Elections Follow-up

So, I didn't follow-up the elections before and I apologize for that (to my three or four readers). But nothing is resolved yet. There was basically a tie between Labour and Liberal and they have been recounting ballots for weeks. As it stands, Labour has 73 and the Liberals have 72; to form a government, you need 76. There are three independents MPs left who can end this election conundrum but they need to form an alliance with one of the parties. And pretty much all of them need to side with one side.

So what we've got going on now is the two party leaders making some pretty sketchy deals trying to woo those independents. Recently, the fourth among them made a deal with Labour after Tony Abbott of the Liberals made a ridiculous offer of $1 billion to Hobart hospitals for his allegiance--which ultimately insulted the MP because he felt that was unreasonable and at the cost of the rest of Australia. It's also become apparent in the last week that the Liberals, who were reluctant to hand over their proposed budget to the MPs, have actually been campaigning saying they will bring the country out of debt without accounting for an $11 billion hole in their budget (probably allocated to remote independent constituent hospitals).

It's a zoo.

So what happens if the independents split evenly and neither party makes it to 76 seats? In that situation, the Governor General (the Queen's representative in Australia) steps in and with either decide the election herself (not likely) or call a new election. However, the Governor General has a conflict of interest since her daughter is married to one of the leading Liberal MPs.

That's leaves an election, right? Which means no MP can be sure of their seat. And means this election is going to take a long time to resolve.

Of course, the Independents could side with one or the other and just end it all. For a while that is. Because whoever the opposing party is of the new government would have enough MPs to carry out a vote of no confidence and send the government back to elections within 6 months. Both sides have said publicly that they will not do this but I don't believe them. Not even a little bit. This has become such an ugly election and they both want it so bad--someone will be challenged.

How does this effect me? Well, let me tell you! Until the election is settled and the MPs can take their seats, the government has stopped processing all visas. Ha! Just what I need, right? What's another 6 months of waiting to get on with my life?

I'm sick of elections.