Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» Does the winner of an election in your country take over immediately after results are confirmed? How long does it take?
Within a week, once the result is known and clear - which due to the Australian system of preferential voting, can take a while. Until then, the government is in "caretaker mode" where major decisions cannot be made without consulting the opposition, and then only in exceptional circumstances. Hasn't happened since 1941, when John Curtin's Labor Party won government while the nation was at war. The official Head of State is the vice-regal representative, the Governor-General - but he or she wields no power, is simply a figurehead (except in 1975, when then opposition leader Malcolm Fraser conspired with GG John Kerr to bring down the government). The man or woman who does the business of leading is the head of the Party who holds the majority in the House of Representatives - currently Scott Morrison, leader of the Liberal/National coalition ("Liberal" being an oxymoron, they're the conservatives - Australians generally are so conservative politically that we're practically reactionaries. The Labor Party only gets elected when the Right gets things so horribly Wrong that even the Murdoch media can't save them). He tries to present an "everyman" image, using the nickname "ScoMo" - I call him Scummo and always have. He's a hypocritical Pharisee and is going to Hell along with his Hillsong cult.
WITHIN A WEEK? Oh my gosh R. How sensible is that? So Aussies are basically extreme right wingers? AARRGGHH! I like Scummo! It says so much using so few letters! Condolences though. Does every country have these guys? The abomination of the nation? From whence besides scum do they come from? Well "this too shall pass" only it doesn't ever pass entirely. It's always darkest before the dawn. What happens the day a dawn never comes? Politics is where the most awful of awfuls meet to do their best doing their worst. Everywhere? If so it's not true that misery loves company. I speak only for me. I wish your country's politicians weren't so dam* typical of pols everywhere. Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply. Condolences to all of us. We deserve better! Happy Independence from King George Day in the USA! :)
We're not "extreme" anything, and therein lies the problem. Nobody would bother to vote if it wasn't compulsory. "Apathetic" has "pathetic" in it for a reason. Thinking is too much like hard work, so unfortunately the majority of the electorate lets the media do it for them - and here that means Rupert. A former Aussie who sold his birthright for filthy lucre. Scared hell out of the boomers with a huge black lie about "Labor's retirement tax", which they bought hook, line and sinker. Unlike the US, here folks vote for a Party representative rather than an individual as leader. Parties elect their leaders, the leader of the majority Party (or coalition if no party holds a clear majority - the Libs have never held government in their own right but have always been in coalition with the rural-based National Party, who used to be the Country Party for obvious reasons) becomes Prime Minister, the head of the largest minority is Opposition leader. Too many of us are addicted to sucking the stinking pus from Murdoch's festering nipples :-(
This post was edited by Slartibartfast at July 4, 2020 5:43 AM MDT
Voting is COMPULSORY in Australia? You probably have told me that before but I forgot. So you have no extreme right-wing FASCIST RACISTS or extreme left wing PROGRESSIVE LIBERALS? Mostly middle of the roaders then? You're right about thinking being too much HARD work. That's why trump adoring worshippers cede it to "partisan party leadership". True in your country too? Mental sloths who can't be bothered to lift a finger intellectually? I think I read a stat that 40% of eligible voters in America don't even bother with voting. I expect the only compulsory thing here is to pay taxes and cheat lie as much as you can. All the trump supporters are greedy money hungry hoors in my opinion. As long as they are doing well financially what the he** do they care about anything else? They don't. PLUS 200 extreme right wing FASCIST RACIST judges are now on a bench for life thanks to the duo of the trump and that son of an itch moscow mitch. So is every country as smacked around as much as ours? Thank you for your informative reply R. Happy it does not make me. When I'm miserable I don't want any company. I like to dwell in misery alone. I'm gonna ask. :)
We HAVE them, but they're few. Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party are outright Nazis, the Libs threw her out for being too far to the right even for them. Scummo's "Minister for Everything", Peter Dutton, I refer to as "Gruppenführer Potato Head" and should be dragged to The Hague for Crimes against Humanity,. We have progressives too, current Opposition leader, Anthony Albanese (who I've met, he took me under his wing as a lost seventeen-year-old at a Young Labor Council - as a Centre Left adherent I had few friends until I moved to South Australia) is from the Left faction of the Labor Party - but they too are few. Most Aussies are too damned comfortable to rock the boat.
I think that is a ubiquitous disease m'dear. Being " too damned comfortable to rock the boat". SIGH. So you have them too then? Now you says " Libs threw her out for being too far to the right even for them." Here Libs are left wing and Conservatives are right wing. I have a feeling we discussed this before too years ago didn't we? You may have told me that there is a difference in meaning of liberal and conservative in Australia than there is in the US. I've always liked Aussies. I guess as a people. I guess more so since we met years ago on Answerbag. Also Canada I very much admre Canadians. Some Brits as well. America had some hope of being a good country. It used to be better but it has certainly gone rapidly down the rabbit hole since trump. I wonder if that is the foreseeable trajectory? What a gruesome thought! Thank you for your reply R and Happy Sunday for you now? I'm at 5am Saturday pacific coast time. You might still be at very end of your Saturday. It just always tickles me that I am talking to you in the future as I remain in the past time-wise. I never get tired of the delight ot that! STAY SAFE! :)
The major conservative party is officially titled "The Liberal Party of Australia", but it's a misnomer. They're about as "Liberal" as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is "Democratic".
RIGHT-libertarian or "neoliberalist" rather than classical Libertarian. There are socialist Libertarians and anarcho-Libertarians too, which the Liberal/National coalition are certainly not.
Slartibartfast 