Comments | daasgrrl: Election weekend in Canberra *facepalm*

daasgrrl

Election weekend in Canberra facepalm

Jul 06, 2016 21:08

We had a general election last weekend (July 2nd), and I was thinking, "well, at least it won't be like Brexit or Trump, how bad can it be?". The sentiment still holds, but four days have passed, and we don't actually have a new government yet. The tallies are so close (not helped by the huge rise of the minor parties) that the electoral commission ( Read more... )

Comments 17

clevermanka July 6 2016, 12:12:41 UTC

Fun travels! Thank you for sharing your pics. And I hope you have a government soon!

daasgrrl July 6 2016, 23:43:02 UTC

Hee, thanks! Any day now...

(And congrats on your site - I've subscribed!)

clevermanka July 7 2016, 13:57:42 UTC

( ... )

flywoman July 6 2016, 12:15:56 UTC

This concept of coalition governments is very interesting to me since we don't have anything like it in the U.S. Not that I'm claiming that our system works any better - seems like we usually have an executive of a different party than the legislature, making it as difficult as possible for any laws to be passed. Unless you're George W. Bush. Ugh.

But we share the fascination with Big Things. I've seen road trip manuals dedicated to the concept *g*.

daasgrrl July 6 2016, 23:49:58 UTC

Hee, I had to double blink, because here what we call the "Coalition" (Liberal-National party) is actually one of the major parties, even though it's technically not a single party. It's complicated. So we'd call it a minority government. But yeah, it's happened before. We have the same problems with the balance of power in the upper and lower houses sometimes as well. I do find it interesting that you vote for your President as an individual, making it much more personality-driven, possibly.

And I remember seeing some kind of Big Chair on the Amazing Race that went across the US, and I know you have a lot of quirky stuff. Do you actually call your stuff the Big Whatever, though? I tend to think you probably have more creative names, but I don't know *g*

flywoman July 7 2016, 01:05:05 UTC

We call them "The World's Largest [ball of string, etc]"

daasgrrl July 7 2016, 10:13:25 UTC

LOL, I feel this is somehow culturally apt.

USA - it's the World's Largest!
Australia - well, you see, mate, it's... big

*g*

Thread 5

tourmaline1973 July 6 2016, 16:07:51 UTC

In 2010 it took our elected representatives a while to form a coalition government, and it could've theoretically been of any two or more parties. There were plenty of shock-horror vibes beforehand about having a hung parliament but once they got on with it the only problem was that it was full of Conservatives :)

I love the Big Things, but I didn't know about the Big Merino, he looks a happy soul. I've seen the Big Banana and the Big Prawn, and heard of a few others, but not this one.

daasgrrl July 6 2016, 23:51:38 UTC

Yeah, the same thing happened to us in 2010! Although Labor took the day in that one.

Ahh, the Big Banana is legendary *g*

indybaggins July 6 2016, 21:05:36 UTC

Canberra (the capital of Australia) I feel really bad for admitting this, but I had no idea that that's the capital! *hides her face in shame*

That parliament looks very shiny and nice. LOL at the big Merino! ...that is just not a thing that would work in Belgium. At all *g* Man with blobfish is raising more questions than answering them for me personally, why???

Sounds like you had an interesting time, and yay for the fabulous Japanese restaurant, too :)

Edit: Oh, and Belgium was without a government for over a year once. We did fine? *g* I hope yours get formed faster though!

daasgrrl July 6 2016, 23:59:36 UTC

Hee! See, that's nice to know, I added it specifically because I'm quite sure a lot of people don't know the capital of Australia (because why would you?). Canberra is pretty much a constructed city, because Sydney and Melbourne couldn't agree on which was more important *g*

Ah, Europeans, so classy. We don't have castles, so have to make do with giant concrete sheep... almost the same thing, right? *cough*

Idk, but it really is a very evocative sculpture. Alas poor blobfish...

I didn't know that about Belgium - it probably makes you start to wonder whether you need a government after all, or just administrators *g*. Thanks!

indybaggins July 7 2016, 12:24:14 UTC

Belgium was 589 days without an elected government apparently. *is proud* It all worked out fine? We're weird though, we have one of the most bureaucratically complicated and bizarre governments ever!

Canberra is pretty much a constructed city, because Sydney and Melbourne couldn't agree on which was more important I learned something new today! I do really love your trips/travel posts because they're so far from anywhere I've ever been, you're literally reporting from the other end of the world! :)

shadowfireflame July 7 2016, 11:02:11 UTC

This was really interesting! I knew very little about the Australian government beforehand, so thanks for explaining it and more about Canberra! It looks quite beautiful there. I especially enjoyed the Man with Bloodfish sculpture--I thought it was just a strange picture of a man to begin with and not a sculpture! :)

daasgrrl July 8 2016, 23:49:02 UTC

Hee, well I don't know that much about the US except obviously that you vote for a President (and I've watched The West Wing *g*). The lead up all sounds terribly complicated, though.

Yes, it was so realistic, when I first saw it out of the corner of my eye, it was like - wait, who jumped on a table? I do think the blobfish was very interesting to see 'up close' given its reputation for ugliness. Posed like that, it looks rather cute, though *g*