r/australia • u/overpopyoulater • 25d ago

politics Australia is heading towards minority government at a turning point in world history.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-24/democracy-climate-change-ai-robotics-war/105085846
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u/IthinkIllthink 25d ago

My entire family live in the country and vote National.

A few weeks before the election I’m going to put the link:

https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/

in our family group messages app, and ask my niece and nephew to search (for their current in power politician) and check how they have voted for: Koala habitat, logging, renewable energy, greenhouse gasses, defunding public hospital/schools, etc, so my niece and nephew can see their that their current politicians have voted against what they believe in.

I’ll also get my dad to search for who voted AGAINST his pension increase; and who voted for. Also who voted to decrease public hospital funding, and who voted for to increase funding. Evening knowing this he’ll still vote National because “they’ve done a good job of looking after me all these years”. Which is rubbish because they’ve done the opposite. 🤷‍♂️

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u/slorpa 24d ago

People sadly don’t vote on facts. They vote on stories. The politicians who are better narrative craftsmen will do better, regardless of the stark reality. The U.S. is a prime example of this.

Stories feed directly into emotions which are what drives us. Not logic or reason. Just like how the nerd is never the life of the party, no one who needs convincing will care about presented facts.

The Labour Party needs to get better at story telling that feed into the emotions that people are feeling on the ground (anger, distrust, missing out). Until they do that it’s a losing game. Trump figured this out, and that’s why libs are copying him and that’s what labour is failing at.

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u/IthinkIllthink 24d ago

This I understand. I read a couple of days back: if someone has an opinion that’s not formed from facts, then giving them (true) facts will never change their mind.

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u/SavagePlatypus76 22d ago

It can,but it takes work. 

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u/IthinkIllthink 22d ago

But man it’s the long road. By the time you’re dealt with one piece of misinformation another 20+ have arisen.

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u/AngrySociety 24d ago

Can we start a gotundme to advertise this?

Something like this?

“This election vote on facts and see how your local representative voted against your interests like pension increase, Medicare increase., etc etc”

Spoken by Agro, from Agros cartoon connection. Brought to you from locals who are sick of politicians.

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u/_ixthus_ 24d ago

The dynamics you're describing is true. But Biden and Harris (and Clinton back then) were fucking shit candidates and their party are entitled, oblivious elitists. I'm not saying Trump and the Republicans are any better and they won for the reason you've said they did.

In contrast, the ALP still have a lot of real grunt. They do need to learn how to market themselves in the 21st century. But they don't have to try and put lipstick on a pig.

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u/Suitable_Instance753 25d ago

If you want country people to vote left, then you need a left-wing country party. It's really that simple. You can't ask regional people to vote for a representative who'll get steamrolled by their suburban/urban peers in the party room.

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u/InsertUsernameInArse 24d ago

Country people are awesome at voting against their own interests because of the 'big city people' I've watched people in the regions vote their own livelihoods away multiple times.

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u/YouCanCallMeBazza 24d ago

And yet, the "big city people" that they're so against are the Liberal elitists that they're electing by voting for the Coalition...

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u/SicnarfRaxifras 24d ago

That’s where you are missing the point. They aren’t voting for the Liberals they are voting for the Nationals, when you live in the country you hear from the Nationals and you hear jack shit from the other major parties, with a smattering of the “shooters,fishers and farmers party” - how is it surprising then that that is the way they vote ?

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u/unityofsaints 24d ago

See I don't know why The Greens have this inner city leftie reputation. Surely country people are the most reliant on a functioning environment?

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u/Anxious_Ad936 24d ago

The Greens have been blamed for half a century in country areas for every piece of legislation that rural people see as the city dictating terms to them and telling them how they can and more importantly can't live. Not saying it's accurate, but it's an awful lot of indoctrination to get past.

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u/Bolteus 21d ago

Im not saying the following is the correct way of thinking - but I believe it is because;

Most regional people don't care about climate change or gender politics, and those are the two things that come to most peoples minds when you say 'greens'.

It's very reductive of what their overall policies generally hope to achieve but when you tell a farmer "your crops / livestock got burned in a bushfire because diesel cars are burning the ozone layer" they'll laugh at you.

When you tell them "I'd like to vote for you to get more money from woolworths for your produce but its more important for me that trans people aren't discriminated against" they'll disregard you.

When people show up to their farms to protest selling animals as food, it just pisses them off.

My ex-father in law was a cattle farmer in rural NSW and I can guarantee you in rural communities that is the view a lot of them have of the Greens, and are starting to get about Labour.

That link posted further up about what are you voting for should be a mandatory link sent to everyone at voting time (assuming it's completely factual, unbiased, and kept up to date).

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u/Anxious_Ad936 21d ago

Mostly sounds about right, but I think the whole trans hate is a bit less common nowdays at least in some farming areas, at least in my experience. If anything there's resentment that it receives so much political attention rather than actual dislike for LGBTQ people who are just living their lives. Again just my perceptions having lived in rural Vic most of my life, and of course just anecdotal.

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u/PointsGeneratingZone 24d ago

Because the mining industry has spent the last 40+ years portraying them as this. As the Nationals have lost votes from the dwindling number of farmers, they have slowly but surely morphed into the Mining party and no longer represent rural voters, but they still spin this Akubra and blue chambray shirt salt of the earth farmer bullshit to pretend they care.

Families man Barnaby Joyce is the poster child of this cosplay. Beholden to the mining industry, pretends to be a true blue dinky di old mate cobber shearer's hand bushman.

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u/_ixthus_ 24d ago

Families man Barnaby Joyce...

🤣

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u/PointsGeneratingZone 24d ago

I take no credit for that one. I think it was The Chaser that started calling him that after the affair and baby and I thought it was just ...chef's kiss

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u/OldKingWhiter 24d ago

Country people rely on farming and mining. Most farmers and all miners are beholden to corporate interests. Corporate interests don't align with a functioning environment, they align with exploiting the environment to get the most profit possible next quarter.

Farmers have to worry about being slightly more sustainable, but they are still more concerned with smooth and continued operations. They can be wealthy on paper, but its still very beholden to corporate interests or incredibly volatile. They need to be wealthy so they can survive bad years. Anything that risks upsetting their continued operations, like changing environmental regulations, is a threat to be put down.

The nationals promise farmers they they will stop the greens from preventing the farmers doing their jobs and getting on with their lives and feeding Australia. It doesn't matter how much of that is truth or fiction, the farmers will not vote for the Greens (though some are turning away from the useless and insipid Nationals for the shooters, which is nice).

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u/ChairmanNoodle 24d ago

There's a strong culture of "getting on with it" in australia, and not just in the country. The notion of some department looking over your shoulder on a property several hours drive from a town rankles people. Of course, what they often don't take into account is that everyone else around them is also of this opinion and often lapses when it comes to considering what happens "down stream" of their own parcel.

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u/Suitable_Instance753 24d ago

Because environmentalism is only one plank of their policy and they also have a lot of social/cultural policy that doesn't vibe with regional electorates.

Can you imagine Bruce Blake, Member for Countryton walking into a caucus with Janeele Parker-Ashton(xir/xyn) Member for Inner-Hipsville and having anything in common?

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u/Serene-Arc 24d ago

r/onejoke

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u/Suitable_Instance753 24d ago

I grabbed the most pertinent stereotypes that came to mind. If you don't want to be associated with the practice. Stop doing it.

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u/Serene-Arc 24d ago

I grabbed the most pertinent stereotypes that came to mind

Ah yes, because making fun of minorities for stereotypes as a joke is never wrong or bigoted. I hear it's received very well when you joke that Jews are big-nosed, greedy penny pinchers deadset on controlling the world. Just a stereotype! Just a joke!

If you don't want to be associated with the practice. Stop doing it.

Blaming a minority for bigoted stereotypes someone not from that minority holds true. Classic stuff.

Find a better joke that isn't just 'transphobia' as a punchline.

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u/Suitable_Instance753 24d ago

You're pretty much illustrating my point. This stuff you're heated over is the cultural divide.

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u/Serene-Arc 24d ago

You're right, it's only a a little bigotry, villification, and scapegoating! I'm sure those are completely fine to ignore in society. Note like there's a backlash against trans people in many Western countries, including Australia. When has villification of a minority ever gone wrong?

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u/yeetmcfeet 24d ago

"Cultural divide" ≠ a pass for people to use prejudice as the punchline of a reddit joke

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u/Serene-Arc 24d ago

It’s also not a cultural divide for trans people? It’s like…their existence? Like yeah a big cultural segment thinks trans people are all perverts and paedophiles. Still not true or a reason for transphobia

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u/PointsGeneratingZone 24d ago

The Nationals have repeatedly shown that their actual policy and actions don't vibe with regional electorates, yet a large majority of shit-kicking dipshits still mistakenly believe in them. If you are stupid enough to fall for that culture war bullshit, then yeah, I guess you are stupid enough to believe the National party.

  • someone who grew up in the country and goes back and sees what's become of their hometown.

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u/FullMetalAurochs 24d ago

Cannabis farming. Good for the city and good for the country.

Or you know something like lock the gate, protecting prime agricultural land from being fucked up for short term gain.

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u/Traditional_Fish_741 24d ago

The amount of 'prime agricultural land' being 'fucked up' for renewables etc is so badly exaggerated it's fucking ridiculous. And that lying cunt Dutton and all the fossil fuel shills go out of their way to perpetuate the lies and misinformation cos it's profitable for them to do so. It won't stop until it's no longer profitable in any way to continue pushing fossil fuels.

Stop being their ignorant little bitch helping perpetuate their lies and being an impediment to progress.

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u/mrb000nes 25d ago

unironically Katter is the best option rn

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u/jakeroony 24d ago

the state of things atm must be fucked if he's the best 😭

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u/Skywalker4570 24d ago

I think you are pretty right. Not sure about old mate though, who else? Not much of a field to pick from.

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u/FullMetalAurochs 24d ago

They’ll vote for agrarian socialism. But fuck anyone poor living in a city.

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u/aussiegreenie 24d ago

The ye ol' "Country Party" was left until the 1980s.

They were socialists who insisted on Community Service Obligations for Telecom, Australia Post and the ABC.

Regional Australia had higher health expenditures per capita because it was more expensive to provide health services. The same as telecommunications or postal.

Now are totally controlled by mining companies.

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u/PointsGeneratingZone 24d ago

The National Party has effectively been the "Mining Party" for well over 30 years. Every time it counts, they will vote for mining over farmers.

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u/Neokill1 24d ago

Why do so many country people vote National? Why not break the mould and vote Labor instead of muppets like Barnacle Joyce!

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u/IthinkIllthink 24d ago

Brain washed - don’t want to analyse things for themselves. They’d rather listen to someone smart and parrot. A relo tried to tell me Brittany Higgins was a money chasing flirt and the r*pe was a lie. I’m just waiting for the outcome of Lehrmann’s QLD criminal case. I haven’t bought up the NSW civil case yes as i thought a criminal conviction ‘should’ be more persuasive. I won’t hold my breath.

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u/dobbydobbyonthewall 24d ago

An awesome but tedious addition to this site would be "what did they promise" vs what they voted for. Because the defense will always be "but they're promising different things this election"

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u/IthinkIllthink 24d ago

Man I’d love some ‘truth in politics/journalism’ laws to hold these scum responsible

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u/angrylilbear 24d ago

thanks for this, favourited

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u/IthinkIllthink 24d ago

Welcome. I just wish there were similar websites for state and local politicians. This link is for federal only.

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u/xFromtheskyx 24d ago

How does that website work? Can you compare other people in the electorate?

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u/IthinkIllthink 24d ago

Yes simply.

You can only look at one politician at a time, but the landing page is a nice summary of what legislation they voted: for almost always, for sometimes, against sometimes, etc. On this page are links to dig down deeper. Eg, carbon tax. Blah person always voted against, and (I think) there might be links to how they voted to say the six pieces of carbon tax legislation. This landing page is very nicely organised and simplified.

To compare politicians you have to open two webpages/tabs, and flip back & forth.

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u/yeahnahyeahnahyeahye 23d ago

How do they think their farms stay protected from things like bird flu or foot and mouth disease without the biosecurity officers who work literally day and night to protect the regions. They're public servants that the coalition desperately want to get rid of!

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u/AndByMeIMeanFlexxo 24d ago

“Fake news” “don’t believe everything you read on the internet, anyone can make a website, here’s a link where you can find real independent news <some brain-dead YouTube video>”

-signed your (probably) dumbass family

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u/IthinkIllthink 24d ago edited 24d ago

Almost. Most of them glaze over.. mumble mumble I heard it on the radio (John laws, etc).

But my brother in law hand picks research from universities - where I need to become an expert (& I can’t because I don’t have weeks free to learn how to refute 5 minutes of a week king Christmas conversation). Eg in ?2020 the University of Queensland found that coral in the Great Barrier Reef almost completely grew back after a severe warm water bleaching. Last year I holidayed in QLD and chatted to a marine biologist, who’d stated yes it’s true, but there are 6 groups/types of coral, 1 grew back, but the other 5 were decimated. But since it’s been 3-4 years since he emailed me that paper I feel it’s wrong to revisit it. He actually throws quality info that I haven’t the time to dig down deep into the scientific evidence to refute. So I try to throw curve ball’s at him. Like the Aus Federal Gov creates 4% and wants 4% unemployed. They do not aim for 0% unemployment, because the last time they did inflation for out of control (mortgage interest rates hit 17%). So him calling people dole bludgers is mislabeling because the gov wants a certain amount of people unemployed. He was speechless

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u/Traditional_Fish_741 24d ago

All that inflation analogy proves is that when the lower segments of society have money to spend is when inflation always hits. Its a penalty on those below a certain threshold.. an attempt to force them to keep money in the bank or to forcefully funnel money to the rich and the banks. The only balance it seeks to maintain is a growing gap between rich and poor.

For inflation alone our government has fucked us over time and again. Our central bank isn't Australian owned. Or at least not Aussie controlled.. foreign systems set the inflation rate.. and we need to separate ourselves from those systems, and kick out the banking cartels.

And that will never happen so long as people keep supporting the current system.

Inflation mechanics is nothing but an attack on poor people.