@matildagirl Good morning! Looks like you’re having cool weather. The Guardian had pictures of some of the dawn ceremonies including a didgeridoo player! Love that sound…
The dawn service is also returning to Gallipoli in Turkey as well after the Covid shutdowns
Lest we forget
@freya it’s pouring rain here at the moment , hope it starts clearing soon.
Wouldn't it be nice if for just a few days, every city in the world could get the weather the land and people really needed most. Like rain in the Southwest U.S. and snow in the Rockies and whatever you are in need of in your part of Australia. Sun where there has been too much rain.
Yep that would be rather cool!
Not really knowing much about your midterms and what is involved with that, wondering any similarities,
We now have all our candidates and it’s a record number running for the House of Representatives. In my electorate I have 11 people running and each is a member of a different political party. They include the sitting Member, plus 2 doctors, Network Engineer, Drafter, Registered Councillor, Bus Driver, Fitter, Fruit & Veg Wholesaler, Senior Planner and a University Lecturer. I need to choose the order in which I want them. There are the Major parties Libs, Labor & Greens plus the rest minor parties. None are specifically an independent they seem to be in political parties at least in my electorate.
Plus also voting for the Senate which we can vote above the line or below. Above you pick parties, below the line you can vote for individual senate members.
Is this anything like how you vote in USA. Or completely foreign.
Regards to all
Good question! There are some differences.
For U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Rep, there is normally a primary to sort out the party candidates a number of months before the November election. Some states allow you to vote for any one candidate regardless of your party affiliation. Other states allow you to only vote for a candidate you are registered with. If you have chosen to be an independent voter, many but not all states will not allow you to vote for any party during the primary.
During the November election, you can choose to vote for for any of the party representatives which won their primary or write in a candidate of your choice. Usually there are the 2 main parties, Republican and Democrat plus some minor parties such as the Green Party and Libertarian party. There might also be an independent candidate.
Hi, we don’t have primaries with the major parties ie LIberals and Labor only actual members of the party at their local branches pick the nominees, unless for some reason the leaders of the party might want to parachute a “special” candidate in or as in this election a committee on the liberal party overrode the local branches and put their picks in as the candidate for several electorates.
Anyone can run for the House of Representatives or the Senate. You have to be at least 18, an Australian citizen, be enrolled on the Commonwealth electoral roll or eligible to be enrolled. You pay a $2000 deposit which will be refunded if you are elected or receive at least 4% of formal first preference votes.
You don’t have to be in a party, we don’t have to register a party when we enrol, a good percentage of us make up our minds when we stand in the booth with our voting paper in front of us.
Only a party can form government which is why it usually is either liberal or labour by gaining a majority of at least 76 seats in a house of 151. If they don’t gain a majority they have to negotiate with the independents and minor parties who will guarantee supply, and will vote with them to have 76.
There is a chance that will happen this time, there are a lot of minor parties and independents running who might take the seat instead of a major party candidate.
Will know on 21st May.
Regards to all
@matildagirl Part of the difference between Australia and the US system is the difference between a Parliamentary form of government where the legislative and executive branches of government work together and the judicial branch works independently, versus the Presidential System where the three branches work independently.
Another big difference is the sheer size difference between the two countries. Australia's population is more like one of our larger states.
It would be great if we could change to a more parliamentary form of government where the legislative and executive branches worked together. But when the US formed, it was a rural country and the only way we could unite against the English monarch was to give the rural states more of a voice or we would not have been able to win our independence.
I am sure we could open a thread here to have a more sophisiticated discussion about what we need to change and whether anyone sees that we will ever do that. My own view is that climate change will cause the big changes in America.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-17/australians-warned-to-brace-for-another-la-nina/14022230
Hi guys
We have had 2 La Niña years in a row which has brought major flooding here especially along the East Coast. They are now saying we will have a 3rd event probably starting in October. It is also looking like the Indian Ocean Diopole is going to cause rain and flooding on the West Coast. Yikes, the driest continent into the world might float away. The ground is so saturated and all the catchments full.
I am on the side of a hill but the water level was so high and the strength of the rain meant it flooded under our house so we just spent thousands having trench’s done under there to funnel the rising water into the storm water pipe. In the 17 years we have been here this only happened in these 2 La Niña events. Hope it works with this 3rd one coming.
So many people haven’t recovered from the first two yet.
I think I saw somewhere Jeanne said the Southern Hemisphere would have flooding.
Oh well
Regards to all
@matildagirl I just saw this today from 3/1/21 RTF
• A lot of rain in Australia. (Bernie) Predicted 3/1/21 for June-December 2022