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Australian Politics: Because talkback is only so titilating
Hearthjaw
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Australian Politics
This is a thread for debate, discourse and discussion on Australian Politics. I won't do an elaborate OP
on the basics because wikipedia covers it all pretty well.
The basics
The Politics
The States and Territories
The Two big parties are...
The Australian Labor Party (ALP)
Liberal Party of Australia
Who current form the coalition with the Nationals. A party with rural/remote roots who seems doomed to irrelevancy.
Since the unfortunate failure of the Democrats to keep the bastards honest there isn't really a 3rd party around to oppose the other two.
In some areas the Greens are coming close but it'll take some time for them to expand.
Some quirks of Australian politics..
We lost a Prime Minister, seriously, he went swimming in the ocean and never came back.
Voting in local, state, and federal elections is compulsory. Failure to vote may induce a fine or potentially gaol time (but that never happens)
Some current hot topics include;
The Federal governments current attempt to pass an internet censorship bill through parliament. Great Wall of Australia incoming.
The NSW continuing woes in general. I'll be honest it won't matter who has power, Reese or Fatty O'Barrel. The state is so far down the drain that it's going to take years to fix. That said if Reese pulls off an ALP win when the election finally rolls around I'll be astounded.
The worlds economy in general, its crazy right now you may have heard.
The Bali bombers were excecuted recently, considering we currently don't have the death penalty and the Bali nine are on death row in indonesia for drug trafficing how does this change Australias perspective on the death penalty?
Personally I feel it makes us sound more then a little hypocritical.
And finally, here's our head of state
Think we need a change?
So much for no elaborate OP.
Poop.
This is a thread for debate, discourse and discussion on Australian Politics. I won't do an elaborate OP
on the basics because wikipedia covers it all pretty well.
The basics
The Politics
The States and Territories
The Two big parties are...
The Australian Labor Party (ALP)
Liberal Party of Australia
Who current form the coalition with the Nationals. A party with rural/remote roots who seems doomed to irrelevancy.
Since the unfortunate failure of the Democrats to keep the bastards honest there isn't really a 3rd party around to oppose the other two.
In some areas the Greens are coming close but it'll take some time for them to expand.
Some quirks of Australian politics..
We lost a Prime Minister, seriously, he went swimming in the ocean and never came back.
Voting in local, state, and federal elections is compulsory. Failure to vote may induce a fine or potentially gaol time (but that never happens)
Some current hot topics include;
The Federal governments current attempt to pass an internet censorship bill through parliament. Great Wall of Australia incoming.
The NSW continuing woes in general. I'll be honest it won't matter who has power, Reese or Fatty O'Barrel. The state is so far down the drain that it's going to take years to fix. That said if Reese pulls off an ALP win when the election finally rolls around I'll be astounded.
The worlds economy in general, its crazy right now you may have heard.
The Bali bombers were excecuted recently, considering we currently don't have the death penalty and the Bali nine are on death row in indonesia for drug trafficing how does this change Australias perspective on the death penalty?
Personally I feel it makes us sound more then a little hypocritical.
And finally, here's our head of state
Think we need a change?
So much for no elaborate OP.
Poop.
steamid: sewersider
Hearthjaw on
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So what's up with the anti-Monarchy movement in Australia? I heard about it once on the news, that was many many years ago. Are they a serious movement? Do they have a good proportion of the population on their side? And what are their arguments anyway?
We had a referendum on the issue in '99, and we voted to keep the Queen 55-45. I think it's really only a matter of time before another one takes place and we boot the old hag.
Well, its kind of a social/historical link to england and really the queen has no authority over our governments anymore, were just paying her lip service.
I know someone from Ireland who wants to become a Canadian citizen and thinks its all kinds of stupid that she has to swear an oath of fealty to the queen...she is seriously considering not bothering to become a full citizen over this, and given the history of where she is from in Ireland its understandable.
England and the queen have a lot of history, not all of it is good and I can see why immigrants from some countries might think were living in the past with regard to the whole queen thing.
Australians I talk to here in the UK seem to imply that it'd be impolite to get rid of Queeny now, but as soon as she's dead its republic time!
It would be somewhat more reassuring if any of them had put thought into what to they'd replace the system with but whatever.
@Dman, your friend is being slightly silly. Nearly all of the shit between Ireland and Britain (not just England, Scotland more than got the boot in on the Irish too) for the last five centuries was at the behest of a (vaguely) democratic Parliament/independently acting upper classes whilst the Monarchy was but a figurehead (or in Cromwell's time, entirely absent).
If you haven't stopped recognizing the Queen, you're still a colony.
Wusses.
I know that and I've told my friend she is being silly, but at the end of the day if someone killed your people while shouting "For the Queen!" you might not care that she was just a figurehead.