cat slave diary

Australia has a new government! Yay for democracy!

Written by

Andrew van der Stock

in

The old guard has been thrown out. In true Australian style, if you stick it to the battler, attacking and destroying the very fundament of Australian society – “a fair go”, you’re out. And the Australian people have spoken, and it looks like soon to be ex-PM John Howard may even lose his seat. It couldn’t happen to a nicer person so out of touch with the modern day reality. The 1950’s were a long time ago, and we needed a modern government for these last twelve years, not someone who denied climate change despite a 9 year drought right in front of our very eyes. We needed someone who does not think that economic growth is more important than society itself. The Montgomery Burns world view simply does not work.

Good luck to Kevin Rudd. It’ll be awesome to have a Prime Minister who can speak two languages for once. As an ex-diplomat, I wonder if he has the cojones necessary to stand up to the Unions so it doesn’t go too far the other way. Whitlam lost that battle, and that was a worse disaster than even Howard, even though his heart was in the right place and most of his policies (free tertiary education for all, free health care for all) made him one of Australia’s best Prime Ministers, and a legacy that to this day is unsurpassed in Australian history.

I only wish I wasn’t disenfranchised at the moment by being in the USA. I missed out voting entirely as we’re now off the electoral roll. In the future, I can’t say to my daughter that I had a hand in getting rid of one of Australia’s worst ever governments, one which let power go to its head and conduct ideology experiments on an unwilling public. Oh well.

Let’s hope that if Rudd gets power in both houses, or at least Greens as the balance of power, the same thing that happened to Howard’s government doesn’t happen to the Labor party.

Comments

3 responses to “Australia has a new government! Yay for democracy!”

  1. I, too, have a beard Avatar
    I, too, have a beard

    Disagree on Whitlam being beholden to the unions: Whitlam’s dismissal was brought about by Opposition Senate blocking supply; stated reason for blocking supply was the so-called Loans affair, nought to do with unions.

    And besides, Whitlam did NOT leave a legacy of meanness, self-interest, and a crap international reputation, which is more than you can say for the rodent.

    (Left) Wing Commander

  2. vanderaj Avatar
    vanderaj

    Comrade Wing Commander,

    Whitlam was Union through and through. There’s nothing really wrong with the idea of Unions, except for modern unions themselves. Folks like Martin Kingham and others do nothing for unions.

    Andrew

  3. Kirsten Avatar
    Kirsten

    You can get yourself re-enfranchised–there are forms on the Australian Electoral Commission website.

    If Rudd finds himself missing cojones, he can always borrow Julia Gillard’s.

    Truly, my heart has been light since the election. I feel as though an awful burden of shame has been lifted from me as an Australian.

    Rather than this mega computer access for every child business, though, I’d rather see some of the education budget go to funding higher education again – and some more of it go into primary education, too. Content still matters more than the technology used to access it.

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