Sunday - March 25, 2012

The Thunder From Down Under

hey hey hey, goodbye

The Liberal National Party’s Campbell Newman has won the key Brisbane seat of Ashgrove and will lead a government with a massive majority in the new Queensland Parliament.

Late on Saturday night, as counting continued, it appeared that the LNP will have 74 or 75 members in the 89-seat parliament, with Labor winning 11 seats or fewer.

A string of Bligh Government ministers have lost their seats in the electoral bloodbath, including Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser who had been regarded as a possible Labor leadership successor.

At 8.46pm, claiming victory, an emotional Mr Newman thanked “all Queenslanders” for “voting for change”. Then he acknowledged the people of Ashgrove.

“We will keep our promises and we will not let you down. You have spoken decisively and emphatically and delivered a strong government so we can deliver for you and get this great state back on track,” Mr Newman said, flanked by his family.
...
“We don’t underestimate the task ahead. It will be hard, it will be long, but we will get on with the job. The job starts tomorrow morning.”
...
Labor appeared to be reduced to a netball team of seven, a far cry from the cricket team most political commentators had predicted.

The LNP looked like inflicting a staggering 16 per cent swing against Labor. Ms Bligh had been in the fight of her political life in her own South Brisbane seat, with little-known LNP candidate Clem Grehan leading for most of the night. But Ms Bligh snuck ahead with about a quarter of the count remaining.

A smiling, surprisingly upbeat Ms Bligh said Queensland voters had made their choice clear.

“It’s absolutely clear tonight that Queenslanders have spoken with the strongest possible voice and they have voted for a change of government,” she said. “I congratulate the Liberal National Party on what has been a historic victory.”

15 hours of liveblogging coverage here:

QUEENSLANDERS have gone to the polls and driven the Labor Party from government in an historic and brutal Election Day. See how it unfolded right here.

10PM:  AND THAT’S A WRAP: March 24, 2012, will be remembered as the day the electorate delivered a decisive, devastating blow to an incumbent Labor government. We hope you have enjoyed our minute-by-minute coverage.

Queensland is Australia’s second largest and third most populous state, with about 4.6 million people, roughly 20% of the total population. This was a unicameral election, which means the whole darn government was up for grabs. The resultant sweep was only the 6th time since 1915 that Australians gave a sitting government the old heave-ho.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) is a political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed on 26 July 2008 by the merger of the Queensland divisions of the centre-right Liberal and National parties.

The party is considered to be on the centre-right of Queensland politics. In Australia, the term Liberalism refers to centre-right economic liberalism, rather than centre-left social liberalism as in other English-speaking countries. Party ideology has therefore been referred to as liberalism, distinct from its meaning in other English-speaking countries, but also as conservatism, which features strongly in party ideology.

The party won government for the first time at the 2012 state election, winning 78 out of 89 seats for a substantial majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.

As Queensland goes, so goes Australia? Perhaps so, we’ll have to wait and see. I can’t say that I even begin to slightly understand Australian politics, but this seems like a win for freedom and a big smack in the head for the nanny-staters. And I’m proud of the Aussies for keeping close to the classic definition of liberalism, versus the corrupted version here and in Europe where it is just another term for communism.

Labor’s Queensland election thrashing was so bad that if the state’s voters took similar aim in a federal poll, all the party’s Queensland MPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan, would lose their seats.

Labor heavyweights and federal MPs from the sunshine state say action is needed to ensure the weekend’s bloodbath is not mimicked at a federal election due next year.

Former premier Peter Beattie said the party was in crisis.
...
Ms Bligh said there was a message for Labor, generally.

“We simply can’t walk away from the fact that we’ve seen results similar to this in other states of Australia - it’s tough times for Labor,” she said.

There are fears for Mr Swan’s prospects at the federal election, with state electorates in his seat recording huge swings against Labor.

Statewide, there was a swing of about 16 per cent against Labor. If a move of that size occurred at a federal election, every Labor MP in Queensland would be ousted, including Mr Swan and former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

UPDATE: Labor Party may lose official status. Seriously, they are that far gone. I gather that in Australia, if you can’t make a good enough showing, you don’t even get office space and have to work from home.

For non-Australians, ... in 2007 all the States and the Federal Government were Labor. Currently Liberal (meaning conservative) governments have won NSW, WA, and Vic and now look like taking a landslide in Queensland. These are the four largest states. [out of 6]

… This would mean Labor falling short of official party status and relying on the incoming LNP government to grant it party offices, staff and resources. The Queensland Greens failed to win a seat and suffered a fall in support.

Greens given the boot, socialists on the verge of extinction ... guess that Carbon Tax thing wasn’t too popular after all.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/25/2012 at 08:49 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Politics •  
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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