The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

My god, that noisy mob in the tally room!

Poor ol Kerry O'Brien kept losing his concentration & I could see Antony was getting quite frustrated and rather peevis. He'd be trying to tell us something of grave importance, only to be drowned out by "Julia! Julia! Julia! Juuuulia!!"

Or "Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine!!!!!!!!!"

Front page of today's Sunday AGE:

Phew!!!!



I so hope Maxine gets Bennelong. I ain't believing it will happen though, I bet he claws his way back on postal votes.




I must say, I thought Rudd's speech was AWFUL!!!


No substance, full of nationalist ****, kowtowing to the US before he's out of the starting gate, NOTHING on Aboriginals.

First speech as PM.:
Rudd to 'move forward'
November 25, 2007 - 12:06PM/Sunday AGE

Kevin Rudd has vowed to waste no time getting to work after winning government in emphatic fashion tonight, ousting the Coalition.

In his victory speech to Labor supporters at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium tonight, Mr Rudd outlined his plans to tackle Australia's education, health, climate and infrastructure challenges head-on.


Introduced by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh as "the new Prime Minister of Australia", Mr Rudd walked into the stadium to the sound of rock music and raucous cheers, flanked by his wife and three children.


He smiled and giggled as he took to the stage before saying "OK guys" to quiet the crowd.


Mr Rudd paid tribute to his opponent, former prime minister John Howard, and his contribution to public life before announcing his own vision for his own government.


"A short time ago Mr Howard called me to offer his congratulations," he said to huge cheers.


"I thank him for the dignity with which he offered those congratulations.

"I want to acknowledge now for the entire nation and publicly recognise Mr Howard's extensive contribution to public service in Australia."


'Have an Iced Vovo'

Mr Rudd revealed his intention to put aside enmity between sectors that had been in conflict during the Coalition's 11 and a half years in Government.


"Friends, tomorrow, the work begins," Mr Rudd said.


"You can have a strong cup of tea if you want, even an Iced Vovo on the way through. But the celebration stops there."


Mr Rudd said his government would start work immediately on an education revolution, rebuilding the hospital system, address the "great challenges" of climate change and water, building "a 21st century infrastructure for a 21st century economy".

"I want to put aside the old battles of the past ... between business and unions ... growth and environment ... federal and state ... public and private ... "It's time for a new page to be written in our nation's history.


'Fantastic' deputy


He paid particular tribute to his deputy, Julia Gillard, for her support.

"She has been fantastic as the deputy leader and she'll be fantastic as the deputy Prime Minister of Australia.

"I want to thank all my shadow ministers lead by Wayne Swan in Queensland.

"You can take the boys out of Nambour, but you can't take Nambour out of the boys.

"I want to thank all the members of my parliamentary team in Australia.

Mr Rudd also paid tribute to the memory of his late parents.

He said his father, who died more than 40 years ago and would have been "surprised" at today's events. He recalled how he lost his mother on the eve of the 2004 election.

'Look to the future'

Mr Rudd singled out first-time Labor voters and those who had returned to the fold after a long absence.

"Today, Australia has looked to the future.

"Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward.

"Together, as Australians, to unite and rewrite a new page in our nation's history.

"To make this great country of ours, Australia, even greater.

"Today, many people across Australia have voted Labor for the very first time.

"Today, many people in Australia have voted Labor for the first time in a long, long time.

"And I say tonight to the nation, I will never take that sacred trust for granted.

"I understand that this is a great privilege, and I will do everything to honour the trust that is extended to me."

Mr Rudd vowed to govern for all citizens of the nation.

'A PM for all'

"I say to all of those who have voted for us today, to each and every one of them that I will be a Prime Minister for all Australians.

"A Prime Minister for indigenous Australians.

"Australians who have been born here and Australians who have come here from afar and have contributed to the great diversity in Australia.

"A Prime Minister for our cities and our towns, a Prime Minister for rural Australia, which right now is experiencing the worst drought our country has had.

"For our men and women serving in uniform in difficult environments around the world.

"For all our states and territories in this great Commonwealth of ours, I will be a Prime Minister for all Australians."

"I make this solemn pledge to the nation: I will always govern in the country's interest."


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/11/24/1195753382042.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Howard seems to think he's lost Bennelong & Antony is seeing it that way, too. And you know that Antony is never ever wrong! :wink:

We'll see.

I didn't like his speech much, either, Deb. It sounded very stilted & not exactly spontaneous. But then, maybe he was nervous?

It was carefully crafted...probably for weeks.


I can't believe he would say that ****. Grrrrrrrrr......


He was certainly stilted in delivery, but it's the content I am distressed by.


Still, THE LIBS ARE OUT!!!!!

Last words from JH.

Silly bugger, he should have quit months ago & avoided this indignity!

I must not feel sorry for him! I must not! (God, I'm so hopeless sometimes!)

Howard concedes election

John Howard embraces his wife Janette after delivering his concession speech in Sydney.

November 25, 2007 - 12:26AM

John Howard has conceded defeat to the Labor party in the federal election, paying tribute to the people of Australia he has served since they elected him prime minister in 1996.

"My fellow Australians, a few minutes ago I telephoned Mr Kevin Rudd and I congratulated him and the Australian Labor Party on a very emphatic victory," Mr Howard told hundreds of supporters at Sydney's Sofitel Wentworth Hotel. .... <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/federal-election-2007-news/howard-concedes-election/2007/11/24/1195753379511.html

I never like watching someone being humiliated. I do feel sorry for him. Despite everything!

He actually did mention Aborigines, Deb. (See extract from his speech in aove Sunday Age article)

... & I thought his reference to the US was in the context of saying we would work constructively with every place on earth (!) .. the US, Asia, Europe & the UK. I think he was trying to say that we were not going to blindly follow where the US led, anymore .... but it (& a lot of the rest of his speech) sort of came out rather twee & Pollyanna-ish! I was squirming, but I think he meant well! :wink:

Yeah, baby, THE LIBS ARE GONE!!!!

Yeah, actually I feel the same, Deb.

And I was working really, really hard, trying to remind myself of what he's actually done!

But I thought Rudd, Julia & everyone else handled the situation with amazing dignity & respect. When you consider what the past few weeks have been like, with the Libs' frightful scare-mongering ads & all, that's pretty amazing, really.

Front page of The AUSTRALIAN. (Murdoch press.):

IT'S LABOR IN A RUDDSLIDE
Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd, with his wife Therese, claims victory in Brisbane. Picture: Gary Ramage

Rudd says he'll govern for all
Sid Marris and Paul Maley

AUSTRALIA had looked to the future and had decided the nation must move forward, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd said tonight. ...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

Oh ... before I head off to bed ..

Mal Brough (of "Aboriginal intervention" fame) appears to have lost his seat & Malcolm Turnbull survived in Wentworth!

How the NYTimes reported it.:

Australia's Prime Minister Defeated After 4 Terms

Kevin Rudd, the Australian Labor Party leader, greeted his supporters in Brisbane after his election victory.
By TIM JOHNSTON
Published: November 24, 2007



After four terms in office, he will be replaced by Kevin Rudd, a Labor Party leader and former diplomat. Mr. Rudd, 50, campaigned on a platform of new leadership looking for new answers for new challenges. He has said his first acts as prime minister will include pushing for the ratification of the Kyoto climate agreement and to negotiate the withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Iraq.

The attempts by Mr. Howard's coalition to stress their economic record failed to impress voters. The Australian economy has had 17 years of continuous growth, in latter years driven by Chinese demand for Australian iron ore and coal, and he had warned voters that a Labor victory would endanger the country's future prosperity.

But despite the coalition campaign, there was little distance between the two parties on economic policy, and the defining characteristics came down to the personalities of the leaders and Labor's promise to readdress broad concerns about the environment, health and education. Mr. Howard, 68, was running for a record fifth term in office, but many voters said they were ready for a change.

Mr. Howard conceded the election about an hour and a half after the last polling booths closed in the western part of the country.

"A few moments ago I telephoned the leader of the Labor party and I congratulated the Australian Labor Party on a very complete victory. I want to wish Mr. Rudd very well," Mr. Howard, 68, told a roomful of emotional supporters in his concession speech.

"I leave the office of Prime Minister with our country prouder, stronger and more prosperous than ever," he said.

Early estimates had the Labor party gaining some 20 seats, to gain a14-seat majority in the 150-seat lower house. Television prediction seven had John Howard suffering the indignity of losing his own seat in the Sydney suburb of Bennelong in parliament to a former television anchor and rookie politician, Maxine McKew. He would be the first sitting Prime Minister to lose his seat since 1929.

"It is very likely the case that I will no longer be the member for Bennelong," he said. Mr. Howard had represented Bennelong since he first entered parliament 33 years ago.

Ms. McKew told a jubilant crowd of followers Saturday night that the result would change the country.

"This has been an amazing night, a wonderful night for Labor, a transforming moment for the country," she said.

Mr. Howard has a strong personal relationship with President George W. Bush, one based on a similar socially conservative philosophy and outlook on the war on terror, and cemented by Mr. Howard's presence in Washington when the 9/11 attacks happened. But opinion polls have consistently shown that although Australians remain strong supporters of the Anzus alliance, the security pact which brings together Australia New Zealand and the United States, they do not approve of Mr. Bush.

The change is unlikely to bring a radical new foreign policy, although there is likely to be a change in emphasis in the relationship with the United States. "Australia will remain a close ally of the United States and Rudd remains committed to the alliance," said Michael Fullilove, of the Lowy Institute for International Relations in Sydney.

It was a bruising campaign, and the Liberal party has already said it will challenge a number of results on the grounds that the Labor candidates had broken electoral law by failing to resign from government jobs before running for office.

In some aspects, the Labor party framed their campaign in similar terms to other s of the war on terror, as a battle between the politics of fear and the politics of hope.

Mr. Rudd, 18 years younger than Mr. Howard, has a reputation as a cerebral student of policy, as opposed to the Liberal leader's image of a hardened and aggressive political animal.

Mr. Rudd's rather dry image was if anything enhanced by the revelation which emerged shortly before the beginning of the campaign that he had got drunk and visited a strip club when he was on a visit to Scores New York in 2003.

"He seems more personable, approachable," Marcelle Freiman, a university lecturer with two children, who voted for Mr. Rudd in eastern Sydney said. "He doesn't seem arrogant yet and I have respect for him."


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/world/asia/24cnd-australia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Well, i don't of course know how you all see Rudd, or for how long you'll be satisfied with his ministry, but i offer my congratulations on getting rid of that monkey Howard.

Dropped in to have a beer with my aussie friends. Congratulations!!!!!

On the assumption that the next US election will show a shift of similar magnitude and direction, and assuming that Brown will sway in response to the change in the US, that might just leave agressive steering of the neoconservative agenda in the world to....France.

Congratulations, indeed.
Mr. Bush must be getting lonely. Our lame duck just became a bit more lame.

A typically wonderful piece from Glenn Greenwald on Howard here... http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?last_story=/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/24/howard/

Well the chickens have finally come home to roost.
According to most of the people I have talked to, it was "WORK CHOICES" that hardened their resolve to oust bonzai.
The mistaken belief that young school leavers could negotiate a work
agreement with an employer was treated with the contempt it deserved.
Even the majority of adults don't have that sort of clout.
When the "fairness test" was rushed in at the last minute , it was seen for what it was, just a desperate attempt to right a wrong.

The great part of all this exercise, is that we as a nation can change a government without a shot being fired or a life lost.
The participants can be dignified in victory or defeat.
The people really do decide ............

ps ... GO MAXINE ..........................