Will this madness never end?

Elections: the outcome is all a matter of perspective

graph showing gains and losses in the Australian national election
Out with the old, in with the new: the two major parties both lost votes to the minority ones.

Anthony Albanese will head Australia's first Labor government in almost a decade, as voters jumped ship from Scott Morrison's Liberal-National Coalition. Although all the votes have yet to be counted, Morrison has conceded defeat, and world leaders, as well as BoJo, have acknowledged the Labor Party's victory.*

A lot of the voting movement appears to be related to climate change policies, with the Liberals in particular losing out to Greens and climate-concerned independents. But the gains made by the smaller parties (+7.3%) were at the expense of both the incumbent coalition (-6.1%) and…umm…Labor (-1.2%).

According to political commentator Nick Bryant: There was always a none-of-the above feel to the head-to-head between the main party leaders. So, Albanese's victory is predicated not so much on having won more votes than Morrison, as having lost fewer. Not so much a popularity contest, then, as a least unpopularity contest.

In politics, much like marketing, it's all about perspective and spin. (pipe)

* Indian PM Narendra Modi also congratulated Mr Albanese on his party's election victory. It remains to be seen how an Australian prime minister, who's been elected largely on a climate-conscious platform, gets along with an Indian prime minister whose minister for energy lives in the past. Then again, Albanese's commitment to climate change only goes as far as making no commitment on coal. So, perhaps they have more in common after all. It should be fun.