Culture

Five Great Things To Come Out Of The NSW State Election

Disappointed? Underwhelmed? You probably missed the fun stuff.

by Meg Watson  29 March 2015

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Well, it’s happened. NSW has gone to the polls and done exactly what everyone thought it was going to: Liberal leader Mike Baird has been re-elected as state Premier. The election was called fairly quickly last night and the Coalition are now predicted to take 53 seats, compared to Labor’s 34; it looks like the Greens will also win four.

“We sought a mandate to make NSW great,” Baird said in his victory speech before 10pm. “Tonight, the people of NSW have given us that mandate, and to them we say thank you.”

Though he has served as NSW Premier for nearly a full year now, this is the first time he has been democratically elected into the position after everyone said O’Farewell to Barry O’Farrell. Accordingly, he took this opportunity to go full Obama:

While every piece of polling data could have told you this in advance, it’s worth noting that this is somewhat of a win for the other parties too. If the ALP do manage to take out 34 seats as predicted that will be an enormous 14-seat improvement from the 2011 election. The Greens have also had a huge surge in popularity; jumping from just one seat to a minimum of three, with the results of Lismore still to come. So far, they’ve taken out Newtown, Balmain, and Ballina — a seat which has been held by retiring Nationals MP Don Page for the last 27 years.

But these are just smaller parts in what is an overall decisive win for the Coalition. With the Premier-elect personally thanking the Prime Minister in his victory speech, it’s all no doubt restored a bit of credibility to the Liberal party after their embarrassing loss in Queensland. Also, the fact that Baird is a confident and popular leader will likely challenge people’s current views that the Liberals are all onion-eating psychopaths who can’t stop yelling about Nazis.

As such, with an election result that might feel a little predictable or underwhelming here are a few things we can all get excited about:

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All Of The Sausages

It was an unprecedented year for hot meat in NSW with both #snagvotes and #democracysausage vying to guide punters around the best sizzling civic duty in their area. By the popularity of the hashtags, it looks like newcomer Democracy Sausage was victorious by a slim margin, but that wasn’t the end of the meat-related intrigue.

With primary schools competing so fiercely against one another, the standard went way up. Reports on Twitter indicate some North Shore polling booths featured complimentary coffee. The Sydney Morning Herald report there was vegetable hash and pulled pork rolls at Erskineville Primary School, and The Daily Telegraph wrote that Australia Street Infant School in Newtown worked their way through 10 blocks of haloumi and offered sandwiches with kale, rocket and spinach.

Seriously. We’re not the only ones talking about this.

Early reports were suggesting that Redfern were trailing in several key criteria, but the late campaigning efforts of this adorable champion resulted in a landslide victory.

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A-Grade Campaign Posters

But all this exciting democracy wasn’t just limited to one day. Politicians have coated the street with campaign material or months now; their faces firmly cable-tied onto peoples’ front fences, maniacally staring at unsuspecting citizens through their bedroom windows. Now, whether we like it or not, those images are seared into our brains.

Take for example, Tim Crakanthorp:

Crakanthorp has been re-elected as the Labor member of Newcastle for another term, although he’d probably be wise to change his press shot to something other than the ocean and quit bragging about he’s a member of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter board. His cover is officially blown.

Then there’s Dr Stephen Ruff, an orthopaedic surgeon who was running as an independent for the seat of North Shore to stop the sale of the Royal North Shore Hospital.

He is incredible:

Despite considerable public support from healthcare professionals, Buzzfeed, morning show host Lisa Wilkinson and trendsetters all across the country, Dr Ruff unfortunately lost to long-standing Liberal MP Jillian Skinner, but his legacy will not be forgotten.

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Jenny Leong’s Dress

In one of the first Greens wins of the night, Jenny Leong claimed a victory Newtown — a seat the ABC call the “newest, smallest and funkiest electorate” in the state. I added the italics, because I like to imagine Antony Green reading it with a cheeky smile.

This was a big win for Leong as she took 60.9 percent of the vote against Labor’s Penny Sharpe so she rightfully hosted a big celebration with Greens leader Christine Milne. Most importantly: she did all this in the best dress you’ve ever seen.

Ya get it? Because she likes the environment! Look, for added effect, here she is with some trees:

And here she is on her day off:

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Everyone’s Eternal Love For Antony Green

Even if we don’t like what he tells us from time to time, everyone can agree that ABC election analyst Antony Green is kind of incredible. Each year he emerges from whatever small, windowless room the broadcaster keeps him and proves he can still simultaneously be one of the most incisive political minds in the country as well as your dithering Year 9 Geography teacher who couldn’t quite figure out the overhead projector. It’s the best.

As such, last night was pretty exciting if only for the fact we were granted an opportunity to bask in his presence.

FYI he retweeted that poem from Buzzfeed. He likes poetry. Everyone needs to write him a sonnet ASAP.

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Everyone’s Eternal Contempt For Fred Nile

If you think getting together to collectively love someone is fun, you should try getting together to collectively hate them. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but it’s increasingly seeming like the norm these days, and the state election was no exception: people did not take kindly to Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile.

This could have happened for a number of reasons. It could have something to do with his longstanding condemnation of homosexuality and recent condemnation of Mardi Gras, the fact that his general old man blathering regularly affects actual change in Parliament, or the aggressive, anti-Islamic election campaign he inexplicably ran.

Whatever the case: people went all in.

But, while there’s a certain joy in that — using your civic power for what you believe is right, and feeling genuine validation as an active citizen in your nation’s democracy — it’s probably worth noting that it looks like Fred Nile will still be around for a while yet.

Half the votes for the Legislative Council have been counted and it seems like the CDP will hold the balance of power yet again. As of this moment a confirmed 71,892 people have voted for him.

But woah, here’s the sausage dog again!

dog

Look, into his beautiful calm eyes!

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SO CALM. EVERYTHING’S FINE.

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Feature image via Mike Baird/Facebook.