Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Australia Votes The Lying Rodent and other Bastards Out

Takver - Sydney Indymedia | 25.11.2007 12:27 | Workers' Movements | World

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) were elected in a landslide win in the Australian Federal election on Saturday, November 24. The 'bastards' of the Liberal and National party coalition Government have been voted out. And the Prime Minister, John Howard, once called by a Liberal Party colleague 'the lying rodent', is likely to lose his own seat in the swing against the conservatives, only the second Prime Minister to do so in Australia's short political history since federation in 1901.

The Australian Labor Party is now in government in all states and territories and federally. The highest ranking elected Liberal Party politician in power is the Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

In the national tally room in Canberra on Saturday night you could clearly hear chants of "throw them out" from visitors on the tallyroom floor as results were being posted up signifying a political rout for the conservatives. There were cheers each time the Prime Minister's own electorate results were posted up showing he was likely to be defeated in a close race with high profile former ABC journalist Labor candidate Maxine McKew. In the Prime Minister's Sydney electorate of Bennelong and several more where the outcome is close, it will be Green preferences strongly favouring the Labor party that decide the result.

The issues of the election were many and varied but included reaction against the 'Workchoices' anti-union legislation, concern on environmental issues especially climate change, and support for public infrastructure in health, education and communications. After 11 turbulent years of conservative Federal Government many voters expressed simply a need for change. As indeed it was.

Just days before the election the husband of Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Lindsay, as well as the husband of Jackie Kelly the retiring Liberal member, were caught red-handed letterboxing a fake leaflet in the name of a fictional muslim organisation congratulating the ALP on its supposed support for muslim extremism. A third person caught was a member of the Liberal Party state executive. Although John Howard attempted dissociation from this incident, the damage to Liberal Campaigning was done and showed the extent of the desperation of the Liberal Party this election. It resulted in a strong swing to the Labor candidate in the seat of Lindsay, and averaged 7.9% across NSW electorates.

The greatest swings to the Labor Party were felt in Queensland, the home state of Kevin Rudd, where several safe Coalition seats swung to Labor with an average state swing of 8.7%. Industrial relations changes were said by the Labor Party to be a major factor, although degredation of the Great Barrier Reef by climate change may have played a part. There is still a high rate of unionism in Queensland.

In Tasmania the proposal by Gunns Ltd to build a controversial $1.3billion pulp mill in the Tamar Valley, approved by the Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, almost certainly boosted the green vote. Activists are likely to continue challenging the pulp mill through all legal and social avenues, and then through civil disobedience if necessary to stop the pulp mill from being built.

In other states climate change was highlighted as a prominent issue with a march by up to 150,000 people across Australia two weeks before the election, and activist protests and blockades in NSW and Western Australia highlighting CO2 emissions from coal exports and coal fired power stations.

Anti-union legislation and individual work contracts - Australian Workplace Agreements - are having an increasing effect on working people in reducing their conditions of employment. Howard's battlers, aspirationl working class families - finally decided this election to desert the conservatives. The Australian Council of Trade Unions campaigned against the Government on this legislation. Three high profile unionists: Greg Combet, former secretary of the ACTU, Richard Marles from the ACTU, and Bill Shorten from the Australian Workers Union, were all elected as Labor candidates this election.

This election saw a record vote for the Greens of 7.8% nationally. Senator Bob Brown, the Greens Leader from Tasmania, easily won a full quota (14.5%) for himself with 17.74% of the primary vote. The Greens are likely to win the sixth Senate spot for South Australia and Western Australia. With two Green Senators not up for election this time, their representation will increase to 5 Senators, a level which guarantees them minor party status and extra parliamentary resources.

Due to preference flows Green Senate candidates in NSW and Victoria are unlikely to win enough preference votes to achieve a quota (14.5%), despite winning 10.11% of the vote in Victoria and 8.36% in New South Wales, and clearly being the third party on primary votes after the ALP and the conservative Liberal National Coalition. NSW Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, who has supported many activist and progressive campaigns over the last 6 years, appears likely to lose her Senate Seat.

Activists need to keep the pressure up on the Rudd Labor Government in office to ensure business, social, welfare, and environmental reforms are instituted to adapt the social infrastructure to face the global challenges of peak oil, global climate change and inequalities of wealth distribution. The Liberals campaign slogan of "going for growth" was rejected at the polls. It is now time for the Labor Party to govern for sustainability and for activists to keep these new bastards honest.

More at:
 http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/australia-votes-lying-rodent-and-other-bastards-out

Takver - Sydney Indymedia

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. honest — Sean
  2. Honest? Politician? — Neon Black
  3. Good luck Aussies — Pom

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech