Australia's ruling coalition forced into minority government

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

By TREVOR MARSHALLSEA
2 hours ago

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s ruling coalition was forced into minority government on Saturday after a massive swing against its senior partner, the Liberal Party, in a by-election for the seat of the prime minister the party itself had dismissed.

In a stinging backlash from the electorate after the fourth toppling of an Australian leader by internal party vote in just eight years, a swing of more than 20 percent against the sitting Liberals propelled independent candidate Kerryn Phelps to a decisive victory.

The result cost the conservative Liberal-National party coalition its one-seat majority in the House of Representatives, forcing Prime Minister Scott Morrison to rely on deals with independent lawmakers to guarantee confidence in his government, enact legislation and ensure money supply.

The next general election is due in seven months, and there was no immediate talk Saturday that it would be held any sooner.

-snip-


Read more: https://apnews.com/386dce7271b646429b896d7d0db0af0b

[kimbutgar]

1. I met a guy recently who was an Australian citizen

He said the government was so messed up and that the news ( mostlyy owned by Murdoch) is stroking all this animosity in his country. He was on his paid 7 week paid vacation mandated by the country.

[Thyla]

2. Well having 6 Prime Ministers in 8 years

With only a few of them actually being elected probably tells you quite a bit about the state of Aussie politics. And Murdoch sure does hold a lot of sway in Australian media and seemingly in politics as well.
I wouldn't get carried away with the 7 week paid leave thing though, either the guy works a phenomenal amount of hours a year or more likely he has rolled it over for a couple of years.
It was also stated that last year for the first time, less than half of all Australian workers are working in jobs with full entitlements and paid leave. Good work if you can find it though, I never did, had it pulled from under me under Howard.

In fact this whole byelection tells you much about the state of our politics. The abandoned seat was the one the last PM Malcolm Turnbull held, the lib/nat party forced him from his job so he spat the dummy and resigned from parliament leaving his seat up for grabs in a byelection. As stated in the OP article the lib/nat coalition hold the balance of power by just one seat. In recent days the new PM has questioned whether or not to move the Australian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as well, this seems like incredibly bad timing as Wentworth, the seat up for grabs in the byelection has one of Australia's largest Jewish communities. Couple this with the growing resentment of the voting public to the whole Lord of the Flies state of Aussie government they were asking for this.

tl;dr
idiots, the lot of them.

[canetoad]

3. Thyla

You are flying the flag, so you should know that each and every one of those PMs was definitely elected. We have a Parliamentary system, not direct election of PM.

[Thyla]

4. Well yes,

Elected by their own party not the public. I was oversimplifying things because I'm one beer too many in to bother explaining all that. Still I guess it is more accurate to say that only a handful of them were elected by the public in a general election as they were the previously party elected head of said party. lol
As a rule most people I know vote based on party platform regardless of their local representation, I really wish they wouldn't but that is a reality.

[canetoad]

6. Nope!

All of them were elected by the public - to their seats. From there, they were elected to be ruling party leader.

Mate, I know where you're coming from, and the bloke in the top seat right now is an effin' drop-kick, but that is the system and it's working as it should.

More importantly, the Labor party has learned the importance of optics of chopping and changing leadership and I predict we will have PM Bill Shorten next year.

[Thyla]

9. My point was the party leader is not elected by the public...

to be the actual party leader.
But yeah you are right. Like I said, beer.

Honestly I have been out of the country 10 years now so it's not as fresh as it once was and from what I can tell I',m more than happy to not be in the thick of it these days. At this point I'm far too cynical of the lot of them anyway.

[canetoad]

11. Have one for me!

It's first thing Sunday morning here; too early.

[Thyla]

12. Will do..

It's nearing 8pm here in Spain and I'm out on the back terrace streaming overnights on ABC radio with a few brews.

[cstanleytech]

5. So could simply it in a Dummies for Australian politics for morons such as myself

when it comes to other countries government?
Does this mean Australia is heading towards being led by a Trump like government that is extremely xenophobic and blames its problems on immigrants as well as the poor, elderly and disabled when really the problem is the people leading and running the country more often than not?

[canetoad]

7. Different political system cstanleytech

Two houses, pretty much like the USA; House of Reps and Senate.

Two major parties, more independents and minor parties than USA. The party that wins most seats in the house of reps gets to install their leader as Prime Minister. The Head of State is not popularly elected by the voters but chosen by the party therefore if the ruling party choses a new leader, that person becomes PM.

This is the kind of system that hopefully will prevent us from ever having a Trump-like figure as PM. Only politicians with an enormous death wish would vote for someone like that as party leader.

[cstanleytech]

8. Hmm not sure if that system would work for the US especially considering what party has had the

majority in the House for the past few years and has been willing to do and support things that I find repugnant.

[uriel1972]

14. *cough* Tony Abbott *cough*

[canetoad]

15. He was bad

But not as bad as Trump.

[Thyla]

10. To add

This byelection was won by an independent which is on the left side of politics which would seemingly be heading the opposite direction of Trumpism.
I can see how one not familiar may see the word Liberal party and think they are the ones to the left but in Oz they are our centre rights. We are upside down after all.

[roamer65]

13. Murdoch is a Russian asset.

He is a Putin lover.