Crikey, Australia Elects New Prime Minister

[Amadeus]

One less on GW's side:

 

Bush Ally Defeated in Australia

 

SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 24 — Australia’s prime minister, John Howard, one of President Bush’s staunchest allies in Asia, suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of the electorate on Saturday, as his Liberal Party-led coalition lost its majority in Parliament.

 

He will be replaced by Kevin Rudd, the Labor Party leader and a former diplomat. “Today Australia looks to the future,” Mr. Rudd told a cheering crowd in his home state of Queensland. “Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward.”

 

Mr. Howard’s defeat, after 11 years in power, follows that of José María Aznar of Spain, who also backed the United States-led invasion of Iraq, and political setbacks for Tony Blair of Britain.

[keyboarder]

Any country that beats the USA into second place as the dirty man of the world has to have problems regardless of prosperity lol,lol...... getting rid of Howard is a step in the right direction, albeit a small one, wonder if he'll rubber stamp Gunn's ambitions in Tasmania?

[Pat Ayres]

Strewth!!

[triskelion]

The stuff about Iraq and climate change is just what is focused on by the Euro-American media, and although these issues were important, they are considerably less so than the Coalition Government's industrial relations reform, which was seen to favour employers (Australia still has extremely powerful unions) and a general dislike of John Howard.

 

So yeah, don't buy into the whole George Bush/Climate change/Iraq angles; they are just being used by aforementioned media to make the election in a largely-insignificant country like Australia seem interesting. I spent five months this year out there studying, so found it hysterical a few days ago when the Guardian ran with 'First Climate Change Election' - which is just total guff.

 

Remember that in Australia you are forced to vote, so general opinion becomes a much bigger factor than it is here: Hence the importance of John Howard being not well liked.

[cheesemonster2005]

It should be added that the fine for not voting is very small and I think only registered voters are required to vote.

 

It's nice to see another of Bush's allies removed from office and a more left-wing future for Australia.

[triskelion]

It should be added that the fine for not voting is very small and I think only registered voters are required to vote.

 

They still get a turnout of about 90%. A lot of the people I talked to said they would prefer a free voting system so that people who didn't care didn't (or didn't have to) bother.

 

Australia was hardly a major ally of the Bush administration; Howard's prominence was greatly exagerrated by him and most of his compatriots being white and of generally western-European origin. In terms of Iraq involvement they are on par with Poland and were only deployed in what were essentially non-combat areas.

 

And why does left-wing=good? In the Australian context this will generally mean more money and security for the unionised-industries, which will be spent on big cars and energy and water-inefficient bungalows. Australians consider our saloon cars to be small and don't have much concept of the semi-detached house. So basically it will continue to be a nation with little personal concern for the environment, despite what is effectively the token gesture of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.

 

In the British Isles and to a lesser extent Europe we tend to think of 'left-wing' as being synomynous with progressiveness and enlightenment and things like that. In Australia it is still the old-fashioned business vs workers paradigm, except that in Australia the workers are already exceptionally well-off already.

[mollag]

The stuff about Iraq and climate change is just what is focused on by the Euro-American media, and although these issues were important, they are considerably less so than the Coalition Government's industrial relations reform, which was seen to favour employers (Australia still has extremely powerful unions) and a general dislike of John Howard.

 

So yeah, don't buy into the whole George Bush/Climate change/Iraq angles; they are just being used by aforementioned media to make the election in a largely-insignificant country like Australia seem interesting. I spent five months this year out there studying, so found it hysterical a few days ago when the Guardian ran with 'First Climate Change Election' - which is just total guff.

 

Remember that in Australia you are forced to vote, so general opinion becomes a much bigger factor than it is here: Hence the importance of John Howard being not well liked.

Quite right, i have spent a year in Turkey and when i read euro papers and tv with regard to the elections there they just didnt match, crisis ? what crisis?

There is nothing like a sensational headline even if its nothing like the truth

[Lonan3]

One 'vote-winner' that hasn't been reported too much in the UK is that Kevin Rudd also made an election promise to hold (another) referendum on removing the Queen as head of state.

Critics of the previous referendum claimed that it was rigged in favour of monarchists because it gave voters only the option of having Parliament elect a President and not the direct election of a head of state by the people.

Rudd, however, has promised a plebiscite which may offer a far broader means of choosing an Australian head of state.

[cheesemonster2005]

Australia was hardly a major ally of the Bush administration; Howard's prominence was greatly exagerrated by him and most of his compatriots being white and of generally western-European origin. In terms of Iraq involvement they are on par with Poland and were only deployed in what were essentially non-combat areas.

 

And why does left-wing=good? In the Australian context this will generally mean more money and security for the unionised-industries, which will be spent on big cars and energy and water-inefficient bungalows. Australians consider our saloon cars to be small and don't have much concept of the semi-detached house. So basically it will continue to be a nation with little personal concern for the environment, despite what is effectively the token gesture of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.

 

Well Poland has a population of around 40 million yet Australia barely 20 million and the USA needs as many partners in its "coalition" as it can get just so it seems a bit more credible (even though the whole world knows it isn't). Also Australia helped take some of the criticism away from the USA by also refusing to sign the Kyoto treaty and is the world's number one polluter so has quite a bit in common with the USA.

[Moghrey Mie]

One 'vote-winner' that hasn't been reported too much in the UK is that Kevin Rudd also made an election promise to hold (another) referendum on removing the Queen as head of state.

Critics of the previous referendum claimed that it was rigged in favour of monarchists because it gave voters only the option of having Parliament elect a President and not the direct election of a head of state by the people.

Rudd, however, has promised a plebiscite which may offer a far broader means of choosing an Australian head of state.

 

 

Australia is signing up to Kyoto so that's one promise kept by Kevin Rudd.