The Null Device

Greens sure to win Cunningham

It looks like the Bali bombing and the (anecdotal) rush back to the safe apron strings of conservatism hasn't tanked the Greens; the party is tipped to have won the seat of Cunningham in a byelection, giving them their first lower-house seat in federal parliament. That's what, one more than the Democrats ever had, no?

Anyway, good stuff. If the Greens can climb their way up to having serious political influence, then maybe Australia won't turn into the redneck state of South-East Asia.

(One of the Greens' policies is hardline opposition to invading Iraq, and an almost seditious disdain for Australia's current "I'm-with-Stupid" foreign policy. Maybe Graham was right and the Australian public is too smart to fall for the "Bali was bombed, therefore we must invade Iraq" bait-and-switch. Which would suggest that Australians are less gullible than the Poms. Discuss.)

There are 5 comments on "Greens sure to win Cunningham":

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com Sat Oct 19 16:40:43 2002

Well, yeah, and that ALP had an out-of-town candidate, which is suicide on a personality based (as opposed to party) campaign. The Libs didn't run one since it was in a ALP heartland. So to speak.

I do think that some of the Greens' policies are a bit weird, but with the demise of the Dems, they're the only game in town as far as this little Progressive duck goes, until I can see concrete evidence of Labor showing some conviction. I'm not sure how many more kicks in the arse the ALP needs to prompt it to get its act together, though it's working on it, with some resistance, I suppose.

Posted by: Robert http://mentalspace.ranters.net Sun Oct 20 11:25:48 2002

I hope this is a wake-up call to the ALP. You can't out-redneck a redneck, so why try?

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Sun Oct 20 16:04:55 2002

http://www.the-fix.org/ has a pretty accurate analysis. The ALP used to be a workers'/socialist party, though that's in decline with the decline of traditionally unionised industries. Now it has a choice between being a centrist economic-rationalist party and an inner-city progressive party. At the latter, the Greens are going to beat it anytime, though at the former it has more credibility because of its size and stability.

I think the ALP's future is to become much like the Democratic Party in the US. A huge, nominally left-wing though effectively centrist, corporate-controlled party. ("Vote ALP: for the lesser of two evils") Though thankfully we have preferential voting and a proportional senate

Posted by: alex http://fnord.org Mon Oct 21 02:35:48 2002

"Why Settle For The Lesser Of Two Evils?"

VOTE GREEN ... DEEP, DARK GREEN.

Posted by: Albert Shiny http:// Tue Oct 22 00:24:36 2002

The stars are almost right....

Iai Cthulhu Fthangh!