pɐǝɹɥʇ lɐᴉɔᴉɟɟoun ǝɥʇ - ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀

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Com Fox
<SNIP>Liberals were a party that look liked the Republicans but ran their campaign like the Democrats

Absolute failure on their part being the worst of both America parties in their last election.
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Indeed. The Guardian indicated a similar message. I am SO sick of the ineptitude of the Democratic Party.

However, it's an uphill battle in a society almost totally devoid of a "mateship" ethos. Am I being too harsh?

From 'Full Story: A stunning win for Labor', May 3, 2025



“I think we've discussed it on the podcast before, but the scrutiny came on Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party wilted under the scrutiny. They didn't have a coherent policy platform. They campaigned poorly.

They didn't really seem to know. And I think this is a really critical thing that the coalition is going to have to think about. They didn't seem to know whether they were going to be a bit Trumpy, go down that path.

At the beginning, it looked a bit like they might, cutting the public service, not standing in front of the indigenous flag, et cetera, et cetera. Then Trump started governing and it was chaotic, and people thought, holy hell, we don't want that. They sort of veered back to the center.

Towards the end, when things were getting desperate, they sort of went a bit Trumpy again. I mean, we can talk about this later, but I think one of the great problems for the Liberal Party, and it has been a problem ongoing for decades, is they used to be a broad shirt, and they knew where they sat sort of very much center-right. They have lost that direction because there's such divisions within the party on all sorts of things, not least of which is climate change.”
 
GBO Possum
I think one of the great problems for the Liberal Party, and it has been a problem ongoing for decades, is they used to be a broad shirt, and they knew where they sat sort of very much center-right. They have lost that direction because there's such divisions within the party on all sorts of things, not least of which is climate change.”
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The Liberal Party here in SA faced the same problem, I’m not too familiar with the politics in each state but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the issue in WA and VIC.

Here in SA, their solution to the division within the party post-Stephen Marshall has been to essentially alienate any moderate and shift further right. Recent opinion polling shows Labor holds a 59-41 2PP lead over the Liberal Party, which goes to show how out of touch this shift is with the general population.

If the federal Liberal party go the same route, then they can kiss goodbye any chance of forming government ever again.
 
Actually sad now I didn't watch the full ABC coverage. Saw a tiny bit of it early on, where James McGrath was mentioning how he didn't expect a winner to be decided until late into the night or even the following morning. His level of delusional as the night went on was off the charts.



He's still waiting for the pre polls to come in. Probably. :lol:
 
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Com Fox
Doesn't take much thought to realise that the party closest associated with Trump would look really bad by association. (Well I guess Trumpets are closer)

Though their bad policies and fixation on Nuclear Power just to delay to switch to renewables anyway to appease the fossil fuel corporations that own them instead of the citizens is almost like they didn't bother trying to get rid of the stigma they got after Trump. Of course people were going to Pendulum Swing the opposite direction and pick the options that get us furthest away from America as we can.

Liberals were a party that look liked the Republicans but ran their campaign like the Democrats

Absolute failure on their part being the worst of both America parties in their last election.
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Nuclear is better than renewables. I really don't think that was part of their downfall to be honest.
 
ScottPuss20
Nuclear is better than renewables. I really don't think that was part of their downfall to be honest.
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Nuclear is a great option, just not for Australia.

It would take too long to get up and running, planning alone will take at least a decade, We need to be reducing emissions now. As well as that, we don’t have the know-how and that’s more time wasted on education and training.

Not to mention nuclear is currently illegal and would require legislation changes even before any planning can commence.

Nuclear also uses a lot of water, which is already scarce enough. Remember, Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth.

Its’s prohibitively expensive and would require public subsidies. Power bills are high enough in Australia.

Renewables are ready now, so why not invest in them?


Spacegoat
He's still waiting for the pre polls to come in. Probably. :lol:
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Cap'n Jack
Nuclear is a great option, just not for Australia.

It would take too long to get up and running, planning alone will take at least a decade, We need to be reducing emissions now. As well as that, we don’t have the know-how and that’s more time wasted on education and training.

Not to mention nuclear is currently illegal and would require legislation changes even before any planning can commence.

Nuclear also uses a lot of water, which is already scarce enough. Remember, Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth.

Its’s prohibitively expensive and would require public subsidies. Power bills are high enough in Australia.

Renewables are ready now, so why not invest in them?
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Yes, it will take time to sort out but once it does get sorted, the benefits will be immense because it's not as fallible as renewables. Also, renewables take up a lot of land, and that will have serious impacts on wildlife. You don't want that do you?
 
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ScottPuss20
Yes, it will take time to sort out but once it does get sorted, the benefits will be immense because it's not as fallible as renewables. Also, renewables take up a lot of land, and that will have serious impacts on wildlife. You don't want that do you?
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Nuclear is not fallible. Fukushima and Chernobyl, for example. Granted, this is highly unlikely.

Yes, solar arrays and wind farms take up space but this can be mitigated with careful planning. The impact of uranium mining, the (genetic and repoductive) effects it has on flora and fauna are far worse.

No option is perfect but considering what we know about renewables and their advantages, it’s borderline delusional to consider any other option.

Let’s also not forget the Liberal Party knowingly misled Australian’s on the actual cost of getting nuclear up and running. As already mentioned, the whole thing was a scam setup by the Liberal party to appease their fossil fuel donors.
 
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Cap'n Jack
Yes, solar arrays and wind farms take up space but this can be mitigated with careful planning
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Space, ah yes often brought up, we have a bit of that down here. As you say we can overcome this with good planning and forethought. 👍
Cap'n Jack
The impact of uranium mining, the (genetic and repoductive) effects it has on flora and fauna are far worse.
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"Nothing's as precious, as a hole in the ground"

I know those words of Peter Garrett refer to asbestos mining and human life but I can absolutely get on board with the sentiment also when it comes to mining for minerals.

I'm not against nuclear power but we've missed the boat there. By the time the legislation, research, development and actual building of plants are completed I'd wager that renewables will be able to cope with much more of the demand anyway.
 
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Beyond the obvious political corruption giving in to donors and lobbyists, I've never understood how any member of a population of a country that is, what, 75% desert? could complain that space is an issue. Your country is huge, sunny, and largely empty. It's practically made for solar fields. Yes, you've got to get the electricity to the main population centres on the coasts, but clear that hurdle and you'd have more electricity than you could ever use... if as a country you were so inclined.
 
Roo
Beyond the obvious political corruption giving in to donors and lobbyists, I've never understood how any member of a population of a country that is, what, 75% desert? could complain that space is an issue. Your country is huge, sunny, and largely empty. It's practically made for solar fields. Yes, you've got to get the electricity to the main population centres on the coasts, but clear that hurdle and you'd have more electricity than you could ever use... if as a country you were so inclined.
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Yep, we should be the poster boy for solar power.

Sadly too many external influences stopping that, hopefully it turns around soon.
 
ScottPuss20
Also, renewables take up a lot of land, and that will have serious impacts on wildlife. You don't want that do you?
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With climate change heat effects rising, carefully planned solar farms can have positive shade effects for animals, wild or domestic (sheep etc)

AgriSolar – ATTRA – Sustainable Agriculture

ATTRA, or Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, is a trusted source of sustainable agriculture information and maintains a knowledge base of practical multimedia resources for farmers, ranchers, and educators. NCAT’s agriculture specialists work directly with farmers, ranchers, land...
attra.ncat.org attra.ncat.org

AgriSolar Clearinghouse

www.agrisolarclearinghouse.org www.agrisolarclearinghouse.org

And there's no shortage of Oz sun energy as Dorothea Mackellar noted several years before climate-change-induced sunburn became a problem in Australia...

My Country - Dorothea Mackellar

The love of field and coppice, Of green and shaded lanes. Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins, Strong love of grey-blue distance Brown streams and soft dim skies I know but cannot share it, My love is otherwise. I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged...
www.dorotheamackellar.com.au www.dorotheamackellar.com.au

Oh, and Sora is not very good at creating goannas...

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Cap'n Jack
Nuclear is not fallible. Fukushima and Chernobyl, for example. Granted, this is highly unlikely.
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Honestly, Fukushima is mostly an example of the systems working. With a big enough natural event, no nuclear power plant is immune. The Tohoku earthquake was way above what the Fukushima reactors were designed for, and 2 of 3 operating reactors shut down safely and 5 of 6 managed to keep fuel pool cooling at an acceptable level.

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For the second worst nuclear accident ever, that's really not that bad. The Boeing 737MAX has a higher death toll than that, and we're still flying planes.

As an idea it's still 20 years too late for Australia though. We should sell our uranium to other countries and lean into the fact that we have a lot of advantages when it comes to renewables.
 
Imari
Honestly, Fukushima is mostly an example of the systems working. With a big enough natural event, no nuclear power plant is immune. The Tohoku earthquake was way above what the Fukushima reactors were designed for, and 2 of 3 operating reactors shut down safely and 5 of 6 managed to keep fuel pool cooling at an acceptable level.

View attachment 1449071

For the second worst nuclear accident ever, that's really not that bad. The Boeing 737MAX has a higher death toll than that, and we're still flying planes.

As an idea it's still 20 years too late for Australia though. We should sell our uranium to other countries and lean into the fact that we have a lot of advantages when it comes to renewables.
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For sure, in the case of Fukushima it’s a bit more nuanced. I just think it’s a little silly to say nuclear is not fallible when there’s two very high profile examples of nuclear incidents.

Just to reiterate, I think nuclear is great and in general I’m not against it. I just believe that it’s not the right choice for Australia. I also believe the benefits of renewables outweigh those of nuclear at this time and the negatives are less impactful than the negative aspects of nuclear.
 
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Shaun
Yep, we should be the poster boy for solar power.
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Also as Solar improves the Aussies have a great opportunity to push R&D into this field which would increase the need for future tech education and jobs running and maintaining the Solar and manufacture of panels etc.

Also any excess energy can be used to create exportable energy like hydrogen. The potential is huge and as you’ve said, you have a lot of space.

Another benefit is as the planet warms, who better to turn to but people who have had years battling the sun and bending it to their will. Giving Aussies the upper hand and leverage.
 
Sprite
Also as Solar improves the Aussies have a great opportunity to push R&D into this field which would increase the need for future tech education and jobs running and maintaining the Solar and manufacture of panels etc.

Also any excess energy can be used to create exportable energy like hydrogen. The potential is huge and as you’ve said, you have a lot of space.

Another benefit is as the planet warms, who better to turn to but people who have had years battling the sun and bending it to their will. Giving Aussies the upper hand and leverage.
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Big Fossil & Lobbyists:

20191103_171410.jpg
 
This would have been completely unimaginable just a few months ago, let alone 24 hour ago!

Also sounds like Labor will be holding government for the foreseeable future.
 
Meanwhile, re-counting continues for the NSW seat of Bradfield, a (right wing) Liberal Party held seat for over 70 years

The Liberal Party candidate, Ms Kapterian, is 20 votes behind Ms Boele (pronounced "Buller") with over 20,000 ballot papers yet to be re-examined.

This is a classic example of the benefits of "Preferential Voting" aka "Ranked Choice Voting" which has allowed a fresh candidate to challenge the two-party status quo. Ms Boele has promised to represent her constituents' interests, not any particular party.

Given the failure of our two party system, we can look with longing eyes at Australia's democracy working a whole lot better for its people.

A final result will probably be known Friday (NSW time).

www.theguardian.com

In Bradfield, the election is not yet over. What happens when a seat count is ultra close? | Graeme Orr for the Conversation

While recounts are resource intensive, the law permits it whenever the result is within 100 votes
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

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Update on Bradfield (see post above)

Nicolette Boele (Independent) has won the seat after a 100% recount of the votes with scrutineers from both candidates' teams watching every decision. The margin was 26 votes out of a total number of 118,858 ballots.

That's a margin of 0.02% 😮. No wonder it took a month to finalise!

Here's a very brief interview from just after the announcement by the Australian Electoral Commission-

www.abc.net.au

With tears in her eyes, Boele claims Bradfield win

Follow the latest news headlines from Australia's most trusted source. Read in-depth expert analysis and watch live coverage on ABC News.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

The AEC posted this media release on Xitter

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