Tag Archive for 'WA election results'

WA counting and machinations update

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Kim
1 year, 6 months ago
in State/Territory Elections
. 6 Comments

A week after Western Australians went to the vote, and the counting and manoeuvring continues. The Poll Bludger has all the details on the latest results and a poll on which way the Nationals should jump.

I’ve got a feeling the Nationals might go with Labor. It’s hard to explain why Brendon Grylls should give Alan Carpenter a big assist to stay in the leadership otherwise. But the contrary hypothesis would be it’s part of a game plan to keep us all guessing.

Greens back in the spotlight after the WA election?

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by
Mark
1 year, 6 months ago
in Activism, Federal Elections and State/Territory Elections
. 42 Comments

With all the attention on the role of Brendon Grylls and the Nationals as the kingmakers in the WA election result, the improvement in the Greens’ vote has slipped under the radar somewhat. Counting subsequent to election night has seen their vote climb to almost 12% of the Legislative Assembly total according to the WAEC (which is interestingly slightly higher than the Greens’ vote in the Legislative Council).

But, if the Fin Review is to be believed, the significance of a 4% plus swing to the Greens hasn’t escaped the attention of ALP wonks. “Labor hardheads” are quoted by the paper as concerned by the vote in Fremantle, and the implications for the seats of Federal Ministers such as Lindsay Tanner, Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek. “Labor strategists” are cited as concerned about a drift away among “left-leaning voters”.

This is hardly rocket science. Any modern managerialist ALP government is bound to disappoint at least some left voters after the initial euphoria of a Tory defeat has worn off. And the Greens nationally are going to have a much bigger profile with a balance of power role in the Senate and new Senators who may develop a high profile. The article, however, leaves us none the wiser as to how “Labor strategists” think their party should respond.

Continue reading ‘Greens back in the spotlight after the WA election?’

Legislative challenge

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Anna Winter
1 year, 6 months ago
in Government, Levity, Politics and State/Territory Elections
. 11 Comments

Accy raises an interesting concept.

Whichever party the Nats decide to deal with, they likely won’t enter into coalition. They’d guarantee supply, but otherwise keep their options open. And given the Nats’ likely control of both houses, it would possible for one of those options to be to get legislation passed without the help of the government. Meaning ministers forced to implement legislation they voted against.

Unlikely, sure. But wouldn’t it be fun while it lasted? And what other wacky scenarios can people think up before boring reality kicks in again?

No, thanks

Published
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Anna Winter
1 year, 6 months ago
in State/Territory Elections
. 16 Comments

Saturday’s election result in WA means the possibility of the political commentator’s dream: the hung parliament. Labor has suffered a massive swing, and now it’s probably going to come down to who can convince the Nationals to make a deal. Whose trainwreck? We’ll see…

The Nationals in WA are more agrarian socialist than they are in the rest of the country, and there are some who say that Brendan Grylls personally leans more towards the Labor Party. Common ‘wisdom’ and Liberal MPs suggest that the Libs and Nats will come to an arrangement, but Gryll’s personal politics, and a desire (and need) to appear genuinely independent and influential mean that there’s a good chance he may prefer to make a deal with Carpenter.

Whether Carps will want to, when it will mean having to fork out a huge amount of money to rural seats, in addition to meeting all his election promises, and dealing with the instability of an angry party and CCC reports, is another question. Whether he’s capable of working with another party when he’s so terrible at working with his own is a third. To be successful would require an ability to reach a consensus, at least with the most important bills; that just isn’t his style.

Continue reading ‘No, thanks’

Not over yet?

Published
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Mark
1 year, 6 months ago
in State/Territory Elections
. 25 Comments

I was very interested to watch interviews with both Alan Carpenter and Brendon Grylls on the 7 30 Report tonight. The punditariat – and Kerry O’Brien – seem to have no awareness of the specific history of the WA Nationals (whose former leader Hendy Cowan was much less socially conservative than his federal counterparts, and whose conference this year supported same sex civil unions) or indeed what occurred during the campaign. The lazy assumption that the Nats will jump to install Colin Barnett ignores, for instance, the bad blood that was signalled by Barnett refusing to meet Grylls during the lead up to the election, not to mention Grylls’ explicit statements about negotiating with both major parties. This is just speculation, but my feeling was that Grylls has an incentive to go with Labor to demonstrate that the Nats’ independence is genuine. This may well be very interesting.

Worst. Campaign. Ever.

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crankynick
1 year, 6 months ago
in Government, Polls and State/Territory Elections
. 70 Comments

This was the worst campaign I have ever seen run by the ALP.

Ever.

This was an election where all of the ALP’s problems over the last 6-8 years came home to roost.

There was no central theme. The campaign material was ugly, late out, badly written, and largely unrelated to anything voters actually cared about.

The central campaign was a shambles, courtesy of a complete disconnect between the Parliamentary Labor party, party office, and the lay ALP membership.

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The Poll Bludger’s live blog of the WA count [continued from The Poll Bludger]

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Guest Poster
1 year, 6 months ago
in Blogging, Notices and State/Territory Elections
. 39 Comments

MB: William’s been having problems with his database crashing, so he’s going to conclude his liveblogging of the WA election poll count here if the problems continue.

10.48pm. I’ll wrap it up here and carry on over at my place, so enormous thanks to Mark Bahnisch for allowing me to clog up his page. The Liberals have gained Ocean Reef, North West, Jandakot, Swan Hills, Mount Lawley, Bunbury, Darling Range, Kingsley, Wanneroo, Southern River and apparently Morley. Varying degrees of doubt remain about Riverton, Forrestfield, Collie-Preston and Morley. Labor might make a notional gain of Albany. Former Labor independent John Bowler has won Kalgoorlie from the Liberals. Labor may have lost Kwinana to independent Carol Adams. Independents Janet Woollard in Alfred Cove and Sue Walker in Nedlands may or may not lose their seats to the Liberals. The numbers are 27 to 29 for Labor plus Labor independents, with either one or two of the latter; 26 to 28 for the Liberals plus Liberal independents, also with one to three of the latter; and four for the Nationals.

Continue reading ‘The Poll Bludger’s live blog of the WA count [continued from The Poll Bludger]‘