Never mind who's going to form government / be PM. They're as bad as each other (refugee / asylum seeker policies equally despicable, bugger-all significant / meaningful interest in climate change, similar bullshit in various other areas) so it won't make a lot of difference (except to rusted-on ideologues and as someone who's long since outgrown partisan party politics I have minimal interest in their views).
The real concern is that we now live in a country where Hanson - someone so hateful, xenophobic, ignorant, bigoted and stupid she could give lessons to Farage and Trump - has been returned to parliament. Almost as bad, Derryn frelling Hinch will very likely join her in the Senate. Throw the Lambie creature into the mix and it's beyond embarrassing; it's actually frightening. It bodes ill for the country.
This is what people should be concerned about. The rest of it is almost trivial.
Interesting perspective as usual. It's a worldwide phenomenon : Hanson, Trump, Farage, Sanders, Le Pen, Xenophon...people turning to populism, nationalism, and protectionism as a way to tear down a political system they don't believe is working for them. Unfortunately the jury isn't exactly out on protectionism. Embracing it ain't going to improve living standards for the battlers, in fact, quite the opposite. Nick Xenophon holding the balance of power in both houses is a big worry to me.
Like you, I fled the majors this time (well, on first preference, anyway -- ultimately in our system you have to put one of them ahead of the other). There were plenty of us who looked elsewhere. Near enough one in four Australians gave their first preference to a party other than the majors. The two party system looks over in Australia. The ALP's primary vote was under 35%. Their days of governing without some kind of left-leaning coalition partner look done. The Liberals could well be about to split on the right as well. The Australian public couldn't have been any clearer : neither major party is up to it.
My reason for voting away from the majors wasn't to do with any of those issues you mentioned (although I don't disagree with you on a lot of points), I wanted to send a message about economic management. We have a pile of debt now at the half trillion dollar mark, with another forty odd billion being added each year. We are paying interest of over a billion a month. How many schools, roads, hospitals and other public services could be provided with this money? This debt pile will never be repaid in any of our lifetimes, and we're lowering the standard of living of future generations by not tackling the problem. I'm not willing to accept that.
Last time I looked, based on today's counting, it's looking something like this :
ALP 67 locked in + ahead in 5 + Wilkie + Bandt + McGowan + Xenophon + Xenophon = 77
Coal 68 locked in + ahead in 4 + Katter = 73
Messy. A result could be weeks away.
