Submitted 2 weeks ago by Zagorath@quokk.au to australianpolitics@aussie.zone
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Can’t help but chuckle at how shit things are for the libs but I expect it will find myself longing for the gold old days once PHON establishes a platform.
Hopefully getting some more votes will temper them a little as they will have to cost policies et cetera.
libs never even had to develop policies let alone have economically feasible policies. what makes you think ONP will need to do any different?
Presenting themselves as an alternative creates higher expectations, I’d guess.
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.
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?
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?
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.
Same as Reform in the UK. The usual magical thinkers have decided that pretty much the same useless right wing cunts but with a different colour scheme will somehow work where they failed so many times before.
Zagorath@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
Metropolitan: ALP 46.6%; LIB 14.4%; ONP 18.2%; GRN 12.7%; OTH 8.1%