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The Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/National Party are both centrist. Characterising Liberal/Nationals as "right-wing lunacy" when they're the party that

The Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/National Party are both centrist. Characterising Liberal/Nationals as "right-wing lunacy" when they're the party that banned firearms, legalised gay marriage and added a national VAT tax on everything (twice) is nonsense. It's an attempt at using projecting US-style politics on Australia and it's disingenuous at best. If the Liberal/National Parties are reelected it's because of Labor's incompetence and playing with American-themed identity politics instead of actually addressing concerns within the country.

russelg 3y ago
I'm not sure about handing them the win of legalising same-sex marriage. They could have just passed it straight into law, instead they had this fuckaround of a non-binding plebiscite, wasting huge amounts of money ($400m I believe it cost). They basically passed it kicking and screaming.
- mrkeen 3y ago
  They were also the ones that locked it down in 2004. The purpose of the Marriage Amendment Bill 2004 (‘the Bill’) is to give effect to the Government’s commitment to protect the institution of marriage by ensuring that marriage means a union of a man and a woman and that same sex relationships cannot be equated with marriage. http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/mab2004175/memo1.html http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/mab2004175/m...
  - someotherperson 3y ago
    The 2004 bill was supported by the Labor party. The central point of the bill was to formalise the intended constitutional intention and, if there are to be any changes, that this decision should be one carried out by parliament and not by courts.
stephen_g 3y ago
Labor are really centre-right and the LNP is a bit of a blur - the Nationals part are quite right wing but the Liberal party tends to be closer to the centre-right. That’s just the averages, there are of course factions and stand-out individuals in the parties too (people like Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick or recent former Liberal Senator Eric Abetz who were as far-right as any Republican for example).

russelg 3y ago

I'm not sure about handing them the win of legalising same-sex marriage. They could have just passed it straight into law, instead they had this fuckaround of a non-binding plebiscite, wasting huge amounts of money ($400m I believe it cost). They basically passed it kicking and screaming.

mrkeen 3y ago
They were also the ones that locked it down in 2004. The purpose of the Marriage Amendment Bill 2004 (‘the Bill’) is to give effect to the Government’s commitment to protect the institution of marriage by ensuring that marriage means a union of a man and a woman and that same sex relationships cannot be equated with marriage. http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/mab2004175/memo1.html http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/mab2004175/m...
- someotherperson 3y ago
  The 2004 bill was supported by the Labor party. The central point of the bill was to formalise the intended constitutional intention and, if there are to be any changes, that this decision should be one carried out by parliament and not by courts.

stephen_g 3y ago

Labor are really centre-right and the LNP is a bit of a blur - the Nationals part are quite right wing but the Liberal party tends to be closer to the centre-right. That’s just the averages, there are of course factions and stand-out individuals in the parties too (people like Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick or recent former Liberal Senator Eric Abetz who were as far-right as any Republican for example).