Australian election: Early exit polls point to Tony Abbott win

[webfact]

Australian election: Early exit polls point to Tony Abbott win
By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

(CNN) -- Early exit polls in the Australian election suggest the Coalition is on track for a decisive win, as polling centers close on the country's highly-populated east coast.

According to a Sky News/Newspoll survey, Liberal leader Tony Abbott is on course to become the country's next prime minister as voters swing away in large numbers from the ruling Labor party.

A win by Abbott's Liberal-National Party alliance would end Labor's six years in power, under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard who deposed each other in successive leadership challenges.

Before the vote, commentators said the Australian electorate had tired of the revolving door of Labor leaders, and were looking for change. "Rudd's had his turn," one voter told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Full story: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/07/world/asia/australia-election/index.html

-- CNN 2013-09-07

[chooka]

labor were incompetent fools and the New Prime Minister Tony Abbott is a complete twit. There wouldn't be a single politician in Australia worthy of running the country. We lost one group of idiots and got a fresh bunch of identical idiots.

At least with the boat buy back scheme the new government is implementing I may get 2 million for $200 dinghy.

[chooka]

Clive Palmer says he will win seat

9:35pm September 7, 2013

Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer says his group is ready to split the major parties as he claimed the seat of Fairfax for himself and his party.

Mr Palmer has suggested his party has won the balance of power in the upper house via a win for the lead Senate candidate in Queensland, former rugby league star Glenn Lazarus.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/09/07/19/29/palmer-flags-court-challenge-over-poll

[Chicog]

An international statesman who is going to be referred to as "The Budgie Smuggler".

How cool is that?

[David48]

An international statesman who is going to be referred to as "The Budgie Smuggler".

How cool is that?

Point taken ... not very cool at all.

Maybe in 2 years we might have a different Prime Minister

[David48]

Didn't take them long ...

[itchybum]

why is he called a budgie smuggler ?

does he swim a lot ?

[chooka]

While the votes in the Australian election are still coming in, it looks early enough to say that conservative Tony Abbott has trounced liberal Kevin Rudd — and that Julian Assange's specially formed Wikileaks Party may not have done very well at all.

Assange himself was on the ticket for a Senate seat in Victoria. However, the results coming in so far suggest that the Wikileaks Party has little more than 1% of the vote counted so far — trailing behind the "Australian Sex Party."

As British blogger David Allen Green is pointing out on Twitter, Assange may struggle to gain one of Victoria's six seats, possibly losing out to the rather obscure special interest party the "Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party":

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/julian-assanges-wikileaks-party-underwhelm-140629909.html

[Exsexyman]

why is he called a budgie smuggler ?

does he swim a lot ?

Never mind that. As a non Australian, could someone enlighten me as to why the party Tony Abbott leads is called The Liberal Party. Is this irony, Australian style? Anybody?

[folium]

why is he called a budgie smuggler ?

does he swim a lot ?

Never mind that. As a non Australian, could someone enlighten me as to why the party Tony Abbott leads is called The Liberal Party. Is this irony, Australian style? Anybody?

Because it is liberal in the true, if old-fashioned style, referring to economic liberalism a la Adam Smith style, rather than the word being used in the American epithet style.

Also it's not even half the irony of Tony Blair fronting for the Labour Party....!

[bigjohn2]

why is he called a budgie smuggler ?

does he swim a lot ?

he smuggles the budgie inside his skull.

[bigjohn2]

why is he called a budgie smuggler ?

does he swim a lot ?

Never mind that. As a non Australian, could someone enlighten me as to why the party Tony Abbott leads is called The Liberal Party. Is this irony, Australian style? Anybody?

a bit like communist china. now one of the most avaricious countries on earth

[bigjohn2]

labor were incompetent fools and the New Prime Minister Tony Abbott is a complete twit. There wouldn't be a single politician in Australia worthy of running the country. We lost one group of idiots and got a fresh bunch of identical idiots.

i think that berserk woman has potential.

[briboy]

ah well, me being a pensioner means nothing to any of the lying pricks, but the sun still came up for me again today, that is a big positive to start with, yay...

[chooka]

Has the Liberal Party ever won an election on their own and could they? It always seems to be two parties, the Liberals and Nationals against one, Labor. The Australian election is a little like the men's singles final at the Australian Open except you have Roger Federra up against the doubles champions.

I dispise them all anyway, Labor, Nationals and Liberals, let all the policy backflips begin.

[BookMan]

A link to the results so far, as reported on the Australian Electoral Commission

Australian Electoral Commission Tally

[chooka]

A link to the results so far, as reported on the Australian Electoral Commission

Australian Electoral Commission Tally

Looking at that link, it is labour 57 Liberals 57. But then when you have the two against one it is Labour 57 Coalition 88. Why does the Liberal leader claim victory for the Liberals? Hardly a landslide for the Liberals.

[BookMan]

A link to the results so far, as reported on the Australian Electoral Commission

Australian Electoral Commission Tally

Looking at that link, it is labour 57 Liberals 57. But then when you have the two against one it is Labour 57 Coalition 88. Why does the Liberal leader claim victory for the Liberals? Hardly a landslide for the Liberals.

it wasn't long ago that people were predicting the death of the National Party. (formerly called Australian Country Party then National Country Party then National Party of Australia)

Last election the Nats has 6 seats in the House of Reps and 5 seats in the senate. They have won 9 seats in the House of reps this election.

However, to confuse matters, in Queensland the Libs and Nationals merged and there they are known as the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) They have 21 seats so far this election in the house of reps

[David48]

A link to the results so far, as reported on the Australian Electoral Commission

Australian Electoral Commission Tally

Thanks for that ...

Importantly, who controls the Senate?

Will determine much of the legislation that the incoming government will consider proposing.

[BookMan]

A link to the results so far, as reported on the Australian Electoral Commission

Australian Electoral Commission Tally

Thanks for that ...

Importantly, who controls the Senate?

Will determine much of the legislation that the incoming government will consider proposing.

A mix of Greens and maybe Palmer United Party and Katter party

[AngelsLariat]

why is he called a budgie smuggler ?

does he swim a lot ?

Never mind that. As a non Australian, could someone enlighten me as to why the party Tony Abbott leads is called The Liberal Party. Is this irony, Australian style? Anybody?

Because it is liberal in the true, if old-fashioned style, referring to economic liberalism a la Adam Smith style, rather than the word being used in the American epithet style.

That's a good explanation. American Libertarianism more closely resembles what most of the rest of the world calls Liberalism than does American Liberalism.

[BookMan]

Looks like Katter might miss out in the senate, with Palmer United grabbing a seat in Queensland and Palmer United also grabbing a senate seat in Tasmania!

In Victoria the sixth senate seat might go to Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party. Yep. I am not joking.

In WA the fifth Senate seat is currently the Australian Sports Party

The ABC site is good for senate counting and updates. See ABC Election Site here

[geriatrickid]

If I understand FOX American political commentators, apparently Australia is now free of the yoke of "socialism".

[BookMan]

If I understand FOX American political commenters,, apparently Australia is now free of the yoke of "socialism".

It looks that way. Except for people taking maternity leave and those looking to lease a new car

[AngelsLariat]

If I understand FOX American political commentators, apparently Australia is now free of the yoke of "socialism".

Yes, they are making it sound as if Tony Abbott is George Bush's long lost twin brother. Let the good times roll!

[cpofc]

I am not going to get involved in Australian Politics on TV. Suffice to say that the election of Tony Abbot is going to be in my favour.

But just to answer a question on the Country, and National Parties in Australia. These were/are right wing, conservative parties, with the same values, etc as those of the Liberal Party except they represent the people of the 'bush'. Because they have special needs, unlike city folk.

Australia has an 'affinity' with 'The Bush'. Naturally, everyone lived in 'The Bush' in 1788 when Capt Phillip first arrived. But we moved on alot since then, and at great speed. We are one of the most urbanised countries in the world. Have been for a while. There is alot of myth about the Bush. Much is made by historians about the WW1 Diggers, all volunteers who carved out an impressive record for themselves on the battlefields of the Western Front.. Many will have you believe that the first AIF was almost entirely made up of hard riding, hard drinking, salt of the earth 'bushman', who all rode into recruiting centres in 1914 on horseback. This is a myth. Most were from the cities.

It is 'cool' to be from the bush. Every Australian will try to tell you he's from the bush. Or at least his roots are in the 'bush'. People from the 'Bush' are herld in high regard. The bush is the bastion of all that is good in a predominetly White Christian Anglo Saxon English Speaking country. Whose Head of State remains to this today, Queen Elizabeth 2nd,

The truth is, today, most Australians wouldn't have a clue about the bush. Most have never been there, let alone live there. But it is much a part of the National Psyche as ANZAC is.

Australia's love affair with the bush goes back a long way in our rather short history. This is why Parties such as the National Party and the new Katter Party exist today.

Up The Country is a popular poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 9 July 1892, under the title Borderland, and started the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by both Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson about the true nature of life in the Australian bush. Lawson died an alcoholic.


Up The Country


I am back from up the country -- very sorry that I went --
Seeking for the Southern poets' land whereon to pitch my tent;
I have lost a lot of idols, which were broken on the track,
Burnt a lot of fancy verses, and I'm glad that I am back.
Further out may be the pleasant scenes of which our poets boast,
But I think the country's rather more inviting round the coast.
Anyway, I'll stay at present at a boarding-house in town,
Drinking beer and lemon-squashes, taking baths and cooling down.

`Sunny plains'! Great Scott! -- those burning
wastes of barren soil and sand
With their everlasting fences stretching out across the land!
Desolation where the crow is! Desert where the eagle flies,
Paddocks where the luny bullock starts and stares with reddened eyes;
Where, in clouds of dust enveloped, roasted bullock-drivers creep
Slowly past the sun-dried shepherd dragged behind his crawling sheep.
Stunted peak of granite gleaming, glaring like a molten mass
Turned from some infernal furnace on a plain devoid of grass.

Miles and miles of thirsty gutters -- strings of muddy water-holes
In the place of `shining rivers' -- `walled by cliffs and forest boles.'
Barren ridges, gullies, ridges! where the ever-madd'ning flies --
Fiercer than the plagues of Egypt -- swarm about your blighted eyes!
Bush! where there is no horizon! where the buried bushman sees
Nothing -- Nothing! but the sameness of the ragged, stunted trees!
Lonely hut where drought's eternal, suffocating atmosphere
Where the God-forgotten hatter dreams of city life and beer.

Treacherous tracks that trap the stranger,
endless roads that gleam and glare,
Dark and evil-looking gullies, hiding secrets here and there!
Dull dumb flats and stony rises, where the toiling bullocks bake,
And the sinister `gohanna', and the lizard, and the snake.
Land of day and night -- no morning freshness, and no afternoon,
When the great white sun in rising bringeth summer heat in June.
Dismal country for the exile, when the shades begin to fall
From the sad heart-breaking sunset, to the new-chum worst of all.

Dreary land in rainy weather, with the endless clouds that drift
O'er the bushman like a blanket that the Lord will never lift --
Dismal land when it is raining -- growl of floods, and, oh! the woosh
Of the rain and wind together on the dark bed of the bush --
Ghastly fires in lonely humpies where the granite rocks are piled
In the rain-swept wildernesses that are wildest of the wild.

Land where gaunt and haggard women live alone and work like men,
Till their husbands, gone a-droving, will return to them again:
Homes of men! if home had ever such a God-forgotten place,
Where the wild selector's children fly before a stranger's face.
Home of tragedy applauded by the dingoes' dismal yell,
Heaven of the shanty-keeper -- fitting fiend for such a hell --
And the wallaroos and wombats, and, of course, the curlew's call --
And the lone sundowner tramping ever onward through it all!

I am back from up the country, up the country where I went
Seeking for the Southern poets' land whereon to pitch my tent;
I have shattered many idols out along the dusty track,
Burnt a lot of fancy verses -- and I'm glad that I am back.
I believe the Southern poets' dream will not be realised
Till the plains are irrigated and the land is humanised.
I intend to stay at present, as I said before, in town
Drinking beer and lemon-squashes, taking baths and cooling down.

Henry Lawson :


IN DEFENCE OF THE BUSH by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson (the bloke responsible for writing Waltzing Matilda)

So you're back from up the country, Mister Lawson, where you went,
And you're cursing all the business in a bitter discontent;
Well, we grieve to disappoint you, and it makes us sad to hear
That it wasn't cool and shady -- and there wasn't plenty beer,
And the loony bullock snorted when you first came into view;
Well, you know it's not so often that he sees a swell like you;
And the roads were hot and dusty, and the plains were burnt and brown,
And no doubt you're better suited drinking lemon-squash in town.


Yet, perchance, if you should journey down the very track you went
In a month or two at furthest you would wonder what it meant,
Where the sunbaked earth was gasping like a creature in its pain
You would find the grasses waving like a field of summer grain,
And the miles of thirsty gutters blocked with sand and choked with mud,
You would find them mighty rivers with a turbid, sweeping flood;
For the rain and drought and sunshine make no changes in the street,
In the sullen line of buildings and the ceaseless tramp of feet;
But the bush hath moods and changes, as the seasons rise and fall,
And the men who know the bush-land -- they are loyal through it all.


But you found the bush was dismal and a land of no delight,
Did you chance to hear a chorus in the shearers' huts at night?
Did they "rise up, William Riley" by the camp-fire's cheery blaze?
Did they rise him as we rose him in the good old droving days?
And the women of the homesteads and the men you chanced to meet --
Were their faces sour and saddened like the "faces in the street",
And the "shy selector children" -- were they better now or worse
Than the little city urchins who would greet you with a curse?
Is not such a life much better than the squalid street and square
Where the fallen women flaunt it in the fierce electric glare,
Where the sempstress plies her sewing till her eyes are sore and red
In a filthy, dirty attic toiling on for daily bread?
Did you hear no sweeter voices in the music of the bush
Than the roar of trams and 'buses, and the war-whoop of "the push"?
Did the magpies rouse your slumbers with their carol sweet and strange?
Did you hear the silver chiming of the bell-birds on the range?
But, perchance, the wild birds' music by your senses was despised,
For you say you'll stay in townships till the bush is civilised.
Would you make it a tea-garden and on Sundays have a band
Where the "blokes" might take their "donahs", with a "public" close at hand?
You had better stick to Sydney and make merry with the "push",
For the bush will never suit you, and you'll never suit the bush.

The Bulletin, 23 July 1892

[itchybum]

How did the sex party go ?

[chooka]

I grew up in the Walwa/Corryong area and we use to get down to the big smoke of Wodonga every 2 weeks. I couldn't get over the size of the buildings bloody huge and a scary place for the unsuspecting boy from the sticks..

[BookMan]

How did the sex party go ?

Not sure of their vote...but not in line for a senate seat

[AngelsLariat]

I wish I was on some Australian mountain range.