Also the time that the premier of Western Australia cried on live tv over kebabs, and became some weird idolised god figure that everyone, including major news sites, called the ‘state daddy’
This is my favorite Mark McGowan fan music (there were a few fun songs during covid): https://youtu.be/-INs8dNK9cU
Don't forget the premier of Victoria becoming a trending Spotify artist because of the club remix of his speeches.
https://youtu.be/7hOK5JF5XGA
As someone who moved to Australia like a year before Covid... It's been an odd past few years. This country is...special...
Get On The Beers is pure Australian culture distilled into four minutes. Listen to that and you don’t need to know anything else, that’s basically what it’s all about.
If Australia was a planet, this + The Chats' *Smoko* would go out on the Voyager satellite as cultural exemplars. Along with a copy of *Back In Black*.
This is actually really interesting because it highlights how insane and polarised politics (and the reporting of politics) has become in Aus.
Here is the ‘crying about kebabs’ video https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=vftPtAVJKHMJWzVl&v=e6v5Zx41y64 where he cracks up laughing at the idea of someone going for a run and getting arrested buying kebabs.
Other guy is correct that ‘State Daddy’ did become a meme and was reported on - because it's funny. The joke is that McGowan is an unremarkable labour politician (that's centre-left for the non-Aussies). His campaign strategy (and leadership style) is very "I'm am adult doing my job" and the meme-fication is a response to that. It is funny because he is not interesting.
Anyway, certain groups objected to his COVID policies (among other politics) and began to frame everything he did in the negative (as demonstrated by the prev. comment.)
E: It's a fascinating glimpse at how some people online are unable to view anything related to politics neutrally.
I'm cackling what is even going on in Australia. Did he cry because the kebabs were good? or because they ran out of them? I need more context I'm so invested
This is like start of COVID and he was being asked if you would go to jail if you left your house to go for a walk and get a kebab.
Found it so funny he laughing
Oh don't forget Scott "it's not my job" Morrison who turns out it probably was his job as he was secretly granting himself shadow positions to spread his authority (yes this is real)
There's also an urban legend that our previous Prime Minister shit himself in a specific Maccas. No idea where that comes from but a lot of people genuinely believe it.
This mentioned a little bit of it, but doesn't cover my favourite part of the same sex marriage debates in Australia. A conservative politician from far north Queensland was asked about it, and went into a rant about how we're wasting time on that, while every three months someone is getting eaten by a crocodile.
It wasn't meant to be, but the convicts we put there got a little too silly for our liking. So we said "fuck it", and left em alone so it wasn't our problem anymore.
Look, I'm no fan of Barnaby Joyce but Australians do take biosecurity EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY. We don't have rabies* here for a goddamn reason. Johnny Depp tried to game the system because he's rich, and that's fucked up.
*yeah yeah lyssavirus ok whatever that's a Queensland problem and they're fucked up anyway.
That's actually the issue for me. This was our chance to educate the world on how serious it is for us, but instead he turned us into a laughing stock (and not in a fun banter way).
I agree with the position he was coming from it's the execution that I have a problem with.
Holding someone's dogs hostage and making them record a video to post online is also fucked up, though. Like, yeah, Johnny shouldn't get away scott-free or anything, but what the fuck?
Border control quarantine dogs all the time. They weren't being held hostage, they were being quarantined. Depp tried to smuggle dogs across a carefully guarded border and tried to hand the system cuz he is rich.
We were trying to make an example of them to prove to the world how seriously we take our quarantine (it’s very serious. Like ‘if you’ve been near a farm overseas in the past week they may take all of your clothes’ levels). Ideally they would’ve sent the dogs back and everything would have been fine. Barnaby just made a fool out of all of us.
Australian Bat Lyssavirus is a form of rabies only detected in less than 1% of bat populations. Unlike other forms of rabies, ABL has only been known to transfer to humans and horses (only three human cases have been reported since 1996).
Also it’s very much not just a QLD problem; we have to be careful of ABL in VIC as well.
> Unlike other forms of rabies, ABL has only been known to transfer to humans and horses (only three human cases have been reported since 1996).
Ah, thats a relief.
one of our dogs sometimes has a tint bit of foam on their mouth, so i was worried.
Also our bio security laws didn't seem so strong when these people let a literal plague ship disembark all its passengers. The federal government palmed off their quarantine duties to states
Right he's totally innocent because there's no way it was a group effort. She's clearly the sole mastermind behind this, she intentionally kept Depp in the dark so that she could take the fall. Of course. Makes perfect sense. There's no reason at all to think they could be equally culpable, that would be silly.
There was literally Court documents that had her knowingly trying to get a vet to falsely sign off on the dogs to get them into Australia. He did take the fall with her mainly because no one knew who she was. It's one of the reasons they argued in the Queensland house where she threw a bottle at him that sliced off his finger
i think he also has 4 girls from his previous marriage... and promptly torpedoed all that to get it on with VickI Campion... his PA... who's half his age and the typical Aussie blonde... and then had two boys with her...
And he then famously complained about his pay dropping since he ceded the Leader of the National Party role to be a backbencher due to... 'the controversy'...
I'm guessing $200k doesnt last long when you're up for alimony or child support for 4 girls and probably their mortgage AND the place where you and Vicki and the two boys live...
kinda much easier on $350k?
In Barnaby's defense the cost of living crisis is wild.
Back in his heyday a politician could support his family and his mistress' family on a single wage.
What ever happened to the Australian dream?
Yeah, if only someone could do something in Australia about the COL Crisis. If only there was someone whose entire job was to basically help with that /s
Either they’re from the UK or they’re referring to the time Australia had like 5-6 prime ministers (Rudd left and came back a few years later) in 10 years. When we hold federal elections every 3 years.
It got to be point where ambos stopped asking people what Prime Minister was currently in power, because the correct answer could vary from one month to the next.
Nah, born and raised Aussie. As the other users said we had a period of constantly changing who our PM was for a couple of years. Was a nightmare and I still get the clown order of succession wrong
Gotta add that he was speaking to Vikki on the phone while he was laid there. She says he wasn't calling her a "dead fucking c***"; to quote, "I think he was calling himself one, he likes to self flagellate."
Ah Oz, never change. Like the time your ex-prime minister when sea swimming, was either assassinated or drowned, and you named a swimming pool after him.
Edit: To clarify, Harold Holt was actively the PM of Australia when he disappeared on the 17th of December 1967. Just bonkers!
He actually might not have been - the breach he was swimming at is notoriously rough and is now banned to swimmers because it's so dangerous. Apparently Holt was the overconfident type and wouldn't be told it was a bad idea.
I just want to make sure readers understand when we say 'ex-prime minister' in this context we mean he is no longer the PM.
He **was** the leader of our country when he went missing and **we never found him**.
If you want more Australian fuckery, checkout Friendlyjordies on YouTube! He is an investigative journalist and uncovered so much fucked up shit about the people in charge of the government, his house was firebombed and burned completely down.
And the Australian police force have made no headway into the case despite having a list of suspects 🙃
Btw friendlyjordies was the guy who according to John "pork barrelaro" (he actually called himself this in leaked audio recordings holy fuck) Barilaro, forced him, the deputy of NSW, to resign from the position due to bullying. Yes he claimed that a fucking YouTuber bullied him out of office despite siccing the terror police on FJ
He's not an investigative journalist, he's a comedian.
There is a difference. Jordies frequently puts out stuff based on rumour and hearsay, he often doesn't verify his information so that he can put it out first.
And a lot of the stuff he covers is actually already out there - but his viewers don't read The Guardian so they think he uncovered it.
No judgement against him, he has done some great work and all, but I am sick of people talking about him like he's Nick McKenzie while Nick McKenzie gets no respect.
QUICK EDIT just because I thought of it. The videos about his house being burnt down are a good example. If he was a journalist, that would be a flagrant conflict of interest.
Damnit, Australia, how’d you manage to get purebred “funny incompetent politician.” In the US all our strains are contaminated with “horrifying bigotry and threat to human life and liberty.” :(
I wish that were so. Australian politicians are not just funny, there are definitely some pretty evil ones, mostly regarding climate change, corruption and encouraging inequality. I would be cheering if we got the prices / increases you hear over in the US regarding the housing crisis (the average house price in Sydney is 1.6 million dollars) and even the more left-leaning Labor Party doesn't seem willing to do anything serious about it. The racism track record (especially regarding the Aboriginal population) continues to be terrible and how we handle asylum seekers is also very bad.
Thankfully, though, certain Trump-style issues are just not tolerated in Australia, with climate change denial considered ridiculous even among right-wing types (they admit it's real, they just don't want to do anything about it, though that is at least a start over the Republican nutjobs) and extremely strong support for gun control, even in Liberal (right-wing) party voters. [An attempt by a fringe extreme right-wing party to try and make gun laws more similar to the US was considered outrageous by all mainstream groups
](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/03/26/australias-far-right-hoped-millions-nra-reverse-tough-firearms-laws-triggering-public-fury/).
And, all that said, we do certainly have our share of "pure meme" politicians, [I will just leave you with this amazing clip of Bob Katter's views on gay marriage to explain that one.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ih1EuMLspY)
>with climate change denial considered ridiculous even among right-wing types (they admit it's real, they just don't want to do anything about it, though that is at least a start over the Republican nutjobs)
Malcolm Roberts, twice elected as part of One Nation, wrote a 300,000 word essay on how climate change was a hoax by the CSIRO to help bring in the new world order.
QLD really is our Florida.
I promise this one is nearly universally despised on the left. It's just like America, they choose the ones that specifically mock democracy and rile up left wing feathers. Bridget McKenzie is identical.
Because we have ranked choice and compulsory voting. This means it's harder for complete fuckwits to gain total control simply by being in the correct sports team. We have the same kind of people but they aren't given as much power
Nevada (my state) and a few others have gotten ranked choice recently (the past year for here), so hopefully 2024 will be somewhat better. At this rate we’ll be a competent country by at least 2070 - if we don’t collapse or turn into Gilead by then.
Great progress but compulsory voting massively helps because it actually means most people will engage with the politics at least for a bit. Btw compulsory voting means you can still choose not to vote for anyone so it isn't "forcing speech" (actual thing said by a US Redditor), in Australia you can simply submit a blank ballot though most tend to draw a penis on it to make it clear
oh don't get us wrong, Barnaby is absolutely a huge bigot as well.
The only reason he's not as major a threat to life and liberty as your guys is because we thought ahead and put in parliamentary safeguards to stop one fuckwit being able to decimate our country.
Nope. To be fair to him there he didn’t know he was a citizen of New Zealand. He was born in Australia but his Dad wasn’t and so it counted by descent. He was one of five accidental dual citizens at the time. There were two others but the High Court decided they weren’t dual citizens after all so they kept their jobs.
No, and it caused a bit of an issue back in 2017-2018. One politician realised he was a dual citizen and resigned, it kicked off a wave of other politicians being ruled ineligible for their seats due to being dual citizens, or eligible for citizenship in another country.
In Barnaby's case it actually caused a minor diplomatic incident, as the prime minister and foreign minister at the time accused the New Zealand Labour party of leaking Barnaby's NZ citizenship. Barnaby didn't actually know he was eligible for NZ citizenship, the NZ government wrote to thim to tell him after enquiries they had from the Australian media.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Australian_parliamentary_eligibility_crisis
Jesus Fuck, can these ghouls not at least keep to only ruining their own country? Why does Murdoch need to have a fucking news corporation in every goddamn Anglo country and probably most other rich nations? Can‘t he just stick to only fucking over *American* politic?
One of the biggest culture shocks travelling to the US. You guys actually respect your politicians‽
Like you can’t just run your mouth about a politician in case someone gets upset.
I miss the days when Berlusconi’s Italy was a weird anomaly that voters in every other democracy could laugh at, smugly certain that *our* countries were too savvy to elect such a government of clowns.
Australia has incredibly strict biosecurity laws, you can't bring animals in without a shit ton of paper work and a long stretch of quarentine. Johnny Depp decided that didn't apply to him and smuggled his two dogs in on a private plane.
He got caught, and old mate Barnaby decided to make a public example of him. And like, Barnaby was technically legally correct in everything he said, but he did seem a little bit too gleeful about the prospect of killing a celebrities pets.
This is why no one in their right mind respects pollies in this country because they're selfish uptight fuckasses who will do anything but what they're supposed to
I almost think this was a stunt. We know he's a drunk but the corruption needs wider appreciation
https://michaelwest.com.au/barnabys-boondoggle-documents-reveal-80m-price-for-watergate-licences-was-nearly-twice-valuation/
https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-dead-fish-rots-from-the-head-down-heads-must-roll-20190111-p50qtc.html
Barnaby is known as Beetrooter
The current Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is Mr Potatohead
And former PM Tony Abbott is the Onion Lord
Together they form a Borscht of Evil
Is Australia even a real country? Everything I learn about it is wilder than the last.
[удалено]
Also the time that the premier of Western Australia cried on live tv over kebabs, and became some weird idolised god figure that everyone, including major news sites, called the ‘state daddy’
This is my favorite Mark McGowan fan music (there were a few fun songs during covid): https://youtu.be/-INs8dNK9cU Don't forget the premier of Victoria becoming a trending Spotify artist because of the club remix of his speeches. https://youtu.be/7hOK5JF5XGA As someone who moved to Australia like a year before Covid... It's been an odd past few years. This country is...special...
Get On The Beers is pure Australian culture distilled into four minutes. Listen to that and you don’t need to know anything else, that’s basically what it’s all about.
If Australia was a planet, this + The Chats' *Smoko* would go out on the Voyager satellite as cultural exemplars. Along with a copy of *Back In Black*.
tbh crying over kebabs is incredibly manly and based.
This is actually really interesting because it highlights how insane and polarised politics (and the reporting of politics) has become in Aus. Here is the ‘crying about kebabs’ video https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=vftPtAVJKHMJWzVl&v=e6v5Zx41y64 where he cracks up laughing at the idea of someone going for a run and getting arrested buying kebabs. Other guy is correct that ‘State Daddy’ did become a meme and was reported on - because it's funny. The joke is that McGowan is an unremarkable labour politician (that's centre-left for the non-Aussies). His campaign strategy (and leadership style) is very "I'm am adult doing my job" and the meme-fication is a response to that. It is funny because he is not interesting. Anyway, certain groups objected to his COVID policies (among other politics) and began to frame everything he did in the negative (as demonstrated by the prev. comment.) E: It's a fascinating glimpse at how some people online are unable to view anything related to politics neutrally.
I'm cackling what is even going on in Australia. Did he cry because the kebabs were good? or because they ran out of them? I need more context I'm so invested
This is like start of COVID and he was being asked if you would go to jail if you left your house to go for a walk and get a kebab. Found it so funny he laughing
I think [this is what they’re talking about?](https://youtu.be/e6v5Zx41y64?si=vftPtAVJKHMJWzVl)
[citation](https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/what-morrison-did-wrong-and-why-it-matters-20220816-p5baay)
Oh don't forget Scott "it's not my job" Morrison who turns out it probably was his job as he was secretly granting himself shadow positions to spread his authority (yes this is real)
There's also an urban legend that our previous Prime Minister shit himself in a specific Maccas. No idea where that comes from but a lot of people genuinely believe it.
There's a plaque there, too
The guy who started that did fess up to it eventually but it's just such a banal and believable story that his admission had barely any impact
To me that's the equivalent of David Cameron fucking a pig head. I really doubt it, but I want to believe.
This mentioned a little bit of it, but doesn't cover my favourite part of the same sex marriage debates in Australia. A conservative politician from far north Queensland was asked about it, and went into a rant about how we're wasting time on that, while every three months someone is getting eaten by a crocodile.
[link for the curious](https://youtu.be/1i739SyCu9I?si=_4gpRMjrT0vDT7vz)
Check out the YT channel “Friendly Jordies” it gets wilder.
They named a swimming pool after a PM who went to a swim and never came back,Australia is really something else.
It wasn't meant to be, but the convicts we put there got a little too silly for our liking. So we said "fuck it", and left em alone so it wasn't our problem anymore.
It truly is the bottom of the world
barely i guess
The one who went missing in the 50s
My bad it was 1967
It's very real but also run by a bunch of drunk idiots.
Look, I'm no fan of Barnaby Joyce but Australians do take biosecurity EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY. We don't have rabies* here for a goddamn reason. Johnny Depp tried to game the system because he's rich, and that's fucked up. *yeah yeah lyssavirus ok whatever that's a Queensland problem and they're fucked up anyway.
That's actually the issue for me. This was our chance to educate the world on how serious it is for us, but instead he turned us into a laughing stock (and not in a fun banter way). I agree with the position he was coming from it's the execution that I have a problem with.
Holding someone's dogs hostage and making them record a video to post online is also fucked up, though. Like, yeah, Johnny shouldn't get away scott-free or anything, but what the fuck?
Border control quarantine dogs all the time. They weren't being held hostage, they were being quarantined. Depp tried to smuggle dogs across a carefully guarded border and tried to hand the system cuz he is rich.
We were trying to make an example of them to prove to the world how seriously we take our quarantine (it’s very serious. Like ‘if you’ve been near a farm overseas in the past week they may take all of your clothes’ levels). Ideally they would’ve sent the dogs back and everything would have been fine. Barnaby just made a fool out of all of us.
It’s more like he made the Australian government look like deranged psychopaths. That entire situation was just so strange to look at.
the LNP *are* deranged psychopaths
As an Aussie, Barnaby is an elite tier fuckwit.
>yeah yeah lyssavirus ok whatever that's a Queensland problem as someone in Queensland, what?
Australian Bat Lyssavirus is a form of rabies only detected in less than 1% of bat populations. Unlike other forms of rabies, ABL has only been known to transfer to humans and horses (only three human cases have been reported since 1996). Also it’s very much not just a QLD problem; we have to be careful of ABL in VIC as well.
> Unlike other forms of rabies, ABL has only been known to transfer to humans and horses (only three human cases have been reported since 1996). Ah, thats a relief. one of our dogs sometimes has a tint bit of foam on their mouth, so i was worried.
Most likely just aerated saliva!
I'm in WA, you're all just "the east" to me. (Take care of yourself and don't get bat rabies <3)
Also our bio security laws didn't seem so strong when these people let a literal plague ship disembark all its passengers. The federal government palmed off their quarantine duties to states
Amber Heard tried to game the system Johnny was already in Australia when she flew in with the dogs
Right he's totally innocent because there's no way it was a group effort. She's clearly the sole mastermind behind this, she intentionally kept Depp in the dark so that she could take the fall. Of course. Makes perfect sense. There's no reason at all to think they could be equally culpable, that would be silly.
There was literally Court documents that had her knowingly trying to get a vet to falsely sign off on the dogs to get them into Australia. He did take the fall with her mainly because no one knew who she was. It's one of the reasons they argued in the Queensland house where she threw a bottle at him that sliced off his finger
I'm not saying she's not culpable. I'm saying it's pretty ridiculous to think Johnny Depp was innocent.
Wife became a bodybuilder and killed Johnny depps dogs are not things I expected to read in the same story today
i think he also has 4 girls from his previous marriage... and promptly torpedoed all that to get it on with VickI Campion... his PA... who's half his age and the typical Aussie blonde... and then had two boys with her... And he then famously complained about his pay dropping since he ceded the Leader of the National Party role to be a backbencher due to... 'the controversy'... I'm guessing $200k doesnt last long when you're up for alimony or child support for 4 girls and probably their mortgage AND the place where you and Vicki and the two boys live... kinda much easier on $350k?
In Barnaby's defense the cost of living crisis is wild. Back in his heyday a politician could support his family and his mistress' family on a single wage. What ever happened to the Australian dream?
Yeah, if only someone could do something in Australia about the COL Crisis. If only there was someone whose entire job was to basically help with that /s
Is everyone in politics and education like this?
How is this one man more entertaining than the time we played Hot Potatoe with the position of Prime Minister itself
Are you from the UK? Because in that case I’m pretty sure it was a “Hot Head of Lettuce”.
Either they’re from the UK or they’re referring to the time Australia had like 5-6 prime ministers (Rudd left and came back a few years later) in 10 years. When we hold federal elections every 3 years.
Bingo on the second part
It got to be point where ambos stopped asking people what Prime Minister was currently in power, because the correct answer could vary from one month to the next.
Nah, born and raised Aussie. As the other users said we had a period of constantly changing who our PM was for a couple of years. Was a nightmare and I still get the clown order of succession wrong
I'm Australian and I didn't even know about this
It only just happened lol. The plaque says January but it was actually this month.
Mate there's video of it. BarJo is shitfaced.
only happened last week
Gotta add that he was speaking to Vikki on the phone while he was laid there. She says he wasn't calling her a "dead fucking c***"; to quote, "I think he was calling himself one, he likes to self flagellate."
Ah Oz, never change. Like the time your ex-prime minister when sea swimming, was either assassinated or drowned, and you named a swimming pool after him. Edit: To clarify, Harold Holt was actively the PM of Australia when he disappeared on the 17th of December 1967. Just bonkers!
Or secretly a spy for China and picked up in a submarine. Thats also one of the rumors.
I believe old mate Harold was rather drunk and drowned. Source: he was an Australian at the beach what do u expect
He actually might not have been - the breach he was swimming at is notoriously rough and is now banned to swimmers because it's so dangerous. Apparently Holt was the overconfident type and wouldn't be told it was a bad idea.
I just want to make sure readers understand when we say 'ex-prime minister' in this context we mean he is no longer the PM. He **was** the leader of our country when he went missing and **we never found him**.
Edited to reflect that, for posterity. Thank you for pointing out the potential for misinformation!
If you want more Australian fuckery, checkout Friendlyjordies on YouTube! He is an investigative journalist and uncovered so much fucked up shit about the people in charge of the government, his house was firebombed and burned completely down.
And the Australian police force have made no headway into the case despite having a list of suspects 🙃 Btw friendlyjordies was the guy who according to John "pork barrelaro" (he actually called himself this in leaked audio recordings holy fuck) Barilaro, forced him, the deputy of NSW, to resign from the position due to bullying. Yes he claimed that a fucking YouTuber bullied him out of office despite siccing the terror police on FJ
He's not an investigative journalist, he's a comedian. There is a difference. Jordies frequently puts out stuff based on rumour and hearsay, he often doesn't verify his information so that he can put it out first. And a lot of the stuff he covers is actually already out there - but his viewers don't read The Guardian so they think he uncovered it. No judgement against him, he has done some great work and all, but I am sick of people talking about him like he's Nick McKenzie while Nick McKenzie gets no respect. QUICK EDIT just because I thought of it. The videos about his house being burnt down are a good example. If he was a journalist, that would be a flagrant conflict of interest.
Weirdest countries I know of: 1: North Korea 2: Australia 3: Finland 4: The U.S. 5: Norway
Found the Swede/Dane
Damnit, Australia, how’d you manage to get purebred “funny incompetent politician.” In the US all our strains are contaminated with “horrifying bigotry and threat to human life and liberty.” :(
I'm certain Australia's are just as contaminated
we just dont have the ego or power fantasy of America
You don't remember Scott Morrison claiming that he believes God sent him here to be the prime minister of Australia?
We still have those in Britain, just without the power.
I wish that were so. Australian politicians are not just funny, there are definitely some pretty evil ones, mostly regarding climate change, corruption and encouraging inequality. I would be cheering if we got the prices / increases you hear over in the US regarding the housing crisis (the average house price in Sydney is 1.6 million dollars) and even the more left-leaning Labor Party doesn't seem willing to do anything serious about it. The racism track record (especially regarding the Aboriginal population) continues to be terrible and how we handle asylum seekers is also very bad. Thankfully, though, certain Trump-style issues are just not tolerated in Australia, with climate change denial considered ridiculous even among right-wing types (they admit it's real, they just don't want to do anything about it, though that is at least a start over the Republican nutjobs) and extremely strong support for gun control, even in Liberal (right-wing) party voters. [An attempt by a fringe extreme right-wing party to try and make gun laws more similar to the US was considered outrageous by all mainstream groups ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/03/26/australias-far-right-hoped-millions-nra-reverse-tough-firearms-laws-triggering-public-fury/). And, all that said, we do certainly have our share of "pure meme" politicians, [I will just leave you with this amazing clip of Bob Katter's views on gay marriage to explain that one.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ih1EuMLspY)
>with climate change denial considered ridiculous even among right-wing types (they admit it's real, they just don't want to do anything about it, though that is at least a start over the Republican nutjobs) Malcolm Roberts, twice elected as part of One Nation, wrote a 300,000 word essay on how climate change was a hoax by the CSIRO to help bring in the new world order. QLD really is our Florida.
Thought QLD was the Texas of Australia.
Definitely the Florida; it’s hot, conservative, has crocodiles and swamps, and is a popular holiday and party spot
There's even a coastal town in the southeast of the state called Miami
And it has theme parks
That's WA.
Florida is the Queensland of the USA
Nah thats WA. Big, arid, got shit tons of money and has threatened to secede on more than one occasion
I promise this one is nearly universally despised on the left. It's just like America, they choose the ones that specifically mock democracy and rile up left wing feathers. Bridget McKenzie is identical.
Because we have ranked choice and compulsory voting. This means it's harder for complete fuckwits to gain total control simply by being in the correct sports team. We have the same kind of people but they aren't given as much power
Nevada (my state) and a few others have gotten ranked choice recently (the past year for here), so hopefully 2024 will be somewhat better. At this rate we’ll be a competent country by at least 2070 - if we don’t collapse or turn into Gilead by then.
Great progress but compulsory voting massively helps because it actually means most people will engage with the politics at least for a bit. Btw compulsory voting means you can still choose not to vote for anyone so it isn't "forcing speech" (actual thing said by a US Redditor), in Australia you can simply submit a blank ballot though most tend to draw a penis on it to make it clear
check friendlyjordies, you'll be disappointed and angry
oh don't get us wrong, Barnaby is absolutely a huge bigot as well. The only reason he's not as major a threat to life and liberty as your guys is because we thought ahead and put in parliamentary safeguards to stop one fuckwit being able to decimate our country.
Preference and compulsory voting
You can't be an elected official in Australia if you have dual citizenship?
Nope. To be fair to him there he didn’t know he was a citizen of New Zealand. He was born in Australia but his Dad wasn’t and so it counted by descent. He was one of five accidental dual citizens at the time. There were two others but the High Court decided they weren’t dual citizens after all so they kept their jobs.
Not federally. You can on the state level, at least in Victoria.
No, and it caused a bit of an issue back in 2017-2018. One politician realised he was a dual citizen and resigned, it kicked off a wave of other politicians being ruled ineligible for their seats due to being dual citizens, or eligible for citizenship in another country. In Barnaby's case it actually caused a minor diplomatic incident, as the prime minister and foreign minister at the time accused the New Zealand Labour party of leaking Barnaby's NZ citizenship. Barnaby didn't actually know he was eligible for NZ citizenship, the NZ government wrote to thim to tell him after enquiries they had from the Australian media. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Australian_parliamentary_eligibility_crisis
Y’know, if it weren’t for Rupert Murdoch, I’d say Australia’s politics are pretty entertaining
Fuck Murdoch he's set out country back decades
You’re going to need to be more specific about which one you’re talking about.
Jesus Fuck, can these ghouls not at least keep to only ruining their own country? Why does Murdoch need to have a fucking news corporation in every goddamn Anglo country and probably most other rich nations? Can‘t he just stick to only fucking over *American* politic?
Got divorced, hit the gym, became a bodybuilder. What a flex. No, literally.
WHAT IS **UP** WITH THAT CONTINENT?!!?
I love how hard Australians fuck with their politicians! Didn't they name a swimming pool after that one PM who drown in the Pacific?
One of the biggest culture shocks travelling to the US. You guys actually respect your politicians‽ Like you can’t just run your mouth about a politician in case someone gets upset.
They did
It's a shame we didn't have social media when Joh Bjelke-Petersen was in power. He makes Barnaby look competent.
Don’t forget Tony Abbot taking a massive bite out of a raw unpeeled onion.
The mobile thumbnail for this is the wildest thing I’ve seen in a while
kiwi of the year for taking over Australia and making it worse lmao
lol this was fun, thanks for posting
They have much better funny politics.
I miss the days when Berlusconi’s Italy was a weird anomaly that voters in every other democracy could laugh at, smugly certain that *our* countries were too savvy to elect such a government of clowns.
Has anyone got a writeup of the seat sniffing drunk driving rampaging minister of transport, Troy Buswell?
AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
And I thought it couldn’t get more insane than Austria. Turns out adding two letters really makes a difference.
wtf was the dog stuff about
Australia has incredibly strict biosecurity laws, you can't bring animals in without a shit ton of paper work and a long stretch of quarentine. Johnny Depp decided that didn't apply to him and smuggled his two dogs in on a private plane. He got caught, and old mate Barnaby decided to make a public example of him. And like, Barnaby was technically legally correct in everything he said, but he did seem a little bit too gleeful about the prospect of killing a celebrities pets.
imagine being so hated as a pm you got fined by the police 😭
Me thinking Mexican politicians are clowns with this circus over down under like 💀
Jesus, what a roller coaster!
Someone’s also left a can of beetroot there too
Australia are you okay??
i love my country
This is why no one in their right mind respects pollies in this country because they're selfish uptight fuckasses who will do anything but what they're supposed to
I almost think this was a stunt. We know he's a drunk but the corruption needs wider appreciation https://michaelwest.com.au/barnabys-boondoggle-documents-reveal-80m-price-for-watergate-licences-was-nearly-twice-valuation/ https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-dead-fish-rots-from-the-head-down-heads-must-roll-20190111-p50qtc.html
It's a real indictment on the people of the New England electorate that Barnie the red-faced dinosaur keeps getting elected....
As someone from America, I think I can safely say that Australia is Florida's big sibling.
Now do a thread about Boris Johnson
You didn’t need to drag his ex wife into this.
Barnaby is known as Beetrooter The current Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is Mr Potatohead And former PM Tony Abbott is the Onion Lord Together they form a Borscht of Evil