The changing dynamic of Australian politics

Aug 14, 2011
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A new power has risen in Australian politics — and it's not coming quietly - ABC News

Very good analysis of how politics are played out in Australia (with references internationally). There is plenty to Ms Crabbs' article so I've just quoted the last paragraph summarising what goes before it:
New power, new game
It can also create opportunity. There is always opportunity, when power shifts.

In this instance, there is opportunity for women to seek justice, to speak out, to demand restitution in this new environment which suddenly gives a damn about what's happened to them. But there's opportunity for strategically-minded blokes, too. For some, the emergence of a cool new way to bring down their enemies is exciting, a brand-new update to the first-person shooter game called Political Ratf**kery.

The political gossip network — on which horrible rumours about women have regularly been trafficked — is now alive with speculation about which bloke will be brought down next, or in some cases with blokes shopping tales about their enemies.

It's possible that in this new environment, pressure may be brought to bear upon some women to cough up their stories in order to bring about a desired political assassination.

As the Prime Minister discovered when he tried strategically to deploy an allegation of misconduct in the media last week, it doesn't quite work like that.

This new power comes from a different source and it doesn't behave like the old kind.
 
gotta love the rise of social media and politics

Same game, new outfit

In the old days this was done in pubs around Canberra wth journos getting their mail from polis and insiders.

Now they just don't need to leave their home
 
Aug 14, 2011
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Much better to let the government act with impunity. They were given the chance to police themselves and failed miserably, they've bought this upon themselves.

The decisions are of their own making & as Ms Crabb points out, the old tactics have failed them.

' It's a new head of power. And what's extraordinary is that it's been generated nationally by the voices of people conventionally thought powerless, or near enough to powerless for the difference not to mean much. A young political staffer, close to the bottom of the heap. Schoolgirls. The voice of a woman from her grave, telling a contested story from long ago. Women who've been spat out from the system in Parliament House. Tens of thousands of nobodies gathering in the streets. '

&

'The driving element of the new power is this: Actions that previously did not carry consequences are now carrying consequences. Behaviour that was once tacitly acceptable in the elaborate and bespoke workplace that is Parliament House is now — with the benefit of sunlight — recognised as unacceptable.

Women are telling the stories of what happened to them and — rather than being dismissed as sluts or nuts, or being shuffled out of Parliament entirely — they're being believed.'
 
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Jul 5, 2012
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Kidding, right?
A new power has risen in Australian politics — and it's not coming quietly - ABC News

Very good analysis of how politics are played out in Australia (with references internationally). There is plenty to Ms Crabbs' article so I've just quoted the last paragraph summarising what goes before it:
New power, new game
It can also create opportunity. There is always opportunity, when power shifts.

In this instance, there is opportunity for women to seek justice, to speak out, to demand restitution in this new environment which suddenly gives a damn about what's happened to them. But there's opportunity for strategically-minded blokes, too. For some, the emergence of a cool new way to bring down their enemies is exciting, a brand-new update to the first-person shooter game called Political Ratf**kery.

The political gossip network — on which horrible rumours about women have regularly been trafficked — is now alive with speculation about which bloke will be brought down next, or in some cases with blokes shopping tales about their enemies.

It's possible that in this new environment, pressure may be brought to bear upon some women to cough up their stories in order to bring about a desired political assassination.

As the Prime Minister discovered when he tried strategically to deploy an allegation of misconduct in the media last week, it doesn't quite work like that.

This new power comes from a different source and it doesn't behave like the old kind.
I think she's hit the nail on the head. Power, who wields it, and who is trying to get their hands on it, are never static. And it runs across two axes, not a simple left/right continuum.

This is a seachange, definitely.
 
Aug 14, 2011
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I think she's hit the nail on the head. Power, who wields it, and who is trying to get their hands on it, are never static. And it runs across two axes, not a simple left/right continuum.

This is a seachange, definitely.

Are ANY of the current political alignments capable of responding ?
 
Aug 14, 2011
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Possibly no. Least of all the Coalition, obviously.

Like most things political, the current alignments of self interest leave much to be desired.

The NSW by election in the Upper Hunter will be interesting, testing the electorate v the pollsters.
Local issues willl be a bigger issue than we normally see in State & Fed elections, (?). I think.
 

Rad Roo

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there's been changes in aus politics? i can only see a bunch pretentious white folks bickering with another bunch of pretentious white folks.
 
Aug 14, 2011
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there's been changes in aus politics? i can only see a bunch pretentious white folks bickering with another bunch of pretentious white folks.

Got a better version than democracy ? A benevolent dictator in theory, just finding one means ignoring the political game/noise.
 
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