Vic Labor wins state election - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14491923
Landslide election victory for Victorian Labor today, historically ending a one-term government.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-29/live-blog-victoria-votes-2014/5928222

Labor leader Daniel Andrews has promised not to let Victorians down after his party's win in the state election.

"The people of Victoria have today given to us the greatest of gifts, entrusted to us the greatest of responsibilities and bestowed upon us the greatest of honours and, ladies and gentlemen, we will not let them down," he told Labor faithful as he claimed victory.

Moments earlier, outgoing premier Denis Napthine said he would call a party room meeting "in the very near future" to stand down as Liberal leader: "it is time for renewal, it is time for change".


VLP won on its health, education & public transport policies, I'd say.

One crazy Coalition policy is to to remove the Frankston train line that I use to cut it off from the city loop under the CBD of Melbourne. Totally crazy.

Tony Abbot didn't even set foot in Victoria during the campaign, no doubt because he knew what a negative factor he is.

The independent that was expelled from the Liberal party for abusing his expenses got the boot too. Key marginal seats in south-eastern suburbs swung to the VLP.
Last edited by redcarpet on 29 Nov 2014 18:45, edited 2 times in total.
#14492242
I think this is more a response to federal Liberals and the unpopularity of Napthine than any positive Labor policies. It's like the state elections are good places to vent against who is ever is at the top at the time.
#14492262
The Liberals in Victoria have been on the nose since they were elected. They did extremely little, had no decent polices and generally just stuffed around. Abbot has not helped Victorian liberals but they have down little to help themselves. The Liberal government has been dead man walking for about 2 years and has not made any impression of Victorians that they were in any way capable in Government. The way the liberals managed to become a dead duck only 2 years into their first term had just slowly plummet off the cliff over the last 2 years is a testament to their basic incompetence. Politicians do not seem to be getting any better, but it was a poor performance whatever way you look at it, they seemed to like any real agenda, policies or even cynical intent to lie convincingly.
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Andrews and the ALP get very little credit in my view, the public through out the Liberals because they fundamentally did not like them, trust them or thought their policies were good, and generally the public made up their mind on this liberal government years ago.

The ALP (and liberals to some extent) have followed an anyone but the Greens policy which combined into the voting preference deal machinery we have now will see a fair few minor parties in the upper house mostly on a very very small numbers of votes and generally owing their election to back room deals as most people vote above the line. Could see some craziness in the New Vic parliament as a result of this.
#14492468
Good comment in The Age today;

First Monday of the socialists. We get to see the 6 billion (of our money) road contract that was signed on election eve. We mushrooms weren't allowed to see the business case - because it's a dud. The Liberals recklessly signed the contract hours before going into caretaker mode - then campaigned saying that Labor's recklessness would see the contract torn up exposing the state to over a billion in compensation. Then we had Tony saying that if the road wasn't built (ie if Labor won) the 3 billion (of our money) he's offered Victoria would be withdrawn. And they wonder why they lost?

Commenter mattoxic Location Melbourne Date and time December 01, 2014, 7:29AM
#14492623
It's a sad scenario when the majority of people appear to vote based on the other party doing a poor job, rather then their being a substantial difference of vision that they could believe in.

Abbott certainly wasn't elected on a wave of his own popularity, but because the alternative seemed to be doing an awful job. I look at NSW state politics now too, and see that a Liberal party that has lost over 10 MPs through what was essentially corruption (including the Premier himself) would still win an election today by a huge margin. Why? Because the opposition developed such a horrible reputation (rightly so) of being corrupt and incompetent in their 10+ years in office that the current corrupt party still seems the better option.

I mean who would be voting for NSW Liberals due to them being a party whose platform you believe in and politicians you can trust
#14493234
Abbott's weird, almost surreal. He's breaking more promises month after month. Now cuts to the ABC & SBS, after previously promising not to.

AND, that the Victorian election was to be "a referendum on the East-West link" that he's pushing Daniel Andrews to implement despite his election victory, jeez! Almost like he's on a suicide mission!

Another worthy article;

Everywhere Tony Abbott turns, there's a barrier he placed there himself
The prime minister used admissions on ABC cuts and a ragged recent performance to try to reset the debate, but there was little tangible change. There may be a good reason for that

The Guardian (Australia)

The Abbott administration has become the government that snookered itself.

The prime minister’s 45-minute media conference on Monday was a determined attempt to manoeuvre himself out of a dire political situation and reset the debate.

With even the conservative commentariat attacking his government, it was calculated to give the impression he was listening (sure, things have been a bit ragged) and making concessions (yes, ABC cuts are at odds with what I said before the election), while pointing out hand on heart that he had “guts” and “conviction” (one thing no one had ever really doubted).

But besides a minor concession on Australian Defence Force allowances and accepting the bleeding obvious about his broken promise on the ABC, there were no actual changes to give effect to the “reset”. That may be because every way the prime minister turns there’s an obstacle he put there himself.

The budget situation is deteriorating – largely because of the hit on revenue due to declining commodity prices. The government appears to have accepted advice by organisations such as the OECD not to respond with bigger spending cuts because the economy is already struggling with the end of the resources investment boom.

Except the Coalition has spent years telling us the previously forecast deficit and debt levels were a disaster and an emergency, which surely means – by its own reasoning – that bigger deficits are an even bigger disaster.

No, the prime minister says, because the budget emergency started to abate the instant a government came in and showed that it was determined to address it. “If you have a fire, the moment the fire brigade turns up, the situation starts to come under control.”

Most people would argue fire brigades work better if they actually use their hoses.

But there was also some indication on Monday that the size of the budget “blaze” is being scaled back in the government’s estimation. Now it’s less a disaster and more just a problem.

“We were saying uphill and down dale until we were blue in the face that there was a budget problem,” Abbott said. “We used very strong language prior to the election to describe the budget problem,” he said. Ah, yes prime minister, you did.

Then there are the budget savings measures stalled in the Senate. None of them appear likely to pass this week.

The government could ditch them, but then they would not be included in the mid-year economic statement as government policy, and the predicted deficits would grow even larger.

The government could put them to a vote, and if the Senate rejected them twice, seek to break the impasse in the accepted constitutional manner of a double dissolution election.

Except the government has comprehensively lost the public debate about the fairness of these very measures, and trails in the polls by 10 percentage points in two-party-preferred terms. And a double dissolution election, in which half the normal quota is required to elect Senate candidates, would assist the same minor parties and independents that are playing havoc with the government’s budget strategy at the moment.
#14493273
Yes Does the Prime Minister respect democracy ? He called this election a referendum on the east west link. His first response after the election is too call on the new government to break it's election promise on the key election issue. It's almost like he thinks politicians should be able to tell lies and not keep their promises.
#14494844
pugsville wrote:Yes Does the Prime Minister respect democracy ? He called this election a referendum on the east west link. His first response after the election is too call on the new government to break it's election promise on the key election issue. It's almost like he thinks politicians should be able to tell lies and not keep their promises.


Not to mention whacking on a terminating-contract fee of hundreds of millions of dollars - purely out of spite.

One great piece of karma in this is a little known but outrageous broken promise by Abbott - by throwing hundreds of millions to the Napthine government for the east west link without undergoing a cost-benefit analysis - after promising not to.

And while I'm not sure if Colliric still logs on here, I am enjoying all his gleeful predictions of Greens demise in Victoria turn to dust.
#14495148
Victorian state election vote count: Labor claims Bentleigh but Frankston, Prahran still too close to call

The Age

Labor claimed its 47th lower house seat on Friday, declaring victory in the marginal sandbelt seat of Bentleigh. But Frankston and Prahran remain too close to call with just 83 votes separating Clem Newton-Brown from defeat in the inner-city district of Prahran.

Labor's Bentleigh candidate Nick Staikos claimed victory on Friday morning. He said he had a lead of 365 votes, with just 150 absentee votes to be counted.

Comment has been sought from Liberal candidate Elizabeth Miller.

The Victorian Electoral Commission said the formal Bentleigh outcome would not be known until preferences were formally distributed.

In Frankston candidates were hoping to see an outcome by Friday evening. Labor's Paul Edbrooke was ahead with 50.47 per cent on a two-candidate-preferred basis in the afternoon. With 14 candidates on the ballot paper, nearly 9 per cent of ballots in Frankston were informal, compared to a statewide average of 5.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, the district Prahran looks likely to be settled on preferences from independently minded voters who did not follow how to vote cards.

Liberal candidate Mr Newton-Brown was ahead of Labor by 222 votes on a two-party preferred basis on Friday morning. But this margin reduced to 82 in the afternoon as absentee and postal votes arrived, according to party scrutineers.

The Greens and Labor were in a tight race for second position with about 440 votes separating the two parties. The Greens were hoping to pick up preferences from about 800 Animal Justice Party ballots, but this relied on voters following how to vote cards. Either party could still beat Mr Newton-Brown once preferences were completely distributed.


The new government is so far implimenting its promises well, including an audit of the East-West Link plan;

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But still counting ongoing to two important marginal seats. Was nice to see Geoff Shaw get the boot though
#14521090
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Ex-Treasurer Michael O'Brien has released his East West Link side letter. This is the critical paragraph. :P

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