‘Don’t vote for independents. They are anything but’
Welcome to the column where you provide the content. Peta Credlin warned that with a hung parliament a very real possibility, “the only question that matters for any of the independents with a credible chance of winning a seat is: who would you support in the event of a hung parliament – Labor under Albanese or the Coalition under Morrison?” Mays was blunt:
“Please don’t vote for independents – they are anything but.”
Janice too:
“Hung parliaments would be a disaster for our country. Having a few wild chameleons decide how we roll along isn’t on my agenda if I can do otherwise. Please only vote for a major party.”
Maxwell brought his hammer down:
“The disingenuousness of these so-called independents is astounding. Allegra Spender is the epitome of a champagne socialist who can afford to have these idealised opinions because she comes from a very wealthy background and lives in one of the wealthiest suburbs of Sydney. She has no comprehension of the day to day existence of most Australians but more particularly the majority of us who do not live in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs or North Shore. “These independents are impostors. They preach this ‘climate catastrophe’ philosophy where they expect the rest of us to pay for their fashionable policies, sit at home with little or no light and heat, and eat non meat protein based goop. Meanwhile these independents are sitting in splendour in the Eastern Suburbs or Mosman eating fillet steak washed down with champagne feeling good about themselves because they think they are making a difference. They are hypocrites.”
The Migrant said:
“It’s an open secret who they support. People who vote for independents, vote knowing that they support Labor or Greens.”
The American Friend protested:
“That’s not fair Peta. Won’t it depend on the circumstances and what guarantees or assurances they get? If they don’t want to say now voters can choose to vote for them or not. It’s the candidates’ risk to take. None of anyone’s business to demand.”
Jennie applauded:
“Congratulations to Peta for the article and documentary. It’s great public interest journalism. The voters are now clearer about the linkages between the so called independents, the ALP and GetUp and funding by wealthy investors. It’s a clever strategy to bolster Labor control in a minority government should they fall short.
“GetUp had outlived is usefulness as an ALP front, replaced by women only candidates with a much softer policy profile. And of course the cover of independence is blown by the Voices candidates only contesting Liberal seats. The candidates should be honest and tell the voters who they would support in a minority government, which is looking more likely by the day.”
Rod’s fear:
“A parliament acting at the behest of disproportionately empowered, ideology driven, ‘independent’ egocentrics is a fate too horrible to contemplate.”
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Wingn suggested:
“Peta Credlin would have greater credibility on this issue if she demanded the current liberal national agreement was published and described the agreement as it was when she was TonyAbbott’s chief of staff. This agreement has a far greater impact on Australia than the possible voting patterns of a few independents.”
Chris said:
“Independent means independent. But all new independents would support Labor acting on climate change and implementing an ICAC. Something the LNP has no intention of touching.”
Thomas said:
“I get the distinct and I believe justified impression that these so called ‘independents’ are just heavily funded electoral fronts for the climate lobby which relentlessly seeks ever greater largesse from governments at consumers’ and taxpayers’ expense.
“ ‘Climate policy’ is in reality a shrewd and expensive financial instrument that will have as much mitigating impact on climate as dancing to stop or start the rain. It is about financial redistribution benefiting the few at the expense of the many.”
Coll’s call:
“Australian voters deserve to know what these Climate 200 ladies represent and how they’ll vote should there be a hung parliament. Surely that’s the bare basic amount of information required to allow voters to vote in an informed way in a functioning democracy. What have the Climate 200 ladies got to hide?”
Gary did the numbers:
“In the current parliament, the voting record of the independents in former Liberal-held seats shows their real nature. Based on Parliamentary Library data, here’s how often they’ve voted with Labor: Indi’s Helen Haines 67.92 per cent of the time; Warringah’s Steggall 66.04 per cent of the time; and Mayo’s Rebekha Sharkie 64.64 per cent of the time.
“So, on these figures, the independents also supported the Morrison government about one-third of the time. This hardly suggests that they are hard-core Green/Left ideologues. Obviously, the voters wanted representatives who were not Labor or Green but who were more moderate and progressive than the conservative incumbents. That is exactly what they got.”
Interloper reasoned:
“Peta, if you were advising any of these independents, would you tell them to declare in advance who they’d support in a hung parliament? Of course not. That would be to remove the greatest leverage they’ll ever have.”
Christine disagreed:
“Our system is two party preferred. If the independents are going to hold the balance of power then the average voter has the right to know what they really stand for. Anything else is a subversion of our democracy.”
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Leaked footage from a virtual meeting of Disney employees revealed the company plans for half of its characters to fall into the categories of racial minority or LGBTQ by the year’s end. The Mocker suggested Disney executives should watch The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to remind themselves what can happen when you dabble with forces beyond your control. James said:
“My wife the other day said we needed to rationalise the multitude of family streaming services. Decision has now been made very easy – Disney Plus is about to get switched off.
Hopefully enough people do similar so that it becomes apparent that to Disney that wokism and child escapism are not compatible.”
Mr Natural squeaked:
“Disneyland – a massive human trap run by a mouse.”
Tiffany worried:
“So depressing. I feel like we’re about to witness another fall of Rome as we eat ourselves up over gender identity while Putin takes over.”
Ken’s contribution:
“We visited Disneyland in California in the eighties. Hot, overpriced, and loud with a number of broken down rides. The one thing that impressed me was the size of the car park.”
Gregory said:
“Another go woke go broke. As a parent I am sick and tired of being lectured to by the elite woke latte set.”
JohnT pointed out:
“With their latest movie hitting almost $2bn at the box office in the past 4 months, Disney is in no danger of going broke! I am sick and tired of this trite saying!”
MaxPower agreed:
“Box office receipts will tell the tale.”
Paul’s point of view:
“The increasing desire of large corporates to appease the woke activist minority is getting nauseating. What about consideration for the majority and their shareholders. If this, as it may well do, damages the company future and performance then watch out for the shareholder class actions!”
Mary Mary Quite Contrary replied:
“They are not doing this to appease anybody but because they’ve realised it’s essential for a fairer finer society. It’s the laggards that don’t know what’s going on that need to have a long hard look at themselves and ask why they want to deny people who are a bit different to the mainstream the right to be represented as well.”
Fiona added:
“I can’t get my head around why privileged people feel so threatened by inclusion. Oh right – entitlement.”
Chris1’s analysis:
“The problem is Disney has become too large – it owns ‘family friendly’ brands, as well as some ventures that verge on porn or hardcore misogynist rap content. This broad church of stakeholders (from the innocence of Mouseketeers all the way to the gangsta rap) cannot be satisfied easily.
“So for Disney, they now must satisfy their own activist employees across all these divisions.
But their ‘brand’ in the market place is ‘family friendly’ but their staff span many views, and everyone was promised a pony.”
The Hobbit of Hobbitsville was happy:
“I can think of nothing better than Mary Poppins singing ‘Super-crappy, flagellistic, expensive, and atrocious”. Oh Mocker! That is just too too perfect!”
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Joe Hockey believed he had a deal with Tony Abbott to hand him the prime ministership, Troy Bramston revealed today, although Mr Abbott has denied any such deal existed. Andrew was unmoved:
“Ah what a loss – the tin-eared, cigar-smoking architect of the infamous 2014 budget, which achieved the unimaginable feat of destroying PM Abbott’s popular support after his landslide victory the year before. Delusional.”
Aghast was aghast:
“Andrew, you’re rewriting history. Tell me … who set Hockey aside as Chair of the Expenditure Review Committee and replaced him in both the 2014 & 2015 budget preparations. Tony Abbott owns both those budgets. They were all his very own work.”
Joe Davola joked:
“I was also promised the PM role.”
Nicholas too:
“So was I, and a politician told me so I just know he was being honest.”
Steve said:
“I am not religious, but thank God this did not happen.”
Hir was unhappy:
“Hockey is claiming they were playing with top jobs including the leader of a legally elected government without due process! Buying and selling our legal institutions has to stop. These tin pot emperors do not own our government and let no one ever forget that.”
Erasmus urged:
“Hockey is still a relatively young man, over 20 years younger than Joe Biden, so could easily restart his political career. Why not? Really, I’d love to see Hockey and Peter Costello (15 years younger than Biden) and a few others back in parliament. And if they don’t want to travel from home, go into state politics. There is a serious leadership deficit in the country today and they should be encouraged to return.”
Michael said:
“It is not in the gift of any PM to promise their job to anyone. The partyroom decides. How many times does this need to be repeated?”
Last word to JBD:
“But the PM has the right to advocate for his successor in the partyroom and I suspect that was all that was implied in any of these claimed ‘succession plans’. Times change and sometimes promises and expectations cannot be met in the longer term, often for quite valid reasons. Life’s like that. I worked my butt off for five years on the promise of a partnership that never eventuated after my boss lost interest in expanding his business. You just have to put it behind you, move on and look for other opportunities.”
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