IT’S A FLOP: How The Election Has Backfired, Leaving Australia Worse Off And Heading For A Political Clusterfuck
Another Australian Federal Election is coming to a close and we are “supremely confident” Malcolm Turnbull will once again reign as the country’s ruler based on predictions.
After calling for a double dissolution election eight weeks ago, we’ve now weathered one of the longest and most boring elections of all time.
Although it won’t be until Tuesday that we know the results for sure, we’ve no doubt ended up in a worse place than where we stated. From here, it’s likely Turnbull’s Coalition will pick up the remaining in-doubt seats to either hold a slim majority Government or the balance of power will rest with the minor and independent parties. This is a really bad result (as we’ll explain below). It could even mean we need another election to sort all this shit out.
Turnbull originally called this whole mess after facing frustrating resistance in trying to pass ABCC reform. This issue barely copped a mention throughout the campaign despite it being the reason we all had to take over an hour out of our Saturday dealing with an archaic and outdated voting system (which didn’t nearly deliver enough sausage sizzles). Malcy hoped this vote would result in more people on his team in the senate to help push through changes.
So far, the ABC are reporting an overall swing of 3.22 per cent swing towards Labor with the National / Liberal Party coalition likely to pick up the majority of seats.
The ABC’s Antony Green says a Labor majority government is not a possibility despite them being ahead in six of 11 seats still undecided.
Turnbull addressed the nation last night, saying:
“I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a Coalition majority Government in the next Parliament”
Despite his confidence, it can’t be contested that this election has been a fizzer. Whoever is in power will have less mandate to lead and will be held to ransom by a motley crew of minor and independent parties.
The result will mean slower, more painful decision making with “too many cooks in the kitchen”. Even worse, the cooks who COULD HOLD THE BALANCE OF POWER likely include Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party, plus a member of Derryn Hinch‘s Justice Party and Jacqui Lambie. These people will now likely be some of the most INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE DRIVING THE NATION’S FUTURE. That’s a big fucking step backwards.
ABC veteren journalist Barry Cassidy was the first to confirm the likelyhood of a hung parliament last night, predicting:
“The Labor Party won’t win government.”
“The issue is whether or not Malcolm Turnbull can govern in a majority or minority.”
“More likely than not, we’ll have a hung parliament,”
Andrew Bolt has (unsurprisingly) already called for Malcolm Turnbull to resign. This of course is a little extreme, but gives you an idea of how some people towards the right are viewing this mess.
It’s important to note that this year there were a high number of postal and absentee votes (30%) that won’t be finalised for a number of days. However, while the exact figures aren’t yet known, it can’t be disputed that the Liberal party will likely remain in Government, but in a worse place than where they started.
The final decision could be dragged out over weeks. It’ll be messy and will inevitably lead us in to a worse place than where we started. At this rate another election could be necessary if the government has been denied a mandate and Labor frustrates its agenda. Yes – we could all be doing this all again sometime soon. This is an outcome suggested by Cassidy and also backed up by Arthur Sinodinos.
Once all this settles, we’ll look forward to Parliament most likely heading back in August to see how this shitshow will pan out.