That’s a wasted vote, and not an option in the federal elections. It’s just as important to keep the extreme right-wing Liberal and National parties from power, as it is to preference the better minor parties (make sure to investigate as some minors and independents are extreme right-wing nutbags).
The ordering of how right wing they are matters. That’s the whole point of preferential voting.
If you abstain from ranking all candidates, you are acting the same as US voters claiming that “both sides are the same” and then not voting, particularly if your preferred minor candidate(s) doesn’t have a chance of winning in your electorate.
And this is exactly why America ended up with Trump, people always wanting to support the lesser of two evils.
Don’t do what Americans do. Don’t blindly support a shit right wing party because you’re scared of a shit right wing party and let the whole country collapse after decades of right wing rule.
If Lab want my vote back, they can earn it instead of sliding further right every year.
No. They are center. They were way ahead of the coalition on market friendly economic reforms, floating the dollar, abandoning many tarriffs, reducing subsidies, privatizing the comm bank etc. It wasn’t until Howard that the coalition started to catch up and Labor still take a very responsible and balanced approach to economic management.
To be fair radical left wing politics has not been competitive in the world and wouldn’t be competitive politically here. They can’t maintain the economic productivity needed to deliver wealth and quality of life improvements demanded by working people so they always end up in autocracy or revolution. That is why social democracy thrived and why China has a successful mixed system. The problem is maintaining the balance between social policy and capitalist wealth creation. The social policy side is constantly undermined by the ultra rich, lobby groups and the flip flop election cycle and people start to take things like minimum wages, public healthcare and education for granted.
Now, if your conceptualization of right vs left isn’t the traditional capital vs labour but the weird US culture war bullshit then the ALP are pretty much dead center as well (their right faction strongly overlaps with the coalition). It is a fairly laid back and generous country for the most part and most regular people don’t want to be like the yanks and be polarised into us vs them hate politics.
What we call left and right wing are centre-left and centre-right. Neither extreme works, and neither party are extreme. Some, mainly the centre-left, are starting to dabble with extreme opinions - “gender identity” and mass immigration for example - but neither are full “left wing” or “right wing”.
It’s not just my “conceptualization”, it’s the public perception.
Immigration has always been driven by the demands of the business community, not by bleeding heart lefties. We have low unemployment which puts pressure on wages and it is hard to find in demand skills. And we have construction and real estate speculation that is dependent on strong population growth to maintain profits.
When labour were truly a left wing workers party they backed the White Australia policy to protect the hard won rights of Australian workers which could be undermined by exploitation of immigrant labour. That turned out to be ignorant and wrong headed as immigrant labour aspires to the same conditions and revitalizes unions.
In every horticultural areas of Australia there are mini-busses of islander labour everywhere flown into the country by government programs to undercut Australian workers, but those guys aren’t immigrants. There used to be another word for it in the old days that I can’t use it now to call it out or I will cop a lot of shit about it.
Racists (cross-politics) want the immigrant intake to be in their own image but they aren’t opposed to population growth. Environmentalists and sustainability types (generally center left) want lower immigration to put less demand on the environment and infrastructure.
I don’t think average people care about gender identity either way. Nothing more Aussie than live and let live. They care about their wages, mortgages and paying their bills. Culture wars is manipulative bullshit to try and trick people to vote against their self interest and unfortunately it works.
That’s a wasted vote, and not an option in the federal elections. It’s just as important to keep the extreme right-wing Liberal and National parties from power, as it is to preference the better minor parties (make sure to investigate as some minors and independents are extreme right-wing nutbags).
It’s important to keep all right wing parties from power Lib or Lab.
The ordering of how right wing they are matters. That’s the whole point of preferential voting.
If you abstain from ranking all candidates, you are acting the same as US voters claiming that “both sides are the same” and then not voting, particularly if your preferred minor candidate(s) doesn’t have a chance of winning in your electorate.
And this is exactly why America ended up with Trump, people always wanting to support the lesser of two evils.
Don’t do what Americans do. Don’t blindly support a shit right wing party because you’re scared of a shit right wing party and let the whole country collapse after decades of right wing rule.
If Lab want my vote back, they can earn it instead of sliding further right every year.
Yes, and abstaining only gives them a larger proportion of the votes.
Find the left wing candidates (the senate has some even if your local ballot doesn’t) and preference them, if you want to help keep out Lib and Lab.
Cause left wing has been working so well…….
We’ve had zero left wing, so wouldn’t have a fucking clue what you’re on about mate.
Labor are left wing.
No. They are center. They were way ahead of the coalition on market friendly economic reforms, floating the dollar, abandoning many tarriffs, reducing subsidies, privatizing the comm bank etc. It wasn’t until Howard that the coalition started to catch up and Labor still take a very responsible and balanced approach to economic management.
To be fair radical left wing politics has not been competitive in the world and wouldn’t be competitive politically here. They can’t maintain the economic productivity needed to deliver wealth and quality of life improvements demanded by working people so they always end up in autocracy or revolution. That is why social democracy thrived and why China has a successful mixed system. The problem is maintaining the balance between social policy and capitalist wealth creation. The social policy side is constantly undermined by the ultra rich, lobby groups and the flip flop election cycle and people start to take things like minimum wages, public healthcare and education for granted.
Now, if your conceptualization of right vs left isn’t the traditional capital vs labour but the weird US culture war bullshit then the ALP are pretty much dead center as well (their right faction strongly overlaps with the coalition). It is a fairly laid back and generous country for the most part and most regular people don’t want to be like the yanks and be polarised into us vs them hate politics.
What we call left and right wing are centre-left and centre-right. Neither extreme works, and neither party are extreme. Some, mainly the centre-left, are starting to dabble with extreme opinions - “gender identity” and mass immigration for example - but neither are full “left wing” or “right wing”.
It’s not just my “conceptualization”, it’s the public perception.
Get the fuck off youtube, you’ve got seppo rot brain.
Immigration has always been driven by the demands of the business community, not by bleeding heart lefties. We have low unemployment which puts pressure on wages and it is hard to find in demand skills. And we have construction and real estate speculation that is dependent on strong population growth to maintain profits.
When labour were truly a left wing workers party they backed the White Australia policy to protect the hard won rights of Australian workers which could be undermined by exploitation of immigrant labour. That turned out to be ignorant and wrong headed as immigrant labour aspires to the same conditions and revitalizes unions.
In every horticultural areas of Australia there are mini-busses of islander labour everywhere flown into the country by government programs to undercut Australian workers, but those guys aren’t immigrants. There used to be another word for it in the old days that I can’t use it now to call it out or I will cop a lot of shit about it.
Racists (cross-politics) want the immigrant intake to be in their own image but they aren’t opposed to population growth. Environmentalists and sustainability types (generally center left) want lower immigration to put less demand on the environment and infrastructure.
I don’t think average people care about gender identity either way. Nothing more Aussie than live and let live. They care about their wages, mortgages and paying their bills. Culture wars is manipulative bullshit to try and trick people to vote against their self interest and unfortunately it works.
Labor are right wing centrists.
They’re centre-left at best, and are shifting more left wing as we go with their stance on immigration and social activism.
You are fucking delusional. They’re a party of neolibs siding with business over workers.
Bullshit.