What a wipeout.

[JohnB]

Okay, this isn't big on the grand scale of International politics, but my home State Queensland had an election last weekend.

 

For roughly the last 20 years we have had government from the Labor Party, who are from out "left" with all the union affilliations and green tendencies that this implies.

 

We have 89 seats in the State House (The Upper House was abolished by the ALP back in 1922) of which, until Saturday the ALP held 51. 51 out of 89 being a reasonable and comfortable majority.

 

As of Sunday morning, they hold 7 after losing a stunning 44 seats, the largest loss ever in any Australian election. The incoming conservative government holds 78 out of 89 seats. What was interesting was that while the average swing was about 15%, it varied from seat to seat. In each lost seat the swing was 3-4% above what was needed for the seat to change so seats held by 4% had 7% swings while seats held by 17% had 20% swings. This is something that nobody has seen before.

 

For a timeline of how quickly the disaster became obvious try the Courier Mail. With polls closing at 6.00 pm the result was clear by 7.20.

 

Four things led to this devastating defeat and there are lessons for our politicians to learn;

 

1. The ALP campaign of mercilessly smearing Mr Newman failed dismally when the Premier was forced to admit that they actually had nothing more than smears and inuendo. (Especially since she had been attacking Mr Newmans wife and father after swearing a year ago to "keep family out of this".) We are sick of personal and dirty campaigns. If you play this way we will assume that you have neither policies nor achievements to point to and will punish you accordingly.

 

2. Prior to the last election Mrs. Bligh (Yes, the "Captain" of our State was a "Bligh", some things are too funny not to vote for) promised she would not sell public assets to balance the books, shortly after winning she did so. Do not lie to us. We are not stupid and we will remember and punish you for it. (I point here to our Prime Minister saying before the last election "There will be no Carbon Tax under a government I lead". She lied and there will be a reckoning.)

 

3. "The People" are just that and are represented by persons from all walks of life. They are neither represented by nor have any interest in the opinions of the self styles intellectuals or university trained pseudo intelligentsia who believe in their own moral and intellectual superiority. These fools are a mob of wankers who circle jerk over their lattes and do not hold opinions with any relevence to the actual needs of the people of the State or Nation. "We the People" seriously outnumber these dweebs and will demonstrate this come election time.

 

4. Specifically for the Left here. Projection is a serious illness, just because you use a crapload of astroturfing doesn't mean the other side do. In my very hotly contested seat of Ashgrove the count was at least 4 astroturfing outfits for the left and none for the right. Stop listening to the people in section 3 above, these fools believe that the majority of the population are idiots who will vote as they are told to by some talking head on TV. This justifies the use of astroturfing because then your side can be the last thing the foolish proles hear and so they will do as you tell them. The simple fact is that people can recognise astroturfing when they see it and they can also think for themselves. Assuming their stupidity will cost you votes.

 

Aside from that, what a breath of fresh air. A State led by an ex military officer with a civil engineering background and a lot of new talent in Parliment from so many different walks of life. Ex journos, Doctors and Tradesmen replace 20 years of party hacks, incompetents and ideologues. This will be a wild ride back to the top, but worth every minute of it.

[hypervalent_iodine]

And only four days after the election:

 

Mr Newman yesterday declared his LNP government would axe seven other green schemes, on the grounds the carbon tax would make them redundant.

 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/elections/campbell-newman-orders-anna-blighs-husband-greg-withers-to-kill-green-schemes/story-fnbsqt8f-1226311864712

 

Green schemes including:

 

According to its policy document released a day before the election, the Newman government plans to abolish eight of Labor’s environmental funds, including the solar flagships program, the $300 million climate change fund and the $50 million renewable energy fund.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/newman-takes-aim-at-climate-and-renewables-95574

 

Oh, the irony.