Posted on 08/26/2010 5:54:08 AM PDT by naturalman1975
THE Coalition has won Hasluck and Brisbane, the latest AEC figures show, taking its likely seat tally to 73.
Labor, which has 71 seats, is still ahead in the Victorian seat of Corangamite, according to an Australian Electoral Commission update a short time ago.
Earlier updates in the Western Australian seat of Hasluck showed Liberal candidate Ken Wyatt, who suffered a slight dip in his lead earlier today, on track to take the seat from incumbent Sharryn Jackson, The Australian reports.
Mr Wyatt had an overnight lead of 765 votes, and official AEC figures show he extended that lead to finish ahead by 820 votes. In Brisbane, former Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro looks to have unseated the ALP member for Brisbane, Arch Bevis, with the AEC showing her 796 votes ahead.
But in the Victorian seat of Corangamite, ALP incumbent Darren Cheeseman increased his lead over Liberal Sarah Henderson twice today, first to 705 votes and to 718 votes, up from an overnight lead of 573 votes.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
There are no guarantees this means we get government. The four independents and the single Green still have to decide who to support - either together or separately - but by tradition and convention, the conservative coalition would now be considered to have the greater right govern - we have more seats.
If Labor had more seats, they'd have the greater right for the same reason. If they had the same number, they'd have the greater right because of being the incumbent.
But barring some unusual development, that's not going to happen.
The independents don't have to go our way (but polling in their electorates show that most of their supporters want them to by a large majority) but it's much harder for them to justify going Labor than it is to justify going coalition - to support the coalition all they have to say is "they won more seats." For Labor, they have to come up with more than that for it to be considered acceptable by most people.
“Liberals add” in the headline kind of threw me for a minute :-)
NOTE TO FReepers:
“Liberal” and “Conservative” are reversed Down Under.............
Yes, I’m sorry we’re so confusing in our labels.
The word has been perverted in the U.S.
"Labour" (albeit the "u" really is unnecessary) is a much better word to use for those wanting government control of our lives and income without working.
In Australia, it is actually the Labor Party, despite the more correct spelling in Australian English being considered the British labour (both are considered acceptable).
An American (as it turns out - he claimed to be Canadian which at the time allowed him to serve in Australia’s Parliament as both Canadians and Australians were British subjects) named King O’Malley who was a big figure in the early days of the Australian Labour Party, forced the change in spelling as he considered Labor more modern.
Even your political labels are upside down. Heheheh.
Now, that's something I've never known. Anyway, our sincere apologies to our contribution to your Labor Party.
Wasn’t there a poll done in the last day or so that showed the constituents of most of the independents wanted them to work with the Coalition rather than Labor?
Yes - 55% to 33%.
They’ve got to be thinking about that.
A lot of people claim this decision is what lead to Kevin Rudd becoming unpopular - he was elected partly on this policy, which he described as needed to address the greatest moral challenge of this time, so when he backed down, he not only broke an election promise, he made it clear he wasn't even willing to fight for things he regarded as extremely important - even those who didn't want carbon trading held it against him, because you don't want a weak Prime Minister who throws in the towel when things get hard.
What's going to happen now is anybody's guess really - if reelected Julia Gillard may bring it back - she should based on what she's said in the past, but this close an election gives coverage to change plans. Tony Abbott wouldn't want to bring it back - but the Greens hold the balance of power in the Senate now, and also have representation in the House of Representatives for the first time - it's a deal that may have to be made to get other legislation through. We just don't know.
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