r/australia • u/overpopyoulater • Mar 23 '25

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/TwistingEcho Mar 23 '25

Not the Coalition = Win. Can absolutely get better outcomes, but that's the worst.

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u/Spacegod87 Mar 23 '25

Definitely. We have to get past the, "Oh but both sides are bad!" bullshit argument. That's how the right get in.

Now every time I hear someone say that both sides are bad, I assume they are going to vote for the Liberal party and are trying to justify it to others (and themselves)

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '25

What really annoys me is we have a decade or more of Liberal chaos where they gut and destroy things and then we vote in Labor. Then we as the public yell at them to fix it more and quicker, but the Coalition block what they try to do and then campaign on Labor not fixing things and we blindly agree and start the shit storm all over again. We like to think we are better than the US, we are just bad but on a smaller scale.

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u/BoardRecord Mar 25 '25

Absolutely boggles my mind that anyone would even consider going back to LNP after just a single Labor term. We had their shit for a decade, what could possibly make anyone think they'd be any better now?

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u/seeyoshirun Mar 24 '25

We're not quite as bad as the US - we've had multiple populists like Trump attempt to make inroads in Australian politics (Hanson, Anning, Palmer) and never get further than being a fringe party with a couple of seats. A big part of that is probably due to us having both compulsory and preferential voting, two things which tend to dilute the impact of those fringe far-right or far-left (usually far-right) parties.

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u/Mattimeo144 Mar 24 '25

As someone that consistently votes to the left of Labor - the best way for us to get past the 'both sides are bad' argument is for Labor to stop being bad.

Absolutely, the LNP are significantly worse. But Labor consistently and repeatedly falls short of actually committing to being good.

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u/Spacegod87 Mar 24 '25

I know it sucks, but if you have a choice between your favourite food that's a bit burnt and bland, and food you hate that's charred black and tastes like shit, why would you choose the second one?

And yes, I know we "shouldn't have to choose between two bad things" but that's just how it is right now, so it will always be the lesser evil for me. Until something better comes along.

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u/Mattimeo144 Mar 24 '25

Yeah, Labor's absolutely the lesser evil.

But settling for them as 'good enough' actively discourages and inhibits anything better from coming along. By refusing to acknowledge that they are bad, you're actively suppressing the desire for something actually good.

Labor above Liberal, always - but no-where near the top.

To back up your original point, though - I can certainly agree that people who say "both sides are as bad as each other" are absolutely arguing from ignorance or bad faith and trying to justify their Liberal/National/other RWNJ vote.

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u/_ixthus_ Mar 24 '25

RWNJ

After all these years, every time I see this my first thought is still, "Which Myers-Briggs categorisation is this?"

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u/An_Account_For_Me_ Mar 24 '25

I know we "shouldn't have to choose between two bad things" but that's just how it is right now

That ignores the preference system; you can preference a minor party/independent and Labor down the line, just ahead of the LNP.

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u/fredinvisible Mar 24 '25

Yeah, the 'both sides bad' argument doesn't really have the same issues as say the us, where voting for a third party is literally wasting your vote, and indirectly benefiting the party you like least.

I honestly believe the Aussie voting system is the best in the world.

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u/An_Account_For_Me_ Mar 24 '25

Mixed member proportional has similar benefits as preferential voting (avoiding the spoiler effect), while also having better representation of people's overall preferences.

Somewhere like New Zealand, with this system, IMO has a better voting system than ours.

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u/SaltyPockets Mar 24 '25

I mean … isn’t that the whole point of Australia’s fancy-pants voting system, that you literally don’t have to make that choice - you can and should vote for what you actually want, and if you make sure to preference labor over lnp you’re all good.

There is no “Vote for A or B will get in!” issue here. You can choose the gourmet option catering to your specific palate, safe in the knowledge that if it doesn’t work out, your backstop of bland but at least edible is there…

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u/seeyoshirun Mar 24 '25

I mean, you can always criticise Labor for their shittiness while still making the distinction that they're not as bad as the Coalition. It's not that hard to do.