexandra Marshall, ‘Flat White’, Spectator Australia; a thirty-something woman with more nous than all Australian political commentators put together).

ttbn,

You don't get it, Australians reject Trumpism, racism and reactionary conservatism and all that nonsense you love. You and 2% of the population would like to wind back the clock to 1925, with its spats and straw hats, not possible, and certainly not wanted in modern Australia.

The cow cocky's should combine with One Nation dills, Noalition nongs, Crumpets, Christian crazies, Libby nut jobs etc etc, and form a new party, I like the name "Flugelhorn Of Failures" with Fat Clive and The Lovely Pauline as the Flugel Masters, very catchy, you could be a leading "Flugeler" along with Indy, mhaze and a couple of OLO regular reactionaries! Start a new Forum, ask GY to run it, call it OLF (On Line Flugelers) Rather sad me thinks

This thread appears to have become less of a debate and more of a psychological unravelling. The meltdown playing out here - and in other corners of social media - is both fascinating and disturbing.

The reaction this time feels distinctly different to what we saw three years ago. There’s something more coordinated and desperate about. For me, two things stand out:

1. The sheer intensity of the rage is wildly disproportionate to the cautious, steady approach Labor took in its first term. Whether people liked the outcomes or not, this wasn’t a government of wild swings, scandals, or upheaval.

2. The grievances being expressed are so strikingly similar that they feel scripted. It's the same thing across the board, almost word for word:

“The country is gone.”
“This was our last chance.”

These aren’t personal reflections anymore - they’re symptoms of a narrative that’s been carefully constructed in echo chambers, and passed around until it feels like the truth.

Now, post-election, we’re starting to see the next wave of messaging emerge. People aren’t just angry that Labor won - they’re reciting lists of everything the country has supposedly voted for:

- Three more years of Labor's lies.
- Three more years of economic sabotage.
- Three more years of national decline.

Yet, my requests for specifics either go unanswered or are responded to with accounts of what Labor had supposedly said or done that are either inflated, distorted, or simply untrue. But they feel real to those who’ve spent three years being told the sky is falling.

This isn’t just political frustration. It’s a sign of how powerfully echo chambers can reshape a person’s sense of reality - to the point where a steady government looks like tyranny, and a democratic result feels like betrayal.

The Labor Party were never gaping to lose this election. As I said straight after the election win in 2022, Australians simply don't kick out first term governments.

Its happened only once and that took a minor thing like the Great Depression to cause it. Even monumentally bad governments like Whitlam and Rudd/Gillard got a second go (although the later was forced into minority government).

So unless a first term government is a total disaster or is beset by a total disaster, they are given a second crack at it by the Australian people. Probably something to do with the 'fair-go' ethos.

That doesn't apply into the second term. The ALP's economic policies are woeful and will eventually come a cropper, especially if China unravels under pressure from Trump. The policy of screwing up and then generously 'fixing' if by throwing our grandkids money at the problem can only succeed for so long. They promised lower power prices in 2022 and only avoided being held accountable by throwing subsidies around like confetti. That can only work once.

Who knows, maybe the world economy may ride a Trump wave and Albo will take the credit. Or maybe our major exports will collapse and with it government revenues, a problem that ALP governments have traditionally been ill-equipped to handle.

I think the next three years will be a bumpy ride. OTOH they have the advantage that there doesn't appear to be anyone in the Liberal fold who will be able address the myriad problems they face or to explain their positions to the average voter.

Hi John,

Nice comments, I might be a bit rough, but certainly agree. Something like the death of Stalin in 1952, millions of Russians were beside themselves with grief, at the "loss" of Comrade Stalin. Not because they loved Stalin and Stalinism, they just didn't know that there was anything else in life. Comrade Stalin was credited (propaganda) as the provider of everything they had, they had been led to believe there was no alternative. BUT there was an alternative, they just didn't know about it.

Like I said earlier, I had 5 grandchildren 18 to 25 who voted, my assessment of how they went, 1 Green definite, 1 Green or Labor, 3 Labor for sure. Put candidly, they seen the LNP as an irrelevant joke, with nothing to offer them moving foreword in life. The Green Girl thought trying to buy her vote for 25 cents was pathetic (anyway she catches the train). I liked what she said on Sunday night; "Why didn't Dutton just give the people some beads and blankets, and be done with it, sure didn't offer anything else."

Well John, you conveniently overlooked that they would have to go back
in 20 years and start renewing the renewables.
That would stretch out the completion time.
It begins to look like that tradition of painting the Harbour Bridge.
However it is worse than that, the cost of removing the non performing
renewables is on the landholder farmer.
The whole project will be a permanent nightmare.
Nuclear power stations are just like how we managed coal fired power
for the last hundred years.

Hi Bezza,

The fact is the Noalition had a brain fart explosion called nuclear power, which blew up in their face. The useless mob couldn't land an energy policy in almost 10 years in office. Led by the Cow Cocky Party the Liberals jumped on the bandwagon, and suffered the consequences on Saturday. You would know as much about renewables as you know about Islam, NOTHING!

The Liberal Party are not stabbing each other in the back, no time for such pleasantries, no they are so enraged with the disaster and playing the blame game, it stabbing front on, and who cares!

Hi Trumpster, you stuck your beak in, that's a surprise.

Come off it, you were all cock-a-hoop before the election with your adulation of Mini-Me Trump Dutton. You wanted Trumpism for Australia. How did your Trump Party do, Fat Clive spent $60 million and scored less than 2% of the vote. p/s The Labor landslide was too much for the Greens who got wiped out in the lower house by Labor, did well in the Senate so that's a positive. As I said, I voted Greens 1 Labor 2, I suppose you are to ashamed to lay your card on the table.

"Come off it, you were all cock-a-hoop before the election with your adulation of Mini-Me Trump Dutton. "

Well Paul I'd ask you to provide evidence for that piece of rubbish but we both know that won't work for two reasons...

1. you don't know the meaning of the word 'evidence' and
2. when asked to prove you cockamamie idiocies you always run an hide like the wimp you are.

Here's me, a year ago saying Labor would win... http://tiny.cc/l4ui001

(see how that works Paul? You make a statement and then prove its true. You should try it one day.)

How did I vote?
I. For an independent on th basis that I wanted her to get the $3.386 if possible, And I'm glad I did since she only barely got over the 4% threshold.
2. Labor

After that who cares since in these elections the only thing that matters is which of Labor and Liberal gets your higher preference.

Now the Senate was an entirely different story

Trumpster,

You didn't say Labor would win, you only referred to the probability, based on history. YOU were a swooning Trumpster, who backed Fat Clive all the way with his Trumpet Of Disaster Party. Strange that you would put Labor second, when all you have done here is ridicule the government as incompetent, Albo was a nob according to you, and you put Labor second. Please, I'm not as stupid as you believe me to be, or as stupid as the average Trumpster.

Bezza,

The $7 to $9 trillion figure from the Net Zero Australia report refers to the total investment over 35 years needed to transition Australia’s ENTIRE energy system. It’s a cumulative national investment, not a personal tax, and certainly not something that repeats every 20 years.

I've already explained this, yet you're still running around the place citing it out of context.

Your suggestion that we’d have to “start renewing the renewables” like we’re rebuilding everything from scratch misunderstands how infrastructure works. No power system lasts forever. Coal and gas plants are maintained, upgraded, and eventually replaced. Same with wind turbines and solar panels. The difference is that renewables are modular, scalable, and getting cheaper over time.

The idea that this makes renewables uniquely flawed doesn’t hold water. Infrastructure replacement happens in cycles. It doesn’t mean you start over or re-spend trillions every few decades.

And the Harbour Bridge analogy doesn’t fit. We don’t repaint the entire thing every 20 years - we maintain sections as needed. That’s how modern infrastructure is managed: continuously, in rolling cycles.

As for nuclear, it is not “just like how we managed coal-fired power.” It brings not just enormous upfront capital costs, but also very long construction timelines, decades of high operational overhead, complex regulatory obligations, long-term waste storage, and eventual decommissioning costs that are often kicked down the road.

All of that adds up. Nuclear is not cheap, fast, or simple, and pretending otherwise doesn’t make it true.

" Nuclear is not cheap, fast, or simple, and pretending otherwise doesn’t make it true."

Repeating your lies does not make them true IBM.

Fifty years ago the French built 150% of their power supply from nuclear in fifteen years.

Germany has spent the last fourteen years building less than 25% of their power supply from wind and solar.

French nuclear electricity was about a third the cost of German renewable electricity the last time I looked at a comparison.

And as Spain found out, large amounts of wind and solar can lead to a cascading failure of the entire grid. One factor in Spain's case is that a large input of wind and solar collapses the spot price which in turn can lead to dispatchable energy sources being switched off (nuclear power pays a tax per unit generation in Spain, so it gets pulled when the spot price gets close to the tax rate), making it more unstable still.

Australia is extremely dumb to be sucked in by this con.

Fester,

This is now the fourth or fifth time you've repeated the same debunked claims about France, Germany, and Spain over the last week or so - all of which have already been corrected in detail.

Worse still, you did this after telling me that repeating a lie doesn't make it true, as though I were the one who needed reminding of that.

The French nuclear buildout wasn’t magic. It was a state-led project under a different political and regulatory environment, following the oil crisis. It worked for its time, but even France is now investing heavily in renewables and struggling to maintain its aging reactors. You've heard this before - repeatedly.

Your Germany comparison ignores the role of taxes and grid levies in their household prices, and the fact that wind and solar now supply over 50% of their electricity. Again, already covered. Repeating the headline doesn’t override the facts.

As for Spain: the event was a grid separation caused by a fault, not a collapse triggered by renewables. This too has been explained - multiple times. Spot market quirks and poor contingency planning don’t invalidate the technology itself. If anything, they highlight the need for smarter integration - something engineers are already working on.

At this point, you're not engaging with the facts. You’re just recycling talking points, hoping repetition will carry the argument. But truth doesn't work that way.

If you want to keep running in circles, that's up to you. But don’t confuse echo with evidence.

John, I agree with some of your points but as far as maintenance goes,
it is worce that painting the harbour bridge because it is all over the
countryside and for wind the large cranes are needed for major maintenance.
The failure in Spain was due to lack of inertia in the system and
despite what someone on here said most of it was off for 24 hours+.
Dp ypu have a solution for lack of inertia ?
I know about the large rotary machines used for power factor
correction, but a quite large number of them would be needed.

John,

I repeat the facts and you repeat your lies.

That France built its electricity supply six times faster than Germany built wind and solar is a fact.

If wind and solar are faster as you claim, then where is the example of a country building a wind and solar grid in less than ten years?

As Spain demonstrates, there are serious stability issues with large wind and solar inputs that are not fully understood and far from resolved.

"YOU were a swooning Trumpster, who backed Fat Clive all the way with his Trumpet Of Disaster "

And yet you can't find a single sentence or phrase to support that load of rubbish. Why? Because I never uttered a single word in support of Palmer or T.o.P. Not a single word. And yet you keep trying to convince yourself otherwise without a scintilla of evidence. Just apologise and move on you fool.

The fact is Palmer thought that by attaching his star to Trump he'd get the support of those who support MAGA. It was foolish and failed. But even more foolish, even more moronic is people like you who fell for it.

There are any number of posts where I predicted a Labor win over the last three years. That it went over your head is hardly surprising - most things do. And I already explained why I put Labor second which I assume was also too complex for you.

There is a good argument for wind generation on a yacht, but where is the justification for destroying the environment to save it, as currently with wind powered turbines?
Wind generation should be outlawed on this point!

I’d actually come out of cold and vote for a politician who was serious on this issue.
A Politician with a plan to demolish existing wind mill generators, with a view to sell them back to China as scrap.

Trumpster,

All water under the bridge now, I understand you crave acceptance, and your insecurity wants to see you on the winning side. You are obviously a sycophantic Trumpster. Now hear this folks;

mhaze who for months was denigrating Albanese and the Labor government. He wants everyone to know that suddenly on election day he had a miraculous change of heart, and feeling sorry for some mysterious "Independent" he voted for her, only for the reason he felt sorry, and wanted her to get a few bucks in electoral funding. WHAT A GOOD REASON TO VOTE FOR SOMEONE. Then not to be on the losing side he preferenced LABOR at number 2, above Fat Clive and The Lovely Pauline, amazing! Yeah sure you did, only if you say so.

BTW; Roy Morgan predicted a 55/45 split to LABOR, with Albo way ahead as preferred PM over the Dud. They got it completely right.

Bezza,

Yes, I agree that maintenance across wide areas presents different challenges compared to centralised generation.

But it’s also worth remembering that renewables are modular. Replacing a single turbine or solar array doesn’t take the whole system offline, and those upgrades can be staggered. We already manage powerlines, telecom towers, and pipelines across vast distances. So, it’s not as if the logistics are unprecedented.

As for Spain, early reports did suggest brief separation events, but even Reuters later clarified that the entire system was not offline for 24 hours. Some areas saw extended impact, but this wasn’t a nationwide blackout in the way it was first portrayed. And critically, the issue wasn’t “wind and solar failure,” but a lack of grid resilience planning during a period of transition.

Regarding inertia, yes, rotating mass provides “natural” inertia, but we now have tools that can provide synthetic or fast frequency response, including:

- Grid-scale batteries
- Synchronous condensers
- Flywheels

Even smart inverters, which can be programmed to mimic the inertial characteristics of spinning turbines

Yes, we’d need a significant number of them, but they’re already being installed. It's not a solved problem, but it's not an unsolved one either - it's engineering in progress, just like every grid challenge has been for the past century.

Fester,

You're not even trying anymore. If you want to make this a battle of wills, then fine. It will be interesting to see how long you ignore my corrections and simply repeat the same assertions.

You’ve repeated the France vs Germany line five times now. It’s been corrected every time - including your misleading claim about “six times faster.” France’s nuclear rollout was a decades-long, state-led effort in a very different era. Germany’s renewables have been built under a decentralised, liberalised model with far more policy constraints and geopolitical entanglements. You’ve been shown the data. Repeating the headline doesn’t erase that context.

And now you’ve shifted the goalpost - from “France did it faster” to “show me a full wind and solar grid built in under ten years.” That’s not how comparison works. Wind and solar are faster to build, and that’s why they’re being built now, at scale, across dozens of countries. No one said it happens overnight.

As for Spain, again - the issue was grid planning and market structure, not the physics of renewables. Engineers do understand these challenges. Solutions are being developed and deployed. You’ve been shown examples.

If you want to keep cycling through the same talking points, that's your call. But don’t mistake repetition for credibility. It doesn’t work here.

Again Paul, you make a fool of yourself because you have no idea what others are saying. If you're going to make these claims, perhaps finding just one sentence from me that supports your stupid assertions might help.

The fact is that I never uttered a word of support for Palmer or ToP. You just assumed I supported them because you fell hook, line and sinker for their claims that they were the MAGA of Australia. Only fools fell for that. I'd be trying to hide that if I were you.

And while I have been critical of the government, you won't find a single sentence from me saying the Libs would do better. Here's what I said back in January 24..."Alas Albanese is worse than I thought and Chalmers is a massive disappointment. The country is not in good hands although there is little to show that things are better on the other side of the parliament.

Most governments in Australia are given a second chance and rarely get kicked out after three years (Whitlam was the exception and to this point, bad as it is, the government isn't on the same scale as Whitlam). So I expect they'll win the next election, especially as they've now shown that they are prepared to sacrifice the nation's long term future to their short-term political advantage."

Note that I'm saying the that Labor is bad and the Libs no better. I've been consistent on that for three years.

Whatismore, I've written here many times that I haven't voted Liberal since they overthrew Abbott on the basis that I want them to return to true Liberalism and that will only happen if they suffer electoral humiliation.

Of coarse all of those things have been said more than a week ago so, given your demonstrably bad memory, its all gone down the memory-hole. You really are a dill.

Trumpster,

The dills are all you sycophantic Trump lovers who believe the Dangerous Doctor Donald is god, and he is going to deliver manna from heaven for you, and the rest of his legions of fruitcakes. You are a right wing reactionary, why would you support Labor, when they are somewhat left wing and progressive. I don't know your electorate, but given you political opinions here, I'm sure you were offered a smorgasbord of far right loonies to choose from, I was. Maybe that so called "independent" you claimed you voted for was actually from the Trumpet Of Failure Party, has that person got a name? I voted One Wen Li (Green) and two Kara Cook (Labor) in the seat of Bonner. Not giving anything away are you.

With political campaigns becoming more and more "presidential" the image that party leaders present on TV has some influence on voters. Not that Albo is any kind of movie star, but for Dud, the Uncle Fester look was not all that appealing.

Good news already, Labor has reduced the price of fuel by 25c litre, and they didn't even promises it at the election. As for Pete, he's completed a Labor free trade course at Tech, and is now a fully qualified petrol jockey down at his local BP servo 5 nights a week. You may have caught Pete doing some pract during the election campaign, filling up cars, trucks, lawn mowers etc. As the saying goes; "One door has closed for Pete, and another door is firmly bolted." I Wish Pete well, maybe he'll snag a plum government job, if Rudd was good enough to be Ambassador to Washington, surely Albo could make Pete Australia's next Ambassador to Iceland.

Silly though Australian voters are, they got rid of the lunatic, Adam Bandt.

But, now, as the wreckers love to say, the old Australia is gone.

There is no more 'us' or 'we'. There is just a nothing country, poisoned with multiculturalism, identity politics and warring tribes.

Next step - partition, to keep us apart.

Some more good news on the election front.

The truly noxious Green Chandler-Mather (why do all these prissy holier-than-thou types have double-barrel names?) has been given the boot.

And ABC alumni Zoe Daniels, who did a silly and now memory-holed dance when she went off prematurely on Saturday night, has been tealed off.

And best of all, the snide and inane Adam Bandt is now almost certain to get the flick.

There's hope for the nation yet.

I have no sympathy for the Greens who got the boot in the lower house, that's politics, and the quirks of the preferential voting system. What is pleasing is the Greens will hold the balance of power in the Senate, which sidelines the likes of The Lovely Pauline, Ralf Babble and Malcolm Roberts, one or two others. With that I hope both David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie (If returned) continue their advocacy for battling Australian's, as they have done so well in the previous parliament.

How the Greens have fallen. It now seems Sarah ("Sea Patrol") Hanson-Young is being considered as party leader.

http://mumbrella.com.au/fictional-sea-patrols-203553

Struth!

Trumpster,

Where will your Trumpet of Failure Party be holding their next meeting, in a phone box? No, of course not, Fat Clive and Gina Rhinoceros can't fit in a phone box. In the seat of Hunter where your pin-up gal, and party leader, Suellen Wrightson was the gun candidate for Fat Clive, the bimbo scored 3,636 votes, the Green candidate scored 7,186 votes, double that of your party. BTW, the Labor member scored over 45,000 votes. Suck eggs sunshine! BTW Adam Bandt scored more than 31,000 primary votes in Melbourne, about 6,000 more than Labor.

How pathetic, The Born To Rule mob's leader, Dud Dutton wrote to the shadow cabinet in February telling them to write their ministerial acceptance speeches, and pick their department heads.

Trumpster; my dear friend Mehreen Faruq, will be the Greens next party leader. AND, I expect she will do a very good job.

"BTW Adam Bandt scored more than 31,000 primary votes in Melbourne, about 6,000 more than Labor."

And lost!!

"I expect she will do a very good job."

Can't do worse than the last dill.

But anyone with Sea Patrol SH-Y behind her, is always on a hiding to nothing.

“From the Yarra to the sea, Melbourne is finally free” writes commentator James Macpherson after the ousting of Bandt. The end of 15 years of climate hysteria, identity politics and woke nonsense; and “institutionalised antisemitism”.

A Jewish leader: “Bandt’s defeat is a blow for socialism, that ideology of poverty that crushes the human spirit, and it is an even greater defeat for antisemitism, the socialism of fools.”

Trumster,

Defection to Greens losses in the lower house, means nothing, life in politics goes on, despite the quarky preferential voting system, which sometime favours you, sometimes not. The Greens hold the balance of power in the Senate. Some months back I almost abandoned the Greens because of their obstructionism in the Senate of Labor's housing policy, I disagreed and I though that was dumb, and I told two people who had a say in it, that it was a dumb thing to do and it will cost the party votes. I learnt a long time ago, principles in politics is a good thing, but pragmatism is even better.

BTW; What was the name of that "Independent" you claimed you voted for? Fess up sunshine, you are a radical far right Trunpster, and YOU would have voted that way. If there was no Trumpet Of Failure candidate, you would vote One Nation. As for ttbn, another negative regressor, who keeps "crying in his beer" when it comes to politics.

Moving on, I want the Greens to support the Labor government cooperatively on progressive policy with its overwhelming mandate. Sure, argue the point about detail, suggest improvements, but at the end of the day its the governments call.

Jacinta Price is getting stick for selling out the Nationals and jumping over to the Liberals to pursue her personal ambitions.

If she wasn't half aboriginal, she would never get a mention. Blather about what she did to stop the Voice is just blather. The Australian people stopped the Voice, no politicians were involved.

Australia has to get over its aboriginal problem: to start treating them as if they were not the same as everybody else.

In SA, we have have one if them, a footballer, who has been bleating about "racism" - as they do - only to be caught out making threats against players in other teams. And, his club is vowing to 'stand by' HIM!

Australia, land of the dickwads.

Senator Matt Canavan, a true conservative and the only decent person left in politics in my opinion, says that Price's funny business is no different from that of Lydia Thorpe, who left the Greens.

I never thought anyone could as bad as Thorpe, but there it is.

It's less than a week, says Canavan, that Price was voted into the National's party room. If she wanted to be in the Liberal's party room, she should “have stood for a Liberal seat just a week ago”.

The Liberal Party will be lucky to survive, let alone ever form a government with a box-ticking, part aboriginal, woman, leader/PM.

Post election chat: how about the media's/wackjobs’ comparison of Dutton with Trump!

Trump says Albanese is “very good”, but he has never heard of Dutton - doesn’t “know anything about him”.

If the usual shiteforbrains, professional and amateur keyboard warriors wanted to compare Dutton with an American, Biden would be the better comparison; even he couldn't come up with the appalling campaign Dutton did.

Dutton has been described as a puppet run by the Left of the Liberal Party, in a way similar to the Democrat hard Left's string work on Biden. Good riddance. But, Susan Ley for leader just to solve their "woman problem"? She would finish them all off.

Since the massacre of the Liberal Party, there has been all sorts of advice to them, mainly from people who have never voted for them: reject the “hard right”; drop nuclear; continue with Net Zero; support censorship and 18c of the HRA; import more people and champion multiculturalism; stick to the centre; pretend not to know what a woman is.

Be just like Labor in other words - something Dutton tried his hardest to do.

The best advice comes from a member of the more conservative commentariat, Roger Franklin. He suggests “Dissolve the Liberal Party”. (Quadrant Online 4/5/25).

Start from scratch. The current mob believes in so “very little”. Nothing much at all since they turned on Tony Abbott.

Australians finding it hard to recognise the country they grew up in have no reason to feel “anything but contempt for the Liberals”.

Some of the things that grate with Roger Franklin are:

. the Liberals launched the office of the eSafety Commissioner.
. got rid of Craig Kelly for speaking out against the climate scam.
. took months to go against the Voice.
. joined Labor to enforce laughingly thought to protect children online.

There's lots more, but why would anyone vote for a party that just mimics Labor when Labor is better at it!

Start again, under a new name, with different people, and give Australians a real choice between socialism and common sense, prosperity, safety and the national pride we used to have.

ttbn,

When you say; "common sense, prosperity, safety and the national pride we used to have." you think the majority of Australians are Old Farts from your bygone era, with conservative far righ views. The majority of Australians turned 18 years of age between 2005 and 20025, they are not familiar with your good old days with its spats and straw hats, they are aspirational and progressive. There are a couple of far right radical political parties for old reactionaries like you, they embrace those ideals of yours, and they command about 5% of popular support. You can't accept that Australia has moved on, it no longer accepts your values, it has new progressive values which people like you can't accept and can't understand.

Oh dear, Paul, you fall into the trap of "Far Right" every time.
I think you, and many others, use that term as an insult, when your
target is anything but a follower of Hitler, Putin, Mussolini and a
number of that ilk.
I can only think that anyone who is not of left leaning and that
stupid word "Progressive" has to be "far right".
You make yourself look silly.
The term you should use is "Rightist", "Centre Right", or "Right Wing".

Hi Bezza,

In the Australian political context the far right is represented predominantly by One Nation with about 6% of the popular support, and on the left by predominantly the Greens with about 12% support, along with a few parties with no political traction, basically these parties are content to work within the established political framework of a liberal democracy, with a reform from within agenda, that is how they try to further their political aims, which in no way are extreme or radical. Beyond the far positions are the extreme radicals left and right, who totally reject the existing political framework, and want a totally new social and political order put in place, unrecognizable to what is presently the status quo. The existing Australian political structure with its social cohesion is to stable for the extremes to gain traction. Give massive unemployment, rapidly declining living standards, and social instability then the extreme radicals will gain in popularity as did the Fascists and Communists in Australia during the 1930's, years of the Capitalists Great Depression. The historical radical figures like Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin came to power when their countries existing political structure totally failed which opened the door to allow them to enter, and take total control.

Paul,
I think I disagree with you on the Nazis as they are a political
grouping with a long tradition. We even have a few in this country.
I place the Labour Party as a leftist party that is about 25% of the
way across the political scene.

I will take the opportunity to ask you how can they be so stupid on
banning all except solar & wind and a little hydro ?
It puzzles me although I know the Libs were in government when they
did not prevent the first literal blowing up of power stations.
I saw a gathering of Greens actually standing there cheering when a
couple of stations were blown up.

I was amazed that anyone could be so STUPID to blow up power stations
before they built the replacement generation facilities!

Hi Again Bezza,

The issue of electricity generation is not philosophical, left right and all that nonsense. Whether you favour nuclear over renewables, or vice-versa is not a philosophical difference politically, rather just a difference of opinion on a mundane issue of power generation. This election the Greens for example were running around with a big tooth brush, dental into Medicare was the cry, hardly radical. Now if they had been demanding the total nationalisation of the health system, that would be radical, going to the hearth of the functioning of society, and the accepted norms. What puts one on the left or right is ones attitude on fundamental social justice issues, and to what depth one excepts the incursion of the state into the operation of society.

What is politically normal in society is not set in concrete, but fluid and dependent on what society by and large accepts to be the normal. The old normal can be replaced with the new normal. What was once seen as radical can, with a change of political dynamics, become the moderate, and what was once moderate becomes the radical. Example the rise of Nazism in Germany, 1930 Germany, a liberal democracy supported by the majority is the normal, Nazi's are nothing more than a radical fringe group, with marginal support. Then circumstances change, brought on by a Great Depression, the Nazi's come to power, by say 1938, Nazim is now the accepted new normal, and the radical is liberalism.

It looks as if Paul 1405 is using AI to write his posts. The posts are well beyond his standard of literacy, and his general ability, which stops at personal abuse.

ttbn,

Maybe if you had studied Political Science you to might have an understanding near the level of myself.....perhaps not. Can you point to any insults/abuse I've directed at you. I view you as a Dear Old Fart stuck in the quagmire of conservative mud. My youngest son is an Old Fart, and I tell him so, and he's not yet 40, although gay he's still just a regressive negative thinker.

Just when you think the Liberal Party has hit rock bottom, the newly returned person who proposed to his “husband” on the floor of Parliament before he lost his seat, Tim Wilson, has put himself up for the leadership of the party. Well, he is ‘weighing his options. Who expects a straight up statement from a Liberal?

I suppose if he backs down, the media will add “gay problem” to the party's “woman problem” the party is already branded with.

I fear that not enough space could be found these days to list the Liberal's problems.

At my stage of life, having benefited from an Australia that people keep proudly saying is gone forever, I don't really give a toss about governments or what brand they are. I just cannot understand why Australians who have made a hobby of whingeing about cost of living, cost of housing, cost of rent, not enough ‘help’ from the government and so on - all brought about by the Albanese socialist government - can turn round and re-elect the same government.

I have one theory: they are such sheep that the constant banging on by the media and “experts” about how we NEVER or only ONCE kick(ed) out a first term government, that they thought that they had better not do it this time. Nor can they pick a lie from the truth. Albanese told more lies over the few weeks before the election than he did over the past 3 years - and that’s saying something! His lies cover all the other reasons why Australia went bad: Donald Trump and all things overseas: never Albanese and his buffoons.

As for my own South Australia, there are only 2 Liberal seats left and the really wacky reason accepted for that? The high regard in which the state Labor Premier is held! How stupid. He has sweet FA to do with the Albanese government. I like him too: voted for his government at the last election; but that certainly wouldn't lead me to vote for Albanese. Anyone who thinks that, after what we have experienced over the past three years, Albanese is a better man than even the inadequate Peter Dutton, doesn’t deserve a vote.

I don't know if there's any truth to a rumour I heard that non Australian citizens who are residents were allowed to vote in this recent federal election.

Indy, as usual you are full of it. You and ttbn should be counting your lucky stars with a Labor win. The Noalition if they had won, planned to cut your aged welfare payments, Labor would never do that.

There he goes again. Instead of commenting on what is said he attacks the poster telling him he is “full of it”, then insults the poster plus someone who is not even involved, bringing up “welfare payments”, about which he knows absolutely nothing.

There is no doubt that Paul 1405 is a raving lunatic, barely able to read and write, too ignorant to realise his ignorance.

Indyvidual,

I haven't heard that non-citizens voted, so I can't comment. But, the way Australia is these days, I wouldn't be surprised. Remember the recent report about The Berk encouraging people to sign up for citizenship before they were entitled to?

If it is more than a rumour that people did vote illegally - somehow got their names on the roll - most Australians would not care, having given the Albanese government a massive increase in seats, despite what they have done to Australia and Australians.

Labor did not deserve to win, and the Liberals did deserve to lose. All we have to look forward to is chaos and more shouting from barking-mad wackjobs like Paul 1405.

Following up on the well-earned loss of the Liberal Party, there is no evidence that they have learned from it, if the best they can come up with in the way of “leaders” are Ley, Taylor and Wilson.

Even the Nationals, who did much better and still remain conservative(ish) have shot themselves in the foot by not taking the opportunity to replace the lacklustre Littleproud with Canavan.

With what used to be the Right floundering and leaderless, Australia is heading in the opposite direction to similar countries towards dreary and dangerous Socialism that will make the first term of the Albanese government look good.

ttbn,
I happen to know a resident of a number of years who is in line to get Citizenship later this year.
That person was allowed to vote. The question is, how many such "voters" were there ? Whilst I have no objection to a long termer already approved, I would object to a mass of newbies doing so. Just think of the rumoured Million that arrived since Albo has been at the helm. One can be forgiven to suspect vote buying. An official explanation from this Government wouldn't be too much to ask from the Electoral Commission on behalf of the public.

Indy, ttbn,

Trying a 2020 Trumpy are we, questioning the legitimacy of the election and Labor's landside victory; "a rumour I (Indy) heard that non Australian citizens who are residents were allowed to vote in this recent federal election" The only rumour would be from far right losers, like yourselves. Indy, where did you hear that rumour, need we ask, otherwise I'll say you made it up, so therefore you are full of it!

"AAP FactCheck - New migrants who have arrived in Australia under the Albanese government are not responsible for growth in the current electoral roll, contrary to claims made on social media. Data shows the majority of new enrolments are young people who can now vote after turning 18. Citizenship laws mean that any migrants who arrived after the last election, in May 2022, are not eligible to vote,"

ttbn, say what you like about me, the fact is your posts are generally loaded with negativity, crying in your beer, moaning about your poor self. The reason you "don't give a toss" is because you selfishly only consider yourself, and no one else.

Indy,

First off it was; "a rumour I heard" that morphed into; " (I) happen to know a resident (non citizen)... That person was allowed to vote." So what is it to be, a rumour, or your boozy old mate down at 'Gods Waiting Room'? Can't have it both ways. Its funny how you always have this "mates" that backs up what you believe to be true.

Indyvidual

OK. I wonder how a non-citizen can get on the voting roll. I know that pretty much anything goes these days in Australia (our voting system is a laughing stock) with no ID necessary.

As I say, I don't know. Apparently crooks can vote several times at different booths, but they still need names (using their own names), but surely there would be the risk (to the crooks) who might use the names of the real people who have already voted?

It's all above my pay grade,

In the meantime, let's leave the gross, crude, unhinged Paul 1405 to his demented ravings.

When I rolled up to vote I was asked "have you voted here before ?" I replied "no, why would I stand in a queue if I voted already". The Woman replied "you'd be surprised how many try to vote more than once".
Isn't there a Law against that ? Are such people called to account ?
As for our resident prize git, I called it a rumour because I can't know if I'm told correctly or not by several. With one person I got it first hand !
Frightening to think the git represents the calibre of Albo's supporters !

Indy,

If I say to you; "All the chooks our out of the pen!", its not a RUMOUR, regardless of whether the chooks are out of the pen or not, its merely a statement by me to you. Just as you claimed; " (I) happen to know a resident (non citizen)... That person was allowed to vote." Now, are you claiming that a 3rd party Old Fart, told you, being the 1st Party Old Fart, that a 2nd Party Old Fart, who we will call Luigi The Unbelievable and non citizen, voted! Surprising what you Old Farts talk about when you get together down at 'Gods Waiting Room. BTW Its time for all you chooks to get back in the pen!

To add even more weight to this fallacy, you now claim, you had a deep and meaningful discussion with the woman down at the polling booth. You claim she said to you; "you'd be surprised how many try to vote more than once". Well the actual question is; Have you voted today?" You could have voted at another polling booth, that's the reason for the question. Answer No, then you give your address, in your case; "Number One Nut House". The Electoral Officer would ask a 1,000 voters the same question that day, why would she bother adding that bit of nonsense information, just for YOU, does she tell everyone that nonsense?

You could have voted at another polling booth,
Paul1405,
Please explain the difference in someone having voted already somewhere to being asked "have you voted here today ? vs "have you voted today ?". The crux of the question is to prevent Leftists from voting more than once at the same election. I suppose in your indoctrination facility this is not discussed hence your silly, utterly unproductive quips !
Thus far, Senator Babett has the clearest assessment yet as to the result of the Australian Society suicide election on May 3rd '25 !

https://youtu.be/NDp37CJsj1g?si=5eTzDyiL_G2vATCb

Indy,

In my electorate, as in yours, there were more than half a dozen polling booths, to ask; "Have YOU voted HERE today ? Is irrelevant, as YOU could have voted at any number of other booths, and still correctly answer NO! I know English is your second language, so try and understand. Make up whatever you like to suit your far right mantra.

As for your SENATOR BIGOT, definably your kinda guy, full of conspiracy, racism, hate etc just like YOU!

Just a few facts.... the question asked is "have you voted previously in this election?". It's a statutory requirement that it be asked and the actual wording is on a card given to every AEC poll worker.

Few people vote more than once and the officials have strategies to handle those that do.

As to noncitizens voting....rubbish. People can claim to be eligible to vote but they have to fill in paperwork to vote and their vote is sequestered until their eligibility is verified.

While I'm not as sure as mhaze seems to be, I do find it hard to work out how these reports/rumours of illegal voting could occur - to the serious problem level, at least. My problem with our system is not security, but compulsion to vote and the absurd preference nonsense.

After this election, I am now of the opinion that minor parties are a pain in the arse and useless. What is needed is one conservative party and one other for voters to choose from - not the imitations of each other that we have now.

If I'm still around for the next election and there is no conservative party to vote for capable of forming government instead of just yapping at edges like One Nation, I won't vote.

ttbn,
It did sound odd to me too when she said words to the effect of "You'd be surprised how many people try to vote more than once" !
However, I'm not dismissing the possibilities as lightly as those who are trying to play it down !
To bring in a million in just three yeas is fertile ground for conjecture & warrants investigation rather than dismissal !
It's not so much a case of some among that million could cast a vote, it's their relatives & friends already here & eligible to vote for the party that offered to bring in their friends & relatives ! Don't for one moment dismiss that very potentiality !
Why not check around from which countries the majority came from & how many formerly from those countries are working in Immigration & Visa Agencies. Brace yourself for a surprise.

Thanks mhaze,

I believe what you say, Australia has one of the fairest and most secure voting administrations in the world. The AEC does a second to none job when it comes to running all kinds of elections. America on the other hand leaves too much to State Governors to control voting, which is open to abuse.

ttbn, YOU are not forced to vote, simply required to have your name "crossed off" the electoral roll. If you so desire, you can put in a blank ballot paper. What erks you, is the fact the candidates you vote for, score half a percent of the popular vote, and are never heard of ever again, leaving you high and dry, example Corny Banana's ACP, and Fat Clive's TOP Party.

I did some checking. In 2022 there were 4407 cases of people being marked off more than once. That's 0.03% of all voters. Most were administrative errors with the wrong name crossed off by AEC staff. 19 actual cases of double voting were verified. 19 out of 15 million!!

If someone is proven or suspected of double voting they are given a special designation by the AEC which means that in subsequent elections they have to sign a form before voting which is proof of double voting and used to prosecute. This stops the real cheaters in their tracks.

What mhaze reports is reassuring. It's a pity that accusations of multiple voting are not taken up by the AEC and dealt with in a way that reassures everyone.

Professor David Flint has often made a meal of multiple voting and the need for requiring identification to be presented before one can vote. 'Corruption' is often mentioned.

Maybe he has been wrong; maybe he has been exaggerating. But, if someone is just saying 'silly old bugger' without actually publicly addressing the accusations, people will believe them. The poor quality of our political and public servant class makes a lot of people believe the worst of them.

19 out of 15 million!!
maze,
that's reassuring if it's true. Seeing that you have access to such info, could you please provide the figures for 2025 when they become available ? Thanks !

Indy,

What you can't accept is that candidates most aligned with your far right political views were thumped at the ballot box by the Australian people on 3rd May. So you convinced yourself the election must have been rigged, for such a result to occur. You came on to this forum and tried to propagate a lie, "with your RUMOUR", that millions of ineligible non citizens voted, YOU made that up, and it was obvious, and I called you out on it. As for Senator Bigot, he is viewed as a spiteful, hateful, racists, by all reasonable people, but not by YOU!

Paul1405,
Whilst I can understand the euphoria you et al are presently lapping up there's also the matter of your attempts at putting up smoke screens at every turn to hide your exuding of extreme fear that what really led to Albo's reelection may be exposed ! Time will tell & it'll be most interesting when it happens.
The proverbial fan is already spinning !

The Liberal Party didn’t lose: they clearly threw the election as surely as a bent jockey pulling a horse. They are continuing to escape from being elected in the future by their choice of Sussan Ley as “leader”. I mean, who the hell would want the responsibility of trying to heal the damage done by the Albanese government over the last three years?

The pay for doing nothing in opposition is not that much less than actually taking responsibility in government, and the retirement benefits and opportunities for good jobs afterwards are brilliant.

Opposition is the place to be. Government is for the power-crazed.

This election has been described as ‘the beginning of the end’ for the Liberals; but the end of what? Certainly not the end of useless people in lucrative jobs they wouldn't get elsewhere, all paid for by taxpayers. Opposition is a gift for people unemployable in the real world.

ttbn,
It certainly feels like Australia & the Liberals entered into a suicide pact ! The only way to halt the downward slide is to really work on sorting out immigration. Frustrating as it is though it's difficult to envisage Labor to come good from its past policies ! They will run out of the peoples' money that is a given.

The Greens are certainly mad. The new Idiot in Chief, Larrissa Waters, claims that a “lot of” Jews support them! Sure they do. What Jew couldn't resist a bunch of anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian loons, continuously screeching against Israel.

As the election shows, not many people at all support the Greens, let alone the Jews whom the extremist party has gone out of its way to attack at every opportunity.

Waters also said she wants to “get sh.t done”. She will. She's full of stuff.

The lunatic Bandt has been replaced by another lunatic because there is nothing else available in the Greens.

Political party leadership - any party - is a poison chalice well deserved by the self-servers and glory hunters who go after it. Particularly in the Liberal party.

Already the word is out that sharks are circling Angus Taylor because he is a threat to the future power of the ‘left within the Liberal Party’. It is taken for granted that sooner or later there will be a coup against the just selected leader. Leadership of the Liberal Party is about as secure as that of the Roman Emperors: at least since John Howard.

The revolving door leadership of the Liberal Party is very likely to be one reason for its wipe out. The ALP is more disciplined. Liberals don't bother to hide that they are interested only in themselves, not the country or the people.

Andrew Hastie, hailed by some as a good deal simply because he was in the SAS (they don't say how that translates to politics) decided against standing for leadership - again for personal reasons - now is reported as “having a desire to lead”. The egos and self-interest of these taxpayer-funded clowns is mind-boggling.

Artificial Intelligence is talked of as a threat to many types of work. We need something to threaten these bastards and get them back on the ball and earning their money, perks, and massive retirement benefits.

ttbn,

You call the Greens idiots and loons for showing compassion for the 50,000 innocent Palestinians murdered by the Zionists death squads.
As for your claim; "not many people at all support the Greens" Do you consider over 2.5 million votes nation wide as "not many". Not like the terds you support, who in South Australia received 2.8% of the popular vote in the Senate ,compared to the Greens 12.7%

The laugh one more is on YOU, in 2019 you admitted contributing finically to the Corny Banana Party, and got ripped off. This time you were trumpeting the Fat Clive Party, were you ripped off again? No fool like an Old (Fart) fool!

The big taxing, Little Johnny Howard was Dud Dutton's political idol. They now have something in common, they were both a-holed from their seat's by the Australian people. 'Squizzy' Taylor had a slight call over Squeaky Ley as the most ineffective Opposition front bencher in the last Parliament, Albo and Jimmy ran rings around both. Can't wait for Question Time in the new Parliament, should be a humdinger with the bunch of wacko's from the Noalition asking questions. Ihey might go like this, Noalition MP; "My question is to the Prime Minister, Oh No! Sorry Mr Speaker, I can't ask a question now, I've just wet my pants!"

I wonder if, with all the negative reporting about American Politics, interpretation could have influenced young voters in Australia.
Was the much quoted incompetent management & failure failure of the "Liberals" reflecting on the Australian term ? Even the party colours of blue vs red are reversed. Far fetched thinking ? Perhaps but not entirely impossible either !

Oops, typo !
the party colours red & blue represented the opposite to here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZtMvefjB3M

Congratulations ! That's what so many of you voted for !

Indy, again with more of your fake news, from some lying far right commentator.

According to the CBA, inflation is defeated, real wages are growing, interest rates are coming down, productivity is on the improve. AND Albo has only be in this term for 2 weeks.

Where Dud Dutton went wrong. Instead of offering 25 cent off a litre of fuel, he should have offer 25 dollars. The Noalition underestimated the value Australians put on their vote! Even for $25 I don't think Australians would be crazy enough to vote for the Noalition.

I went down to the servo yesterday to fill up. Before I could stick the nozzle in the tank, this guy comes running out and grabs it off me, and starts filling my car. He said with a cheesy grin; 'Its my new job"...I said "Thanks Pete!".

he should have offer 25 dollars
Paul1405,
Selling the furniture to pay for the mortgage is one of the Labor policies that got us to where we are now ! Hiring 20,000 more bureaudroids is not reducing unemployment.

Indy,

As a deliberate policy, Labor managed the economy in such a way as to keep unemployment at a low level, and business failures at a minimum, all part of their "soft economic landing" approach. The trade off for that approach was inflation was slower in coming down, and cuts in interest rates didn't kick in as quickly as they might have.

Despite the Noalition leaving Labor with almost a trillion dollars of debt, Australia was still a low debt nation, and still is, this allowed Labor to increase borrowings marginally and in that way stimulate the economy to keep recession at bay. Who knows where the economy would have been if the Noalition had remained in office, high unemployment with a deep recession, that's where!

YOU should thank your lucky stars, as an aged welfare recipient YOU suffered noting under 3 years of Labor.

The COALITION is OFFICIALLY now the NOALITION. Seems Cow Cocky Dave pulled the plug on his relationship with Squeaky Ley. Squeaky was heart broken, went home and cried to Grandpa Johnny. The unhappy couple have split, Davo walked out of the matrimonial barn, and Squeaky has returned the hay bail and two gallons of sheep dip Davo gave her for their last anniversary. True love never runs smooth, and the sheep are unwashed! SO WHAT! All Davo wanted to do was store 2kg of Plutonium in the cow shed to run his nuclear powered windmill, Squeaky wouldn't have a bar of it, WOMAN, no wonder the Cow Coky Party has a policy of "NO CHICKS ALLOWED"! As Davo said, "Yah bring in a shella, and see what happens!"

The all mighty got defeated by miles, aided by sky news, abbott, and the chaff bandit. And they still can,t get away from nukes. Certainly a very intelligent mob is the liberal no coalition opposition mobsters.