Well Australia has a hung parliament and may have multi-party government. Australia is in shock, interestingly enough, because most other democracies in the world has seen this happen more often than not. It has always been ridiculous to assume that 3 parties would cover the opinions of the whole electorate. We are after all a multi-cultural society.
Britain has also discovered that the less homogeneous the society, the less representative the two major parties. The more diverse the concerns and interests of the electorate means that it is more unlikely that the major parties will be able to satisfy them.
Each party’s election campaigns concentrated on the areas that they considered their strengths. These however were not necessarily the issues that voters were focused on. The ETS and health were sidelined issues. Tax was the focus of the Liberals. Now I have been told that their campaign was effective, but it didn’t speak to me.
From the moment Abbot deposed Malcolm Turnbull, he started with his mantra of “ a big, bad tax”. Having tired of the mantra, most of their ads had no effect on me. Labour were defensive from the beginning, a problem that started with Kevin Rudd. From the day Abbot deposed Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Liberal party, Rudd went on the defensive, apologising for a lot of things. He did this while enjoying high personal ratings and sensational public opinion polls. For some reason, a government that was legislating and acting with the support of the general public, imploded.
For this reason and not for any other, Kevin had to go. Malcolm Turnbull proved to be a man of his word. He lost the Liberal leadership by one vote, because he didn’t vote himself. Abbot of course voted. He further enhanced his name by crossing the floor on the ETS, which only weeks earlier had been supported by over 50% of the Liberal party. Turnbull comes out all of this smelling of roses.
If I had any power within the Labour party I would be looking for new strategists. What a terrible job they did. For some reason when you see a party back pedal as much as the Labour party it is easy to buy into the opposition claim that they are failing as a government.
Of course getting rid of an incumbent Prime Minister through Partycide, is never good for a political party. Julia Gillard may have been the pawn of many lobby groups as claimed by the opposition, but has proven herself to be strong and capable over the campaign.
I personally find Abbot irritating and I’m sure many of his own party agree with me. He doesn’t seem to project anything that would encourage confidence him as a leader.
I love the fact that the fate of the country is in the hands of independents. It reminds me of Israel. The negotiations are the most interesting. Ex- Country party members representing communities with specific interests will decide who rules; and why not? I like the fact that they take this responsibility and that they are open minded.
I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if they side with the Labour party based on the National Broadband plan. This issue is enormous; it affects health, education, migration and city planning in rural areas. The rollout plan of the Liberals fall far short of what is demanded by “Rural Australia” let alone “Outback Australia”. National Broadband leads to better lives to those in the country. Not just by feeling less isolated, but also allowing access to immediate and interactive communication, country doctors can be helped by colleagues in the city or even overseas. It may also see Rural Australia becoming a much more attractive option for immigrants and even city-dwelling Australians.
Do I feel sorry for the investors in mining? No! Will they stop investing here if we whack on a “big new tax”? No! I don’t think anyone bought into the poor old billionaires plights.
“Big new tax” vs no clear message from Labour except maybe, “beware Tony Abbot could be your PM” and neither had much affect on the elections. It came down to timing. The timing was wrong for the government. They got one thing right. Kevin Rudd had already turned into a political liability, but overthrowing a Prime Minister is rare. No one remembered that a few weeks earlier the leader of the opposition was replaced. We may well get a chance to rectify the stalemate in another election.
What fun!!
No comments:
Post a Comment