New Australian Prime Minister

[HeavyLancer]

Yep, it's official: Kevin Rudd, leader of the Australian Labor party, is PM!

Okay, for all of the non-Aussies on the forum: Australia had a federal election on the Saturday. the previous PM was John Howard, who was in power for 11 years.

Also, Howard might even be beaten in his own seat by a Labor party celebrity candidate, former ABC (The national public broadcaster) journalist and presenter Maxine McKew! Epic lulz.

[theHive]

... might? I thought it was certain that Howard had lost his seat.
Personally, I think it's better that way, going out all at once rather than sitting around as an MP.

How do you feel about Rudd? I'm not sure I'm convinced yet (then again, I'm not at voting age yet, so it didn't make a difference what I thought).

[Saktoth]

Anything is better than Howard. In a two party system (Even though, with preferential voting, we shouldnt even have a two party system!), you dont vote the opposition in, you vote the incumbent out.

Which should have happened ages ago.

[Comp1337]

This is no laughing matter

[HeavyLancer]

Yeah, I'm not of voting age yet, but I will be next election. I just happen to have a keen interest in politics.
I like Kevin Rudd a little. He seems to have had the leadership and the ambition to unite the Labor party and get rid of the factions during the campaign. I have my doubts of his control once he starts getting busy with managing the nation.
The deputy PM is now Julia Gillard. I like her, she's a Melbourne girl and she has her head screwed in, unlike some of the loony union officials that got given safe labor seats. I think that Gillard is the ALP's best bet for the next election.

Oh, and with regards to Howard. They haven't factored in all of the postal votes in his electorate yet, which tend to favour the incumbent. Still, he went down in flames, and so did the Liberals. Howard's second banana, Peter Costello, also resigned from his position and now they have a serious leadership issue on their hands. I thought that the Liberals would have a problem like that if they lost the election or if Howard goes. They will probably be very impotent in opposition and have little power over legislation, especially given that Rudd doesn't need any MPs outside of his party to pass legislation.

May we live in interesting times.

[tinnut]

We need a new mod for Australians: "Liberal Annihilation" (as per JH's comment to the Libs some months ago).

Two sides, The Libs and Labor, Level 1 units can be House of Reps, Level 2 units, The Senate. This joke isn't going anywhere so I'll stop there

The Libs do still hold the senate until mid next year and even when that changes, the balance of power in the senate will most likely be with a couple of the minority groups like Family First.

[HeavyLancer]

Ughh, family first... *shudders* I hate those smarmy religious people. It's really quite amazing that they actually managed to get a senate seat last time.

WARNING: THE SECTION BELOW CONTAINS AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL IN-JOKES

Oh and Liberal Annihilation needs the Greens. Because of their policies, they can't reclaim trees or make geo plants because of fears they will damage the climate. Actually, they would just all be a bunch of pacifists, so thy can't shoot at anything except pulp mills.

Labor has a super-unit, Kevin Rudd. He obliterates units by speaking in Mandarin VERY LOUDLY. And he also burns liberals with his smug ray eyes.
To counter this, the Liberals have John Howard, who is basically a giant crawling bomb which sprays filth and dirt everywhere.

I can just imagine the ingame chat from the mod: "Gahh! You spaem Gillard!" and "LOL I tech 2 Howard!"

[clumsy_culhane]

and to add to liberal annihilation: add a race full of the random independents.. with a tech 3 guy named Xenephon

p.s. nick Xenephon is the indepenent who is anti gambling.. and he is is proably going to have a place in the senate and hold some power

[Comp1337]

Now the australian ecology is going out the window
yay

[tinnut]

Because of their policies, they can't reclaim trees or make geo plants because of fears they will damage the climate.
...
I can just imagine the ingame chat from the mod: "Gahh! You spaem Gillard!" and "LOL I tech 2 Howard!"

Lol

with a tech 3 guy named Xenephon

Xenephon is a very good name for a sci-fi computer game super-unit and/or character

[Caydr]

Labour party... Wasn't hitler in the labour party?

[Sleksa]

The new prime minster of australia is hitler

[HeavyLancer]

The new prime minster of Australia is Hitler

No, he's more like Chairman Mao. he speaks fluent mandarin and unlike Hitler, he is actually slightly left wing.

And Hitler was in the National Socialist (Nazi) party. Nothing really to do with a labour party. We have a Labor part in Australia, not a labour party.

Oh, and I invoke Godwin's Law on this thread. It's all Caydr's fault.

[Comp1337]

now sleksa lost