The Liberal/National coalition government has won today’s federal election, increasing its majority in the House of Representatives.
Prime Minister John Howard is certainly a very astute politician. He has managed to snatch victory from the jaws of what looked like an almost certain defeat several weeks ago.
A good omen for other incumbents - like Mr Bush?
Hope not.
Kudos to Australia! I would also predict that Tony & Labour will do well in Great Britain (late '05 or or '06? Something like that, I thought), as will GW and Republicans in America.
What, other countries have elections too?
Afghanistan.
The Labor Party completley fucked up the campaign. They didn’t effectively rebut the accusations of incompetence that were directed at Latham, and they simply refused to get into any real debate over foreign policy or Howard’s lying. Fucking idiots.
Thanks buddy!
It seems our country is largely composed of a flock of vultures who can be bought for $600 and a FTA agreement with the US. At least we know y’all like us.
One consolation might be that Beazley could lose his seat. The Labor campaign started to go seriously downhill when Beazley the appeaser got brought on board as foreign policy spokesman.
Sorry if it seems like I’m just posting random thoughts. I’m pretty pissed off at the Labor Party at the moment.
Bringing Beazley in was good strategy. He’s in love with the yanks and deflects charges of Labor being anti-American. You might detest Bush but most Australians think their our bestest buddies and our bulwark against the coming invasion from Indonesia or China or… somewhere Asian.
Lay off the useless fucking neo-liberal ALP and put the blame where it always belongs in a democracy.
Ah, yes, the $600 Bush tax-rebate … oh, wait–you were talking about Australia, weren’t you?
Good to know our countries have so much in common.
A good election strategy is one that actually wins the election. Latham had fantastic poll numbers back when he was bashing Howard and Bush. All of that disappeared when Beazley came on the scene.
“Prime Minister John Howard is certainly a very astute politician. He has managed to snatch victory from the jaws of what looked like an almost certain defeat several weeks ago”.
Thats not my understanding, at least with the second bit. At best it was viewed as possibly a tough election for Howard, ‘certain defeat’ was never a term being used that I saw. There was a ‘Labour could win if the election was held today’ result at one point, but this really didnt mean much.
The general thought at this stage is that almost everyone had made their minds up ages ago, with just a few last minute tweaks, eg Labour blowing it in regards to its Tasmanian announcement, which seems to have cost them in blue collar more than it gained in green votes.
Australia just doesnt change govts much really.
Otara
Yeah, but the first bit is spot on and that’s what counts. Howard is the greatest Federal politician we’ve had since Hawke. I still think it was Howard’s win rather than Latham’s loss.
The scary thing is that the Coalition, with the Family First Party, have control of the Senate. I think this will prove to be worse than the Coalition having outright control of both houses. Christian fundamentalism has made its entry into Australian politics.
I take it you’ve never heard of Fred Nile or Brian Harradine.
Sure I’ve heard of them but the Christian Democrats have never been in the Senate and I don’t think they’ve held the balance anywhere else. Harradine was a stodgy old prick but he was an individual and not a movement. Unlike the morons at One Nation though, Family First are slicker than duckshit and don’t even have the humanitarian streak Harradine had. They’ll help keep the refos locked away in the desert and let Howard flog off Telstra as well. They have absolutely no redeeming progressive qualities whatsoever. Howard will never even need to grit his teeth with them as he must have in discussions with Harradine.
Latham ran a really lacklustre campaign - restricting public and media access (he only ever confronted pre-schoolers except for his Tasmanian disaster) and only four incumbent governments have voted out in the last 50 years.
Sorry 'bout that. We’ve been trying to clean up our infestation for decades now, and one or two must have sneaked aboard an export container and escaped when it got over there.
It would appear that if the economy’s doing pretty well - which it it and has been for some time, a fact that the government can take some credit for - incumbents are pretty damn difficult to defeat.
I agree with you there, plus I think they made another huge mistake by not highlighting how the Howard Government has let human rights of Australians held in Guantanamo Bay get flushed down the toilet.
On top of that, I think their biggest mistake was toning Latham down. It was refreshing to see a politician who actually said what was on his mind, rather than the usual political double-speak put forth by every other major party politician in Australia.
Who wasn’t nodding their head when Latham called John Howard an “arselicker”?
I am pig-biting mad about those things TastesLikeBurning, and dismayed that much of the public doesn’t seem to care. But I don’t think that was what’s wrong with the ALP campaign. It wasn’t that the various outrages weren’t emphasised enough by Latham - it’s just that a large number of people don’t care much if at all about those things if interest rates are low and there’s been growth for a long time.
Howard’s approach to the mortgage belt was “You’re doing ok. Maybe there’ve been some nasty things going on, but you don’t wanna know and I’ve dealt with them. Why risk change?”
Appeals to the big picture just don’t work here. Freedom, justice, society - all things that even Bush has to tell a story about - just don’t register here if there are jobs and you can own a house.
At first, I thought Howard’s approach of “Trust” was chutzpah, but it wasn’t. It was simple: I have delivered what you care about and ignored the bleatings about children overboard and wars. You know I’ve lied and you like it.
Shudder.