Plan!

Back! With a plan! Have studied the poll results and prepared the visuals. See maps.

To the jaded eye map 1 appears to indicate a massive blue (Liberal/Republican friendly) tide engulfing the continent. (Teensy tiny red areas are opposition government seats). Now, look at map 2 - orange dots are the major population centres. Here comes the clever bit, voila! Map 3, superimposed 2004 electorate results over map 2! A brief diversion;

Australias total national population; 20,193,762
Population of Sydney; 4,250,100
of Melbourne; 3,610,800
of Brisbane; 1,547,700
of Canberra; 327,700
of Hobart; 189,4000
of Northern Territories; 199,200
Total of Syd, Melb, Bris, Can, Hob and NT; 11,829,500
Total of rest of Australia; 8,364,262

Astute readers will be noticing at about this point that all the blue areas in map 1 are demographically "thin" while red areas are (mostly) demographically "condensed". Sharp-eyed viewers will notice red areas aligning with population centres (an apology to shortsighted viewers, jpeg quality isn't very good for the vision impaired). More telling, that weeny little red patch right between Sydney and Melbourne (smallest orange dot, map 2, lower right) is Canberra. The capital city. Where parliament sits. With a swing to opposition candidates of .68 and .47 percents. Hold it! Stop composing your indignant comment right now. I am not asserting the vote was rorted. Australia's trusty government would never stack rural polling booths. Besides, possums don't have voting rights. No, my plan is a far more wiley plan.

The Plan

Key word; distribution. Plenty of people in all Australia's population centres to go around, yes? Besides, the cities are getting overcrowded. So, here is the plan. LOL no Australians reading. Nevermind, requesting all readers pretend to be Australian for two sec's. Er, more specifically Australian city dwelling labour voters for two secs. Now, five percent of you go and move to WA (left blue chunk), five percent of you move to SA (lower blue chunk) and a couple percent of you move to country Queensland (orange/fawn chunk). That should do it. Canberra dwellers can stay where you are, you seem kind of settled in there and it is a well planned city. Right. Now, elections roll around every three years in Australia. Analysts are pegging two more terms before the opposition government makes a comeback so that's six years to buy or sell, re-settle and register in a new electorate of your choice which you can help to swing the vote in.

Have to go and do some serious surviving now, back later with more incentives to go rural.


Update; Anyone following Aus election results will know Labour only needs a 4 to 5 percent swing (plus a coalition arrangement with the Greens) to be elected. There are still a whole 19.5 percent votes to be counted. Looking good for a table-turning landslide postal vote! Alright, I was being sarcastic. Not that it shows when I am playing out of the overly optimistic pack.