The Australian Spontaneous Politician Combustion thread

Geez, people. I leave the country for a couple of weeks and come back to two libspills, an evangelical and uncharismatic Christian as PM, and Quadbike in a fight to the death with Adolf Kipfler.

I should go overseas more often.

Well, holy crap is the Wentworth by-election an absolute shellacking. Yoiks.

I don't think I've ever seen Antony Green call a result so fast.

Did Antony say it was the biggest swing ever? I was stuck into the wine by then, so might have misheard.

Helix said:

Did Antony say it was the biggest swing ever? I was stuck into the wine by then, so might have misheard.

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Yep. Biggest swing by quite a margin (at least, it was at the end of counting last night. Not sure where it'll end up when all's finished).

I wish you all a better ending than the nightmare cliffhanger up-over here.

be frank said:

Yep. Biggest swing by quite a margin (at least, it was at the end of counting last night. Not sure where it'll end up when all's finished).

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Ahahahahahaha...*breathes*...hahahahaha

Go, Victoria! Enjoy the taste of democracy.

https://www.democracysausage.org/

Helix said:

Go, Victoria! Enjoy the taste of democracy.

https://www.democracysausage.org/

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There was a weird number of articles yesterday afternoon analysing how the LNP lost this election, which given the election is, yanno, today ... struck me as rather counting-chickens-before-they-hatch-esque.

Having said that, if the polling etc is correct and Andrews romps it in, I can safely say the LNP lost this election the moment they made Matthew Guy their leader.

And now, I am off to vote. I will try to avoid the wafty temptations of democracy sausages though.

What's wrong with Taz?

Platypus eggs, no sausage?

I admit I have no clue what I'm talking about.

Onya, Be Frank! Mind the onions underfoot.

MaeZe said:

What's wrong with Taz?

Platypus eggs, no sausage?

I admit I have no clue what I'm talking about.

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It's the Victorian state election, so no other states are involved. The symbols represent polling booths where you can get a snag sanger and/or cakes. The food is usually provided by local schools and charities as fund raisers, and the state and federal electoral commissions support the activity.

Unfortunately, the Democracy Sausage map relies on people reporting what's available, so it's not exhaustive. I'd imagine that most, if not all, of the booths have food and non-alcoholic beverages available.

Your voting sounds like so much more fun than ours.

We do a good voting day here.

Just check out #democracysausage on Twitter to see how relaxed voting can be.

It sounds rather like what was described on one of the 'Election Day in America' threads:
festive, food, etc.
Only in the olden days in the U.S., apparently alcohol was available. I presume the snacks were provided by the alcohol vendors, because when the alcohol was forbidden, everything else vanished as well.
Now all they provide is little stickers proudly announcing 'I voted'. Which is not a patch on a sausage sandwich.

Helix said:

We do a good voting day here.

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We really do. We can't keep a PM for their full term to save ourselves, but voting is one thing we have right. Thank heavens for the apolitical AEC.

After watching the mess of the US midterms, I'm so grateful for how easy/unfussed voting is here. There's a dozen polling places within walking distance of our house (every scout hall, school, church etc is in use today). We went down and there was no queue. The 30-odd "how to vote" people were all chatting amicably amongst themselves (from snippets overhead, mostly about how good the sausages smelled. I assume the Animal Liberation Party were not joining in that particular convo, though).

Now to wait for the results to start rolling in at 6pm. Antony Green should be getting warmed up soon.

*checks results*



bye bye, Lobster Mobster Guy

Helix said:

*checks results*



bye bye, Lobster Mobster Guy

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Ha! I was just popping by to say it looks like quite a smashing.

The L/NP salted their own earth.

Ayup. Wonder what their spin will be. How much will they try to blame on their federal shenanigans etc.

God, I'm so glad their blatant scare tactics didn't work.

I thought it might be fun to watch Sky News, but it wasn't. Was fun to watch Kennett on 7 for a wee while though.

I'm watching ABC News. The pollies are quite well-behaved. Just a moment ago, the Libs were excited at the prospect of retaining Bayswater.

ajaye said:

I thought it might be fun to watch Sky News, but it wasn't. Was fun to watch Kennett on 7 for a wee while though.

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Ajaye. Mate. Sky News is not fun to watch, ever. Mr BF is insisting we watch Jumanji, having no interest in election anythings. I'm flipping in the ad breaks to the ABC, just watching the Labor seats jumping up every time.

Helix said:

I'm watching ABC News. The pollies are quite well-behaved. Just a moment ago, the Libs were excited at the prospect of retaining Bayswater.

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Looks like they're about to lose Hawthorn for the first time since 1955. Though to a "John Kennedy", so that seems apt.

I flicked onto Sky for one sec and got Alan Jones talking gangs.

ajaye said:

I flicked onto Sky for one sec and got Alan Jones talking gangs.

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*face-palm*

Guaranteed the "lesson" the LNP takes from this is "we needed to go even harder to the right."

ajaye said:

I flicked onto Sky for one sec and got Alan Jones talking gangs.

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Let that be a lesson to you.

I love you Melbourne.