A conservative senate: dithering voters you got what you asked for

A month or so before the election I stated that the enemy of a strong Australia was not either of the major parties, but indecision. I urged voters to be positive in their decisions, both in the lower house and in the senate. I said "Australia Decides: Let's hope so" - and through its dithering, Australia did decide. I just don't think it knew what it was doing.

This "vote splitting" that Australians are so fond of has delivered a conservative senate come July. By dithering over our votes in the senate, complicated preference deals have delivered an interesting bloc of votes in our upper house - a bloc that is likely to favour Tony Abbott.

AN "informal" voting bloc of conservative senators may be in place next July, with Family First's likely senator-elect saying the new batch of micro- and minor-party politicians share the same views on a lot of policies.

Family First chairman Bob Day, ranked fifth of six South Australian Senate candidates with less than 10 per cent of the vote left to count, also said he would oppose Tony Abbott's direct action plan and cause headaches for the passage of his paid parental leave scheme if he becomes a senator.
He said yesterday he was impressed by other likely senators from the Australian Sports Party, the Motoring Enthusiast Party, Palmer United Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.
If elected, he said, they would probably vote the same way and support most Coalition policies. "When you get representatives of everyday Australians, like the motorists' guy and the sports guy and the LDP guy and (Clive) Palmer - these all seem like sensible, everyday kind of Australians who are conservative."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/abbotts-friend-vows-some-fights/story-fn59niix-1226724745371#sthash.B9lD74ms.UzoOrc1U.dpuf

AN “informal” voting bloc of conservative senators may be in place next July, with Family First’s likely senator-elect saying the new batch of micro- and minor-party politicians share the same views on a lot of policies. 

Family First chairman Bob Day, ranked fifth of six South Australian Senate candidates with less than 10 per cent of the vote left to count, ... said yesterday he was impressed by other likely senators from the Australian Sports Party, the Motoring Enthusiast Party, Palmer United Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.

If elected, he said, they would probably vote the same way and support most Coalition policies. “....[These] all seem like sensible, everyday kind of Australians who are conservative.” 
 
We can't call this a conservative plot - randomness and small party gaming made it happen. But in all, Aussie voters chose this. The list of voting approaches from most sensible to dumbest was this:

• Vote above the line in the senate for your preferred major party
• Vote below the line in the senate for your real alternative (eg Xenophon), followed closely by your preferred major party, then all the rabble afterwards
• Vote above the line for one of the rabble (dumbest)

A person I like and respect voted above the line for the Sex party. That's the picture.

Come July, Abbott will essentially have control of both houses. Because Australia chose it to be that way.

AN "informal" voting bloc of conservative senators may be in place next July, with Family First's likely senator-elect saying the new batch of micro- and minor-party politicians share the same views on a lot of policies.

Family First chairman Bob Day, ranked fifth of six South Australian Senate candidates with less than 10 per cent of the vote left to count, also said he would oppose Tony Abbott's direct action plan and cause headaches for the passage of his paid parental leave scheme if he becomes a senator.
He said yesterday he was impressed by other likely senators from the Australian Sports Party, the Motoring Enthusiast Party, Palmer United Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.
If elected, he said, they would probably vote the same way and support most Coalition policies. "When you get representatives of everyday Australians, like the motorists' guy and the sports guy and the LDP guy and (Clive) Palmer - these all seem like sensible, everyday kind of Australians who are conservative."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/abbotts-friend-vows-some-fights/story-fn59niix-1226724745371#sthash.B9lD74ms.UzoOrc1U.dpuf

AN "informal" voting bloc of conservative senators may be in place next July, with Family First's likely senator-elect saying the new batch of micro- and minor-party politicians share the same views on a lot of policies.

Family First chairman Bob Day, ranked fifth of six South Australian Senate candidates with less than 10 per cent of the vote left to count, also said he would oppose Tony Abbott's direct action plan and cause headaches for the passage of his paid parental leave scheme if he becomes a senator.
He said yesterday he was impressed by other likely senators from the Australian Sports Party, the Motoring Enthusiast Party, Palmer United Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.
If elected, he said, they would probably vote the same way and support most Coalition policies. "When you get representatives of everyday Australians, like the motorists' guy and the sports guy and the LDP guy and (Clive) Palmer - these all seem like sensible, everyday kind of Australians who are conservative."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/abbotts-friend-vows-some-fights/story-fn59niix-1226724745371#sthash.B9lD74ms.UzoOrc1U.dpuf

AN "informal" voting bloc of conservative senators may be in place next July, with Family First's likely senator-elect saying the new batch of micro- and minor-party politicians share the same views on a lot of policies.

Family First chairman Bob Day, ranked fifth of six South Australian Senate candidates with less than 10 per cent of the vote left to count, also said he would oppose Tony Abbott's direct action plan and cause headaches for the passage of his paid parental leave scheme if he becomes a senator.
He said yesterday he was impressed by other likely senators from the Australian Sports Party, the Motoring Enthusiast Party, Palmer United Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.
If elected, he said, they would probably vote the same way and support most Coalition policies. "When you get representatives of everyday Australians, like the motorists' guy and the sports guy and the LDP guy and (Clive) Palmer - these all seem like sensible, everyday kind of Australians who are conservative."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/abbotts-friend-vows-some-fights/story-fn59niix-1226724745371#sthash.B9lD74ms.UzoOrc1U.dpuf