Opinion Politics (warning, may contain political views you disagree with)
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- Dec 26, 2010
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Legalise Cannabis WA Party looking like they'll get a seat in the Upper House.
- Dec 26, 2010
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Sure, only 41.9% of the vote counted but they've polled more 1st preference votes statewide than One Nation and The Fishers And Shooters Party.
Not sure who Brad is in relation the the Cannabis WA Party, but my comment was related to the predicted outcome. I would guess they're one of those parties that will get a fairly high share of the preference redistribution because they wouldn't be one of the parties that polarize the other candidates - except maybe the Australian Christians (who at this stage have about 200 more 1st preference votes).
Its not a burning issue for me - more of a novelty that there could be a new party having representation. Labor it seems will have a clear majority in the Upper House, so it may not mean much - other than it was the Liberals who ended the decriminalization laws.
If you're referring to the Green's candidate Brad Pettitt, he's been elected in the last spot in South Metropolitan
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You can't call people stupid just because you're unhappy with the result. Don't blame the people of WA for the Liberal party's complete and utter failure to offer anything meaningful.
There's allegations of branch stacking, they barely offered any policies, they opposed the hard border and didn't even think they could win. Who in their right mind would vote for that hot mess?
With the strictly partisan nature of politics in Australia and the executive being part of the legislature it's folly to suggest there's any much point in individuals considering the calibre of candidate when casting their vote. MPs don't freely vote on policy, they tow the party line and vote in accordance with that.
When casting my vote I consider the policies of the parties, the candidate comes into consideration but that's secondary to the party's policies.
Yes, ideally we elect MPs of good character and repute but such measures are subjective anyway.
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Spitty_the_alpaca
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I listened to dr david honey today, fair dinkem if thats the best the libs can offer up they will be in the wilderness for ever. The * wit tried to defend the "blow up coal in collie" policy. He's another turdbull.
- Dec 26, 2010
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When you turn 18yo, you'll be able to vote and have your say in the outcome.
i disagree on this 100%.
If you vote purely on the party lines, it basically creates a situation where the party decides everything. When you have good candidates they can shape the policy and change it.
People constantly complain about the quality of the people in parliament "union hacks" "staffers" "powerbrokers" but all of those things happen when you blindly vote for the party and not the candidate.
I'll pick on South Perth - people just elected someone who has never had a real job, will never be a minister, will never contribute any real policies and will certainly be gone in 4 years. They picked him over a good young candidate the libs put up.
People should be more willing to look at the candidates. I've voted independent before because I look at the candidate. You should too.
Unfortunately wrong. I'm active in the Liberal Swan Division and can say that Ryan Chorley was one of Nick Gorains puppets. South Perth Liberals wanted to preselect Glenn Cridland but their branches were stacked by Gorain. They didn't vote for Chorley as a protest and good riddance.
Which is it? according to Bishop, the Liberal candidate was a lemon.
You've claimed a father of two with a strong background in South Perth has never had a real job (well apparently neither did Kirkup) and is a donkey.
Rather than piss and moan about a vote that didn't go your way, maybe you should accept that the strong swing against the Liberals was a combination of factors:
popularity of a Premier and government who did their job well
unpopularity of an opposition who did their job poorly
acceptance of local candidates who doorknocked and worked hard to get elected.
If the swing was mild in the blue ribbon seats, then the Lib powerbrokers would have justified their behaviour and continued stacking branches and alienating traditional Liberal voters. This is a chance for the party to take a long hard look at themselves.
this had nothing to do with local candidates. The guy in Scarborough for example went missing for 2 weeks before the vote, did no media etc. A swing of 15% across the board has nothing to do with candidates. David Honey didn't knock a single door but he still won.
Powerbrokers are part of the game. Anyone who can work their way through the system of politics to get preselected to a safe seat has my respect. Noone who gets into a safe seat is clean skin. McGowan wasn't. Honey wasn't. Thats just how the game works.
I want to look at a candidate and go "yes this bloke could be a minister if not premier" in a safe seat. When I lived in Vic Park i voted for Ben Wyatt for example.
People voted for McGowan and his handling of COVID. In my opinion he did nothing that someone else couldn't have done, but it is what it is. the NSW government if they held the election tomorrow would have an even greater landslide, again - COVID related.
I want someone who i can look at their CV at the very least. That bloke doesn't even have one.
Kirkup had a job at BGC which i think he claims was a legitimate job, though fairly suspicious it was liberal party related.
The guy in Scarborough didn't attend a beach association meeting. Liza Harvey made much of that. But he doorknocked just about every house in the electorate. That has been confirmed publicly.
I don't know about Dave Honey. He was in the leadership team, I assume?
Powerbrokers are okay if they override branch stacking for obviously poor candidates. When its the other way round, then they undermine the faith in the party. That has clearly happened here.
Not everyone can be a potential minister or premier, especially in a party with a large majority. Being a strong local candidate who is prepared to work hard for their electorate is just as important.
Gladys would not achieve an even greater landslide. In her case, the parochialism of NSW (Sydney or the Bush eg charging other states for hotel quarantine) has helped her, but she has faltered a lot in the past year. The Ruby Princess, breakouts in old peoples homes, her corrupt boyfriend and her handling of the affair, and the numerous cases of community transmission should lower her popularity. In comparison McGowan hasn't missed a beat. The biggest similarity appears to be how crap the opposition parties are.
Labor is polling at 23% in NSW so its roughly equiv to the liberals in WA who polled 22%, though there may be an argument they will inflate the greens vote which goes to them anyway.
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Mark McGowan romped in the election on policies some of his supporters once despised. Good on him though the vast majority of punters want their safety and health protected and want to be able to have economic prosperity (even though it's due to factors out of the government's control).
Taylor
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Agreed. It's not an easy job being in opposition at the best of time because you're ultimately just hot air.
If the media aren't on your side, or actively on the side of the government, then you've got no hope.
Headlines for weeks drumming up negativity around whether WA was arrogant to not learn from the mistakes of other states which lead to an unnecessary lock down, it doesn't even need to be true to work. They just keep suggesting that something obvious could have been done to stop it and that the government didn't for a reason the lawyers clear as not defamatory.
If the news and papers aren't interested in the press conference to counter the narrative then the people don't hear about it.
We are seeing the same effect in a small scale now with US media retracting their stories about Trump pressuring secretaries of state into finding something, now that the audio is more widely circulated of the phone call itself. The effect was already secured so it doesn't matter if the truth was different to what was reported, the report decided the truth and we roll with it.
Lesson from all of this is make sure you have great friends in the media industry and you'll have a soft ride and whatever you do don't make an enemy of the media or they will flatten you, blanket the market with headlines (only 30% of people read the article anyway) and you'll influence public perception.
As soon as the wins from covid-19 start running out and the federal government starts getting the heat for things again I expect all the state premiers to retreat back to their offices for as long as possible. Our climate here only has so much room for politics and when we don't hear from people or about them while all the news we do hear on politicians is negative then we assume it's all rosey everywhere else.
Ryan Chorley? Seriously? Another bloody privileged white male lawyer. The South Perth candidate pool was weak. Both Labor and Liberals chose the worst out of the options they had at preselection imo. Voters chose on party lines because neither candidate was inspiring.
Hayley Lawrance would have been a much better pick than Chorley - also a lawyer but with her own practice (so a fair bit more life experience). And if choosing a woman was a bridge too far then Glen Cridland, a long serving City of South Perth councillor with incredible links to the community would tick off every box so much better other than that he isn't young. At least they didn't go with Nathan Morton I suppose but is Ryan really any better?
Working for a big law or big accounting firm, if anything disqualifies you as being a capable candidate. Get out of that corporate bubble and get some real world experience ffs. People don't want the next Christian Porter who have grown up being told how important they are. Diversity will equal success for the Liberal party but to do that they need to make the party attractive to people that aren't male, aren't privileged, aren't white, aren't arseholes.
neither party is diverse. Look at the candidates from both.
re: South Perth, i didn't do any research on the other liberal candidates (or labor) but it would be obvious to me that the liberal nominees are going to be much higher quality for a blue ribbon seat than the labor candidates. Just like the guy running for the Liberals in Rockingham probably wasn't a great candidate. Any liberal you listed would have better than the bloke that won from what i can see.
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McGowan goes alright for a white male guy.
You're missing the point. If they had preselected Glen Cridland for instance. Someone who I am a big fan of - so declaring my bias. Plenty of people who didn't want to vote for Chorley (because he has zero cred - as someone else said, he's a puppet) would have voted for Cridland. Even some Labor supporters would have voted for Glen because the guy could honestly be a legit great candidate for either party with the way he goes about things.
But they went Chorley and people went he doesn't resonate with me. I don't want Zak Kirkup as Premier because that would be a disaster (if he could have got a microphone to work things may have turned for him). So I'm voting for the party with strong leadership. Yes Geoff isn't great either but when it's a nil all draw on candidates then people vote along party lines. It's not stupid, it's the logical thing to do.
I’d also add narcissistic but yeah
Nailed it
