Replies to post #437770 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Australia is now almost entirely held by Labor – but that doesn’t necessarily make life easier for leaders

"Not like Trump: $3.9 Million invested to prevent and support workers with incurable dust disease
"Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd appointed ambassador to the US"
Related: rooster, Some guts - 50 reasons the Trump administration is bad for workers
[...] 49. It delayed enforcement of a rule protecting workers from exposure to silica dust "

Published: March 26, 2023 11.40am AEDT


Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff (right) is now the only non-Labor leader at federal or state level. Mick Tsikas/AAP

When Dominic Perrottet gave a gracious concession speech after his defeat in the New South Wales election on Saturday night, it was hard to avoid favourable comparison with the United States. There was no sign of rancour or hyper-partisanship. He praised Labor’s Chris Minns for a clean campaign. He predicted Minns would be a “fine” premier, urging people to “get behind him”.

But in one respect, our politics do look more American: Australia now has “red” and “blue” states, although we reverse their political colour scheme. The maps have already begun to appear on social media. The Australian mainland, with its five states and two territories, is now “red”. Only little Tasmania remains “blue”, looking like an antipodean Taiwan, with the sole surviving Liberal government in the country.

Labor has stormed back into power in NSW, ending 12 years in the wilderness with an election victory that means mainland Australia is now completely red. https://t.co/C73gtc0gF3

— The West Australian (@westaustralian) March 25, 2023

These look like good times for Labor. It is not quite there yet, but the last time – indeed, the only time – it has been in office in all nine of Australia’s jurisdictions was for a few months between late November 2007 and early September 2008, between Kevin Rudd’s federal victory and Alan Carpenter’s loss to Colin Barnett in Western Australia a little over nine months later.

The parties of the right have also only once, since 1910, held office everywhere: for just over a year, in 1969-70, between a win in Tasmania and a loss in South Australia. In those days, the bar was a little lower than today, for neither the Northern Territory nor Australian Capital Territory had gained self-government yet. Australia had six sub-national jurisdictions, not the eight of today.

An obvious question to ask of these circumstances is whether they matter for the governments involved. Is it, for example, easier for a federal government if the states and territories are ruled by the same party? Is it better for a state or territory government if the government on the federal scene has the same complexion?

Like so many historical questions, the answer isn’t simple.

If government by one party is rare in Australia, a situation where one party has become preponderant nationally is not. The 1980s, for instance, was a Labor decade in ways that extended well beyond the ascendancy of the Hawke government. Labor was also in power in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia for much of the decade.

In the 1990s, there was something of a reversal....

Continued - https://theconversation.com/australia-is-now-almost-entirely-held-by-labor-but-that-doesnt-necessarily-make-life-easier-for-leaders-202049