Watched an interview on ABC 24 with Scott Ludlam this morning. He brought up some interesting points.
He was asked why he thought there was such a strong swing to the Greens in this Senate election given their comparatively poorer performance in the Federal elections.
He replied that he thought people were disillusioned with both major parties and wanted to vote for a party that at least stood for something.
He then said people of Western Australia have just experienced their hottest summer ever so they are concerned about climate change, not so much concerned about the mining tax which under Martin Ferguson was literally written by the mining companies in their favour and is such a watered down version that there literally wasn't much money to be derived from it anyway in its present incarnation.
He also said the people of WA were incensed that nothing was said by the Liberal govt about the coming budget cuts to their state in health and education even though they were just about to go to the Senate election, hence the swing against the Libs.
Then he spoke about Labor's Louise Pratt and how he hoped she would be re-elected as Senator as he thought she was a strong advocate for the people of WA and that he has been working very well and constructively with her the past few years.
Senator Ludlam said he did not know how Clive Palmer was going to behave but he was guessing Palmer was not going to be so amenable to the govt given the Liberals ran an anti-Clive Palmer campaign in this election.
Senator Ludlam concluded by saying that he hoped Tony Abbot had 'strong negotiating skills' for the Senate in July but knowing what a 'crash and crash through' kind of style Abbott has as well as his 'combative' nature, Senator Ludlam predicted the Prime Minister was not going to have an easy time in the Senate.
When asked if he thought Clive Palmer was going to hold the balance of power in the Senate,
Senator Ludlam said there was going to be 10 Greens in the Senate this July, their biggest number ever, 3 PUPs and a variety of independent cross-benchers and that Clive Palmer might hold the balance of power but he was also just going to be one of the parties the PM would have to negotiate with.
The ABC commentators praised Senator Ludlam saying that he ran the strongest campaign performance in their opinion and thanked him for getting up early in the morning to be interviewed.
It's going to be a very interesting Senate in July.
The truth is that the WA people railed against both major parties as they believe that neither parties are offering any solid policies. I have to agree to this.