Latest news with #Grayndler
Malay Mail
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Hannah Thomas, daughter of ex-AG Tommy Thomas, contrasts Malaysian and Australian politics, highlights Palestine solidarity and warns of rising extremism
SYDNEY, May 17 — Australian Greens candidate Hannah Thomas said voter frustration was growing due to governments failing to address poverty, rising inequality and global conflicts. Thomas, who contested against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the recent federal election, told Malaysiakini that both major parties were out of touch with how Australians felt about key issues, including the war in Gaza. 'I think the Australian government is extremely out of touch with how people actually feel about what's going on in Gaza, especially in progressive areas like Grayndler, where I live and where I ran,' she said. 'People can see that bombing schools and hospitals, and refugee camps, is wrong, and slaughtering children is wrong, and targeting journalists is wrong.' Thomas, who is the daughter of former Malaysian attorney general Tommy Thomas, ran on a progressive platform focused on Palestine solidarity, refugee rights and the environment. She secured about one-third of the constituency's preferences in Grayndler, a multicultural seat in inner Sydney. Speaking about her experience as a woman of colour and a migrant candidate, Thomas said Parliament did not reflect the diversity of the Australian population. 'Parliament's full of mostly white, rich people, and I think people responded well to having a fresh face,' she said. Commenting on the global rise in extremism and right-wing sentiment, Thomas said liberal centrist governments had failed to protect working-class interests. 'People have gotten poorer, lives have gotten harder, and in those conditions, the far right and extremism thrive,' she said. She added that Donald Trump's presidency in the United States served as a warning. 'I think what could be a turning point and a circuit breaker is Trump's presidency, because people are seeing in real time what a disaster those extreme right-wing politics are,' she said. Thomas said she admired Malaysia's political engagement, particularly among youth, but noted that Australia had a stronger focus on policy debates. She praised politicians such as Muar MP Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman and movements like Muda for encouraging youth participation. Asked about the greatest failure a government could make, Thomas pointed to child poverty and housing inequality. 'This is an extremely wealthy country, and I think something like one in six children lives in poverty. That's an absolute failure,' she said, as quoted by Malaysiakini. She also cited the climate crisis and Australia's unresolved relationship with its Indigenous peoples as major shortcomings.
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Labor's landslide victory obscures a disturbing trend for the major parties
Labor took the glory in last weekend's election, but beneath the surface an ongoing trend in how Australia votes has quietly carried on. The major parties' primary vote has, once again, fallen. In fact, there is a strong chance that the combined independent and minor party vote will beat one of the major parties for the first time in seven decades. On a simple two-sided political axis, most seats swung left towards Labor last Saturday. But if we look at the result in three dimensions instead, we see yet another shift away from the two big parties. This triangle can help us see it in action. It's a charming little equilateral beauty, isn't it? The result for Grayndler in 2025. There's a Labor corner, a Coalition corner, and a corner for everyone else, and we can plot seats on the triangle according to the primary vote for each of those groups. For example, if a seat has a high Labor primary vote, like the prime minister's seat of Grayndler, it'll be well into the red corner. (If you're confused, you can read a longer walkthrough of how the chart works.) Here's where the total national vote sits on the chart for 2025 — you can see it's within the Labor triangle because they won the largest share of the first preference vote. And it's coloured red because Labor won the election. The national result for 2025 was very close to the middle of the triangle. What's a little harder to see immediately is that the dot is also closer to the grey "other" corner than it is to the blue Coalition corner. That's because this election, for the first time since the creation of the Liberal Party in 1944, the combined independent and minor party vote looks likely to beat a major party. On the latest count, the Coalition got 32.2 per cent of the primary vote. Minor parties and independents received 33.1 per cent. What this means, unless the Coalition manages to bridge the gap in final counting, is that more people marked their ballot with a 1 next to an independent or minor party than did so for a Liberal or Nationals candidate. The "other" vote is a couple of percentage points higher than it was last time, in 2022… … more than double what it was in the 2007 election … … and nearly eight times what it was 50 years ago, in 1975. Over time, the national result has drifted upwards towards the other parties. Let's expand out 1975's national vote to see the result in every single seat. Back then, nearly everyone voted for a major party, so all the seats were bunched along the triangle's lower edge. All electorates were clustered at the bottom in 1975. It was only much more recently you'd see seats starting to reliably appear in the grey zone at the top of the triangle, where "other" votes dominate. We're about to show you the results in every seat in this election, but to set the scene, here's a reminder of the 2022 results. The distribution in 2022 is much closer to the centre of the triangle. Three years ago, there were 24 seats in the top section of the triangle. That's 24 seats in which the primary vote for minor parties and independents beat both Labor and the Coalition. Now we'll show you the results from last weekend. The seats have drifted away from the Coalition – in both directions – since 2022. Even more seats have shifted upward. On the latest count, there are 32 seats in the top section of the triangle, eight more than last election. (The triangle icons represent seats where the winner is still in doubt) Those 32 include three long-term members of parliament who now hold very safe seats: Andrew Wilkie in Clark, Bob Katter in Kennedy and Helen Haines in Indi. When Wilkie first won his seat in 2010, it was a surprise to everyone — he won from third place after getting a very favourable flow of preferences. Now, he holds one of the safest seats in the country. On the triangle we can also see how individual seats like Wilkie's have moved over time. Here's where it was on the triangle in 2007, when it was held by Labor. (Back then it was called Denison.) Clark was called Denison in 2007. Wilkie won it in 2010 for the first time. And here's how, over six elections, Wilkie has turned what was once a safe Labor seat into the safest independent seat in the country. The seat continued its upward trajectory. This election, we've seen more seats shoot upwards. Labor's managed to hold off a strong challenge in WA's Fremantle, where the independent vote surged. Here, fewer people put a "1" next to Labor than put a "1" next to independents and minor parties, although the government has managed to keep the seat on preferences. In the ACT, the seat of Bean looks set to go down to the wire, and Labor could lose it to independent Jessie Price. These seats now sit much closer to the centre of the triangle. And Labor has had other scares too. Take a look at how Blaxland and Watson, in Sydney's south and south-west, have moved. These Sydney seats have also shifted upwards. They were, and still are, safe Labor seats. But in both of them, independents campaigning against the government's response to the war in Gaza have eaten into Labor's primary vote. Another seat that's shifted in a big way is Calwell. But that large "other" vote is spread across a lot of candidates and it's very unclear who will win. Labor is facing more serious challenges from independents and minor parties than it did three years ago. But compared to the Coalition side, the red side of the triangle is still looking a bit sturdier. On top of the seats it lost three years ago, the conservatives have had to fight back a slew of new challengers. It has mostly been successful this time. But going into the future, it has a fair few seats that look vulnerable. Labor and Coalition MPs with seats in the grey triangle are looking vulnerable. On the latest count, there are nine blue seats and eight red seats inside this grey area, where the Coalition and Labor have been beaten on primaries by the "other" vote but managed to win on preferences. This segment of the triangle shows us which MPs might well be looking over the shoulder in the future. The Coalition members for Wannon and Cowper have successfully fended off challenges from independents in this election. But their seats have both moved up the triangle. The primary vote in McPherson is no longer favouring the Coalition. Take a look at how the seat of McPherson on the Gold Coast has been drifting upward since 2007. This election the sitting LNP member Karen Andrews retired, and a new independent Erchana Murray-Bartlett gained 14 per cent of the vote. Not enough to win, but enough to push the seat into the grey region. In other seats there is a strong "other" vote, but there's not a lot of agreement on who the preferred "other" candidate is. Take Michael McCormack's seat of Riverina for example, where about 41 per cent of the vote has been split between 11 independents and minor party candidates, ranging the full breadth of the political spectrum. There is a glimmer of hope for the major parties though. It is possible for them to win seats back from the independents and minor parties. Because while the national vote for independents and minor parties has gone up, the crossbench hasn't really grown. In fact, once all the results are known, it will probably have shrunk compared to last election's result. Goldstein has returned to Liberal hands after three years. Independent Zoe Daniel in Goldstein has been defeated, returning one teal seat to Liberal hands. The Liberals are also locked in a very tight battle with another teal, Monique Ryan in Kooyong. The Greens leader Adam Bandt lost his seat, despite leading on primary votes. A swing against him and toward Labor, coupled with an electoral redistribution that saw Labor-leaning areas moved into the seat, saw him defeated after five terms in parliament. Here's the constellation that Melbourne has created as it has travelled across our triangle universe since 2007. Adam Bandt won the primary vote but lost Melbourne. With its latest little move back towards Labor's corner, it looks rather like the Big Dipper, right? The bad news didn't end there for The Greens: they've lost at least two of their Brisbane seats as well, with their third still in doubt. Here's how they've shifted on the triangle. The Greens lost their three Brisbane seats in 2025. As these results show, the rising vote for others doesn't mean hung parliaments are a certainty going forward. Landslide victories are absolutely still possible. And when they get them, it's easier for major parties to ignore their slowly declining primary votes. But this upward movement on the triangle hasn't stopped. That means in the future, if election results are closer than this one, the chances of a hung parliament will remain strong. It's something the major parties ignore at their peril. Credits
The Star
27-04-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Philippines, US test air defences hours after China seizes reef claimed by Manila
PETALING JAYA: Former attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas' daughter Hannah Thomas, is challenging the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the Australian federal elections as the Greens candidate for Grayndler. Grayndler is an electoral division in the Australian House of Representatives, located in the Inner West region of Sydney, New South Wales. Thomas, who is a lawyer, activist, and advocate for progressive change, believes in fighting against genocide in Palestine, solving the housing and cost of living crisis and supporting the rights of refugees in the country. 'I'm lucky to have grown up in Malaysia in a family with a long history of strong progressive values, where political engagement and activism were always encouraged. So it was probably inevitable that I'd eventually join the Greens once Australia became home,' she said in The Greens website. Thomas said she is inspired by the activism of young people, the potential for minority government, and the global solidarity among workers and marginalised communities. She said the resilience of the Palestinian people and First Nations communities in Australia further fuels her optimism for a just future. Thomas is also the youngest candidate running against the Prime Minister. 'As someone who is currently renting, who wants to buy a first home, considering whether or not to have children, I guess I relate more to young people here,' she said in a recent interview with Australian TV programme The Feed SBS, which was shared on its Facebook page. This election marks a historic moment where the Greens emerge as a formidable opposition in the Prime Minister's own seat, striving to deliver a powerful message of change to the Albanese Government. 'For the first time, an Australian Prime Minister's biggest threat is in his own seat against the Greens. 'It's an incredible opportunity to send the loudest possible message to the Albanese Government that we deserve better, that we deserve a government that tackles the problems that everyday people face,' she said. The Australian federal election is scheduled for Saturday, May 3, 2025, to elect members of the 48th Parliament. Voters will decide all 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 out of 76 seats in the Senate. The Labor government, headed by Albanese, is vying for a second term, facing off against the Liberal/National Coalition led by opposition leader Peter Dutton. Several minor parties and independents, including the Greens party, are also participating in the election.
Sky News AU
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
'Complacent' Anthony Albanese set for massive election day shock if he thinks Labor doesn't need to make preference deals with the Greens to keep power
The Prime Minister wants us to believe he is indifferent to preference deals. On Wednesday, he bragged that he did not need them, having won his seat of Grayndler with more than 50 per cent of first-preference votes at the last election. The implication was that placing an anti-Israel Greens candidate second was a mere technicality. Anthony Albanese's attempt at nonchalance looked like arrogance to the rest of us. His show of confidence betrays hubris. It was as if the final week of campaigning were a mere formality since the result was already in the bag. One of the few certainties in this election is that the result is highly unpredictable. The result is less certain than any election Albanese has fought since first campaigning for the seat of Grayndler 29 years ago. For one thing, there are fewer safe seats. When Albanese won Grayndler in the 1996 election, he was one of 85 MPs elected on first-preference votes. In 2022, he was one of just 15. Declining party loyalty and the rise of independents and minor parties have steadily eroded historic electoral margins. Since more seats are decided on preferences, the counting takes longer. Fewer results can be called for certain on election night, increasing the risk of commentators and politicians getting egg on their faces. Albanese's second-term parliamentary majority, if he gets one, will be narrow. The winning party's parliamentary majority in four out of the last five elections could be counted on two fingers or fewer. The fracturing of political support in the last ten years suggests that Tony Abbott's landslide in 2013 will be the last for some time. If Albanese's apparent confidence is based on national polling, he could be surprised. Uniform national swings have become a thing of the past. Voting patterns are increasingly chaotic, deviations from national swings have widened, and the number of outliers is multiplying. In 2022, the swings in 49 of Labor's 77 victories fell outside a ±2% range of the national mean, making it one of the most capricious elections on record. Results in this election are likely to vary even more, mirroring the economic divide under Albanese between households crushed by rising mortgage rates and other cost-of-living pressures and those untouched by the per capita recession. Since the start of the century, a profound weakening of the two-party system has shaken the stability of the Westminster system, which works best as a two-way contest between government and a loyal opposition. When Albanese was first elected to parliament, 95 per cent of first preference votes in the lower house were cast in favour of one of the two major parties. At the last election, the figure was 68 per cent. Elections are no longer fought between teams red and blue, any more than the Bathurst 1000 pitches Ford versus Holden. The challenge to two-party politics is not unique to Australia. Across the Anglosphere and beyond, the certainties of two-party politics are giving way to political fragmentation, deal-making and voter volatility. In Canada, the Liberal Party has spent the last six years in minority government with just a third of the popular vote. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative and Labour parties have seen their vote shares eroded by insurgent parties from the left, right, and regions. In Europe, governments of multi-party coalitions have become the norm rather than the exception. Albanese's pretence that preferences are incidental or that elections remain a clash of grand party platforms ignores the granular reality of modern democratic politics. The increasing volatility of elections corresponds with a decline in party loyalty. In 1994, 53 per cent of voters said they had always voted for the same party. At the last election, the percentage of loyal voters shrunk to 37 per cent, according to data from the Australian National University's long-running Australian Election Study. Campaign progress has become harder to judge in the digital era. In 1996, most voters got their main election news through television (31 per cent), followed by newspapers (18 per cent) and radio (15 per cent). About six out of 10 Australians (58 per cent) watched the leaders' debates. At the last election, digital media was the popular source of news (27 per cent), followed by TV (23 per cent). Only a third of voters (34 per cent) watched the leader's debates. Digital media has become increasingly sophisticated, targeting its audience with precision. Voters' perceptions have never been more varied, and set-piece events, like election launches, have become less important. The trend is clear: stability is out; negotiation is in. And in that environment, the leader who appears most assured of victory may also be the one least prepared for its complexities. In today's political environment, complacency is a luxury no leader or party can afford. The voters leaders should fear most are the ones they take for granted. Nick Cater is a senior fellow at Menzies Research Centre and a regular contributor to Sky News Australia
The Age
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Elderly man wearing MAGA hat allegedly assaulted at polling booth in PM's electorate
An elderly man who allegedly attempted to deface an Anthony Albanese corflute at a polling booth in the prime minister's Sydney electorate has been seriously injured when a 17-year-old boy allegedly assaulted him. The man in his 80s wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat reportedly attempted to vandalise the corflute outside the Ashfield Civic Centre in the seat of Grayndler around 1pm. Nine News reports that a political volunteer had asked the elderly man not to deface the signage when he reportedly became aggressive. The 17-year-old, who was passing by, then allegedly approached the man and struck him, causing him to fall to the ground. The elderly man was treated on the scene by paramedics before being rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a serious condition. The teenager was arrested at the scene on Liverpool Road and taken to Burwood police station, where he is assisting police with their inquiries. He isn't believed to have any official political affiliation. A number of other witnesses, including campaign volunteers, have given witness statements to the police, who established a crime scene and collected several corflutes for forensic examination. A spokesperson for the Australian Electoral Commission said the incident 'occurred outside of our polling place and did not involve any AEC staff'.
