retired_musiclova31

and most of those voted for maxine mckew instead :thup:

retired_google

So the last-ditch Liberal campaign video failed?

DebSchiff

Is Australia quite a right wing country? I always get that impression, what with Howard being one of the most right wing leaders in the western world and this Labor party bloke (same one who picked his nose on tv, right?) talking about being an "economic conservative" and stuff.

retired_embartl

the riots over the "lebos" suggests they have a problem of tolerance re immigrants, but not spectacularly more so than us having the BNP or UKIP spouting their usual garbage.

retired_nela

Ah, so if there is violence involving immigrants, it has nothing to do with the immigrants themselves?

I think it was more a case of idiotic kids on both sides. Rather than rushing for the usual tags of racism/intolerance/etc, it's a lot better to actually look at what happened rather than seeing it as "Lebos" vs "Aussies"...

retired_nela

Fantastic Freudian slip by Kerry O'Brien about there being a "swing to the ABC" in Bennalong. Probably the best thing for Howard - I don't think he would have been too enthusiastic about being Opposition leader. Now it's up to Captain Smirk!

BTW, looks like the Democrats are finally dead and buried, and I heard nothing about Pauline's latest comeback.

retired_nela

Howard was certainly a conservative, but not right-wing. Our only right-wing parties, One Nation and perhaps Family First, have had minimal support. The Greens would be heading towards left-wing, and they're gaining a fairly large backing (albeit mostly Arts students and the like).

As for Rudd, I think the economic conservatism would be just trying to defend himself against warnings the economy would suffer with him in charge, compared to its great health under Howard. Past Labor governments have an appalling economic record. Still, he is going to reverse Howard's workplace reforms, and Labor is notoriously union-dominated. Politically, on immigration, defence and the like, he is very similar to Howard.

retired_musiclova31

dems lost both their senate seats, and what few house of reps candidates they had running were annihilated.

hansen fell well short of a seat in the senate on her comeback too.

retired_rmschaffer

I felt relief. There has been so much false hope in previous elections.

On Friday there was a few polls suggesting that there would be a late swing back to the Liberals. I would have been unhappy if Howard made one of the "famous political comebacks" and got to leave in triumph.

I think any party that is in there too long starts to abuse its power. I didn't like how they politicised the public service. I didn't like how they used their senate majority to limit parliamentary debate. Or how they tried to wreck the ABC and commercialise SBS.

I think Howard had a bit of luck with the economy. The Labour govt did a lot of politically unpopular economic reforms in the 1980s. Things like opening up trade, the financial sector and the exchange rate. So I think he got the benefit of that as well as coming into power when the global economy had started to recover.


I don't think things will be dramatically better under Labor. I am just glad there has been a change and hope Labor governs well..

I also hope that the Liberals elect a quality leader. Someone that is competent and not too caught up in right wing ideology. In the NSW state govt, both Liberal and Labor are horrible. They are both incompetent and heavily influenced by factions and political donors.

retired_el_chanclas

They did not have a problem with immigrants.

They had a problem with the youth gangs coming to the beach in large numbers (groups of 10/20/30) who then treat everyone else like ****.

Their last straw was a group of 10 or so beating up a couple of young lifeguards.