Anyone explain Australian politics to me?

[andrewducker]

So, this Turnbull chap, is he less of an arse than Tony Abbott?

Comments

[lilysea]

Having unwillingly worked for Abbott (when he was minister for The Dept of Health and Ageing, and I was a Dept of Health and Ageing policy officer), I can say that anyone would make a better PM.

Abbott was *actively incompetent*. You could brief him on the issues, and what he needed to do, and he'd do the exact opposite. Not because he disagreed with the medium term goal, just because he wasn't paying any attention to how his actions today might affect an outcome in 3 months. We actually doubted he bothered reading the single-A4-page dot points we gave him.

He wouldn't even listen to the chief medical officer (extremely senior and experienced technical officer who advises the health minister on all things sciencey.) The CMO quit (retired early, after a long career in which he'd never so much as breathed about ever retiring) rather than continue to deal with Abbott. And then Abbott never replaced him.

I should add that Dept of Health staff are split about 50/50 Lib/Labour in terms of who they vote for. It's not a very politicised Dept.

But they ***all*** universally loathed Abbott, because he was just so incompetent and stupid and stubborn.

I had coworkers tell me "I've voted Lib all my life - but I'd vote labour rather than have Abbott continue as Minister".

(Me, I vote Greens 1, then Labour.)

[lilysea]

Also: it's complicated.

Abbott was incompetent, and utterly lacking in empathy or long range thinking.

His replacement is less terrible.

On the other hand, if they'd kept Abbott, the right wing party (Liberals) would never have been re-elected, and the party's policies on global warming, refugeees, gay marriage, internet, and pretty much everything you can think of are all terrible.

With today's new PM, the Liberal Party might win the next election. Which would be bad new for anyone who wants to limit greenhouse emissions, get gay married, or access the internet. Also public healthcare.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, that was really useful!

[lilysea]

You're welcome! ^_^

Added complication: the current Australian Labor Party (left) leader, Bill Shorten, is very wishy-washy and apathetic and lets every opportunity to call the Liberal party on their bullshit go sailing by.

Facebook is full of satire headlines like "Bill Shorten *almost* has an opinion."

So, the Liberal party spill *might* provoke an Labor party spill, and we might get a left leader who isn't utterly spineless.

Julia Gillard was ****great**** as party leader and PM, but pretty much got knifed in the back by misogyny, so it's extremely unlikely we'll see her again.

[birguslatro]

The new guy's tech savvy and financially savvy, but whether his PM-ship will mean a less socially right-wing Australia remains to be seen.

But if the trends continue - there'll be a new Australian PM in another year and so it probably doesn't matter. :)