I find this really interesting. The strange, new phenomenum of "doctor's wives" (traditional middle class Liberal voters) who've turned against The Liberal Party. Apparently, the Lib's polling has them very worried about this group:
Meet the women who have John Howard worried
September 29, 2004
They're known as the "doctors' wives". And they may spell trouble for the Coalition.
In The Age last week, media commentator Max Suich said the term "refers to middle-class women, whom the Liberal Party would normally assume would be big-L Liberals, who have been turned off by the Howard Government's support of the Iraq war".
size=9]The women who have become disillusioned with John Howard. From left, Pamela Swansson, Sue Smith, Aileen Halloran, Loretta Little and Gillian Trahair.[/size]
Some of the things they're now saying:
~
"The Liberal Party had betrayed what I was brought up to believe in," she says. "I thought they stood for the right of the individual to live in society and be free, for the moral ground, the right thing to do."
~
Hair pulled into a tight bun, Ms Smith wears black jodphurs, a crisp linen shirt and ballet scuffs. She has a "very small business" running fitness classes and looks after her grandchildren part-time. She is also a doctor's wife (husband Mitchell is a GP).
Raised as a country conservative who attended private school, she says she is a classic "small-l liberal" with a compassionate streak. She liked former Premier Rupert Hamer but marched against the Vietnam war.
But on October 9, Ms Smith will hand out how-to-vote cards for the Greens. "I admire Bob Brown very much," she says. "If the environment is stuffed, then everything else isn't going to work . . . I'll be putting the Liberals last."
~
... "My husband was very conservative, Melbourne Club, friends with Jeff Kennett and all that," she says.
The fate of asylum seekers in detention converted her to political activism. She thinks she will vote Green. "I was just extraordinarily angry with what Howard and Ruddock were doing," she says. "He's a cunning, clever man, there's been lying about so many issues."
~
.. For 61-year-old Gillian Trahair, opposition to the Iraq war is at the heart of her disdain for the Howard Government. "He knew jolly well that there were no weapons there. He won't accept responsibility for anything, ever . . . the truth doesn't matter any more," she says.
~
... If anyone exemplifies the incongruities that sometimes emerge in modern politics it is Ms Swansson, the former Liberal staffer who is preparing to vote Green but is also an avowed monarchist.
Her message for the PM? "You are dishonest, morally corrupt and you will do anything to remain in power. I want you to know that I know that."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/28/1096137237411.html
Fascinating! So these are the new members of the Greens? Strange times we live in!
There are lots & lots of potential votes going to waste! But "welfare bludgers" are Labor territory & Labor voters, aren't they? So why worry? 
This is such an ugly election campaign. <sigh>
There are many taken in by Howard & co. It appears to be neck & neck at the miment.
