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.