Australia is said to have more sheep than people.
When it comes to voting it would appear that Australians follow the flock and vote as their fathers did or if they live in a labor or liberal area.Conditioned by their surroundings to vote a certain way.
In the recent Batman by election a number of independents and smaller party candidates were ignored and the Labor machine gained the majority.
Politics for Australians not as important an issue as finding and keeping a job.driving to work and spending time with the kids.
Sport has a much bigger following than politics despite the mainstream
media devoting pages and air time to discussing the latest intrigues.
Labor and Liberal parties have a bi partisan approach to the political fight.
When the Liberal party decided not to field a candidate in Batman.
I felt that Turnbull did not want to play cricket that day.
Bob Hawke won the Batman election in 1980 but there is no mention on
Wikipedia of the result but has Brian Howe as the labor candidate.
The Batman by election would not have occurred if it was not for Bob Hawkes hatred for British people and the fact that he excluded Dual citizens from standing for Parliament.
No mention in the mainstream media that still keeps facts from the Australian public.

" Bob Hawkes hatred for British people and the fact that he excluded Dual citizens from standing for Parliament."

I'd love to see a reference for that statement.

It's not news that Australians are politically apathetic. That's why we have the crooks and boofheads we do have in government. In SA last weekend, despite 16 years of Labor incompetence and socialism, the Liberal party received their lowest vote ever. The only thing that got them the the bare 24 seats to win was the change to the gerrymander that kept Labor in for 16 years. Despite the hype, Xenohon's mob got only 13% got of the vote, and the Greens 6%. The new Australian Conservatives got 3.5% and needn't have bothered at all.

In Batman, the choice was between another Labor union hack and a Green whose head would have looked good on a Russian postage stamp in Stalin's day. It's reported that only 76% of the electorate turned out; bit who could blame them when the government didn't even field a candidate.

80% of Australians get the idiot governments they deserve. The other 20% of us just have to suffer along with them.

Reply to is Mise. Hawke introduced the Australia Act in 1986. This act designed to stop appeals to the Privy Council in the UK. Legally cutting ties with the U.K. At the start of the Falkland Island conflict.Aussie sailors and officers wanted to join with the Royal Navy in the South Atlantic to defeat the Argentinians. A signal was sent to Canberra by RAN ships close by in the Pacific. The Defence Department recommended such action but Hawke told them they were not to help Britain. This action will be remembered if ever Australia is attacked. During his Oxford years Hawke is quoted as saying he hated English.

1. Bob Hawke was the member for Wills. He never contested or represented Batman.

2. The dual citizenship problem is caused by Section 44 of the Australian Constitution. It had/has nothing to do with Hawke or any actions by Hawke. He did not "excluded Dual citizens from standing for Parliament."

3. What you say about the RAN contacting Canberra about going to war against Argentina is a load of rubbish. The armed services know that it is solely the government's decision as to whether we go to war or not. I'd ask you to supply evidence for the silly assertion but I suspect that'd be fruitless.

sheesh.

If you're gunna mock the majority of your fellow citizens it might behove you to get at least some of your facts straight.

" During his Oxford years Hawke is quoted as saying he hated English."

Well, I've always been keen on English, but I never liked German so didn't learn to speak it; studying Tamil at the moment in advance of a trip to South India in a couple of months.