How did the Elections go? Did your candidates win?
The election result was similar to what happened in Canada, there was also a significant swing here to the existing Labor Government away from the Liberal/Coalition challengers (to the extent that the opposition leader also lost his own seat and is now effectively kicked out of politics altogether), while the vote for the independents remained relatively the same, and the left leaning Greens also lost votes and seats to Labor.
Effectively in a time of uncertainty, people looked for a Government with more central policies to represent everyone, and as a result the parties that were seen to have drifted too far to the right (Liberal/Coalition who used to be far more central at their core) and to the left (Greens) paid the price for it. The real extreme right parties (One Nation) were pretty much unaffected, as their small voter base is rusted on and now consistent.
While I am not a professional detective, I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night and I guessing that the anti-Trump candidate won, and that Downunder Dolphan supported the anti-Trump candidate.
My first preference votes for the lower house and the Senate were for an Independent candidate, as I thought they would represent my local community interest a lot better than the incumbent Liberal candidate who had done nothing for the last three years apart from sending me a fridge magnet calendar and newsletter annually. He was voted out of his previously safe seat after a huge swing against him, but it was a Labor candidate who replaced him instead of the Independent that I had as my first preference.
Our voting slips have a preferential system where you number all the candidates in the lower house, and at least 6 parties or 12 candidates for the Senate. While your first preference (and associated money allocated to a political party per ballot) goes to who you put as #1 on you slip, if they are eliminated from the first round of counting when they get to the top two parties contending for the job, your second preference comes into play, etc. So effectively if your first preference doesn't count for the result, they go to the next one, etc, until it gets to one of the final two candidates in contention. The net effect is that for the vast majority of people who vote, it will be a part of determining the outcome of their representative, and ultimately the Government and the Senate.
As far as my own voting goes, I'm pretty much a central/swinging voter. I have voted for Labor, Liberal and Independents in the past - it really depends on how well I think they represent my values and community, and what policy and vision they have for the country. For the last two elections, after the Independents, I did have Labor ahead of the Liberal/Coalition in my preferences due to the latter's drift away from the center, lack of any real, costed policies to actually move the country forward, and Leadership that can only be described as nasty and incompetent.
In this case... yeah, Hoodie is close enough to the mark as I voted for a non Trump-like alternative. As did the majority of the nation.
Ps. Another major change in this Australian election is that the voter base has changed - for the first time there were more Gen Z and Millennials voting than the Baby Boomer Generation. Over the years the primary votes have slipped from about 80% going to the two major parties down to 60%, with the balance directed to Independents and minor parties. This trend looks to continue while the major parties are struggling to connect with new voters, but in particular the Liberal primary vote seems to be drifting the worst as they continue to pander more to the Boomers.
