At choir tonight, we will sing Dylan’s The Times are a Changing in celebration of a new government after nine years of a Conservative Coalition (Liberal/National parties) that has been moving steadily to the right, via a succession of white, male, private-school educated, bullying boys. Most recently headed by Scott Morrison aka Scomo, aka Scotty from Marketing. Following our election last Saturday, Anthony Albanese has just been sworn in as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister. Despite not yet holding a majority in the lower house (two more seats needed), the Governor General was satisfied he would form a stable government, and our new PM is currently participating in the Quad Talks between USA, Japan, India and Australia. Talk about hitting the ground running!
It was a dirty campaign, and one of the grubbiest personal slurs was a shot at “Albo’s” name. One of the Coalition’s advertisements proclaimed, “It won’t be easy under Albanese”. There’s a slap in the face for every person of Italian descent who was jeered in the schoolyard and called a wog. But this election will go down in history for two things – the rise of women independents nicknamed ‘Teals’ because of their preferred colour brand, and in my humble opinion, the Australian voting public rejecting Rupert Murdoch’s (owner of News Corp in Australia and Fox News in the United States) “Americanisation” of Australian politics. Overlooking his hyperbolic rhetoric, and rejecting the traditional two-party system, voters have sent a record number of Greens and Independents to both the lower and upper houses of Parliament. Due to postal votes, and calculation of preferences , it will be some weeks before the final composition is known.
In the meantime, I recommend this article from fellow blogger Something to Ponder About who has given me permission to repost here. (You need to click on the link to get through to her article).
In the former Yugoslav country of Slovenia, “liberal newcomer Robert Golob defeated populist, Trump-fan Janes Janša, in an election tipped as a “referendum on democracy.” His movement, launched only in January, snapped a whopping 34.5% of the vote. [Thanks Manja Mexi for the link]. Two days ago, it was Australia’s turn to vote. A country […]
Australia Votes for Decency — Something to Ponder About
The Reluctant Retiree 
Looking in the right direction it seems
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Time will tell. All I know is that Scott Morrison was not the leader for me, nor were the tactics of the Liberal party to stay in government.
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Hurray for the TEALS. Maybe we could get a few of them sent to the US to encourage American women to vote for candidates that will recognize the rights of women instead of candidates that follow the dictates of middle age white Anglo Saxton who feel women are not full citizens.
I can see why your choir had a great reason to sing, Gwen.
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I’m still waiting to see the final composition of the lower house – The House of Representatives – but there is no doubt it will have a much greater representation of women, and those from diverse ethnic backgrounds. One of our greatest differences is that we have compulsory voting and you do not. It means a far greater representation of views, even allowing for those who don’t put much thought into it, or those who don’t understand how to correctly complete their form. Barring the “donkey vote” every voice counts. That’s quite different to people not showing up because they think they don’t have the power to effect change.
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Fingers crossed for the Teals.
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Oh those lovely ladies definitely have a seat at the table! We are just waiting to hear whether Labor wins one more seat out of the four that are too close to call yet. That will give them their majority.
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Congratulations, Australia!
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Thank you. I’ll take a bow on behalf of the population. Now let’s see where a new government leads us…
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How fantastic and more Greens too. Brilliant. Murdoch has been a pernicious schemer here in UK too. Many say with enough influence to get Prime Ministers into office which is perhaps why we ended up with our very own Poundland Trump, Johnson. (Poundland is a chain of discount stores originally selling everything for £1!) Your election gives us hope that maybe, just maybe, after 12 years of Tories and currently the worst economic outlook of the G7, the UK electorate might follow your lead. Here’s hoping for a greener more optimistic future for all of us.
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There is no doubt Murdoch thinks he is a kingmaker, just as several of his media mogul cronies and rivals have in the past. There is actually a documentary on it which I think first aired on BBC. And I have to say, he is very effective and swings many newspaper readers and TV watchers to adopt his views without them even being aware of it. He is continuing a tradition that has been happening for decades.
But there is a sense that “the common man” is rising up. The composition of our House of Reps will be vastly different from the past. The Senate is only a half-spill, so the look will not be as dramatic, but all the same, the winds of change are blowing.
I’m thinking of boring the pants off most of my followers and doing another post as soon as the final counting is done. Labor is one vote away from having a majority, but even by their own admission, they will need to be consultative with the independents.
And by the way, Albanese’s backstory, vis-a-vis a missing father, mirrors my own. I actually know the man who tracked down Albanese senior. Maybe one day that seeker will take me to Canberra to meet Albanese junior in person 🙂
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Also amazing that you know the researcher who tracked down Albo’s father.
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Thanks for the shout out, Gwendoline. I am excited about the prospect of an interesting, thought-provoking parliament. The exiting Government was so scared of cross bench minorities ruling the roost but to me the ideas and different perspectives offer diversity and real democracy rather than the them and us two party pendulum Australian politics has usually been.
I wholeheartedly agree with the criticism of the media who defend their partisan reporting. There are ways to be balanced while still presenting the angle they think readers may be interested in. Bring on responsible reporting not gotcha journalism.
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It was my pleasure to share your thoughtful post. I, too, am excited to see what a more diversified house will bring to the debate. And another commenter has found an old post I wrote way back in 2013. Interesting to revisit what we were going into then! I think I’ll repost it.
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You left out a couple of things Gwen. !There is now a move for the Libs to vote for Peter Dutton and Leader in place of Scomo. I know I said a couple. But that’s worth at least two. I’ve already written to some Liberal pollies to tell them how much worse that will be.
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Hi John, I seem to have missed replying to this when you posted it. Peter Dutton now looks as if he will be ‘It’ next. I see he is already criticising Albanese as if he, Dutton, is already leader of the opposition. Trying to claim Albanese is reneging on election promises over the fair wage submission, because he has not put a figure of 5.1% on it, when what Albo actually said is clearly recorded because it played so many times on the news. Sheesh! Here we go…
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I believe that if you put the majority of Australians who voted for Labor in the same place as those who voted for Liberal you would have a big group of ordinary Aussie who would agree on most things and try to work out the rest to their combined satisfaction. So why the pollies have to argue is beyond me.
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I’ve emailed you 🙂
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Thanks Gwen. There are some things I would like to post but it isn’t always a good thing to upset people unkindly.
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If the politicians got on with each other the same way that most Australians get on with each other then we could get a lot more positive outcomes.
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See previous comment 🙂
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