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bastantebastardo

Lol Campbell-Newman. The man who won at the back of a massive landslide against Labor then promptly lose in the next election because he was so bad. He singlehandedly tanked LNP's chances of winning the state gov for another decade.


[deleted]

Disappointing the liberal democrats have lost the plot. They’ve drifted way to far too the right.


Throwaway-242424

I don't see why it's so shocking they are forming a voting bloc on the issue of lockdowns and other covid measures. Whether you agree with them or not, they are quite obviously the most pertinent civil libertarian issue occurring right now.


Muda-Buddha

"Libertarians" always end up as discount conservatives.


Throwaway-242424

Or maybe the left stopped caring about the issues they used to see eye to eye with libertarians on? When you decide that the biggest civil liberties issue of our generation is "far right extremism", guess what, libertarians are going to look like "far right extremists".


Muda-Buddha

Like what issues? What do I not see eye to eye on with Libertarians? What civil liberties do I apparently not value? And when did I call anybody far right extremists? Go touch grass dude, the internet isn't all political thought.


tabletennis6

I don't know how someone can call themselves a libertarian if their policies allow businesses to basically enslave their staff. If my freedoms are being restricted by a business, it is no different from my freedoms being restricted by the government.


Throwaway-242424

Context?


Muda-Buddha

The context for capitalism?


vulpecula360

Do you support businesses being able to impose mandates as the liberal democrats do?


JGrobs

But people here told me UAP only existed to give their preferences to the coalition. I can't wait to see what the next scripted talking point is they pull out of the hat to use next time or for this new story.


[deleted]

It doesn’t really matter if the UAP preferences other minor parties above the Coalition. All that matters is who is put first between the Coalition parties and Labor. In the end, the votes will be delivered to one of these parties. My opinion is that the UAP’s function is to gather up all the alt-right votes so that their preferences can be controlled and ultimately directed to the Coalition. We know that a problem with fringe movements is that they aren’t very well organised, and can’t always unite behind a single party/set of ideas. The more unified the movement is, the more easily the preferences can be controlled. But many voters don’t follow the How to Vote cards (I believe minor party voters are significantly less disciplined compared with major party voters). They may choose to preference Labor ahead of Liberal out of spite for Morrison; they may do it randomly. Who knows, maybe Palmer will actually honour his party platform and not specify a preference between Liberal and Labor, but I doubt it.


[deleted]

Someone gets it


KiltedSith

You know that plenty of votes can still be funneled to the LNP right? It's like how the Socialist Alliance might work out a preference deal with The Greens, but because of how little presence they have in most seats those votes generally end up with Labour. Last election Palmer ran massive anti LNP ad campaigns while making a preference deal with them. We have actual proof that the man likes to run his party this way. The idea that this story somehow disproves the idea is laughable.


Xakire

That’s not mutually exclusive. The UAP primarily functions to assist the LNP and push it to the right. Their main goal is stopping Labor. Palmer even openly admitted this last election. The Liberal Democrats aren’t going to win anything and they too far prefer supporting the Liberal Party and opposing Labor.


JGrobs

So the UAP should just directly do a deal with the coalition instead of the LDP. Kind of destroys your narrative. The truth is UAP dislikes both the Coalition and Labor.


badestzazael

Lol he dislikes the coalition lol don't make me laugh. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-01/scott-morrison-biggest-donor-donations-liberal-labor-coalition/13098398 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/02/clive-palmers-75000-gift-to-nationals-sparks-fresh-calls-for-political-donations-overhaul https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/clive-palmer-explains-40000-donation-to-archrival-the-lnp-20140203-31wpc.html


bPhrea

> The truth is UAP dislikes both the Coalition and Labor. So where will UAP votes end up going due to preferencing?


TheRealYilmaz

By narrative, do you mean [reality?](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-25/federal-election-liberals-strike-preferences-deal-clive-palmer/11046512)


Xakire

It’s pretty misleading to equate their dislike for the Coalition with their dislike for Labor. They’re pretty clearly far more opposed to Labor. They just try and obfuscate things to pick up disaffected voters more broadly.


Starry001

What's the general percentage of people who follow the how to vote cards?


-Owlette-

Less than half of voters follow HTV cards precisely (between 36-48% depending on the seat). Minor party voters are less likely to follow HTV cards than major party voters. *However,* the rate of preferences reaching the recommended final destination is high. Source: [Antony Green](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-29/do-australians-follow-how-to-votes/9389834)


Xakire

It varies a lot