Biggest issue seems to be cost of living. Biggest consequence would be if there’s a change of government and ALP NSW leader Minns wins then Australia is wall-to-wall Labor which (for either main party) doesn’t happen very often. Australians have a preference to keep alternating layers of democracy of different political stipes. Helps keep them arguing between themselves and less so bothering us. Also hinders getting much done.
Was the only member of my family to vote today.
The ex and both boys have already voted pre-poll on different days.
Daughter is in Melbourne so she will vote postal.
Polling station is the public school which is located about 120m from the front door.
Ran the gaggle of election volunteers who enthusiastically wave all kinds of how-to-vote flyers at you on the way in and don’t bother making eye contact when you are on the way out.
Images below are of the queue on the way in, the Democracy Sausage stand and the queue on the way out.
The Democracy Sausage stand is between the in and out doors. No electioneering is permitted inside the perimeter of the poling station. They are planning on serving about 750 bbq sausages. Big fund raiser for the school. Normally a bit over 1,000 vote at this booth between 8am and 6pm but there has been a strong uptake in pre-poll voting. Maybe over 40% of votes have already been lodged. The nearest alternative polling station is the Civic Centre which is about 400m away. Then there’s one at the Infants School about a km south.
The big change this year is the AEC provides a black inkjet pen to every voter as they enter the booth. No more pencils tied by string into the cardboard voting booth. Recycled box cardboard this year too.
The guy in the pastel blue t-shirt coming in as I head out is a guy who I coached junior cricket with. Haven’t seen him in a decade. He’s a criminal defense barrister with a intriguing and very colourful client base. Has two sons studying law. One in Harvard, the other Oxford. He walks to the polling booth as we all do.
No sign of police or security anywhere.
Back home at my desk composing this post 25 mins after walking out the door.
You can legitimately hang shit over Australia on any number of socio-geopolitical issues, but we know how to run an election.
Polls have been closed for 2 hours. 21% of vote counted. LABs have 40 needing 47 for majority. Certainly looks likely for a change of government. Doyen analyst Antony Greene has called it. Too early to call whether it will be a majority.
Premier Perrottet might lose his blue ribbon LIB seat.
Antony is now calling a majority Labor victory. Which in my humble opinion is a repudiation of the stupid US political scene and gives us hope that Aus will not follow suit…with minority nutjobs given the arse.
Premier-elect Chris Minns walking to stage to do his victory announcement as I type. Introduced by Prime Minister Albo. Comprehensive Labor Party victory.
Concession speech by outgoing premier Dominic Perrotet was very good, complemented Minns on the civility of the campaign (I actually found it one of the dullest of recent years with Labor playing small target).
Real work begins on Monday with I think no members of Minns’s team having prior govt experience - its been 12 years since Labor was in. Prepare for many stunned rabbit-in-headlights moments.
With this Australia is completely Labor with the exception of Tasmania.
Current standings have LAB on 45 needing 47 for a majority.
There are still 15 seats in doubt of which LAB are ahead in 4,
This is the third time LAB NSW have won an election from opposition since 1965. (They were in power for 24 years from 1941). NSW has tended to have long term governments averaging well over 10 years. The previous two were Neville Wran in 1976 and Bob Carr in 1995. Both won with a single seat majority.
Current standings have LAB on 45 needing 47 for a majority.
There are now still 7 seats in doubt of which LAB are ahead in 1 suggesting LAB will not win a majority, or a best by a single seat. (Remembering LAB as the government usually provide the Speaker)
They will have no problem as a minority government as a bloc of independents have given guarantees on confidence and supply. (There has not yet been any indication an Independent might be offered to an Independent)
For any USAers following a couple of stats about my local electorate Drummoyne is an inner west city electorate which was previously held by LIB with margin of 13.6%. So was blue-ribbon. There has been a 12% swing to LAB but LIB retain. It’s now marginal. The last electorate redistribution pushed it west and into stronger LAB areas.
The electorate is 26sqkm in area.
There are 22 polling stations
There were 3 early voting centres
44k votes cast.
27k (63%) cast on election day
16k (35%) cast early
1k (2%) cast postal
As usual, the esteemed cynical bastards at Despair.com have this covered.
To remind us down here that all is not as hunky dory peachy as you might see in the tourist brochures.
To remind you over there that it’s not just the fauna here which is dangerous to humanity
Counting is still continuing in the NSW State election
Current standings have LAB on 45 needing 47 for a majority.
There were 15 seats in doubt at the end of counting on election night.
After a weeks counting of postal and pre-poll votes, LAB have not been able to claim any further wins, and only one seat (Ryde) remains too close to call with LIB ahead.
NSW LAB have already secured undertakings from independents to secure confidence and supply and so will be able to function as a minority government.
