Explosivo2002

Explosivo2002 is the current Senator for Queensland since March 2020, as well as serving as the Shadow Minister for Education. He was formerly the leader of the Labor Party until that party's dissolution in March 2020, and before that was that party's Deputy Leader. He also stood for election on the Labor Party ticket for the 2020 Mayo By-Election

Political Career
On February 10th, Explosivo2002 had his membership application for the Labor Party accepted by Labor Leader Lucifer Morningstar. However, he would not sit idly by during his early days of his political life.

February 2020 Mayo By-Election
The writs for the Mayo By-Election were issues by the AEC early on the morning of the 12th of February, by the end of the day three candidates had joined the race, included Explosivo; to be noted is at this point he had only been a Labor member for 2 days.

Upon joining in the race, he built up a reputation as a master campaigner amongst many politicians in and outside parliament, a skill he would attribute to his days leading the AEU in New South Wales. He first launched his campaign with attacks against the Liberals and Nationals alongside a jobs program titled "AusToWork": three things that would become mainstays of his first election campaign. Beyond this, he campaigned on worker's rights, the institution of an anti-corruption commission, and on his belief in popular sovereignty and giving the people a stronger voice in government

When the results of the by-election came in, Explosivo would finish 5th place out of the 5 candidates: however, he would get 13.5% of the First Preference votes, almost 3x more than the national Labor average.. However, despite this disappointing finish, it would not be his last action in the political realm.

Deputy Leader of the Labor Party
On the 22nd of February, Labor leader Lucifer Morningstar spilled the vacant deputy position in the party room meeting that day, asking any members of the party who wished to stand for the position to notify him in the coming days. After a delay of a few hours, Explosivo announced to the party his intent to put his hand up for the position. However, by the 23rd of February, no other candidate had joined in the race, and so in a press release that day, the party announced Explosivo as their new Deputy Leader, taking over the position vacated by Morningstar when he assumed leadership following the resignation of Dyljam. During his time as Deputy Leader, the Labor Party did nothing much of note, due in large part due to a lack of by-elections and only processing one Senate seat and none in the House.

Entrance into the Senate and Labor Leadership
Explosivo's time in the Deputy Leadership came to an abrupt end on the 12th March, following the resignation of Labor Leader advancedgaming12 due to his nomination as a High Court Justice. Following this, Explosivo was appointed to fill his vacancies in the Senate, Cabinet and Party Leadership, taking his posistions as Deputy Prime Minister, Senator for Queensland and Labor Leader later that day. However, following his assumption to the leadership, rumours began to fly around about the future of the party, with many considering Explosivo only a temporary leader until the party either dissolved or merger into another: an idea re-enforced by the fact that Labour were only hovering around 5% Nationally at that point in time. Indeed, these rumours would be seemingly confirmed the next day on the 13th, when a leak revealed a meeting between the PM NGSpy, Explosivo, and Socialist Leader MattMonti, with the leak suggesting the three were meeting to debate about possibly merging all three parties. The rumours would last until the 15th, when Explosivo released a press release to the media announcing his plans to merge the Labor Party into the SDP to acheive, as he called it, 'a unity of the left'.

, with the Socialists announcing a similar future on the 18th of March. In the midst of all that, advancedgaming12 was confirmed as a High Court Justice on the 19th of March, and departed the Labor Party as their last leader to lead them into any form of election, that being the Mayo-By Election of the month before.

Opposistion in the 16th Parliament
Immediately following the election loss, there was a shuffle of roles in the now-Shadow Cabinet, with Explosivo2002 ending up gaining the Education and Training portfolio, and would later gain the Communications and the Arts portfolio in a Shadow Cabinet mid-way through the term.

The Anthem Plebiscite
During the 2020 Anthem Plebiscite, Explosivo2002 was the only Social Democratic Party member to openly come out in support of the Keep It As It Is Campaign, launching ads for it across his state of Queensland. However, on the 25th of April, he broke away from the campaign following the decision by the Prime Minister (who was also a member of Keep It As It Is) to endorse True Blue for the first plebiscite, a song he had disavowed during his first speech of the campaign. However, he would remain on the campaign trail for Advance Australia Fair, launching a series of ads for the second plebiscite with the slogan of 'Our Anthem' during this time, he also worked closely with Keep It As It Is Campaign Director AussieConservative to co-ordinate their efforts. However, on May 9th, the results came back 53% in favour of the alternative option, I Am Australian.

However, despite his close working relationship with the Liberal National Party during the course of the campaign, he was one of the most vocal critics of the government's actions during the 2020 Anthem Scandal: he launched attacks against the government and railed against the government's policies on Twitter and during a Senate debate on the issue, famously comparing the government of the time to a 'pit of snakes'.

In Parliament
Throughout his term in Opposistion, Explosivo

The Brisbane By-Election
After a few months away from the political scene, and a subsequent resignation from the Social Democratic Party, Explosivo emerged as an anti-establishment Independent candidate in the September 2020 Brisbane By-Election

The 18th General Election
Following his failed attempt to win the seat of Brisbane, Explosivo returned to New South Wales for the first time since his run in Mayo, and elected to run as an Independent again in an attempt to replace outgoing Independent MP General_Rommel as the Member for Sydney. In the General Election, he was up against the same opponent that his predecessor came up against, that being the Liberal Party candidate Mrcri. Once the results came in on the 9th of October, Explosivo won in a landslide, defeating his Liberal Opponent by over 32% of the vote. When the result was called, he was on an ABC Election Panel, and reacted with surprise, simply responding with the phrase of "And thank you Sydney!".

Formation and Collapse of the Government
The situation following the election was one of a hung Parliament, with Explosivo being the focus of much speculation as to just who he would align with, as he had previously worked with both sides of Parliament on multiple bills. However, despite the fact that many in the media expected him to join an SDP-led Coalition, he would eventually join the Liberals and the newley-elected MBOM to form what was considered an unlikley government.

However, on the 18th of October, a day after his fellow Independent MBOM withdrew support for the government, Explosivo followed suit, reducing the Liberal government to only 6 members in the 15 member House, and effectively collapsing the government. He would later elaborate upon his decision to withdraw from the government, stating in Parliament that "so as to facilitate the formation of a government of either side in the wake of an upcoming VONC, and I in no ways departed the government with the intent of bringing it down". However, despite his withdrawal of support from the government, he also announced that he would recuse himself from the Vote of No Confidence launched against the Liberal Government, due to his own previous position in the government and potential to be a kingmaker in the aftermath of the vote.