Australia General Discussion 4.0: It ain’t easy under Albanese

[Хahar 🤔]

Please just ignore and move on. He has nothing interesting to say and responding is just polluting the thread.

[Хahar 🤔]

Heck, is Slugg still plugging away?

People keep responding, don't they?

[Хahar 🤔]

The government has not gained a seat at a federal by-election since 1929, and the government has only gained a seat from the official opposition at a federal by-election once in the history of Australia (Kalgoorlie, 1920), but even the reverse is uncommon: the last time the official opposition gained a seat in a federal by-election was 2001. Something strange about Australia to me is how weakly by-elections tend to be contested in comparison to Britain or Canada; in those countries major parties fail to contest by-elections only under unusual circumstances, but it seems to be far more common in Australia. Witness the case of the WA state constituency of North West Central, where Labor only barely lost and that because of the personal popularity of the National MP, Vince Catania. When he resigned last year, Labor refused to stand a candidate in the by-election. I don't quite understand it.