South Australia has a government!

We have a government. Independent Geoff Brock has supported Jay Weatherill's 23 seat win so that he can form government. The Liberal's won 22 seats. As we waited and waited and waited for a week Dr. Bob Such, the other independent who might have formed government too, was taken ill and the state is concerned this has happened now and everyone hopes Bob Such will recover soon. He and Geoff Brock had taken their roles as independents who would be asked to form government very seriously and had really done their homework. It was pretty impressive and no nonsense. For all the moaning, I think we have a really good result for us at this point in time. Irrespective of who wins the primary vote it is the party which gets the designated number of seats which wins. I well remember how badly Kim Beasley was treated after he lost to John Howard in a federal election. Kim Beasley had won the primary vote in a really tough election campaign . Those were the days!! Both he and John Howard had gone in head to head in a tough political situation. Kim Beasley got more votes but John Howard got more seats. That is how our system works. When Steven Marshall works that out, he will be more at peace with himself and do some positive reflecting. He has not been called incompetent as Kim Beasley was and for Kim Beasley to do what he did was extraordinary at the time. The media never consider what is really going on and what is really at stake. I think we have 3 people who can lead our state well and get us out of this Non Event mode we seem to have been ascribed. We are not inconsequential but it is how we are viewed and I think these 3 people will help change our image in a positive way. I had no idea the Liberals had changed leader. Isobel Redmond had not been very popular and then she went very quiet. Jay Weatherill had been very quiet too , probably because we had had enough of Rann and Foley and the arguments and messy politics. It was a tough position for Jay Weatherill to come into. He has found his ground now, though , with the Holden situation and then the rumblings about leadership. Jay is very considered in his stance and articulates his views well. He can also show some very strong leadership. Steven Marshall popped up during the election campaign and if he wants to win then he has to work for South Australia and he has to allow us to get to know him as we did during the campaign. The state has given neither major party ultimate power so they are both being told to show us what they are made of and that they are there for SA. Geoff Brock is a great addition since South Australia has a significant regional area which tends to get side lined. It would be great to see that part of SA emerge again strongly and be part of our vision. So I'm hopeful. I think the mix is right and if these three men can collaborate and set their own agenda it will make a significant difference to our state.They will all win in terms of their careers no matter who wins at the next election. 

The case of the hiding cabinet 2013

Image: Courier Mail

It's not going to work. It's 2013 and we are not buying into it.  In two weeks the Abbott government is already making itself superfluous to requirements because it is old, stuffy and glued in its treacle cabinet behind closed doors. Hiding out is hardly a practical approach to governing let alone a desired one. South Australians are well used to a government which doesn't talk to them or anyone else and just makes decisions which are irrelevant. One of our most progressive premiers, Mike Rann, who had the state booming, stopped talking to us and went into his own little world and no longer connected. The upshot was he became superfluous to us. We had no idea what he was thinking. The decisions he made were not meaningful to us and most of what happened just annoyed and angered us more and more because things were happening and we were not included. We are a democratic state. What we think and what we want is important to the process of  governing.  Australians are generally well educated and on the ball. It doesn't explain how we managed to vote in the Abbott government but I think if you look at the real numbers you will see most people did not vote for him or his party. The win came from the Coalition and the distribution of seats. Were the ALP to do the same thing, they could win, too. Then there is the matter of a corrupt and biased media which we are abandoning. NZ may well have noticed they have had more visits from Australia over the last 2 weeks. Other countries around the world will probably notice their news sites are getting more visits from Australians. A huge proportion of Australians are bilingual and multilingual so those who can read news elsewhere will. We currently do not have any news. We don't have a paper which can just bring us facts and correct information about events in Australia.There is even a media belief that "balanced" news is wrong!! Our papers pick a politician or key figure and shoot them down and try to ensure they never get up again. We have lost so much talent and expertise this way and we know it. The anger of the morning of September 8th has not gone away. No one wants to talk about  the election. If they do hear or see Tony Abbott then , generally, a barrage of swear words and invective comes out. Then an apology. It is unable to be contained and that is the problem.  So many people just cannot bear to look at Tony Abbott and so many people just cannot stand him. He makes them feel ill. That is something which will not change and so there is a credibility issue here for the government. There is a prime minister whom no one takes seriously, no  one is listening to and no  one wants. He exacerbates the situation by locking 18 men and a woman in a hide and seek game in cabinet. Other unpopular prime ministers have had a side or quality which can be highlighted. Tony Abbott's is that he is fit. Fit for what?

The convoy of no confidence 2013

Image ABCNews23

The media are rattling hollowly around their cages. I have never seen Australians as angry as I have this weekend. They may not seem it when you meet them but the fact the election is not a topic for discussion on Monday morning, it has been totally sidelined, the fact that people are getting the facts really clear on Twitter and Facebook is full of rude and vulgar messages about what we have done as a nation means Australians have drawn a line in the sand. We are not going to take this. People are angry Tony Abbott was voted in because he simply does not have the skills to work at that level and that was demonstrated well by his behaviour in parliament over the last 6 years and then the lack of capacity to show articulate and well considered policy. He has nonetheless been voted in. Not by much. Labour has the primary vote and so any notion they have not done well is nonsense. The price we have paid for biased , interfering and unbalanced media is the loss of two credible Prime Ministers. There is a third in the wings who is hog tied by the conspiracy of silence in the party and then the knowledge the change we have been offered is the change right back to the Howard era. So many of them are the same. They were ousted solidly in 2007 for a reason so people are angry they are back. People are angry we have someone who has no credibility and we are angry we stood by and let it happen. The media wrote the script and ascribed our roles. Sunday morning was a bitter, bitter taste. Britain investigated its press. France went through  the nonsense of its silly President who was not cut out for the job and have gone for someone very conservative even though he is from the socialist party. Australia then has elected an odd assortment of people into the senate some of whom are coming back to haunt us from the past and so there is a real feeling of uneasiness. Those who did not vote for Tony Abbott do not understand why you would let him be in charge with all the case evidence before us and those who did vote for him thought what? Nobody knows because nobody anyone knows voted for him. This election was corrupt. There were too many chiefs and not enough indians, too many cooks who spoiled the broth, too much scrutiny of some and none of others. The stuff of linguistic and advertising study. The election has been called a wash up in the news and yet The ALP experienced the single smallest seat-loss of any outgoing government since McMahon in the early 70s. Media are trying to interfere in the choice of a new Labour leader. Don't you think they'd have enough sense to leave well alone and keep their big noses out? Some are advocating that politics be taken off the main course in media and that people should take themselves off social media. Labour still has the primary vote so who is saying Kevin Rudd did a fine job in spite of a very brutal media bashing? Who has acknowledged that Julia Gillard actually kept this lot under control but couldn't contain the relentless stirring of rumours by the media? Who has noticed we can't think because everything is shouted at us? This election was the most corrupt I have ever seen because it was neither fair, nor balanced nor reported without opinion.One by one competent politicians are targeted and taken out. The Greens got quite a bashing too and yet the so called disaster for Adam Bandt did not occur. We are angry all of this is misreported, misrepresented and then ends us up in a place we have absolutely no wish to be - no respect , no pride , the laughing stock of the world and no leadership choices. The world watched it happen and saw what we did. This is why Australians have taken to some very colourful expression of their feelings. It has hit hard. We have some lessons worth learning but we need to learn them without interference. A psychologist says we shall find it hard to accept - someone quite rightly pointed out that many will simply never accept what has happened and the repercussion of that in Australia will be interesting to say the least.

Abusing Prime Ministers

Telling colleagues their job would not be over until the election was won, Mr Abbott observed: "Gillard won't lie down and die, and where there's life, there's fight."

Read more:

Gillard won't lie down and die, says Abbott

An interesting and harmful turn of phrase for someone who claims to be Christian. Apparently Grahame Morris said she should be kicked to death. The report is here. No one else seems to be bothered. Maybe it's just me and I don't think we should have this constant reference to death for parliamentarians and certainly not for our Prime Minister.

Queensland votes

Image: Duckpond

Duckpond has a good run down on the situation so far in Queensland. Queensland does have a situation, that's for sure, and we'll sit back and watch it play out. Anna Bligh has done the right thing by pulling out. She has worked non stop for the state, she has put in hours and hours of her time and her skills are extremely high level. She really is not valued and thinks this is all her fault. She is right to walk away and to stop any further besmirching of her capabilities and the incredible effort she has put in.. I guess Queensland might feel better now it has a proper man doing the job. The representation of women has now fallen to around 20% so that is a pretty clear indication of what they think of women politicians and the right of girls and women to participate in the democracy which has  been lauded all week. On the good side, I thought it was a very civilised affair and the commentary on ABC24 was very sane and informative too. Queensland now has a government which is probably 78 LNP seats out of 89 and so there is effectively no opposition. The LNP has a leader with no parliamentary experience and it has quite a few new parliamentary members with no parliamentary experience and the number of women representatives is considerably down. Nearly 12% of the vote went to Bob Katter's newly formed parted and the Greens don't appear to have a seat so there will be no  discrete environmental representation. So the message is  - we don't want Labour, we don't particularly want women, we don't want Greens and we don't want experienced politicians. We want a lot of new people and the  only party we want to run the state is the LNP and yet the LNP doesn't have 50% of the vote. It might make it to 50 but even so this is a very strange picture. So, we'll sit and watch, shall we?