Have you considered neither, those lefties as ÿou call them are fully aware of what is coming tonight and for the next three years, you my friend are the one heading for a rude awakening....the only question is how long till the penny drops.

Well quite clearly Murdoch's saturation propaganda campaign has had a major effect, are you going to say that having wall to wall negative coverage of labor with little to no positive coverage, while Abbott is given a free ride on his disastrous policies and sheer inanity as a leader, in the major media outlets has not helped swing the election towards Abbott?

Do you think the boofhead/bogan/uninformed is voting for Abbott because they really think what he's offering is going to help them? Because it's not. He's run his election on 'axing the great big tax' to save families $300 on their electricity bill, while axing the schoolkids bonus which is worth $410 per child in primary school and $800 for high school.

Not to mention that there will be families who have their entire tax liability handed over to a rich women (figuratively speaking, I'm sure you can follow what I'm saying though) because she's had a kid while on the books of her husbands company as a director, while their own family will get nothing.

I think you're trying to reduce the situation down to a glib soundbite and it doesn't really help decide anything.

No formal vote is ever wasted (and an argument can also be made for informal votes.) If Eastern Glory feels that the Greens best represent his interest then he should vote for the Greens. Margins, trends and direction of preferences are just as important to shaping the opinions of government as winning a seat.

I think it's obvious that I'm socially left biased. My priorities are human rights, environmental responsibility, development of infrastructure and responsible economic management. I am also agnostic and a firm believer in both the right to practice religion and secular separation of church and state. Based on this my HoR vote went:

Greens
Sex Party
Labor
Liberal
Palmer
Katter
Christian
Family First

The rational for this is: I don't believe there is any reasonable expectation that Greens could form government, it just isn't going to happen. However their policies intersect my interests more than any other party so they get first preference. The Sex Party will be knocked out in my electorate long before the Greens and I support their views on human rights- they get second preference knowing that it is effectively a spacer representative of my stance on social leftism and my lack of regard for the big two. Labor were put above LNP in a very close call as they are ridiculously similar parties. I don't agree with either regarding asylum seekers (and the PNG 'solution' is terrible), I feel both are too dismissive of equality and human rights but I feel, from my observations and analysis, ALP are actually stronger economically than the current LNP. This was enough to edge them into third and Liberals fourth.

The rest are redundant, as the seat will be won by ALP or LNP so my preferences will not flow that far, but are still ordered how I rate the parties. Palmer has some solid policy that I agree with, but his environmental self interest I do not agree with and do not feel representative of my electorate. Katters policies are similarly not applicable to my electorate, but nationally not entirely non-sensical. The ACP and FF are very similar parties that not only disagree with a lot of my social views, but also break with my secular view of politics. ACP Landed above FF as FF have been more vocally offensive in my area on subject matters I care about.

From this, if ALP win my seat on preferences my vote at least will indicate that they were third choice which shows they didn't engage me. The Greens will have a vote indicating that social liberalism is important. If enough people in my electorate share my views then hopefully the candidate will adopt some more socially liberal opinions to try and court more of the primary vote next election. If the LNP win my electorate then I am in the minority and that's how democracy works. I will continue to defend what is important to me and hope that society will begin to agree, however I will remain vigilant and informed and not let my values be a rigid totem that I blindly defend.

Well said election koala!

Unfettered bigotry is a good sound bite for them.

Whilst I agree with you in principal social media isn't really the right platform for robust debate and discourse. Naturally social issues like gay marriage and refugees are going to trendy highly on these websites because they are popular among young people and don't require much mental exertion to have an opinion. I think conservatives are simply more conservative when it comes to sharing their beliefs publically while those who have more social views tend to be more sociable in sharing them, might just be a personality thing. It's probably more complex than that, but we all saw what happened to Mr Pastor on Q&A on Monday night when aired his conservative views on public, not only was he rebuked he was humiliated and the crowd erupted. Crude bickering and childish dismissal of opinions will always be the norm.

Haven't the greens ruined Tasmania?

Well, this country is stuffed.

Time to get my Canadian residency I think...

IMO the Greens (in their current form) should never be in power but should have an influence on power. Their policy is economically catastrophic but if they are only given a moderate influence on national politics they can do very good things.

Palmer getting votes, apparently might win Fairfax.

I agree with this, honestly the Greens would ruin this country(i consider them looneys), personally i see the sex party as a better alternative for the more liberal views, unfortunately they didn't run for the lower house in my seat, but i'd love to see them get a seat in senate.

I think people should be careful on voting on one issue though, the primary concern of this country should be the economy IMO.

Greens are apparently showing a big early decrease, which isn't surprising.

Interactive map, kinda cool.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2013/map/

A Facebook post from an old teacher of mine today, after she went to her voting booth in the Greenway electorate:



She then explained what happened:



Yuck. Glass them all with urine filled schooners.

Very early but looks like my seat will remain Labor with Amanda Rishworth to be retained with a reduced margin of around 12%

Palmer United appears to be devouring Green's base along with a little from both LNP and Labor.

Yerp, the guys on sky are quite shocked.

My seat of Sturt is reporting a 12.5% swing to Labor. Only counted 3 booths and they have to be the ones up my way. Watch it turn to 10+% to Christopher Pyne by the end :lol:

Looking like Chris Bowen will hold in my seat. Thank fuck for that

They have only preferenced 3 of the 50 booths so far, that's only 200 odd votes :lol:

Having said that primary votes in 12 seats show a strong move from Labor to Liberal with a surprising retention of Green votes.

Bob Katter :(

Who was he up against?

Applying for a Spanish passport first thing tomorrow :lol:

Palmer United are going to see him removed and LNP in.

Down to 3.4%! That is... very unexpected.

Edited by general ashnak: 7/9/2013 07:57:52 PM

Not the bloodbath predicted, Swann and Rudd to hold and Westen Sydney hasn't been the predicted bloodbath

ABC saying Palmer will win seat

Edited by Joffa: 7/9/2013 08:04:00 PM

LNP are going to romp in Joffa, should only gain a single seat in SA but may gain 2. That is a massive swing against Labor.

oh dear god, i'm moving to the USA then

At worse they are going to decide the outcome of a few seats.

Ray King. The man who suggested migrants should be refused welfare to make them "get off their arse". Also claimed that 90% of refugees after 50 years are still unemployed when the actual figure was 14%.

That's the man the people of my local area almost elected.