7 September 2011

ACT Young Liberals AGM results are in

| starbased
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Last week, the ACT Young Liberals held their AGM. The evening was full of the standard fare, arguing, attacks etc but was a good controversial evening. It showed that there was indeed fire in the belly of the ACT Young Libs.

The left swept to power, with generally 5-7 more votes than the right wing faction on each ballot. Personally, I believe the left did a fairly poor job in explaining their roles, running fresh new candidates. The attendees were pre-shored up by the leaders of the left and right (right being Henry Pike) apart from a few of us who swung on the evening based on the merits.

President
Duncan MacDonald (hardcore left wing leader)

Vice President
George Ober (left wing)

Secretary
Taras Kontek (left wing, new)

Treasurer
Candice Burch (left wing)

Development Officer
Matthew Taylor (left wing, new)

Social Officer
James Baillie (left wing, new, looks 12 years old)

General Representative
Louise English (left wing)
Mitch Hatherly (unknown)

Federal Delegate
Lauren Callahan (left wing)
Jimmy Kiploks (right wing, old guard)

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luther_bendross said :

How left can a Young Liberal be? The world is only moderately flat?

They’d like to keep women in the 60’s not 50’s.

but only 1960-63 thank you very much.

Left wing? Young Liberals?

Starbased clearly is.

milkman said :

Most youngsters are left, and many gradually make their way right as they grow in worldly capacity. Actually working for things make you appreciate them, and makes you less tolerant of the lazy.

It’s an old saying

“If you’re not a socialist when you are twenty…you have no heart. If you’re still a socialist when you are thirty…you have no brain.”

Tetranitrate said :

We’re still talking about people who hang portraits of the queen in their bedrooms though.

Well, she was pretty hot when she was twenty.

While this all looks funny now to us outsiders, remember that some of these people may eventually end up in government.

Thoroughly Smashed9:24 am 08 Sep 11

A left wing faction in the young liberals, now I’ve heard everything.

I’m sorry .. maybe I misunderstand. Are they “left wing” by their own pronouncement, or has that label been applied by the OP?

Most youngsters are left, and many gradually make their way right as they grow in worldly capacity. Actually working for things make you appreciate them, and makes you less tolerant of the lazy.

Tetranitrate11:49 pm 07 Sep 11

creative_canberran said :

Tetranitrate said :

creative_canberran said :

I have a slight preference for phrases like “liberal conservative”, which is what I’m assuming Duncan MacDonald would be rather than a pure “hard left”. Which is to say the conservative economic values typical of Liberal Party supporters but a liberal attitude on social issues.

Yes but what’s odd about the OP is that the particular people being characterized as ‘left wing’ aren’t ‘liberal conservative’ or ‘libertarian’ at all.

Really, so conservative on both economic and social fronts… odd categorisation indeed then.
Perhaps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx7a3leZJJI

Perhaps they meant left faction (the left of the right), though that’s more a Labor thing I thought.

Right, after a facebook discussion on this article, apparently they actually are ‘left’, insofar as the group that used to be the right wingers became totally dominant and split, with these guys being slightly less right wing than the other right wingers.

We’re still talking about people who hang portraits of the queen in their bedrooms though.

The annotations next to their names are terrible.

I have a slight preference for phrases like “liberal conservative”, which is what I’m assuming Duncan MacDonald would be rather than a pure “hard left”. Which is to say the conservative economic values typical of Liberal Party supporters but a liberal attitude on social issues.

Actually Duncan was always suspect economically. I never believed he had any real belief in economic freedom. On social issues he was a social conservative with an obsession with the monarchy.

This article is very confusing. These guys used to be all in the one faction after the Finladens were defeated. Did they split? Henry Pike was probably one of the most classically liberal conservatives in the YLs. So is it left v right on matters of economics? Or is it merely a personality issue.

My guess is personality. It’s never about policy. Shame Hank lost then.

creative_canberran11:17 pm 07 Sep 11

Tetranitrate said :

creative_canberran said :

I have a slight preference for phrases like “liberal conservative”, which is what I’m assuming Duncan MacDonald would be rather than a pure “hard left”. Which is to say the conservative economic values typical of Liberal Party supporters but a liberal attitude on social issues.

Yes but what’s odd about the OP is that the particular people being characterized as ‘left wing’ aren’t ‘liberal conservative’ or ‘libertarian’ at all.

Really, so conservative on both economic and social fronts… odd categorisation indeed then.
Perhaps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx7a3leZJJI

Perhaps they meant left faction (the left of the right), though that’s more a Labor thing I thought.

Tetranitrate10:56 pm 07 Sep 11

creative_canberran said :

I have a slight preference for phrases like “liberal conservative”, which is what I’m assuming Duncan MacDonald would be rather than a pure “hard left”. Which is to say the conservative economic values typical of Liberal Party supporters but a liberal attitude on social issues.

Yes but what’s odd about the OP is that the particular people being characterized as ‘left wing’ aren’t ‘liberal conservative’ or ‘libertarian’ at all.

creative_canberran10:41 pm 07 Sep 11

Jethro said :

creative_canberran said :

I’m not sure if the distinctions of left and right are that relevant anyway anymore,

This one has done the rounds but I think it is still a better of representing one’s political leanings:

http://www.politicalcompass.org

It measures economic leaning on the X axis and social leanings on the Y axis.

The test is fun to take, although probably a bit biased towards the Libertarian Left side of things.

A link on the left will take you to the supposed position of Australia’s major parties (although I’m not sure about the positioning of the Nationals, which I would place further to the left economically, and further to the authoritarian side socially.

Yep, that’s what I was getting at, that a person’s entire political leaning can’t be summarised on a single axis.

That is to say that the left is traditionally seen as progressive and the right conservative, but that’s heavily influenced by economic belief.

And the site you link to (particularly this graph: http://www.politicalcompass.org/images/aus2010.png) demonstrates what I was saying perfectly. Both the Libs and Labor bunched up in the authoritarian/right quadrant, which is the impression I get from supporters of both parties on campus.

I have a slight preference for phrases like “liberal conservative”, which is what I’m assuming Duncan MacDonald would be rather than a pure “hard left”. Which is to say the conservative economic values typical of Liberal Party supporters but a liberal attitude on social issues.

creative_canberran said :

I’m not sure if the distinctions of left and right are that relevant anyway anymore,

This one has done the rounds but I think it is still a better of representing one’s political leanings:

http://www.politicalcompass.org

It measures economic leaning on the X axis and social leanings on the Y axis.

The test is fun to take, although probably a bit biased towards the Libertarian Left side of things.

A link on the left will take you to the supposed position of Australia’s major parties (although I’m not sure about the positioning of the Nationals, which I would place further to the left economically, and further to the authoritarian side socially.

Tetranitrate5:33 pm 07 Sep 11

Tetranitrate said :

The left wingers were people like Christian Dent and the assorted Gary Humphries fanclub.

ah sorry – Christian Dunk, not dent.

Tetranitrate5:30 pm 07 Sep 11

Duncan MacDonald is ‘left wing’?

what? Duncan, George, Candice, Lauren – they were the right wing Liberals back when I was at ANU.
that is the socially conservative, obsessively monarchist bunch.
These are the self described “Cavaliers” who worshiped Gary Kent and later Alistair Coe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier). There are still old posts on the riotact by them actually, eg:
http://the-riotact.com/young-libs-take-control/7546

The left wingers were people like Christian Dent and the assorted Gary Humphries fanclub.

If these guys are the left wing young liberals, I sure as hell don’t want to meet the right.

creative_canberran5:29 pm 07 Sep 11

I’m not sure if the distinctions of left and right are that relevant anyway anymore, much less in youth politics where social and economic opinions enjoy a wider divergence. The rabid Young Labor folk at ANU (many of whom this year are running an “independent” ticket) might shout about lefty views on issues, but in many respects they’re indistinguishable from the Young Libs. Pro environment, pro same-sex marriage and pro-student welfare.

Exactly how left, and how far right, are the left and right wings of the ACT Young Liberals?

Just an indication, on a scale from Hilter to Stalin? (or Obama to Obama, for those of you following US politics?)

Duncan McDonald is “left wing” now? And hardcore, no less?! Must be a good story there.

luther_bendross4:18 pm 07 Sep 11

How left can a Young Liberal be? The world is only moderately flat?

Left wing? Right wing? In the early 1980s one of my sex partners was a rugby prop and the former president of the Newcastle branch of the Young Libs. He said to me “We don’t have factions in the Liberal party. We have interest groups 😉

At a margin of 5 or 7 it looks like most of the votes were close – unless, of course, only two men and a dog were there.

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