NT Chief Minister ousted: Aussie government at all time low

[BPzeBanshee]

A bit of local news for anyone who cares about Aussie politics:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-13/t ... er/4570820

The Northern Territory just lost its Chief Minister in much the same way as we lost our former Prime Minister.

A bit of backstory for those not in the know:
Last state-level election we got the Country Liberal Party in the NT for the first time in some 12 years thanks to electorates in the rural areas with Terry Mills as the leader. Various campaign promises from him included the safety of jobs for public servants and lowering the cost of living.

Shortly after, Millsy announced that Power and Water Authority, the only water/electricity supplier in the NT, was in debt and would have to raise its bills by some $2000 to cover the costings. Many public servants were sacked also, and most politicians in the CLP got a payrise. I've forgotten some of the other details but many decisions that seem like moneygrabbing made him quite unpopular.

After the election, the previous Chief Minister of the now-opposition Australian Labor Party, Paul Henderson, decided to call it quits, putting an open space in one electorate (my local electorate actually) of which the resulting by-election took place just over a fortnight ago. Unlike the prior territory-wide election though where the CLP member for my electorate almost won, there was a landslide ALP victory. So basically, popularity for Millsy and the CLP was at an all-time low.

Last week there was an attempted coup for Millsy's spot in which Health Minister Dave Tollner got the sack after doing a dummyspit, and Adam Giles had a go at ousting him but didn't have the majority (who wanted Dave Tollner first). Now, with Terry Mills on a trip to Japan (WTF?) the majority within the CLP made up their minds and ousted him while he wasn't even here.

The ABC is saying in some of it's headlines now that Adam Giles is now the first indigenous Head of State in all of Australia's history: I think it says a bit about our state-level and federal governments right now that this record is set in the same way we got our first female Head of State - backstabbing. Ironically it's the federal-level CLP that seems most likely to win the next federal election, but now I'm not so sure.

[Ed Oscuro]

Dummyspit? I read that as "dummy split" the first time, and was tempted to say something about how good crash testing is these days. But I'd like to know what you mean by this.

So basically somebody (an entire party's worth of somebodies) put their hand in the till for themselves, everybody else had to suffer, and then there were consequences; is that about the size of it?

[AntiFritz]

Dummyspit = Throwing a tantrum

[Ed Oscuro]

I was hoping it was a faked split. HEEL TURN

[BPzeBanshee]

Yeah, Aussie slang, sorry. Apparently there was a policy disagreement between Mills and Tollner which led to Tollner throwing papers at his face, thus getting the sack. So, throwing a tantrum.

I was in a class last year covering politics as a part of Society and Culture. I began to start talking trash and throwing papers around and the teacher said "You can't do that! That's not how it works!". I replied "Yes it does! That's what REAL pollies do!". Funny because it's true - I can just imagine her putting her face to a palm looking back at exactly how accurate I was considering recent events.

Since you mention heel split though, everyone kicked up a stink when Gillard literally had a high heels slip during her trip to India some time ago too. As you can see, our government's more so for comedy at the moment than actually governing which is kinda sad.

[Mero]

Surely derived from the phrase "spit your dummy out"



EDIT: whoops, this pic is fucking enormous

[O. Van Bruce]

compared to our politicians, yours almost sound sensible and civilized.

here we have to deal with spionage bettwen parties, politicians with accounts on switzerland, entire political parties with hidden salaries, etc.

[Ed Oscuro]

I was in a class last year covering politics as a part of Society and Culture. I began to start talking trash and throwing papers around and the teacher said "You can't do that! That's not how it works!". I replied "Yes it does! That's what REAL pollies do!". Funny because it's true - I can just imagine her putting her face to a palm looking back at exactly how accurate I was considering recent events.

Since you mention heel split though, everyone kicked up a stink when Gillard literally had a high heels slip during her trip to India some time ago too. As you can see, our government's more so for comedy at the moment than actually governing which is kinda sad.

I would have enjoyed being in attendance for this

[OBSCVRA]

Wasn't it only last week that a similar thing happened in Victoria?
And in NSW we have the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) inquest into former politicians possibly reaping millions from dodgey dealings they did while in power. And then on the other side of politics you have the current NSW Government approving recreational shooting in National parks, which seems completely ridiculous to me, as someone whom has camped and enjoyed their facilities without fear of being accidentally shot before AND someone whom has enjoyed recreational shooting (just not in a public area).
Certainly very easy to be cynical about Australian politics atm, neither of the 2 main parties seem worth bothering to put the number in the box for, and there is no valid third alternative (the greens have their place, but not as a major party). Labor on the federal and state level have made too many mistakes, so the feeling that they have/had to go is pretty fair. Yet if we have a Liberal government in both state AND federal parliament it will push the balance of power too far, and you just know that they will have agendas that they aren't being honest about, its just the way they seem to do things (core promises and non core promises springs to mind ).
Both Labor and Liberal have their good people, all time low seems about on the money still

[BPzeBanshee]

Yeah, I think it was Victoria that the Premier stood down, and WA just had their state-level election with similar results to NT's prior main election. You're damn right about the 'other agenda' though: I hate that the CLP guys always seem keen to run away when getting questioned about something more-so than ALP, and not providing any factual basis to their arguments (although I guess that happens worldwide).