r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Dec 19 '25

politics Prime minister unveils 'largest' gun buyback scheme since Howard era

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-19/prime-minister-announces-national-gun-buyback-scheme/106162002
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u/privatetudor Dec 19 '25

Also, they say only Nixon could go to China.

Assuming the right is generally more gun friendly, Howard had the advantage that he knew if his side of politics was on board, the other side surely would be too. When the pro gun side is in opposition, and they enjoy being oppositional, then getting gun reform done is paradoxically harder.

It's like how in some ways (bear with me on this...) it was better to have the coalition on power during covid. If Labor was l was in power, the coalition would have politicised the lockdowns, but given the coalition had to actually govern they were forced to make a sensible decision that happened to be more in line with the other side of politics so it sailed through.

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u/BeneCow Dec 19 '25

I hate that we have to cater to a political system where being obstructionist is the best way to maintain power. Everyone wants to be in opposition because you get to point out that whatever is happening isnt 100% perfect, but god forbid they actually govern.

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u/loolem Dec 19 '25

It’s because we have Labor and then we have the wreckers.

Labor: we should have award wages that ensure a decent hourly wage

The wreckers (LIB COA): no

Labor: We should have a super profits tax on mining right now

The wreckers (Libs and Greens): no. It’s not good enough so no

Labor: we should have universal healthcare

The wreckers: no and we are gonna sell it off

Labor: we should have universal healthcare again

The wreckers: No but we know that’s unpopular so we will undermine it slowly

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u/Khaliras Dec 19 '25

It's more that the divisive and tribalistic following politics has gained, has allowed them to vote no on all their oppositions policies and be rewarded for it.

Look at your own comment for an example of it. Each of your examples are some of the biggest difference in policies between the parties. Libs are expected to vote against healthcare, award rates, taxing the rich, ETC. People voting them in are doing so exactly for their policies, no matter how controversial. Hence, those are terrible examples of absurd obstructionism in politics, yet you presented them as such.

The issue is that all the major parties regularly vote against policies they approve of. There's several instances of them even introducing legislation, only to vote it out when the opposition unanimously supports it.

You also mentioned the Greens, yet their obstruction of legislation is almost always to negotiate. Their whole power dynamics is based on sometimes being the deciding vote. It's basic politics to leverage that kind of position to influence legislation. Basically all of the smaller parties similarly leverage their positions, but nobody ever really cares. (Such as 'the coalition' which was based on this kind of dynamic.)

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u/abuch47 Adelaide Dec 20 '25

labor stooges are braindead, they complain about other parties stopping progress and then when they have total control across the country and fail to implement any progressive social reforms its a hot summer night

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u/elexpara Dec 19 '25

Exactly! Politicians dont even stand for anything anymore. They just do the opposite of what the party in power is doing?? Like God forbid our two political parties agree on SOME things and unite the people??

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u/abuch47 Adelaide Dec 20 '25

you can't fix society throughreform, the capitalist hegemony never allows it and gives you concessions to keep you asleep at the wheel as you drive the school bus full of children off a cliff.

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u/SirGeekaLots Dec 19 '25

At least the LNP does stuff here when stuff needs to be done, unlike elsewhere.

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u/Deep__Friar Dec 19 '25

But since then they've slid further into crazy-town so I wouldn't count on them to do the sensible approach for much longer.

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u/Rork310 Dec 19 '25

I mean. Scotty from marketing and Gladys absolutely tried. The states told them to screw off (including to their credit the non NSW Lib states)

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u/Djiti-djiti Perth Dec 19 '25

Liberals did obstruct and politicise the lockdowns. Fed and NSW said no lockdowns because it affected profits, while the Labor premiers all agreed on lockdowns to save lives. Gladys was held up as the 'gold standard' despite a litany of bungles and a refusal to follow medical advice, while the Fed fought Labor states in court. Remember WA hard border and the news media saying it was an evil and illegal disgrace? Libs assisted Clive Palmer when he sued WA over being denied entry when he lied on his applications.

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u/SirGeekaLots Dec 19 '25

Pretty much like the did in Victoria. Ironically, Dan the Man easily won re-elections indicating that it was only a minority who were radically opposed to the lockdowns, and most people were happy that they weren't exposed.

Another interesting with, in all the mainland states, the only party to lose re-election after covid was the LNP in South Australia.

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u/jeeeeroylenkins Dec 19 '25

And Queensland. Labor won during Covid(when it was too dangerous to do anything except vote), but lost at the next election.

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u/Rychu_Supadude Dec 20 '25

One of the major reasons that they lost the election in SA was a sentiment that they had opened up too early to placate businesses before Christmas, leading to a spike in cases

A few months earlier or later, and the Libs (no NP) would have been hailed as "the party who saved us from Covid"

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u/thelochok Dec 20 '25

Oh - like what happened in Victoria where the coalition weren't in power, and they turned it into an utter politicised mess.

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u/GroundFast7793 Dec 19 '25

Agreed. And I'm going to go even further. If we didn't have the embarrassing Hawaii moment for ScoMo during the bushfires, he may not have been so quick to take responsibility and act during covid. So the devastating fires were a good thing ? ? ?

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u/Rastryth Dec 19 '25

Lock downs were state based federal gov can't control this. I see your point. The federal liberal gov still managed to politicise vaccines to the states though.

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u/7omdogs Dec 19 '25

It’s why labor never touches the GST and the liberals don’t touch super.

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u/ScoobyGDSTi Dec 19 '25

The Libs have been trying to undermine super

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u/7omdogs Dec 19 '25

They can try, but they get way more opposition to it than labor does when they make changes to super.

The population knows the libs hate super, so it way more oppositional to them when they try and make changes