The coming Oz election thread ...

Good afternoon :-) ,

Actually, I just recognized, that Howard will become the second longest serving PM. Behind Sir Robert Menzies,which served 19 years in total. Many years...

In the case, you all go to bed: Have a good night.

Thanks, Thok, but yet another term of MR Howard is nightmare material, not the stuff of sweet dreams. :wink:

I think I've developed a news phobia! I found it excruciating watching/listening to the news today. And when I see that jolly, gloating Howard face (Mr Nice Guy! ) I feel sort of ... ill. Tonight I had to turn it off ... unbearable! I wonder how long this will last?

I have eschewed such reports.

Please - do NOT talk of 19 years!

Perhaps we can lose them at sea - like Holt?

Heehee - I think the wets were reagrded as dangerous communists by my dear papa.

One of his most-oft exulted about memories was helping break the dock strike in the thirties.

This while he freely acknowledged the appalling way in which dock workers were treated - with the cattle calls, and exclusion of those who did not lick bums well enough and the danger and the lousy pay.

I still half believed the sky would fall in when I voted for Whitlam in my first ever vote....

And - I had to deal with stuff stone cold sober!

(Before this thread gets away from me, I do want to thank yall for your almost daily reports. I'm sorry that it didn't turn out the way that many of yall hoped-our election may not turn out as johnboy hopes-but I did enjoy yall's commentary.
Thanks msolga, dlowan, mr stillwater et al for a very educational introduction to the politics of Australia). -johnboy

You are welcome.

Hey - nearly 3 million postal votes yet to be counted. Dare I dream?

Lol! Mine is right!

But no - most often postals go to the conservatives, don't they?

Hell, why not?

repeat post deleted

A pleasure, rjb! And you have won the Endurance Award for the US citizen whose lasted the longest, in this drawn-out campaign!

Oh well, it's nice to be sober again! There's something very horrible in the experience of extreme despair & loathing while intoxicated. (Let this be a warning to any US readers of this thread, for November! :wink: )

It has been very sad to read the common despair of us Oz folk here, but the feeling of solidarity has been a comfort I've really appreciated. Speaking as a Victorian, I'm very familiar with this political angst territory. We were "Jeffed" years ago & nothing has ever been the same since ... Anything that could move was privatised, corporatized, or become part of a government/business "partnership". Public servants were made to feel like despicable vermin, as were unionists. It seemed like a nightmare that would never end. People kept voting him back in! It was a thoroughly wretched & dispiriting time, but I guess it gave us handy training for times like this? Hmmmmmm, I knew the experience would be useful one day!

I read this in the letters section of my paper this morning. Amongst the shocked responses, the gloating & wretchedness. A short response to the election result:

The turkeys voted for Christmas again.

I've got three words for everyone.

Prime Minister Costello.

<shudder>

Oh, and Msolga, I know you won't agree, but I blame the Greens.
It's easier to take that way.

Adrian! I was wondering where you were! Did you have a jolly election night like the rest of us?

OK, you can blame the Greens. I blame the turkeys. I'm not going to sympathise with them when interest rates rise & they feel they've been robbed!

Prime Minister Costello? Yep, inevitable. I reckon around Christmas, next year, or whenever Howard reaches his "historic" serving record. These things are very important to him, apparently.

Speaking of blame: Did you know that the Victorian Family First senate candidate (if he is successful) has Labor preferences to thank? They put FF @ no 2, & apparently lots of other parties did, too. So, although his primary vote is miniscule, he may become a very, very powerful person! I'm still digesting this. How stupid these backroom deals are!

Hi Olga, I was at a pub with some friends. By about 8:00 we all stopped watching the TV.

That family first deal is ridiculous. If he ends up with the balance of power in the senate then, well, frankly, we're screwed. The problem for me is that I can't think of a way to blame it on the Greens.

Try harder. You'll get there!

You COULD blame them for impairing Latham's judgement, early last week? I mean, Mark didn't think that Tassie deal up himself, yes? :wink: (Just trying to help you out! )

Here's the story on FF's Victorian member, Adrian. Read & be appalled:

How Mr 1.9% may hold the balance
By Bridie Smith, Josh Gordon/the AGE
October 11, 2004

He represents a party that few Australians had heard of before this election. He has never before stood for Parliament. And on Saturday, in his first crack at federal politics, he secured just 1.9 per cent of the Senate vote in Victoria.

But thanks to the amazing quirks of Australia's preferential voting system, Steve Fielding, 43, could soon find himself in one of the most important jobs in the country.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/10/1097406426307.html