The Pencil Guy: Hourann's illogical blog

Perhaps the most awesome of all possible results

So, on the one hand, it’s never much fun to see a race without a winner.

But given that I am a political nerd, I think a hung parliament is awesome. Given that the campaign was short, mediocre, and predominantly negative … this outcome is great.

I guess having the Olympics to draw people’s attention while Barnett figured out what to do was a good thing, and naturally I concede I completely underestimated the level of disenchantment people had with healthcare, Burke scandals, Carpenter himself, and so forth. I’m particularly impressed that most of the new seats from the one-vote one-value redistribution went to the Libs.

Yet the result seems to say “we really don’t like you, but nor do we trust that other mob”. I think it delicious to imagine the prospect of Alan Carpenter forming a minority government with the Nationals, and being forced to compromise and consult on every decision he takes. This, to me, would be a best-of-both-worlds that tones down his brusqueness while also keeping the only competent team for government that we have. (It is, of course, more likely that the Liberals and Nationals settle their squabble and form government with the independents; most of them are right-leaning, so that’d be more of a business-as-usual story.)

And at least things in Perth aren’t as bad as they are in NSW; competence is apparently harder to come by than I’d have guessed!

P.S. I’m amused that, even though I thought the ballot paper was awfully short when I voted a fortnight ago, I was among the record numbers of people giving first preference to the Greens (a.k.a. the only party in WA to have its act together).

  1. Easy for you to say that now you didn’t live here ;-)

  2. Ah, but he did get to vote (I’m not going to say anything positive/negative about WA’s state of affairs until I’ve worked out what the situation is (and any benefit of just one house) over here!). Also: with Rees in NSW, Bryce being sworn in as G-G, and the likelihood of Barnett taking over (even if only for a while?) in WA, have we decided somewhere that September is the month for changing every parliamentary leader? Who’s next, Nelson or the Queen? ;)

  3. Cameron: what are you so worried about? Two more weeks of caretaker government would make it just like a regular election campaign, and I think it safe to say all will be resolved by then. Even if it’s not, consider that Belgium did not implode after its last election, when it took six months to form a government, and that California still survives even though its legislature has been blocking supply (as we would call it) for ten weeks.

    Also, we’re still in nowhere near as bad shape as NSW :-)

Care to leave a comment?