transcript of Timothée Chalamet’s piece on HPH

Good evening Australia, Timothée Chalamet here, Chief Editor of the Times of Ballarat, here to discuss the recent poll we saw on the ABC.

The big story of tonight, is the continued decline in support for the Government, with the Nationals now polling below eco-socialists the Green Left, a shock result for a party that was on its best legs not too long ago. 12.79% for the Nationals, 7.1% for the Liberals and 14.23% for Country Labor, that’s only a third (34.12%) of the country giving their support to the Government and its partners, In what was supposed to be a booming week for the Government, with their long awaited budget, delivering on a wide variety of commitments and promises, with sweeping cuts, and delivering the nation to a surplus.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/770572980743962665/831114064222224394/unknown.png

This naturally demonstrates widespread discontent in the direction Australia is heading, and if this continues, we are going to see the Government head for a smashing defeat at the next election. This poll has demonstrated that the Democrats are on the up and up, and it’s hard to see them being stopped. We also saw a jump in support for the Green Left Party, who have recently been aided by the return of some old faces to parliament. The Democrats on 17% seem posed to take the reigns off the SDP sooner rather than later as Australia’s largest party, but with no one above 20%, can it truly be said that this is representative of the nation? Unlikely. Even if the Democrats were to gain the coveted position of coming first, this would not necessarily signal a widespread change in Australia’s attitude to centrism, and more so the movement of moderate voters from the dying Liberals to their party. The Green Left Party have also continued their upwards trajectory alongside the Democrats, as they hit 13% in polling for the first time, our analysis says that this can largely be put forward as left wing voters moving about between the parties, especially some rural voters who may feel dissatisfied with the Country Labor Party and their support for Government.

Besides that, we continue the path we have been on since December, with no party getting above 30% in a poll, and only the Nationals reaching above 30% in the January election. It seems that there is little that will change in this arrangement of the new multi party system we find our nation in. Perhaps we may even see the rusted on Social Democrat voters begin to fall to the tides of other parties, and perhaps even National won’t be able to keep up against a surge in right wing independents.

With the SDP and GL on 33% together, they almost rival the Government and C&S, with the Democrats holding the position of in-between both groups. One would assume that in any case, the Democrats are the most likely group to form Government after the suspected election that will occur on the 1st of May, despite their lacklustre performance in the Moncrieff and Sydney by-elections.

It’s just a matter of how much further can the Nationals and Liberals fall, and how much more can the Democrats or Green Left keep growing. There is obviously an appetite for a strong centre grounds and an appetite for a radical left, and whether those voices could exist together is something we should question.

The Government right now is a collection of many faces and many ideologies that don’t necessarily get along, but the CLP has for the most part, managed to de-radicalise the right in Government, despite their failures in delivering a budget that is better for Australia. For such, criticism is sometimes not worth the time, for if not present, a Nationals Government would be doing much worse and perhaps it would be cutting funds harder and faster than any government before it. We can’t know, but it seems that the CLP isn’t the happiest with their co-existence, but must put on the straight face and smile with Griffo & Porridge, as they work together in a sometimes less than ideal manner. We also see the CLP working extensively on some legislation with the Green Left, demonstrating an obvious affinity for the left, and that they haven’t entirely abandoned their roots. For the future, it seems the CLP will remained locked out of Government, with the left or centre, for fear of association.

But that may just be speculation. That is all.