Labor’s loss blamed on Shorten
The Labor party’s post-mortem analysis of this year’s election loss has pointed the blame squarely at Bill Shorten’s unpopularity.
While the result also pointed to a cluttered policy agenda that it failed to adequately explain to voters, it also said it suffered a drop in support from Christians.
"On the whole, people of faith did not desert Labor, but Labor lost some support among Christian voters – particularly devout, first-generation migrant Christians," the report stated.
"Other religious denominations did not swing decisively one way or the other."
Shorten responded to the report of social media, blaming his lack of popularity on personal attacks during the campaign.
"I note the review considered the relentless and unprecedented multi-million dollar political attacks on me by (Clive) Palmer and the Liberals successfully tarnished my public standing," Mr Shorten posted on Twitter.
"This is an important lesson for any future leader to confront."
What do you think was to blame for Labor’s election loss earlier this year?
Clive Palmer's $60 million ant-Labor campaign blitz and Murdoch media contributed to Shorten's loss. It wasn't that far back when the politician's used to lie about tobacco now it's climate change. Wake up Australia and stop voting for the fossil worshipping Liberals and Nationals. These self-serving puppets need to go.
As Palmer was a long way from being elected and just about everybody said that if a Palmer ad came on they switched off, either mentally or physically, I think that it is a convenient excuse to blame his ads.
It's wrong to blame Palmer's "anti Labor" ads because he took a potshot at all other parties, Labor, Liberals, Nationals, Greens and Hanson. It's convenient to include him but it's not a valid reason.
I agree. Mr Shorten didn't need Mr Palmer's ads to lose the election. Mr Shorten did very well on that front all by himself.
Their unfair franking credit policy was the one that lost them the election.
Correct. Also they tried to block average working people from being able to buy a rental property with changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.
The policies were ill thought out by one brain dead Chris Bowen. What sort of idiot gets a large number of people offside and then has the hide to say "if you don't like us don't vote for uson prime time TV? A self fulfilling prophesy methinks.
Of course the blatant and never ending grooming of Morrison on 7 and other other newtworks did not help either. And yes Shorten was the wrong person for the job. Seems like a nice guy but not sharp enough and lacking personality to gel with the public.
In the end the party with no policies other than tax cuts for its wealthy supporters and God knows what for Clive Palmer was put back in. People who do it increasingly tough whilst the top end of society live it up should think about their choices, but as is always said 'a country deserves the government it gets', and those who could not see past the end of their noses deserve this one. RIP and enjoy poverty!
The franking credit policy was going to affect very few - no one on a pension or part pension and no one receiving a pension from the SMSF. However Shorten did not promote that strongly enough and Liberals put up signboards in marginal electorates promoting the idea to ALL older retirees that they would be affected.
Combine that with the fact that Palmer spent $60million on an election when he had absolutely interest in winning seats but simply wanted to influence the primary vote in marginal electorates and you have a recipe for failure by Labor. In our electorate, Liberals did not receive more primary votes, but Labor bled heaps to Palmer and Hanson, with 2nd preferences going to Libs. Our Liberal candidate crowed that she was overwhelmed by her (unexpected) victory and increased margin. She should have been ashamed of the dishonesty, especially in an electorate with high unemployment and high Centrelink dependence.
Palmer has coal interests in Queensland and I'm waiting for the reward he'll reap from the government. Spending $60 million on promoting the worst government in history has strings. We'll see those in fair time and expect corruption to occur. Will be a monkey's uncle if it plays out differently.
One of the thinhs I absolutely could not understand is the abject stupidity of Queenslanders who believe that there are thousands of jobs to be had in coal projects. If they had double digit intelligence they'd realise mining is already the domain of automation. BHP and RIO operate their coal trucks from half way across the country.
Queenslanders were taken for suckers by the government the media moguls gave us again. The jobs will not materialise and more coal jobs will be lost. You can't stop progress and with climate change starting to bite more and more Australians will not accept a government which is directed by the coal industry for very long. Even the likes of our media barons will not control people forever. Change is coming and as I've written many times when batteries become the real McCoy coalmines will be closing down.
Any REAL government, we don't have one, would be promoting renewables industries. Ours is clinging to an old technology and the country will go the way of recods, real to real tape, cassettes and DVDs - out of business! This is what we have governing our nation. Thank you Murdoch and Stokes and please inflict ruin on other countries, not ours.
Who is to blame - Paul Keating and his cronies. They started the mania for privatisation which every subsequent manifestation of the Labor Party has continued.
The Banking Royal Commission clearly showed the disastrous results that flowed from selling off the Commonwealth Bank. Then there are all the issues to do with privatised electricty, phones, building inspections, water, airports, public transport, ports, gas, TAFE, medicine, etc, etc ...
It is clear that so many of us grown-ups cannot support a Labor Party that is nothing but a label.
Party members need to re-read Chiffley's "Light On The Hill" speech.
The ALP should return to working for the common good or shut down.
The ALP has lost it's "soul" and does not stand up for what used to be it's basic principles. It has been sucked into the same "political game as the LNP which John Howard raised to an art form of continually wedging the other party.
At that last election the ALP had some good policies but used a scatter gun approach with far too many without a real concentration on any. They were listening too much to spin doctors rather than projecting themselves.
Bill Shorten is a good example in that he did not come across well at any stage of his leadership appearing wooden and lacking personality. Sticking all the time to statements that were designed not to upset anyone. This is however common to both parties in that they stick to the same lines issued to their candidates.
The Libs had Morrison, the slogan man, who did, in the context of an election performed well with essentially an essentailly negative campaign. Shorten was always in their sights and they never let up on him.
Labor has found it increasingly difficult to access government because the mogul owned media has run lies and dishonest propaganda against it as well as groom THEIR party.
Blame Keating? Maybe. What do you have to say about Abbott, Turnbull and now Morrison. Don't you know these three have run up multiples of the debt Rudd and Gillard ran up and that the latter were in power IMMEDIATELY AFTER the GFC? Never a word about that. Also never a word about offshore tax shelters which send taxable income offshore to be protected from the tax system or the recent huge tax cuts for the wealthy, which is not even budgeted for in a country which has a deficit and debt?
I love it when I see government trolls posting theit crap. Its like the coal industry trying to convince people there is no climate change and that its seasonal and a figure of our imagination.
Roy, privatisation was implemented by successive Governments.
Poor Bill. He still doesn't get it, always seeking to lay blame elsewhere but himself. If he was a good ,highly regarded leader with sound acceptable policies, nothing anyone could say would detract from that. I don't remember any direct attacks on him by Clive Palmer or others, only on his policies, and that is what in large part made him unpopular. I don't think Albo would have won with the same policies and he appears to be well liked by some. Bill may, or may not be "Shifty" as many people called him, but he certainly came across that way in the media. Perhaps he was just poorly advised, if so, he chose to act on that advice, and thus the blame for his unpopularity still lies with him directly.
A message from our government!
I've often lauughed at the USA voters for voting in Trump as their President. Now I guess the rest of the world is laughing at Australia.
There are just too many greedy Australians nowadays - they can't appreciate the dismal conditions that many Australians find themselves in.
Rossoe, I agree with you.
I've often lauughed at the USA voters for voting in Trump as their President. Now I guess the rest of the world is laughing at Australia.
There are just too many greedy Australians nowadays - they can't appreciate the dismal conditions that many Australians find themselves in.
They don't care as long as they get more and more of the pie with the passing of every year. Now business is crying that people are not buying. I wonder why?
You really think the rest of the world give 2 bob about Australia's politics? You're dreamin'.
This pretty much sums up what is wrong with politics these days. Both sides only concentrate on what will win them the next election rather than what is good for the country. It starts before the dust has even settled on the last election. It feels like they are in election mode all the time. I get it, you can't do much if you aren't the Government, so winning is important, but should it be all-important? I don't know, maybe it's always been that way, but it just seems worse now, they don't even try to hide it.
I wonder who is really to blame for that? Maybe it is us, the voters. I would hazard a guess that the majority of people aren't all that interested in politics. It would be interesting to see how many would even bother to turn out if voting wasn't compulsory. Even that feels 'different'. My parents' generation seemed to be more involved than we are today. Of course, they had just lived through a war.
I think most people vote only on what is in it for them rather than what is good for the country and the majority of its people. Greed seems to be the driving force as seen by the outcry re franking credits and negative gearing. And of course the LCP with its scare campaigns re electricity price rises if we had to give up fossil fuels and terrorists coming on boats trying to enter Australia all added to peoples fears.
Labor has released the results of their review and while there are a lot of reasons given, I believe that the main reason was omitted. The climate change policy was very ambitious wanting to go to 50% renewables but the costings on that policy were never released. This gave the Coalition a free kick to criticise the policy and all that Shorten could say to rebut the criticism was; "well to do nothing would cost much more".
I note that this forum has a lot of anti-Coalition subscribers and I don't object to that, it is after all a free country. I do, however, object to some of the name calling and fake facts being put forward as truth. If any poster dares to challenge any false facts they are abused on a very personal basis. I mention this because I believe that Labor supporters and most of the media were very dismissive of those who challenged Labor's policies and rather than stand and argue, those challengers just went quiet. This resulted in Labor and the media assuming that any polls had truthful answers and a prominent betting company paying out on a Labor win two days ahead of the polls.
I don't challenge any posters in here who post false facts or make personal denigrating comments because it's not worth the trouble. I also don't believe in polls because we are not told what the questions are or the areas being polled. Perhaps Labor should have spent more time listening rather than telling people that if they don't like their policies that they shouldn't vote Labor.
Anti coalition posters? You might want to look at Shorten's reply to Turnbull's last budget? The government cronies were there in significant number poo pooing Labor. The normal vile posts and smear.
Your call is not correct. Watch until there's an election coming. The paid trolls will be here in droves, but I wonder if you'll mention anything about that and what they are doing. Unlikely.
Mick, as the majority of posters on YLC are leaning to the left, and certainly anti-LNP, like yourself, why is it that you constantly accuse anyone with a contrary opinion of being a paid troll? This is a genuine question, as frankly, it does not make sense.
I believe that most people of a contrary opinion to the majority of posters on this site just get fed up with the abuse immediately hurled at them, so rarely bother with anyu input. A somewhat better moderation would not go astray for a more balanced level of conversation, and perhaps a quiet metaphorical word from the moderators, in the ear of some of the haters would not go astray.
Sceptic: I have no issues with anybody who has a contrary opinion other than when you get a precession of comments with facts which are fake promoting a side of politics which is devious, dishonest, manipulative and supported by wealthy interests who nearly always get a payout. The recent tax cuts are the perfect example of this.
I've welcomed some of your comments but if you are a right wing worshipper I will call out those comments. You may consider that abusive but from my end its putting lies told as fact in their place. I'm sorry if that does not go down well but I've seen the barage of trolls work this site and I refer you to Shorten's last budget reply. This site was awash with the usual suspects and you can't claim they were fair dinkum posters as they were clearly in propaganda mode to promote the reelection of the worst government in living history.
The way to stop attacks is to tell the truth Sceptic. We may disagree on some issues but the FACTS, the real ones, are what count. I spend a lot of time putting the form of the current government online but all I get back is denial, lies and dishonest responses. That's not a debate mate!
This is a left leaning forum? Maybe but is it fair that forums owned by media moguls groom their man and lie about any important issue which faces society? You may recall Greta Thunberg recently. She put it out there and was the next day attacked on Andrew Bolt's program, Sky and other right wing outlets. They never ran another story on her. Buried! Call that fair if you will but it makes a point. What you and your kind push is the closing down of GetUp, the ABC and now YLC? Its been a work in progress. I am assuming you'd call that fair?
So you agree with Horace then Mick!
According to a report on the ABC News online today, a NZ marketing firm, Topham Guerin, were responsible for the Coalition winning the election. Sad to think about how people's votes were manipulated so that we end up with yet more of the same old stuck in the 50s government.
They're the Howard left overs: smitten because they were thrown out for the rich men's puppets they were. They never accepted they were poison and the media moguls fixed the system for them. Plenty of mug voters who don't understand the game and who can be easily manipulated. They were....and now suffering their fate whilst the wealth get the handouts.
ABC News! Just can't accept that ALP lost the election all by themselves. Didn't need help. From anyone!
And THIS GOVERNMENT can't accept that the ABC is informing Australians of the truth as opposed to the right wing media distortions, lies and propaganda.
Your post is the norm for you KSS. Right wing dribble. Facts mean zip to you and you consider all Australians to be stupid.
Labor lost the election for a number of reasons. A big part of that was stupidity from Shorten and Bowen but of course the normal manipulation of democracy was going on to ensure a party with no policies other than tax cuts for those who had absolutely no need of them got back in. Watch the debt keep growing KSS. Then you'll blame Labor for that too. Look in the mirror. Not pretty.
There were many reasons Labor lost as pointed out in their own review not any single reason.
No need for me to go over them. The Libs with Palmer's help outspent them and were able to discredit Labor's policies and leader. ScoMo is a marketing man and used that skill to sell his party and destroy Labor.
IMO Labor had the most credible policies but failed to sell them and their franking credits policy was a disaster in the way it was planned to be implemented. I supported it in principal but not the way they were going about it which should have had a cut off figure so only stopped those with high incomes from being refunded credits not ordinary retirees.
The Liberals certainly did not deserve to win and are making a hash of running things since.
Labor needs to rediscover it's roots and start working for those people and stop coming up with complicated policy that the LNP can use to confuse and frighten voters with.
A lot more than your list Dave. Remember the franking credits attack on (poor) self funded retirees or the attack on working class people who wanted to own a rental property. Then you had lies from the mogul owned media and a grooming campaign on steroids.
Now we have the routine demonisation of Labor by Morrison who stands up infront of the cameras like a prize cock daring Labor to fight whilst he runs them down.
There were many reasons Labor lost as pointed out in their own review not any single reason.
No need for me to go over them. The Libs with Palmer's help outspent them and were able to discredit Labor's policies and leader. ScoMo is a marketing man and used that skill to sell his party and destroy Labor.
IMO Labor had the most credible policies but failed to sell them and their franking credits policy was a disaster in the way it was planned to be implemented. I supported it in principal but not the way they were going about it which should have had a cut off figure so only stopped those with high incomes from being refunded credits not ordinary retirees.
The Liberals certainly did not deserve to win and are making a hash of running things since.
Labor needs to rediscover it's roots and start working for those people and stop coming up with complicated policy that the LNP can use to confuse and frighten voters with.
As a sometimes Labor supporter in the distant past, I think I’ve nailed it when it comes to why they lost the election. Their policies were confusing to say the least. Too afraid and very inexperienced, they refused to attack the big guys (capitalists) instead they went for the middle classes. Not a good move, you get a middle classer angry and they go for the jugular. Supposed to be for the working classes, but they made no real commitment to lift their living standards, they ignored their socialist friends. When it comes to personality, Shorten is pedestrian, he represented all the worst aspects of the Labor party. I’m not saying ScoMo is the answer, but he’s the best we’ve got at the present time.
Really sad if ScoMo is the best we have got at the present time.
Really sad if ScoMo is the best we have got at the present time.
Well, there's me - am considering it.
Mr Shorten could not answer even the simplest questions about his policies. And on top of that he dismissed a tradie who pointed out that he would be worse off under Mr Shorten and Mr Shorten blatantly lied to him. On camera! Mr Shorten was not even representing the traditional ALP voter base. He lost. Deservedly so!
Combination of poor policies and lacklustre presentation IMO.
I wonder if Clive's massive advertising campaign helped Scomo win, he seems to think so.
Businessman and former senator Clive Palmer has claimed credit for the Coalition's election win, saying his scare campaign targeting Bill Shorten was responsible for the swing against Labor.
"Scott Morrison has been returned as Prime Minister and he's only done so because of the 3.5 per cent vote of United Australia Party," Mr Palmer said.
The Guardian! Left wing apologist rag. They would say that. Mr Palmer did not conspire to help mr Morrison. Mr Shorten did not need help to lose the election. It was the one thing he did well all by himself. For goodness sake he even stopped campaigning because he was so cocksure he would win. He got exactly what he worked for as a reflection of the effort he put in!
they havent gotten completely away from the worker people . the last time they represented the 'workers' was the day they were created maybe they should think about that