Australian Prime Minister Dumped
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1294164,00.html
It's the Iraq War, stupid.
"Australian Prime Minister John Howard has suffered a humiliating election defeat and the opposition Labor Party has swept into power. Voters warmed to his promise to pull Australian troops out of Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, further isolating the US, which had received strong backing from Mr Howard."
Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to agree with that and believe that Australians were actually jolted out of their apathy on this and grew a conscience in the broader sense, the Iraq war specifically had very little impact on the election.
Climate change had a significant role but mainly in that it fed into the overall impression that Howard had lost touch.
Howard nevertheless has his supporters. I was at a birthday party over the weekend. An elderly man with an Eastern European accent forcefully defended Howard's anti-Jihadist (it sounded more like anti-Moslem, however) policies. This may represent a sea change where Australia starts to orient itself more to China and South Asia and less to America and Great Britain. Of course, Bush has poisoned the Coalition of the Willing, most notably Tony Blair but also leaders of other countries, such as Poland and Spain, and so Howard is one more victim of the US's global unpopularity.
Oh, without doubt he has his supporters, a number of which support him based on his under the surface racism and anti-Islamism which he dog-whistles them on at regular intervals. This without doubt won him the election in 2001 when he elevated this to the centre of his campaign.
The difference this time around was that enough people saw through that and also that a large number of the lower/middle class voters who he captured with this attitude were so completely betrayed by his draconian anti-employee industrial relations changes that they could not be won over by fear. That's not to say that the Liberals (conservatives) didn't try fear, mainly through an economic fear campaign but in the last desperate days they turned to race. In an attempt to portray the Labor party as Muslim sympathisers a group of Liberals created bogus pamphlets from a non-existent Islamic group, with the Labor party logo, thanking Labor for supporting the 2002 Bali bombers and started to drop it in letterboxes in a very working-class suburb. They were caught red-handed in a sting worthy of Hollywood:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22806912-11949,00.html
Although senior officials denied prior knowledge it showed that playing on this fear is one of their tactics.
It's the Iraq War, stupid.
"Australian Prime Minister John Howard has suffered a humiliating election defeat and the opposition Labor Party has swept into power. Voters warmed to his promise to pull Australian troops out of Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, further isolating the US, which had received strong backing from Mr Howard."
Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to agree with that and believe that Australians were actually jolted out of their apathy on this and grew a conscience in the broader sense, the Iraq war specifically had very little impact on the election.
Climate change had a significant role but mainly in that it fed into the overall impression that Howard had lost touch.
Howard nevertheless has his supporters. I was at a birthday party over the weekend. An elderly man with an Eastern European accent forcefully defended Howard's anti-Jihadist (it sounded more like anti-Moslem, however) policies. This may represent a sea change where Australia starts to orient itself more to China and South Asia and less to America and Great Britain. Of course, Bush has poisoned the Coalition of the Willing, most notably Tony Blair but also leaders of other countries, such as Poland and Spain, and so Howard is one more victim of the US's global unpopularity.
Oh, without doubt he has his supporters, a number of which support him based on his under the surface racism and anti-Islamism which he dog-whistles them on at regular intervals. This without doubt won him the election in 2001 when he elevated this to the centre of his campaign.
The difference this time around was that enough people saw through that and also that a large number of the lower/middle class voters who he captured with this attitude were so completely betrayed by his draconian anti-employee industrial relations changes that they could not be won over by fear. That's not to say that the Liberals (conservatives) didn't try fear, mainly through an economic fear campaign but in the last desperate days they turned to race. In an attempt to portray the Labor party as Muslim sympathisers a group of Liberals created bogus pamphlets from a non-existent Islamic group, with the Labor party logo, thanking Labor for supporting the 2002 Bali bombers and started to drop it in letterboxes in a very working-class suburb. They were caught red-handed in a sting worthy of Hollywood:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22806912-11949,00.html
Although senior officials denied prior knowledge it showed that playing on this fear is one of their tactics.
Labels: Australia
posted by My Mall and News at
9:07 PM
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