Comment on Huge swings to ONP, against Libin today's SA election, small swing against ALP, towards Greens
eureka@aussie.zone 1 week ago
Results still very much in progress, of course, but sad to see PHON shoot up past 20% of the total vote (ahead in two seats), and gaining two senate seats so far.
I’ve seen (perhaps on other sites more than here) a few people claiming that their huge rise is just a rigged polling number or a unrepresentative sample. Clearly not the case - this has translated into electoral results - although the claims of them taking numbers from ALP voters too may be exaggerated, albeit possible.
Last time PHON rose like this, it took direct action to knock them back into place. I highly recommend having a quick look at the history of how they were repelled last time. Then think about what we (you and us) can do about this issue.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 1 week ago
the anti-immigration rhetoric is largely i think a misdirected attempt at getting what they think is causing inflation, high cost of living and high house prices
i might be a labor/greens voter, or was labor/greens now firmly labor but the greens seem ok with islam and labor are doing me no service attending mosques to get boo’d
apparently they don’t know where their main voter base stands on the 7th century radically violent religion
so im looking for someone who is also anti-islam, this used to be the “reason” or “science” parties which seem to have disappeared leaving me with the usual wankers at the bottom of the voting card (a dredge of right wing loser parties who I can’t figure out who to put last)
what would you have me do? i put the greens first labor second for a long time to push labor towards more renewables, im happy with what they’ve done, now i want action on islam
over my dead body do i want phon in, but how do i tell labor what i want? i did that putting greens first previously, am i not right to do the same here?
eureka@aussie.zone 1 week ago
Voting is an extremely vague way to “tell Labor” anything, whether by voting Green, Reason, Shooters, Socialist or PHON. I assume their reaction to a rise in PHON would be to double down on anti-immigration rhetoric, not to repress Islam. (I’m not exactly sure what you envision, policy-wise, when you say “anti-Islam”)
But you raise a great question - how do you tell Labor what you want? Voting doesn’t send a clear message, nor are any of our votes individually worth much at all. And specifically to Labor, their own rank-and-file majority have been overruled by the Albanese leadership on some very significant matters. If their own members are struggling to be heard, I don’t recommend that as a way to sway Labor either - I believe some other “left” parties have working representation, but from discussions I’ve had with Labor members at pubs, I don’t have faith in their internal democracy. It comes down to other forms of power.
So, we organise to gain power for ourselves - for Labor in particular, a major example is through worker unions with the power to combine resources and ultimately to withdraw labour. In fact, this is how major historical wins were made in anti-racism laws here, or eviction protections for renters, and even lots of Whitlam’s infamous social policies - governments did fuck-all until unions put pressure on them. Same with other wins like the Green Bans. And it’s not just worker unions, but other forms of collective action, like Erskineville’s Road Wars which have probably saved many lived by now.
The bottom line is obvious: telling a gigantic political party of millions what you want requires more than just voting.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 1 week ago
Damn we’re off to a bad start
I completely disagree with this, voting is the main way to show support to a political party and it’s platform, if you’re not getting votes it’s pretty clear people don’t agree with what you’re offering
Labor are still butthurt over Bill Shorten trying to reduce house prices 7 years ago and losing an unlosable election because of it, just like how businesses ultimately listen to money and your biggest weapon is where you spend your money, politicians listen to votes and your biggest weapon is where your vote goes
You can see the impact PHON has, even though they only got a tiny % of the pie in SA the big parties are keenly aware of them and why people are voting for them
…yahoo.com/coalition-election-policy-rethink-open…
That works right up until it doesn’t, there’s nothing to suggest labor couldn’t have a giant swing against them at the next election just like when the greens managed to get through in 22, sadly most people don’t care for gaza quite as much as the Greens for some reason think they do and people didn’t care for what they were offering and thus the decline, tbh the greens should really be shining right now, absolute shambles from them
www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/…/106487270
To be honest I don’t think I can vote PHON first preference because my god I might throw up but i’m certainly not happy about it
In terms of unions I’d be more inclined to support them if they better represented me, the demands they seem to levy are egregious that have me siding with businesses going damn that’s crazy
eureka@aussie.zone 1 week ago
I don’t disagree with either of these statements. Nor do they disagree with my statement that votes are a vague message - if I tell you (and it’s the truth) that the Greens weren’t in my top two preferences in 2025 (nor Labor, nor Liberal) - what information does that give them? What would the Greens do if they wanted my vote? All my vote really says is, “I prefer this other party”, but not which policies I like, or even if it’s the policies I have a problem with. I know people who vote Liberal but are anti-privatisation! I know people who vote Liberal but are environmentally progressive! I know someone who voted for the opposition one year to “give someone else a go”! Even just the differing policies of each party are complicated, let alone other factors like personalities.
I don’t agree that voting is our biggest weapon, but it’s one everyone can use without any risk, so it’s certainly potent and important! Our biggest weapon is our labour. If you, me and millions of other people all voice a unified demand and stop going to work, that’s both a more accurate weapon (they know precisely what we want changed) and a weapon that can bring a government to its knees - look at revolutions overseas started by strikes. And it also works against companies which don’t even let us vote!
The following quote from Labor is extremely vague. Why did people vote for One Nation? Was it frustration with housing costs? General cost of living pressures? Reaction to the firearm laws after the Bondi massacre? Opposition to Islam? A hatred of Arabic people (Muslim or not) or Asians? Opposition to all immigration, including English? Simply sending a message of dissatisfaction to the Liberals? A disdain towards conventional, formal politicians? Media exposure and familiarity? (some people can’t even name our Prime Minister, so don’t underestimate this!)
Absolutely. While I do think they’re right to support activism around Gaza (even if it comes from the argument of “stop wasting our resources on foreign wars”), it shouldn’t be at their forefront.
It’s worth pointing out that sometimes (and maybe this doesn’t apply to the ones you’re thinking of) they come to the table with high demands with the intention to settle on a lower demand.
Not all unions are the same, nor are all organisers the same (had a string of bad ones until recently) so I’m fully aware that some are bad at representing employees. And it’s a damn shame. It makes a feedback loop where a bad union experience makes people dismissive of the actions necessary to improve the union. I’m lucky enough to be in one where we’ve recently managed to reorganise and volunteer enough to build campaigns where fellow employees were able to instruct us with their demands (and you bet thousands of us were asking for a 10% pay rise that we had to temper to something more realistic). But until I volunteered to help build this reorganisation, I did feel disempowered and unrepresented, and hesitated to even join the union, despite being a unionist.
The tough answer is, if institutions aren’t giving you power, you have to build it.