Sunday, September 08, 2013

Party Games Aftermath 1: The Result

The Coalition won. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but it was the one I was expecting. It wasn't as huge a victory as had been feared, so there is that.

The house of representatives will be dominated by the Coalition. There are a few wild cards in the mix. Katter looks to have held onto his seat, as has Greens candidate Adam Bandt in Melbourne. Clive Palmer is still in the running for Fairfax, and in Indi the independent Cathy McGowan is only slightly behind Liberal Sophie Mirabella.

The senate, while not yet fully decided, looks like it will be a bit more interesting. The greens remain a strong presence, the Palmer United Party may get 2 seats, and there may be a few other parties in the mix, although it will be a while yet before the final results are known. At any rate, it won't be the easiest senate for Abbott to deal with, but does lean more to the right than the left. I suspect some new senators may look to Brian Harradine's example and try to make deals for their votes, and one wonders if Abbott will stand by his promise to make no deals with minor parties, or if pragmatism will lead him to the negotiating table.

I'll do two more posts in the coming week, one reflecting back on the process of blogging all the parties, and one going into the interactions I had with some of the parties during the process.

No comments: