re: #4 I Earned My Sodomy Merit Badge!

I don’t know if the conservatives in Australia are as nutty as the US.

From the “analysis” sidebar on this BBC article:

You sense from voters that Mr Abbott’s victory is not so much a ringing endorsement as a rejection of Labor. He’s a conservative who has promised a tough line on immigration and asylum-seekers. He opposes gay marriage and has been a sceptic on climate change.

In other words, a bigoted, racist, anti-science wingnut who’d fit right in with the GOP.