If we keep digging Australia up and shipping it out as quickly and cheaply as possible, and if the Chinese keep buying up Australian agri-business and other enterprises, you'll find far more reliance on the Chinese government than you may want. If you look at where the short-term profiteering comes, it's invariably from the conservative side of Australian politics (both ALP and Coalition). Like Blip, I'd acknowledge that the Greens and other non-mainstream groupings have their share of nutters, as well as some admirable individuals such as Senator X. But the mainstream has its share of nutters, too. You don't have to look beyond Cory Bernardi - already mentioned in dispatches in this thread - to see that loonies lurk everywhere.
With the luxury of a postal vote this time around, I'll be going through a far more thorough process than usual. I'm not much interested in major groupings or their preferences, but will preference the worthy individuals. If I lived in SA, Senator X would be near the top, with his support for aviation, sane economics and natural justice high on my list of positive attributes. Realistically, it's thin pickings in my part of the world but, with a more leisurely voting pace this time around, my mission is to avoid the worst of the ballot sheet.
Last edited by tecman; 25th Aug 2013 at 11:51.
Reason: typo