Hooray! Labor won the Australian elections! In a landslide! Or, for more background for the non-Australians, see the piece about it in the New York Times.
2 thoughts on “yay!”
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Norman
It was an unusual campaign, Jill. Not since 1943, when as an enthusiastic youngster manning the booths for Labor, have I seen the media moguls giving us such unquestioning support. That year the “Telegraph” headlines told voters to support Labor the Federal Labor Government, but it was wartime, and because of that was not entirelyunexpected. This time, in a campaign which frankly seemed to hold little interest for most voters, all the major media outside Western Australia supported us solidly.
The biggest issue among Labor’s supporters was the industrial campaign against AWAs, a form of work agreement we condemned and promised [among a fog of unclear, frequently changing caveats] to eliminate as soon as we came to power. An interesting sidelight on the AWA issue completely ignored by the media related to the wife of the Labor leader. During the campaign it emerged that her business was run very largely using these dreaded AWAs. Initially it was claimed the AWAs had been “inherited” by her when she took over that business, so it obviously wasn’t her fault. Later it turned out that this wasn’t true, and the AWA programme was largely AFTER she acquired the business.
Had it been Howard’s wife who did this, the media would have been howling for blood; but they remained quiet. We won the election, and one shouldn’t look gift horses in the mouth, but some observers have their fingers crossed, hoping Labor is now able to keep voters on side, despite the many contradictory expectations built up during a campaign whose greatest strength was that it was our superbly orchestrated “love-in” with the Packer and Murdoch Empires.
But, “Hooray! We won. p.s. Congrats on baby AND restraint from too much “baby talk”. Well done on both counts
jim
It’s great news isn’t it Jill. I watched the ABC webcast of the count from the tallyroom and it was ‘just like being there’, all the way from the snowy north of Sweden. I wrote a long entry on what was so wrong with the Howard government, and used tha past tense all through it!!! Something I have been wanting to do for such a long time. I am so happy about this, I just hope that Labor maintains the courage and actually makes changes.
YYYIIIPPPEEEE
Oh, and congratulations on the baby…….so excellent!