Cheer up, Victoria – it’s all in Ted’s hands now. Both houses of parliament, no impediments to his power.
I can’t wait for crime rates to drop and no more waste in government and houses to get more affordable and public transport to become more reliable. IT’S GOING TO BE PARADISE ON EARTH.
Wait, what did I promise again? I didn’t sign anything did I?
*Sort of, in that the ALP plus Greens got 47.65% of the lower house vote and the Liberals plus Nationals got 44.78%. But, you know, single member electorates…
ELSEWHERE: On Baillieu’s sentencing policy, Charles Richardson made some good points in Crikey the other day:
Similarly, sentencing policy is too often driven by the desire to punish criminals independently of whether that will actually reduce crime, pandering to the worst instincts of victims rather than the best.
Of course, deterrence has its place in both spheres. Retaliatory attacks may help prevent future adventurism; increasing sentences may deter other potential offenders. But the justification has to look to the future, not the past.
The “victims’ rights” movement has done good work in reducing the alienation that victims sometimes feel in the criminal justice process and putting more focus on compensation. But it risks distorting that process by diverting it away from the social goal of reducing crime to the private goal of revenge.
This is especially the case with the most serious crimes. While we sympathise with their victims, we have to also realise that nothing the justice system can do will be of much use to them; what they need most is to put the crime behind them and get on with their lives. Pursuit of the offender has to be justified not by their interests, but by the interests of society.
Sadly, that’s not what sells newspapers, and it’s not what gets Liberal MPs over the line.
Moved On 
If he’s got sense he’ll mirror Brumby’s first term and try not to frighten the horses. Expect to see some of his election promises quietly dropped.
Don’t sweat it, Jeremy, I don’t think we’ll really notice a huge difference in the way the State is governed. At least until the probably inevitable second term.
Why do the Greens get tallied into the Labor vote?
Because they’re the two main oppositing parties to the Coalition.
Let’s try for the very restrained version…
Is there any particular reason arbitrarily adding the Greens primaries to those of the ALP is a better measure of pro/anti Coalition sentiment than, say, the 2PP vote?