Australian Politics + Election thread

thing is they do worse crap in the australian parliament all the damn time if it was just one off people wouldnt care but its constant its just turned into a joke of a place

Well then fix the English version.

Yeah because I'm the person to ask to do that.

I'm sure you have it in you.

The leaders of political parties aren't chosen by the public as is the case with the US, they're chosen in party ballots. This means serious and bitter private wars within a party that's supposed to be united. In mid 2010, the then PM Kevin Rudd was falling in the polls and his deputy Julia Gillard challenged for the leadership of the party and won, becoming the new PM and stabbing her boss in the back. As is custom when there is a new PM who isn't elected, she call the nation to the polls. Her campaign was severely compromised by leaks, obviously let out by important party members unhappy with the situation (Rudd and his suppourters allegedly) and neither major party won a majority, each getting 72 out of 150 seats. In a series of backroom deals she secured the suppourt of 4 of the 6 remaining seats (which had gone to independents and minor parties). She ended up going back on some of these deals (breaking promises she'd made to the people to gain their suppourt), and made more sly deals to increase this very slim majority. She hasn't been very popular as PM these past couple of years, her opinion polls are in the shitter and her party isn't terribly pleased with her performance either. However, there is a complete lack of people with the competence to lead, with the exception of Kevin Rudd who was much more popular with the Australian public. In Feb 2012 Rudd suddenly resigned his position as foreign minister, having privately been under attack by the PM and her suppourters within the party. He challenged for the party leadership, and the floodgates holding back the secret mudslinging were open for the public to see. Rudd argued that Gillard was incompetent and couldn't win an election (and he's right), while Gillard and several of her suppourters within the labor party including former members of Rudd's cabinet, publicly and harshly attacked Rudd's character especially while he was PM. It was ugly and there were more leaks, such as this outtakes video of Kevin Rudd trying to record a video message in Chinese. Rudd lost the leadership ballot, and that issue is apparently over for good. There have been a few big scandals and a dozen smaller ones since, I'll explain those later if you want. Currently the situation is both leaders of the two major parties are very unpopular and rubbish. No-one else has the ability to either usurp them or effectively lead the nation. The Labor majority in parliament is very slim (I think it's only one vote at the moment), but current opinion polls show that they will lose the next election. Both parties treat the other with as much respect as you would give to cancerous mole, and as you can tell relations within parties aren't much better. Take a look at what routinely goes on - these are elected members shouting over each other
and most ridiculously, the opposition leader (and very probable future PM) attempting to run out of the house to avoid voting.

So yeah, pretty fucked up.

By God that's terrible.
The disrespect they show to eachother and especially the speaker is disgusting. A parliment where people are allowed to tell eah other to 'shup up' needs to think about what standards should be enforced.
It looks like a fucking classroom.

Also members actually running out is farcical and they should be ashamed. Although locking the doors to keep MP's inside is also farcical and childish. I'm fairly sure in this country MP's can come and go as they wish, when there is a vote on an important issue party whips encourage them to attend, but frankly the whole thing reminds me of school a few years ago.

You have my sympathy.

It's not as bad as in Australia though.

And I'm not denying our MP's act like children sometimes.

Heh, I don't mind them making an occasional joke, as long as they still get on with their job.

What is this "soccer" of which you speak?...

I believe he means football old boy. Give us American chaps a break will you.

Ah, but Bart is Dutch...

What kind of asshole plays football wearing no shoes?

@ironchin

tl;dr
But I commend your effort.