You Do Not Labor In Vain

Man, having the gift of speech and the sense of right and wrong, is by nature a political animal.
- Artistotle, Politics, Book I

The Labor Party has been elected in Victoria after a fairly modest swing, but also an interesting one insofar it was the first single-term goverment for some time. Having worked with Daniel Andrews in the past (indeed, he was my immediate manager for a couple of years), I am convinced that despite his slightly nerdy appearance and not-so-great TV persona that he will make a surprisingly good premier. For political tragics, there is the late counting and postal votes to follow on Pollbludger, and the absolutely mesmerising unfolding of results in the Legislative Council, which may see a Sex Party candidate elected over the conservative religious Family First candidate in the Northern Metropolitan region.

For my own part during the campaign I letterboxed 4850 leaflets (a ridiculously Herculean effort by any standard), and worked on the Balwyn North polling booth from before the opening of the polls to scrutineering - most of the day I was the sole ALP representative in that booth, whereas the Tories typically had at least four people, and at one stage ten people, which ended up around 54-46 to the LNP favour. I have to say, the LNP absolutely out-campaigned Labor in this election in a general sense; they had more resources (including state government advertisements of what they were going to do), better election material, even better policies (in the case of "better" being "of larger vision"). It was their past performance that killed them ('boorish and bumbling'), along with an association with a unpopular Federal government, and Labor's tactically powerful campaigning in key marginal seats, completely outclassing the pork-barrel of the conservatives.

The election also represents a nadir point for my continuing desire for Labor and the Greens working together, with the Greens probably winning a seat off a progressive sitting Labor member in Melbourne, and running strong campaigns against other progressive Labor members in Brunswick and Richmond. There was also an apparent deal between the Greens and the LNP, with the latter running an open ticket in Melbourne and the Greens running an open ticket in the key marginal setas of Bellarine, Bentleigh, Buninyong, Carrum, Forest Hill, Mordialloc, Monbulk, Ringwood, South Barwon, Wendouree and Yan Yean. It seems that the left (even the democratic and libertarian left), once again, displays how much better it is at fighting itself, a time-honoured tradition which displays glorious ignorance of resource economics and mathematics. But apparently not in the German state of Thuringia, where a coalition government has been formed between The Left, the Social Democrats, and the Greens. They have learned the lesson of working together - why can't we?