7 ms·

Trust me, a lot of Australians hate the current leadership and would love to see them gone. Unfortunately we are tending towards the trial version of USA.

azinman2 7y ago
But didn’t the public just vote for coal?
- vermilingua 7y ago
  “The public” just voted in a popularity contest. “The public” doesn’t give a shit about coal.
  - porjo 7y ago
    Unless you live in Townsville, Queensland which currently has high unemployment and a new coal mine scheduled to be constructed nearby.
    - vermilingua 7y ago
      Well colour me pleased that Townsville, Queensland is representative of our entire country.
    - stephen_g 7y ago
      Yes, that was one of the big distortions of the whole campaign. The mine looks like possibly being an environmental disaster, which isn't great given it's proximity to the Great Barrier Reef - possibility of more coal run-off going into the reef (keeps happening whenever it floods already from the existing coal port), and pollution and physical damage from the extra shipping that will go through the reef area to the port. Then there's the massive amount of water they're going to be allowed to draw from the Great Artesian Basin (which is already depleting at a worrying pace). And all that's before even thinking about climate change. But the conservative side of politics managed to make it all about jobs, even though the mine, being highly automated, will deliver very little. I believe the most the company expects is about 1600 (even though for years they were claiming 10,000 which still isn't that many). I believe more people have already been employed installing and maintaining renewable energy this year than will ever be employed by this mine, if it ever gets funded (a lot of banks have said they wouldn't fund it because of the environmental problems, as well as the fact that it doesn't seem like it will stack up economically, because the extra supply will likely push down prices making it, as well as other mines in the state less profitable - possibly to the point of unviability). So it turned into this culture war over coal based on a mine that probably won't go ahead and even if it does won't actually give the community the jobs it needs...
- tty2300 7y ago
  The people I know who voted for the libs preferenced the greens first and only voted for the libs because labor would leave them financially worse off.
  - sundvor 7y ago
    And we have to put our own finances before the environment! (Screw our children, after all.)
porjo 7y ago
As the recent federal election clearly demonstrated, the proportion of Australians who 'hate the current leadership' is a lot smaller than previously imagined.
- King-Aaron 7y ago
  It needs to be more broadly look at than simply election results. We have had notoriously disingenuous governments which have mislead the broader voting population into believing flat-out lies when it comes to the environment, the economy, and the state of society in general. The fact that people voted in a certain direction is only evidence of a successful yet highly questionable marketing exercise.
  - toasterlovin 7y ago
    Ah, yes, the old "the only way anybody could have voted for my political opponents is if they were duped or lied to". Do you realize that people have different political dispositions? And that there are valid positions on both sides of most issues?
    - King-Aaron 7y ago
      Please don't make assumptions over my particular leanings, it's a fairly high-level observation I was making. If you'd like to dispute that the last few governments in the last decade have been increasingly blatant with misleading the public, I'm all ears.
      - toasterlovin 7y ago
        So what if people were lied to? Is the government the citizenry's only source of information? Do they even trust the government? Are there not competing sources of information? What basis do you have for concluding that the Australian government has any significant ability to sway the opinion of its citizens?
        7y ago

azinman2 7y ago

But didn’t the public just vote for coal?

vermilingua 7y ago
“The public” just voted in a popularity contest. “The public” doesn’t give a shit about coal.
- porjo 7y ago
  Unless you live in Townsville, Queensland which currently has high unemployment and a new coal mine scheduled to be constructed nearby.
  - vermilingua 7y ago
    Well colour me pleased that Townsville, Queensland is representative of our entire country.
  - stephen_g 7y ago
    Yes, that was one of the big distortions of the whole campaign. The mine looks like possibly being an environmental disaster, which isn't great given it's proximity to the Great Barrier Reef - possibility of more coal run-off going into the reef (keeps happening whenever it floods already from the existing coal port), and pollution and physical damage from the extra shipping that will go through the reef area to the port. Then there's the massive amount of water they're going to be allowed to draw from the Great Artesian Basin (which is already depleting at a worrying pace). And all that's before even thinking about climate change. But the conservative side of politics managed to make it all about jobs, even though the mine, being highly automated, will deliver very little. I believe the most the company expects is about 1600 (even though for years they were claiming 10,000 which still isn't that many). I believe more people have already been employed installing and maintaining renewable energy this year than will ever be employed by this mine, if it ever gets funded (a lot of banks have said they wouldn't fund it because of the environmental problems, as well as the fact that it doesn't seem like it will stack up economically, because the extra supply will likely push down prices making it, as well as other mines in the state less profitable - possibly to the point of unviability). So it turned into this culture war over coal based on a mine that probably won't go ahead and even if it does won't actually give the community the jobs it needs...
tty2300 7y ago
The people I know who voted for the libs preferenced the greens first and only voted for the libs because labor would leave them financially worse off.
- sundvor 7y ago
  And we have to put our own finances before the environment! (Screw our children, after all.)

porjo 7y ago

As the recent federal election clearly demonstrated, the proportion of Australians who 'hate the current leadership' is a lot smaller than previously imagined.

King-Aaron 7y ago
It needs to be more broadly look at than simply election results. We have had notoriously disingenuous governments which have mislead the broader voting population into believing flat-out lies when it comes to the environment, the economy, and the state of society in general. The fact that people voted in a certain direction is only evidence of a successful yet highly questionable marketing exercise.
- toasterlovin 7y ago
  Ah, yes, the old "the only way anybody could have voted for my political opponents is if they were duped or lied to". Do you realize that people have different political dispositions? And that there are valid positions on both sides of most issues?
  - King-Aaron 7y ago
    Please don't make assumptions over my particular leanings, it's a fairly high-level observation I was making. If you'd like to dispute that the last few governments in the last decade have been increasingly blatant with misleading the public, I'm all ears.
    - toasterlovin 7y ago
      So what if people were lied to? Is the government the citizenry's only source of information? Do they even trust the government? Are there not competing sources of information? What basis do you have for concluding that the Australian government has any significant ability to sway the opinion of its citizens?
      - 7y ago