Australia's Commonwealth Elections 2016

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-36693474

Australia's Commonwealth Elections 2016

Federal Elections to the lower and upper house taking place today across the Australian Commonwealth

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull says he is confident he can form a government after Saturday's election, but results are still too close to call.

The leader of the Liberal-National coalition needs to win 76 out of 150 lower house seats to form a ruling majority. With about half the votes counted, results suggest a very close contest. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said the close result was a vindication of his Labor Party's policies.

Labor has improved strongly on its 2013 election result of 55 lower house seats. "There is one thing for sure - the Labor Party is back," he said.

Incumbent Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) asked the Queen's representative Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove for a rare double-dissolution

All 150 seats in Australia's lower house, the House of Representatives, are up for grabs at the election, as are 76 seats in Australia's upper house, the Senate. It is the first time in decades that all the seats in both houses have been up for election. The double-dissolution election, as it is known, was called by Mr Turnbull in an attempt to break a deadlock over industrial relations legislation.
It was thought the result of the UK's referendum on the EU would benefit Mr Turnbull, who assured voters that he could deliver "economic certainty". The former lawyer and investment banker vowed to deliver tax cuts for workers and small businesses.

Currently reports suggest it is on a literal knife edge.

I can't stand Turnbull but then I can't stand the Australian Labor Party. The best outcome in my eyes would be a very small majority for the Coalition with Turnbull being deposed by Tony Abbott - who I like a lot along with other former PM John Howard - or somebody like him within the year, followed by a snap election. Glad to hear Pauline Hanson has made a return to the Australian political scene with rumours that she's won a Senate seat in Queensland.

What do the HxF Australians think?

[Lucy]

So far everyone I am speaking to pretty much hated the speech that Malcolm Turnbull made last night, he was over confident, he was attacking and pretty much pointing the blame at anyone but himself, in reality there has been a decent swing away from his party to the Australian Labor Party and common thought is that he is to blame for that. Last night he took it upon himself to say that his party had won the election, within an hour of his speech his party had potentially lost a further 6 seats leaving it a dead heat of 67 seats for both the ALP and LIB/NAT coalition with 11 seats remaining and current results show that the ALP has 6 of those 11 remaining seats. Counting stops now until Tuesday so the result likely won't be known until then.

EDIT: Further seats have now entered in doubt, you can follow it here; http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-e...-2016/results/

EDIT 2: In direct answer to your question, I do not like either party, however the Australian Labor Party have policies which I believe are more favorable, eg. Fiber to the Premises Broadband, Public Transport Funding.

[Matt]

What a mess this has become haha.

So this was my first time voting and let me just say, I'm doing a postal vote next time to save myself waiting 45mins - 1 hour to vote. The paper WAS HUGE and yeah everyone was just fed up (thank god it was winter and not summer..).

Pretty much everyone my age (based on their FB posts) voted Labor, Greens, Independents, Liberal or something along those lines. I feel like both major parties didn't factor in that a large number of younger people are now able to vote and would all be voting Labor/Greens. I ended up watching the live coverage and although I don't agree with Labor using Medicare as a major campaign focus (when tbh Liberal have said they weren't even going to privatise medicare), I'm glad they've done quite well out of it.

Turnbull's speech was shit, playing the blame game and not even providing a clear direction.. he was licking his wounds. I'm actually really interested to see how this all pans out, they're going to have a really hard time passing things which HOPEFULLY MEANS people can start working together and not just insult each other based on their party/political views.

Not a fan of Pauline Hanson but she's a good person to get things done/controversial opinions voiced (which can be good). Lambie isn't bad, I never used to like her but she's ok now I guess.

The balance of power within the independents is hugeeeee though, it's going to make things so interesting. It'll be on the tv for like ages now considering they won't start counting postal votes and absentee votes until Tuesday. FUN!!

[lawrawrrr]

I was kinda following this yesterday!! It was so close to call, thought it was so exciting to see! I didn't know Australia had compulsory elections until yesterday - makes the vote a lot more interesting imo!

[MKR&*42]

Watching the vote counting was very interesting, it had been on a knife-edge and when counting ''stopped'' I believe both parties had equal numbers of seats.

Also very interesting seeing the huge amount of support for smaller parties and independents.

Gonna be great to hopefully /finally/ know the outcome soon.

[Lucy]

I was kinda following this yesterday!! It was so close to call, thought it was so exciting to see! I didn't know Australia had compulsory elections until yesterday - makes the vote a lot more interesting imo!

It does give a better reading of the population, however when it becomes mandatory I feel it is hardly "the right to vote".

[-:Undertaker:-]

If voting ever became compulsory I would stop voting.

If you don't like what is on offer and regard the lot as charlatans, crooks and chancers, why should the state compel you to vote?

[Lucy]

If voting ever became compulsory I would stop voting.

If you don't like what is on offer and regard the lot as charlatans, crooks and chancers, why should the state compel you to vote?

To that they say just rock up and not fill out the paper, but in some areas you can spend a good hour waiting. Though to be honest the fine for not voting is only $20, then $50 every time after that. However if I don't like either party I just vote for the lesser of two evils.