QldElection09

Things turned out okay I guess, but I’m a little disappointed nonetheless.

Hilights of the night included Anna Bligh being elected the first female premier in Australia. A moment in history indeed. It was a pretty close race initially, with the Liberal National Party scooping up thirty seats — six of these from the ALP. This was expected though I’m glad we didn’t end up with a conservative majority.

Pauline Hanson came in third in Beaudesert, and One Nation looks to have lost all of its seats. This is a really good outcome, because wingnuts like this just shouldn’t be allowed to govern. It’s insane enough they managed to be elected in the first place, but thankfully they seem to be finished.

The real travesty is that while all of this was going on, Ronan Lee lost his seat in Indooroopilly by a very slim margin. The LNP managed 44.5% of the vote, whereas the ALP and Greens were 26.3 and 26.1 percent respectively. I can’t seem to find any information on how preferences were going, but I believe Labor was supposed to be preferencing Lee, which given an extra ~37 votes would potentially have seen the Greens elected. It’s just such a shame that the electorate’s lost him.

On a more positive note, the Greens got a state-wide vote of 8%, which is up a bit over 1% from last election. At least we’re slowly becoming a more progressive society. My own electorate of Mount Coot-Tha gave them 23.5%, but still not enough to make a difference.

I knew from the start I was going to be disappointed by the outcome of the election, but it makes it feel somewhat better that Springborg and his National cronies haven’t got power. Anna says she’s got the message and is going to do better this time around, but it remains to be seen whether she’ll weather the next three years.

There’s always a handful of independents in any election that you as the voter have no idea who they are. The unfair mandatory voting policy of our government brings unprecedented numbers of apathetic voters to the polls, and I’d argue that these people are those most likely to vote for whichever of the “big two” had the more compelling advertising campaign.

So I like to shop around.

I’m going to focus on the independents in Indooroopilly and Mt Coot-tha, because my street is split down the middle. I have a vested interest in both, even though I can only vote in the latter. Here’s a quick list of independents in my area and what (I understand) they stand for.

ZWOLENSKI, Dave, Mt Coot-tha

This guy is an absolute unknown to me. I can’t find any information about him at all, which is a sure sign nobody else is going to know or care either. I don’t understand how you can run in an election without a web presence at least.

James Sinnamon, Mt Coot-tha

James Sinnamon is one of those passionate people that feels the current government has failed. He believes in all kinds of upheavel, but mostly for standing up against corporations, for the people. It’s a really noble sentiment, it really is.

He’s contesting in Mt Coot-tha, and based on the fact that I’ve never heard of him, I highly doubt he’ll win. He’s positioning himself further left than the Greens which is fantastic, but I think it’s probably a bit of an overestimation of the average Queenslander. He very transparently recommends using preferential voting to send your second vote to the Greens, or whichever other political party you happen to prefer, which I think is great.

He’s got a web presense, but it’s not very organised. He does have a fair bit of information about his ideas on his blog though.

DS4SEQ, Mt Coot-tha & Indooroopilly

Aka “Daylight Savings for South East Queensland,” these guys are an one-issue party. “DS4SEQ has only one policy” proclaims their web site, along with a bunch of cherry-picked facts and figures. The only thing they’ve got going for them is novelty, and on that they’ve been getting more media coverage than The Greens.

I’ve previously written about their policy (and my opinion on daylight savings in general,) so I don’t think I need to go into this again. It’s one of those horrible issues; either you’re for it or against it. They have no preferences, so a “vote 1″ for DS4SEQ will go effectively nowhere. If you’re going to vote for them in your electorate, make sure you fill out your preferences sensibly.

Conclusion

I’m going to leave this open ended. I’m fairly certain I’m going to vote Green this election. Considering my electorate is in a hotspot for Greens supporters, it may even be worthwhile. I’d preposite* that if you’re interested in your vote, you should definitely check out who’s running in your area, and what they actually stand for. Compulsory voting means the entire system is essentially rigged, but I believe that everyone should at least do a bare minimum of research before they blindly cast their ballot.

The Greens are a socially progressive left wing party, and the third largest party in Australia in terms of votes. They have traditionally gained most traction with environmentally focused voters (obviously,) students, and other liberal thinkers. The party has seen a steadily increasing vote since its inception, and both my electorate and Indooroopilly (just across the road from me,) have amongst the highest patronage in Queensland.

As a minor party, they don’t tend to have much influence, especially as  Queensland is tradtionally a more conservative state. Ronan Lee — the ALP member for the Indooroopilly — defected to The Greens in 2008, but interestingly there are no other elected members in Queensland.

I can’t speak for past elections, but this year the only serious media coverage of the Queensland Greens has been related to their preferences. They haven’t been bombarding the airwaves (much) with snarky rhetoric like the big two parties either, opting to take advantage of social media and a more “grass roots” campaign. It’s very progressive and all, but I’m concerned that they may simply be preaching to the already converted.

On the policy front, the Queensland Greens are by far my favourite. They have a comprehensive and intelligent public transport and urban development policy outlined. As a cyclist, I’m eager for a more comprehensive cycle and footway network which they also outline plans for. They’re overly ambitious with their education policy, promoting better funding for the disadvantaged as well as subsidised TAFE education. They’re for desalinisation in preference to dams (which pollute more than desal, would you believe?) want to overhaul the government in terms of powers the premier has, as well as making things fairer for minorities. They also have a liberal view on human rights (at the federal level at least.)

There’s a few chords the Greens have struck with me this year: They’ve drafted a policy that would see a massive overhaul of public transport in Brisbane, as well as the (re-)introduction of a light rail/mass rapid transportation system for the Brisbane city area. They’ve also pledged to look into the feasibility of upgrading and re-opening previously abandoned rail routes, which is exactly what we need to boost our flagging transportation system. They’re also interested in exploring solar power, which I personally find to be a really exciting concept, especially now the consensus among scientists is that climate change is very definitely a problem.

I’ve tried to balance my posts somewhat by pointing out percieved flaws in the various parties policies, but I haven’t been able to find anything that glares at me from the Greens’ profile. Admittedly they haven’t got enough of a track record in modern history to go on, but if elected they could acheive even a quarter of their goals, I would be a very happy person indeed.

A problem I found when I started paying an interest in Australian politics is that both the major parties are far too conservative for the 21st century, and a lot of the policy they’re supporting reflects this. The Greens are many things, but I’d argue that in our political climate they’re villainised as being overly radical when they’re really not. On the contrary I’d say they’re one of the most intelligent choices on a civil liberties and public infrastructure front that’s available at this time. In any case, they’re a welcome left wing influence to counter the altogether not-left-enough Labor.

You’ll have to excuse me for being overly fervent around election time. Politics is something that gets me going a little bit, so before an election I like to pore over as much detail as I can before I make an ultimate decision as to who I’m going to give my vote to.

In the following days I’m going to do a series of posts critiquing the major political parties I’ve researched. It’s an entirely personal thing, and you don’t have to agree with me; that’s fine. Feel free to completely ignore the next few days worth of posts if you’d like to, and I suggest you take that option if you’re likely to be easily upset by politics.

For starters, I thought I’d look at one of two big players: The LNP.

The LNP is the merger of two existing conservative, centre-right wing governments (The Liberals and the Nationals) and is led by Lawrence Springborg.

Affectionately known in the media as “The Borg,” Springborg is denouncing the current premier’s policies as a major campaign point, as well as relying heavily on some one billion dollars annually in budget cuts to finance his own election promises. The general consensus seems to be that his money-saving plan both can’t work and would leave thousands without jobs, but being the pillar of the entire LNP campaign this election, an about face on the issue would erode all confidence in the party.

For these guys, this election doesn’t seem to be so much about policy as it does wild promises. Everything from the (decades old) Redcliffe railway proposal, to funding for the racing industry, a kickstart to uranium mining and exports, as well as extra funding for “independent and Catholic” schools. Most of these come across as spur of the moment issues to placate a difficult crowd, and I have doubts about the majority of them being anywhere near truthful, or even thought out at all.

On the up-side I believe they’d do a better job with health than labor is doing currently, but I haven’t got much other than press releases to back that up.

You can read about the LNP policies on the cheesy figurehead website springborg.com, although there’s no order to the page at all so you might have trouble getting through them.

The one voting point I can come up with for the LNP is their federal counterpart’s stance on uranium and nuclear power. I think it’s a great stepping-stone technology to wean us off coal power and they’ve got that going for them, but it’s highly unlikely a state government would be permitted to implement nuclear power considering the current prime miser is starkly against it.

Other than that, they’re an empty-promised conservative party with a leader full of hot air and photoshopped teeth. I can’t vote for them, because I just don’t believe anything they have to say. Experts have said flat-out that their policy won’t work, and now they’re running on the steam of empty promises to placate the masses. Better luck next time, I guess.