Federal Election 2019

[vox nihili]

With the federal election hopefully to be called by the end of the week, it's high-time we start a thread to discuss it.

This thread will include updates on what's happening during the campaign. From time to time, I will also drop in questions to get the discussion going. So without further ado, let's get started!

Question 1: Who will you be voting for? Why?

[K888]

The only thing I'm interested in is where I can get a democracy sausage.

[Joseph41]

May 18.

[vox nihili]

The only thing I'm interested in is where I can get a democracy sausage.

Will sadly report that my local voting booth did not have a democracy sausage at the state election. Ripped off.

May 18.

And so it is. This is as late as they could possibly make it, which seems like a reasonably sensible plan if your government hasn't won a poll ever.

Talk about a May 25th date was probably a little silly. I'm sure they considered it, but it chucked up some legal issues.

[K888]

Also, just a reminder to people that if you've changed address recently to update your details on the electoral commission website so that you're in the correct seat/division

[vox nihili]

VoteCompass is now live! Post your results :D

[PhoenixxFire]

Question 1: Who will you be voting for? Why?

I'm still enrolled in Wills, haven't really decided if I'm going to update my address or not. I'm thinking I probably won't because I don't even know who the candidates here are. Also Wills is somewhat marginal and Canberra is a safe Labor seat lol.

I'm sure it's no surprise that I'll be voting for the Greens, although honestly I don't know if that'd be the case if I changed my address, I guess I'd have to figure out who the candidates round here are at least.

The candidates in Wills are Peter Khalil (labor) and Adam Pulford (greens) and a bunch of other people who have no chance

Peter supposedly has been doing some good stuff locally, I kind of dislike him because of how crap his campaign was in 2016 though. I remember trying to look him up at the time and all I could find was generic speeches about generic policies (mostly housing affordability, which seems to be what labor campaigns on in that area). Compared to Samantha Ratnam who was the greens candidate at the time (she's now the leader of the victorian greens) who was constantly out talking to people and attending community events and stuff (apparently she's very convincing), to me it kinda seemed like he was just there to be a generic labor member. Locally though, he seems to be doing fine so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of people voting for him because of that. More widely though, labor policies just aren't moving fast enough - their target is 50% renewable energy by 2030. Last year renewable energy made up 21% of Australia's energy generation - the year before that it was 17% and the year before that 17.3%. Given the 12 years we have to limit the worst of climate damage, their target being 50% by 2030 is kinda ridiculous.

Despite the swing to the greens at the last election, and the greens winning my state electorate, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Labor wins the seat again. There's a lot of very left wing people in my area, and I'd imagine that climate change would be a big issue for a lot of them. However, the more north you go the more labor it gets, which tends to be why Brunswick and Northcote (state electorates) are more green than Wills and Batman (the federal electorates encompassing them). As much as I'd like Adam to win it, I think I'm expecting it to go to labor again. At least the results are interesting to watch when it's close.


I find it kinda funny that there's any similarity with one nation. Although if you actually go through and click on their policy it doesn't really match up, the abc just split the policy into agree-disagree options. Although I'd argue that some of the statements from One Nation don't justify them being put in the category they are in.

[vox nihili]

I'm still enrolled in Wills, haven't really decided if I'm going to update my address or not. I'm thinking I probably won't because I don't even know who the candidates here are. Also Wills is somewhat marginal and Canberra is a safe Labor seat lol.

I'm sure it's no surprise that I'll be voting for the Greens, although honestly I don't know if that'd be the case if I changed my address, I guess I'd have to figure out who the candidates round here are at least.

The candidates in Wills are Peter Khalil (labor) and Adam Pulford (greens) and a bunch of other people who have no chance

Peter supposedly has been doing some good stuff locally, I kind of dislike him because of how crap his campaign was in 2016 though. I remember trying to look him up at the time and all I could find was generic speeches about generic policies (mostly housing affordability, which seems to be what labor campaigns on in that area). Compared to Samantha Ratnam who was the greens candidate at the time (she's now the leader of the victorian greens) who was constantly out talking to people and attending community events and stuff (apparently she's very convincing), to me it kinda seemed like he was just there to be a generic labor member. Locally though, he seems to be doing fine so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of people voting for him because of that. More widely though, labor policies just aren't moving fast enough - their target is 50% renewable energy by 2030. Last year renewable energy made up 21% of Australia's energy generation - the year before that it was 17% and the year before that 17.3%. Given the 12 years we have to limit the worst of climate damage, their target being 50% by 2030 is kinda ridiculous.

Despite the swing to the greens at the last election, and the greens winning my state electorate, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Labor wins the seat again. There's a lot of very left wing people in my area, and I'd imagine that climate change would be a big issue for a lot of them. However, the more north you go the more labor it gets, which tends to be why Brunswick and Northcote (state electorates) are more green than Wills and Batman (the federal electorates encompassing them). As much as I'd like Adam to win it, I think I'm expecting it to go to labor again. At least the results are interesting to watch when it's close.

(Image removed from quote.)
I find it kinda funny that there's any similarity with one nation. Although if you actually go through and click on their policy it doesn't really match up, the abc just split the policy into agree-disagree options. Although I'd argue that some of the statements from One Nation don't justify them being put in the category they are in.

I don't have a lot of time so sorry for short response!

Wills is a super interesting seat. I can't find it at the moment, but there was a really interesting graphic that showed the way the results in each of the booths compared. It basically described exactly what you said, with all of the booths in the south of the seat strongly Greens voting, but then as you get further north the boots start to turn red. I think some have dubbed it the "tofu curtain".


The Greens don't seem to be focusing particularly strongly on seats like Wills at this election, which is certainly odd. A lot of their public stuff has been really focused on the inner eastern seats, like Kooyong and Higgins. Even Macnamara (formerly Melbourne Ports) is seen as a target for the Greens, although you'd expect the orthodox Jewish population would provide a buffer against the Greens there.

[Bri MT]

VoteCompass placed me on the diagonal between Labor & the Greens, closer to the Labor side. It also listed the Greens as party I agreed on the most policies with  (I'll edit in the photos when I'm not on mobile).

My seat (Lalor) is safely Labor's & I haven't fully decided my voting intentions yet.

[PhoenixxFire]

Just a reminder, if you're not yet enrolled and intend to enroll you need to do it by 8pm tomorrow.

Also worth noting that if you're not enrolled and don't intend to enroll you should probably check your enrollment status anyway. Not sure about the AEC but I know for the VEC they take data from other sources (including VCAA) and can enrol you without you having to do anything.

[Aaron]

Not sure about the AEC but I know for the VEC they take data from other sources (including VCAA) and can enrol you without you having to do anything.

Also applies if you have a my.gov account or use any of its services - e.g. centrelink, tax office, medicare etc.

I updated my address on my.gov and a few weeks later got a letter from the AEC saying they had notice from another government agency that my details had changed and they'd be updating my division etc.

[PhoenixxFire]

I updated my address on my.gov and a few weeks later got a letter from the AEC saying they had notice from another government agency that my details had changed and they'd be updating my division etc.

I was somewhat worried that they'd do that to me but it seems I'm getting away with it because my current address is listed as a term address not a home address - for centrelink at least.

[PhoenixxFire]

Why tf is this legal?

Is it legal for parties to check out what's on the form?
Yep. Mr Diak said there was nothing stopping political parties from "extracting and viewing" your postal vote application, if it's sent back to them in the envelope they supplied.

That means they could access your:

- Full name
- Date of birth
- Enrolled address
- Postal address
- Contact details (including your email address, mobile phone number and home phone number)
- A security question and answer

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-20/why-federal-election-candidates-are-sending-postal-vote-forms/11028154

Obviously sending the form back to a political party rather than directly to the AEC is a bad idea, but this just seems so wrong and deliberately misleading.

[vox nihili]

Sorry for neglecting this thread for the past week or so, I've been away enjoying a holiday!


Question 2: What does the government owe its people?

-For this question, I want you to think about some of the more overarching divides in Australian politics. Where does the government's responsibility end? Where does the responsibility of an individual start?

Why tf is this legal?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-20/why-federal-election-candidates-are-sending-postal-vote-forms/11028154

Obviously sending the form back to a political party rather than directly to the AEC is a bad idea, but this just seems so wrong and deliberately misleading.

As far as I'm aware, political parties are exempted from the Privacy Act, so they can contact people on the do not call register etc etc. There's a lot of confusion around the postal votes (you don't seem to have been caught in it here) but to be clear no party asks for the completed votes to be sent to them, just the application forms. My impression is that parties do this to mine people's details, so that they can then contact you with calls etc. For the Liberals in particular, there's also an incentive to ensure people postal vote and don't just absorb the fine, because postal votes tend to favour the conservative side of politics.

[Remy33]

Just discovered this thread! This is going to be a short response as I'm at school but here's my take on vox nihili's questions:

1. Who will you be voting for? Why?
I'm planning to vote Liberal. Don't hate me pleeeeaaase.
My seat is Lalor (same as Bri MT!) and my preferences are Liberal > Labor > other parties that have virtually no chance anyway > Greens
I don't necessarily agree with all of the fascists Liberal's policies. But the 3 main reasons as to why I'm voting for them is because of their stance against Safe Schools, asylum seekers. and section 18C.

2. What does the government owe its people?
Ooft. Broad question. I think a government's responsibility should mostly remain in the public sphere, providing its citizens with security and stability. On many social issues such as same-sex marriage, euthanasia, etc - I think it should be up to the individual and in no way should the state's views dictate what people can and cannot do. So I guess a very short answer to this question would be that the government owes its people more degrees of autonomy.

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I find it kinda funny that there's any similarity with one nation. Although if you actually go through and click on their policy it doesn't really match up, the abc just split the policy into agree-disagree options. Although I'd argue that some of the statements from One Nation don't justify them being put in the category they are in.

It's funny how on many issues Greens and One Nation actually takes the same stance. Just my opinion, but after reading through both ON and Greens's statements - they DO actually share similar viewpoints, but just for vastly different reasons. For example regarding government subsidies to private health insurance: Greens disagree because the subsidies largely benefit those who are already financially better off; while ON disagrees because they just believes in less government intervention period.

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Oh and here's where I stand on the spectrum: