Australian 2013 Federal Election Megathread

[brenden]

Yeah I'm voting Greens. And I don't give a fuck what Mr. Burny says, there's no way I'm voting for the Coalition in my Labor seat; that's just morally wrong lol.

[slothpomba]

JULIAN BURNSIDE IS SUPPORTING THE GREENS...

Who?

Vote Green in the House of Representatives, then preference whichever major party does not currently hold the seat you are in.  If you are in a Labor seat, vote Coalition; if you are in a Coalition seat, vote Labor: send a protest message to both major parties.

I don't know about this bit though. It might send a signal that people really are disappointed with Labor and like the coalitions policies. There's a danger of forcing Labor to shift to the right on the perception they're no longer close enough to the centre. Not to mention there's a monetary funding value attached to each vote. By voting #1 Liberal, they make money off your vote.

A candidate or Senate group is eligible for election funding if they obtain at least 4% of the first preference vote in the division or the state or territory they contested. The amount to be paid is calculated by multiplying the number of votes obtained by the current election funding rate. The funding rate for the 2010 federal election was 231.191 2013 federal election was 248.00 cents per House of Representatives and Senate vote. This rate is indexed every six months to increases in the Consumer Price Index. Source.

[ninwa]

Julian Burnside is the kind of lawyer I hope to be one day

[Russ]

Julian Burnside is the kind of lawyer I hope to be one day

he primarily "acted for the big end of town"

I see.

[slothpomba]

I see.

Plz nina i know you're in it from things very far from the money so don't bite our heads off

[ninwa]

k

In 1998, Burnside surprised some people by acting for the Maritime Union of Australia in its battle with Patrick Corporation during the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute, one of Australia's most severe and longest industrial relations controversies. The matter went to the High Court of Australia, which eventually found in favour of the Union, albeit with certain conditions. Burnside describes this case as one of his most memorable, and has stated that it convinced him that the survival of reasonable and responsible union representation is crucial if there is to be justice in the workplace.[3] His involvement in the dispute is portrayed by Rhys Muldoon in the 2007 ABC miniseries Bastard Boys.

From the late 1990s onwards, Burnside began to undertake more and more pro bono legal work on a range of human rights-related issues. He acted for Victoria's chief civil liberties organisation in an action against the Australian Government over the Tampa affair and vehemently criticised John Howard's Government for its mandatory detention of asylum seekers arriving in Australia. With his wife, artist Kate Durham, Burnside set up Spare Rooms for Refugees and Spare Lawyers for Refugees, programs which provide free accommodation and legal representation for refugees in Australia.

Throughout this time Burnside has maintained his practice as a commercial litigator, appearing in many major class actions, trade practices cases and general commercial cases.

Burnside has also acted in several major cases on behalf of Indigenous Australians. Most notably, he acted for Bruce Trevorrow, a member of the Indigenous stolen generation, in which Trevorrow sued the South Australian Government for having removed him from his parents. For the first time in Australian legal history, an Australian government was found liable for such conduct, and the court awarded $500 000 in damages to Mr Trevorrow.

In 2004 Burnside was awarded the Human Rights Law Award by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and sponsored by the Law Council of Australia for his pro-bono legal work for asylum seekers and for his work in establishing Spare Lawyers for Refugees.[4] Also in 2004, he was elected an Australian Living Treasures. In 2006 he was inducted as an honorary member of the Monash University Golden Key Society. In 2007 he received the Australian Peace Prize from the Peace Organisation of Australia.

Burnside has also written several successful publications on law, human rights and philology. In addition to his work in the law, he is a patron of numerous arts organisations. He regularly commissions classical music compositions and sculptures, and is Chair of two arts organisations.[5]

[ShortBlackChick]

Yeah I'm voting Greens. And I don't give a fuck what Mr. Burny says, there's no way I'm voting for the Coalition in my Labor seat; that's just morally wrong lol.

Doubt the Coalition would have brought us a Headspace Centre in our electorate either. Holt Pls. Byrne FTW

[ShortBlackChick]

Rise Up Australia Party.

http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/

Wants to ban Burqa/Hijab. Education policy is vague besides the fact that they want to give equal funding to public and private schools. Anti-Multiculturalists, Anti-Abortion and Anti-Gay Marriage. The Anti-Multicutural thing amuses me because their leader and literally half their candidates are from 1st Gen Non-Anglo backgrounds

Oh god they have a party song. I Fapped to this.
http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/?page_id=1136

I'm actually surprised at how many candidates they have running in this election seeing as they only started up a few years ago but I'm very interested to see how they will do

[slothpomba]

Doubt the Coalition would have brought us a Headspace Centre in our electorate either. Holt Pls. Byrne FTW

They agreed to match Labor's plan of opening 10 new centres (ontop of those already existing/in various stages of construction).

I think it's good that they also agreed. They're not turning it into a political football or yet another issue to fight over, just like the NDIS, this is another policy that just makes sense and really should just be apolitical with both parties supporting it.

More here.

[lala1911]

One way or another in 2.5 years half the country will be bitching again.

Nothing will stop the almighty Mr Abbott from winning, sorry guys.

[thushan]

Rise Up Australia Party.

http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/

Wants to ban Burqa/Hijab. Education policy is vague besides the fact that they want to give equal funding to public and private schools. Anti-Multiculturalists, Anti-Abortion and Anti-Gay Marriage. The Anti-Multicutural thing amuses me because their leader and literally half their candidates are from 1st Gen Non-Anglo backgrounds

Oh god they have a party song. I Fapped to this.
http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/?page_id=1136

I'm actually surprised at how many candidates they have running in this election seeing as they only started up a few years ago but I'm very interested to see how they will do

Immigration Policy:

"It should be noted also that 8 out of every 10 refugees and asylum seekers are Muslims. It should be understood that to be called a Muslim you must practise the Islamic faith and hence embrace Sharia law. We at RUA can foresee the dangers of allowing such a vast quantity of peoples into the land who have their foundation of the Islamic law and Muslim faith."

You can't be serious. If anyone takes them seriously...

[slothpomba]

Rise Up Australia Party.

Their leader is batshit insane...

"The party leader Nalliah also claims that he has divine powers and has resurrected 3 dead people, and that God has spoken to him on several occasions."

The Anti-Multicutural thing amuses me because their leader and literally half their candidates are from 1st Gen Non-Anglo backgrounds

I don't know about that so much. You can be whatever colour or whatever background and still be anti-multicultural. He probably wants to enforce one culture, the Anglo-Australian Christian one (or the identity he invented anyway). Not that he's actually legitimately anti-multi cultural probably. It's just his code-word for being anti-islam more than anything.

I'm actually surprised at how many candidates they have running in this election seeing as they only started up a few years ago but I'm very interested to see how they will do

If they get more than 2% anywhere i will eat a phonebook.

-----

Oh god they have a party song. I Fapped to this.
http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/?page_id=1136

Edit: Holy shit, just listened. You should all too. What kind of weirdass bullshit fascist propganda song is this, you deserve a medal for the fapping because i was trying to avoid throwing up during it. Seriously creepy and full of lies, i feel dumber after hearing it.

[Professor Polonsky]

If they get more than 2% anywhere i will eat a phonebook.

You might have to eat that phonebook, Pomba. They're Group A on the Victorian ballot, which can be worth up to 0.5% of the vote. They have a fairly large visibility, as they've been campaigning fairly hard (even saw them at the footy today - an Asian guy handing out leaflets!). I don't think they will, but they definitely might hit 2% of the Senate vote if they can find another 1.5% somewhere. Thankfully, I don't think they have too favourable preference flows, so they likely won't be elected.

They've also fielded candidates in a large number of seats, and approximately 1-2% of formal votes are donkey in the House. Assuming they hit the top ballot spot in some electorate, they could easily surpass 2% of the first-preference vote.

[ninwa]

Nothing will stop the almighty Mr Abbott from winning, sorry guys.

Aww how cute, you remind me of this guy

[psyxwar]

Aww how cute, you remind me of this guy

"Kevin Rudd will be a weak leader. He just will because, because he's back! Well, where has he been? We don't know, he's just come back. We are just expected to accept that, I will not accept that!"

wat. I'm loving how he disabled the comments on the video.