what will the effects of a labour landslide be?
i will vote libs because the local labour and all others are brainless dicks basically.
i am not sure who i want in power.
would a tight split mean that any actions over the next 2-3 years going to be sluggish and result in getting blocked and comprimised to the point where they are pointless anyway and missed the opportunity?
lots of questions. i guess only time will tell. at least its going to be interesting.
Bazza, I'll try and answer your questions.
Even with a Labor landslide, I expect that the senate will have the balance of power held by the Greens. This last term we've seen what having the house of review acting as a house of rubber stamping means and many people weren't too pleased by what they saw.
Your local Labor candidate may well not have a clue, but because party rules make it very very unlikely that they'll ever cross the floor, they'd be voting along party lines not along their brainless dick personal lines on the national issues anyhow. This means that a vote for the Labor dude is effectively a vote for what Rudd has said he'll implement. Not sure how often Libs cross the floor, so I can't comment on if a vote for the Liberal dude is a vote for what Howard has promised to implement (for whatever you feel that promise is worth on past performance...) Same, National/Democrat I don't know how much they cross the floor. Green I think are permitted a concience vote on all issues but to get one downstairs would be highly unlikely anyhow.
Historically, the only party who has ever deliberately blocked legislation in the upper house thereby preventing the elected government from being able to govern and brought the country to a grinding halt is the Liberal party, back pre the 75 dismissal. You may find that a senate with a balance of power held by the Greens will require stuff to be amended but things will still get passed once they're deemed tolerable by the government in power and whoever the folks are holding the balance.
I don't care much who holds the lower house even though I'd like to see the back of Howard, but I damn sure don't want him controlling the senate any more. And for similar reasons I'm not keen on Labor having upstairs / downstairs held in their own right either. so for me it'll be green up in the red house and Labor down where the carpets are emerald in colour.
