• A strange day in the Australian senate: Greens work with conservatives to block discussion of same-s
    18 replies, posted
[quote]Why do you hate democracy," Nationals Senator Wacka Williams shouted at no one in particular. It was the fourth last session of the 44th Parliament if you believe all the double dissolution predictions, and – quelle surprise! – things were getting weird in the Senate. Now admittedly the Senate is an odd place at the best of times and thanks to its medieval media rules – in which only senators with the official "call" may be filmed or photographed – readers will just have to trust us that this actually happened.[/quote] [quote]There were other anomalies. Motoring Enthusiast Ricky Muir, Libertarian David Leyonhjelm and the Brick Glenn Lazarus gave a convincing impression of working together to deflect the government and Greens' attempt to deliver the microparties an early political death thanks to changes to Senate voting rules. [B]It was the political version of the end of days, filled with abominations like the Greens and Liberal senators – like Cory Bernardi – worked together to kill off the chance to debate same-sex marriage. And the Coalition turned down the the chance to debate its raison d'etre – the reinstatement of the unions' worst nightmare, the Australian Building and Construction Commission.[/B][/quote] [url]http://www.afr.com/news/politics/unrepresentative-thrills-in-senates-last-days-20160315-gnjhey[/url] What a fucking mess. I know Leyonhjelm brought out the bill to delay the senate voting reform bill but it's still fucking bizarre.
Heads up, your source is subscriber only. Here's a free (albeit smaller) source: [url]http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/03/15/greens-reject-senate-vote-own-gay-marriage-bill[/url]
Strange, gay sex is good for the environment.
What the fuck happened to our government in the last 4 years. I don't fucking get it. Most of the fucking sitting government wants to pass gay marriage. But they all want to be the one who takes credit for it. And so they all fucking vote against each other whenever it comes up so they can steal each other's glory. It's fucking pathetic.
[QUOTE=shauntp;49935449]Heads up, your source is subscriber only. Here's a free (albeit smaller) source: [url]http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/03/15/greens-reject-senate-vote-own-gay-marriage-bill[/url][/QUOTE] I figured everyone would get a few free views. I doubt most Facepunchers have used up their free views to the AFR.
[QUOTE=1239the;49935485]What the fuck happened to our government in the last 4 years. I don't fucking get it. Most of the fucking sitting government wants to pass gay marriage. But they all want to be the one who takes credit for it. And so they all fucking vote against each other whenever it comes up so they can steal each other's glory. It's fucking pathetic.[/QUOTE] What's happening is the government wants to pass voting reform which eliminates the complicated preference deals on the Senate voting tickets, which have led to micro party Senators being elected on very small primary votes. The Greens also support this motion, as it would lead to a more-democratic composition in the Senate. It is expected that, after these reforms are passed, Turnbull will call a double-dissolution, meaning that not half but ALL of the Senators will face immediate re-election. The micro party Senators have recognised that these reforms will mean that they will most likely lose their seats, as most of them were elected through the complicated, anti-democratic preference deals, so they are effectively filibustering the motion to try to stall these reforms, and in the process they are trying to score political points by bringing up things such as marriage equality and the ABCC.
The site still loads the whole page before adding a paywall over the top. If you stop the page loading after the content is in but before the paywall loads you don't need to subscribe. Here's an [URL="http://i.imgur.com/25QdUxM.jpg"]imgur mirror[/URL] just in case. [editline]15th March 2016[/editline] News sites continue to be the worst designed websites in existence.
[QUOTE=sb27;49935554]What's happening is the government wants to pass voting reform which eliminates the complicated preference deals on the Senate voting tickets, which have led to micro party Senators being elected on very small primary votes. The Greens also support this motion, as it would lead to a more-democratic composition in the Senate. It is expected that, after these reforms are passed, Turnbull will call a double-dissolution, meaning that not half but ALL of the Senators will face immediate re-election. The micro party Senators have recognised that these reforms will mean that they will most likely lose their seats, as most of them were elected through the complicated, anti-democratic preference deals, so they are effectively filibustering the motion to try to stall these reforms, and in the process they are trying to score political points by bringing up things such as marriage equality and the ABCC.[/QUOTE] If you're so lazy that you choose to tick one box it's you're own fucking fault. All this is designed to do is kill the smaller parties.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;49935473]Strange, gay sex is good for the environment.[/QUOTE] Could you explain why? Not disagreeing, but it sounds odd
[QUOTE=Steve Stump;49935610]Could you explain why? Not disagreeing, but it sounds odd[/QUOTE] Less babies to pollute the environment :v:
Can these motherfuckers get any worse christ
[QUOTE=download;49935596]If you're so lazy that you choose to tick one box it's you're own fucking fault. All this is designed to do is kill the smaller parties.[/QUOTE] Laziness? When most people go to vote, what do you think they would rather do? Write a '1' in a single box above the line, or (in a very cramped voting booth with a 'table cloth' ballot paper) sequentially number at least 90% of the roughly one-hundred boxes below the line (more than one-hundred boxes for NSW in 2013), hoping to not make more than the allowed three mistakes? Have you voted in a federal election before? The motion being pushed by Turnbull is to allow preferential above-the-line voting and to [i]not[/i] require voters to preference almost every box either above or below the line. Pretty much like how the NSW Legislative Council is elected. What's not to like about that? The ~95% of voters who vote above the line get to control where their preferences go, and micro parties which receive a primary vote of less than 1% will find it much-more difficult to get to the quota of ~14% of the vote, because they can't rely on complicated, anti-democratic, backroom preference deals anymore. The only reason I can think why you would oppose this is because it's the Liberals (and the Greens) pushing this motion, not Labor. This doesn't kill small parties. Look at the NSW Legislative Council which is elected in the same way that Turnbull is proposing.
I'm card carrying LDP member. I'll vote Labour when Hell freezes over. We already have above the line preferential voting. If you don't like the preferences then vote for one of the major parties. If you vote for a party and haven't bothered to look up their preferences then you're a brain-dead retard. It's your own fucking fault.
the micro voting rule is supported by the greens bc there numbers will double in the senate with half those guys thrown out, that's why they're backing the coalition idk why they blocked debate of same sex marriage, maybe they knew it would get them no where bc the government has made it pretty clear what they'll do i still back greens as my preferred party tho
So wait, gay marriage still isn't legal in Australia? I thought they did that years ago.
[QUOTE=DaCommie1;49936875]So wait, gay marriage still isn't legal in Australia? I thought they did that years ago.[/QUOTE] Of course not, first you let the gays marry and then all those kangaroo fuckers will be knocking down our doors demanding rights.
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;49936664]the micro voting rule is supported by the greens bc there numbers will double in the senate with half those guys thrown out, that's why they're backing the coalition idk why they blocked debate of same sex marriage, maybe they knew it would get them no where bc the government has made it pretty clear what they'll do i still back greens as my preferred party tho[/QUOTE] They blocked debate on same-sex marriage because the only reason the micro party Senators brought it up was as a filibuster for the voting reform motion that was being pushed. There was no substance in debating same-sex marriage at that time, it was purely politics and stalling. [editline]16th March 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=download;49936501]I'm card carrying LDP member. I'll vote Labour when Hell freezes over. We already have above the line preferential voting. If you don't like the preferences then vote for one of the major parties. If you vote for a party and haven't bothered to look up their preferences then you're a brain-dead retard. It's your own fucking fault.[/QUOTE] We don't have above the line preferential voting at the federal level. This is the whole point of the voting reform that Turnbull is pushing, so that we will have preferential above the line voting for the Senate. So we can vote out your LDP Senator, who only got in through a combination of some people mistaking the LDP ticket for the Liberal party ticket, and through preference deals. You also don't seem to understand the extent of how the Senate voting system works. Under STV with Gregory transfer rules and the existing above the line system, say only 70% of your vote is used to elect a Senator from your preferred party. The remaining 30% of your vote will be transferred between the other candidates on the ballot, so that even if you're a major party supporter, that fraction of your vote may eventually find its way towards electing a micro party Senator, who snow balls from a low primary vote up to the electoral quota thanks to late preferences. Most people would rather have their ballot exhausted before that happens, but under the existing system, all the above the line tickets have a preference for every single candidate on the ballot. So unless the system is reformed, micro party Senators will still be a thing.
so now the greens have begun "one-upping" everyone, even their potential allies (aka the labor party). If this shit continues I'm just going to spoil my vote come september because this shit is infuriating. We're paying tax which goes to pay for these peoples paychecks to argue & quarrel on our future and still somehow manage to screw us over.
[QUOTE=shutter_eye5;49937336]so now the greens have begun "one-upping" everyone, even their potential allies (aka the labor party). If this shit continues I'm just going to spoil my vote come september because this shit is infuriating. We're paying tax which goes to pay for these peoples paychecks to argue & quarrel on our future and still somehow manage to screw us over.[/QUOTE] Is it normal for people on this forum to not read the news when it is posted here? How are the Greens 'one-upping' anyone?
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