The coming Oz election thread ...

(Can a referendum be called by the people, or does it rely on the government's submitting to it? Is Labo(u)r pro-Republic, after the whole malarkey with the G-G's interfering with the election?)

I should hope that his credibility is more undermined this time, Olga... but was it known that he was a notorious liar last election?

That's the problem with government to-day; if one can't particularly trust most things that they say, what can you trust?

Hmm - we make the New York Times:

"Australia's Oct. 9 Election Marathon Begins
Filed at 3:36 a.m. ET

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) - Australian politicians set off on a marathon campaign Monday for an election that will focus on the way forward for one of the world's strongest economies, the credibility of candidates and support for the Iraq war.

Australia's relationship with key ally the United States will also be a centerpiece of the closely fought Oct. 9 poll, less than a month before the U.S. presidential elections, after Prime Minister John Howard committed troops to the Iraq war......


.....But the issue of trust is squarely in the spotlight.

Opposition Labor leader Mark Latham has attacked Howard over the government's claims on the eve of its 2001 re-election that asylum seekers on a rickety fishing boat had thrown children into the sea off the Australian coast in a bid to win refuge.

A former defense adviser said this month that Howard knew the claim was false but still stuck with the story over the last three days of that campaign......


And from another story:

Australian Leader Facing Vote in October
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 29, 2004
Filed at 4:50 p.m. ET

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Prime Minister John Howard will become the first of three allied leaders who launched the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to face voters, having announced Sunday that Australians will go to the polls on Oct. 9.

The date comes ahead of the U.S. presidential ballot, on Nov. 2, and British elections early next year.

Howard, whose conservative coalition comfortably won a third, three-year term in November 2001 -- in the aftermath of the 9/11 al-Qaida attacks in the United States -- declared Sunday that trust will be the dominant issue of the election campaign.

But the Labor Party opposition is campaigning hard on opinion polls that suggest most Australians believe Howard misled them about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- one of the key justifications he gave for Australia's joining the invasion......


......Howard's decision to send 2,000 troops to join U.S. and British forces in the invasion of Iraq triggered the biggest street protests in Australia since the Vietnam War. So far, Australia has had no casualties in Iraq.

Labor opposed Australia's sending troops to support the U.S. invasion, and Latham, before he became party leader, described Bush as ``the most dangerous U.S. president in living memory.''

Since taking over Labor in December, Latham has refrained from personally attacking Bush and vowed to maintain Australia's key defense alliance with Washington. But he also has pledged to bring home by Christmas many of the some 850 Australians in Iraq if his party wins........


(Excerpts - you have to register to get the stories:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-australia-politics-election.html


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Australia-Election.html )

Dlowan
It seems that loss of credibility is spreading like the flu among political leaders around the world. Is this a case of "when America gets a cold, the rest of the world coughs"?

BBB

No - we elected our very own virus.

......

.... but we quickly caught many of your US symptoms, BBB.

He wasn't called "Honest John" for nothing, Drom! :wink:
The "children overboard" issue, which his government made enormous mileage from last election, is a case in point. (see previous posts here about recent disputes about whether he lied or not at the time) Howard scared the voters out of their wits by making "border security" the major issue of the last days of the 2001 election - despite, apparently, having received advice that the facts being presented in such a sensational way were quite wrong.

Good evening: I am realjohboy from the state of Virginia in the US. I'm a bit of a political junkie following events in the US and abroad and I have read the comments here from Australians, including dlowan, wilso, msolga, adrian and Mr Stillwater (have I missed anyone?). I hope that this will be the official site where y'all will post comments between now and Oct 9th on the progress of your election between Mr Howard and Mr Latham.
The impact on the US election some three weeks later could be interesting since, as I understand it, Mr Latham is pledging to pull Australian troops out of Iraq.
Please keep us updated, and is there a pro-Howard voice, it would be nice to hear from him/her.
Thank you. -rjb-

Greetings, realjohnboy!
And welcome to the Oz election!

John Howard's campaign theme: Trust!
And apparently the Libs have gained a few points in the polls since the official start of the campaign .... Makes you wonder ...

Funny thing is, I've never once met anyone who has stated they support John Howard-yet he kept getting elected. God I hope this country wakes up this time.

egad! the election's on my birthday!

personally, i don't support either of them. no one in my family can. i can't trust a lying old man or a young opposition leader who can't figure out what is actually going to happen after he gets elected (apart from withdraw troops from Iraq) so we're just going to vote greens. (except for my eldest brother who doesn't like gay people for some reason )

Oh - well, it was almost on mine!

Happy day, Moony!

Then I hope it's a happy one then. Hate to see you crying in your beer on your birthday!

yep, me knows what i want for a pressy - hey its also bob marley's and john lennon's too

when's yours Ms D?

So it begins .... , the greens want to kill our kids with ecstasy , Labor will ramp up interest rates because it wants you to look for a doctor who bulk bills, a Labor imposed levy is a tax a Howard imposed tax is a levy and George Brandis did not call Howard a "lying rodent".

I am so glad I have made up my mind and can ignore this crap !!

Yeah, a fun day, wasn't it, gozmo?
But you missed something: The bit about cats & dogs coming into the country requiring immunization & quarantine facilities, so why not "illegal" immigrants, too?

.... and in between all these crazy Oz developments, listening to reports from the Republican convention in NYC on the radio ..... after the bit about George Bush being the Winston Churchill of our times, I'd seriously had enough! What a day!