Weather vs. Climate Pretty sure I've seen this No comments:

All Politics Is Local That’s the adage, coined by Tip O’Neil, but the interpretation can be misleading. Yes, you as a candidate rely on the locality in which you run, to be recognised, to have the support necessary, and you build this on your actions. But when you get to the federal level, you’re delivering for the nation much more than for your own district. Spending will be directed down to a local level, but the municipality and the state will have greater local effects than federal spending programs. High-speed trains between Sydney and wherever, a long-held fantasy project, will have local effects, but spread across the cities at the anchor points and in between. So Tony Abbott can point to his record and proudly claim historic site preservation spending on the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, but that’s not just Warringah, and Warringah knows it. (And whatever happened to the spending he promised years ago, well before his time as PM, to upgrade Brookvale Oval? Never happened. Other local promises? Anyone remember? Thought not.) And he can deride independents as “Labor candidates in disguise”, but that’s disingenuous. Such candidates run on policy, and the latest such to rise up and challenge is putting forth a national agenda. Zali Steggall has cited climate change – something Abbott has categorically stated he doesn’t believe in – as a key issue, a policy that was integral to Kerryn Phelps taking Wentworth off the deposed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. That’s the kind of leadership we want in Canberra. But it’s going to be tough for an independent to drive policy, or a bloc of them, if the LNP or Labor can form government in their own right, which seems increasingly likely for the latter party, given the defections and retirements the former has experienced lately. So vote for the local candidate, but vote for the own who can help get the agenda set. That might not be someone socially progressive and fiscally conservative.

May We Do Better May is still a long ways off, but maybe not long enough to not start thinking about the prospective federal election. Double-dissolution, maybe? Morrison and the LNP don’t have the numbers to get anything much through the Senate, but they’re also a minority government after losing the Wentworth by-election, so perhaps they’ll focus on actually forming government and hope to firm up the Senate later. But their collective goose is cooked, by all accounts and analyses, which means it’s Labor’s election to lose. Or is it? Labor sucks, face it. They are just the LNP-lite. Sure, they’re capable of governing, just, but aside from some small tweaks to social programs, we can’t expect them to do anything truly forward-facing. So that leaves the Greens as the only minor major party available. Except they suck worse the Labor, especially at the federal level, where their entire strategy is on doing deals with Liberal or Labor as it suits them to best get in the news, all the while engaging in ridiculous power struggles that are all that actually gets them any notice and make them look like children. They’ve largely abandoned any pretence at policy other than in sound bites. So independents. Oh, God help us all. Sure, there are minor parties, but they’re effectively just disaffected Liberals or Nationals or independents tarting themselves up as something more than single-issue candidates. And the actual independent independents are usually single-issue pollies, and usually just disaffected Liberals or Nationals tarting themselves up as populists. Luckily, we’ve got preferences. Now the trick with preferences is that when you vote, you’ve got to take into account where candidates and parties are directing theirs. If you’ve got an independent that seems like anything better than the LNP and can put a complex sentence together even if just in printed policy positions, then preference that one, so long as their preferences aren’t going to the LNP. If it is, go Greens, as their preferences usually go to Labor. Then down the line accordingly until the LNP is dead last in your selection barring One Nation. It’s the only way to send a message to either the LNP or Labor: we hate you all and will turn on you if you don’t get your acts together and we’ll always hate the LNP anyway.