Mondegreens

Back in the late 80’s, an Australian band called Little Heroes had a song called One Perfect Day, where a lovelorn chap was singing to his girlfriend in far off “Eng-a-land”. There was a line that I always thought was “Did you get a man for last night?” - which I thought was rather liberal of him. Years later I found out it referred to the coal miners’ strike in Thatcher’s Britain and the line was actually “Did the Government fall last niiiiiight?”.

Yes, our government did fall last night, and yes, we are now rather less Liberal. I’ve had a couple of non-Australians ask me what I think about it. Here’s some random musings…which are biased personal impressions rather than anything informational

The Parties

In Australia the two major parties - the conservative Liberals and the more liberal Labor (which tends to represent labourers) - are really rather similar and economically conservative. The Liberals team up with the more conservative Nationals (which aims to represent rural voters) to form the Coalition. Historically the major difference is in:

• industrial relations (Liberal more employer focus)
• support base (Labor traditionally workers and Unions)

John Howard

John Howard was Liberal Prime Ministerfor the last 11 years. He was first elected the year I started school and he’s held the seat for 33 years. With 77% of the vote counted, it looks like he has lost his seat to Maxine McKew. I’m not a great fan of his policies, but I was impressed with his morning habit of a brisk walk (complete with running shoes and bodyguards). His “Go for Growth” slogan turned my stomach - I think we need to focus on reducing consumption and using what we have in a smarter way.

Around the time that Howard was first elected to Bennelong, McKew became a journalist for our national broadcaster, the ABC. She has a reputation for being intelligent and incisive - although last night she made a speech where she refused to claim victory and used rather saccharine tropes - “Sister Catherine the blind 90 year old nun” and “the 9 year old girl who urged her parents to vote for Kevin because “He’s a good Prime Minister for children”. Meh.

Kevin Rudd

Described by one of my twitterfriends last night as “Tin-Tin with grey hair”, Rudd is an ex-diplomat from Queensland and seems like the closest thing to John Howard the Labor party could find - without actually being John Howard.

He has described himself as a Christian Socialist and overtly wants to ensure that God is not commandeered by the conservatives for political purposes. I believe strongly in the separation of church and state and am alarmed at the way religion has crept onto the political agenda worldwide. I’m a bit unsettled by the biases that Rudd may bring to the position.

He seems to be a “steady plodder” who some believe will now implement more radical reforms than hinted at during the electioneering. His acceptance speech last night deliberately touched on many groups of Australians - indigenous, migrant, rural, Union, youth - and he seemed to foreground a more pluralistic society.

Labor promised some big changes which I support-

1. Ratifying the Kyoto protocol

2. Taking Australian troops out of combat positions in IRAQ and moving them to admin positions. (Our troops are still committed there, however, and it doesn’t bring them home )

3. Repealing Work Choices laws (this is an industrial relations system that eroded some basic workers’ rights)

My electorate - Fremantle

Strangely enough, I was at school for eight years with Melissa Parke, the woman who was elected our new Labor member. I think she’ll do a very good job with integrity and good will - but wonder whether she’ll be worn down by the cynicism of the whole enterprise.

I’m chuffed that the Greens in the Fremantle electorate here received 14% of the vote compared 7% for the entire country.

UPDATE: 25 November - For the polling booth nearest my home, the Greens actually received 25% of the vote. Looking at the list of polling places in Fremantle, I see a similar figure for those around central Freo - although if you cross Stock Road to Samson, it drops to 10%.

Libraries

The Australian Library and Information Association surveyed the major parties before the election. The Labor party response is here, the Coalition response is here.

I’m rather disturbed by the stated Labor policy on internet filtering and libraries:

Labor believes that the Government should do all that it can to protect Australians, and particularly, Australian children from harmful and inappropriate internet content.

To this end, in March 2006, Labor announced its ISP filtering policy. Labor’s ISP filtering policy will require Internet Service Providers to block access to websites that-are listed as by ACMA as containing prohibited content such as child pornography, acts of extreme violence and X-rated material.

ISP filtering under a Rudd Labor government will be applied to all households (unless they choose to opt-out), schools and public internet points accessible by children, such as libraries.

The Australian National Library’s Pandora Project has been archiving online election material, like:

• media, comment and video web sites
• electoral study and research web sites
• House of Representatives election candidate web sites
• interest and lobby group web sites
• political party web sites
• Senate election candidate web sites

Spooky Men

My only regret now the election is over is that the Spooky Men will no longer be flashmobbing to sing Vote the Bastards Out (a song we had to counsel our children not to accidentally sing in the schoolyard at their Nice Posh School ).