Merry Christmas Everyone – and hope you all have a fantastic New Year.

Before I leave it at that here are some of my predictions for 2019.

TRUMP

Nothing will happen in this respect. Trump will still be President and will remain the most vilified President the US has ever seen. We will see more Trump Rallies as he gears up for primaries and 2020 Election.

NSW STATE ELECTION

NSW State Election is due in March of 2019. I don’t believe the Coalition will lose Government but I do think they will lose seats. You got to remember in 2015 the Liberal and National Parties (more so the Libs) gained popularity because of the charisma of Mike Baird therefore they have a fair amount of capital to lose without costing them Government (Admittedly they have almost maxed out their political capital card). I think the biggest losers at this State Election will be the National Party. The seat of Barwon is the one to watch. The Nationals are only polling at 33% – the Shooters who are the next favourites have a good chance of winning this seat after preferences.

The NSW Legislative Council will be interesting. We will see One Nation pick up a seat with Mark Latham re-entering politics and potentially picking up a second seat.
As One Nation and the Shooters indicating preference deals we will see more seats go to the Shooters in the Upper House.
I don’t believe the Australian Conservatives will do well unless they pick up votes from Fred Niles Christian Democrats.
The Liberal Democrats will only pick up seats if they work with Glenn Druery the preference whisperer (why? Thats a story for another day).
As for the Greens, their votes will be down, they will lose some upper house seats. The Green vote will go to either Labor or some other left leaning micro party.

AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLITICS

2019 will bring us a Federal Election around May. Given Labor has just given the Coalition a wonderful Christmas present by softening their policies on border protection, increase funding to the United Nations and wanting to increase the Foreign Aid budget, the Coalition has a chance of redemption. I do believe the Coalition will lose Government but I do think Parliament will be a hung one with potentially Labor forming an alliance with the left leaning cross-bench to form Government. In other words the dynamics of the House of Representatives will be a similar make up to what we see now. I don’t think there will be a Labor landslide, they may pick up a hand few of seats but ultimately the kingmakers will be the cross-bench.

As for the Senate, minor parties will continue to dominate. I think the Green vote will go down and will come across to Labor similar to what we saw in Victoria or other micro party. One Nation will retain WA and pick up another seat in QLD (remember Hanson is in for 6 years). Depending on how well they perform in NSW State Election they could pick up a seat in NSW. Brian Burston the former One Nation NSW Senator – now Palmer’s Puppet – will lose his seat. Palmer will struggle to win a seat despite all the money he has invested in political adverts.
The Liberal Democrats will struggle to retain their only Senate seat unless they have an effective campaign strategy and speak to the ‘preference whisperer’ as mentioned earlier.
Cory Bernardi will retain his Senate spot but just by a whisker and The Australian Conservatives will fail to get anyone else elected.
As for the other micro parties, we will see a mixed bag, I don’t want to predict who or what else may gain seats.

AFL

The mighty West Coast Eagles winning the Premiership again! (This is more wishful thinking than a prediction)

Im hoping to expand on The Weekly Seed in 2019 with having more writers, more opinions on different subjects (other than politics) and potential investigative reporting. If you want to contribute please get in contact.

Once again MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.