Australian Politics Elections 2013

The wind of change by GDL

The election campaign is nearly over. The political advertisings are closed but the media can still cover and write about the campaign. The Murdoch media, TV and newspapers,will continue to demonise the government, and continue their disrespect for the Prime Minister as usual. The Murdoch press and its cheque book journalists will have played an important part in this elections by freely backing Tony Abbott and the opposition. Freely because a full front page advertising in a newspaper and one minute on prime time Television cost millions. The Murdoch media have thus given millions to  Tony Abbott and the opposition during the campaign. There is no doubt that by backing the opposition, Murdoch and his so-called journalists have their reasons. They represent big business and they know that the Liberal's ideology is in their favour of protecting big business and so the rational is clear. Once in power the Liberals have a debt to Mr Murdoch that they will have to pay back in one way or another. After having backed Mitt Romney in the USA and the scandalous phone hacking leading to the closing down of the News of the World in England, Rupert Murdoch is now betting on Tony Abbott in Australia to save his empire.

Election campaign in Australia is very different from the rest of the world. There is no meetings or rallies; people follow the elections and make up their minds and choice according to what they read, see and hear. Elections are manipulated by the media. Radio broadcasters like Allan Jones and Ray Adley for example, have a big influence on their listeners although their credibility and knowledge are not the best. In Australia a good broadcaster is only a good talker even if what he says is full of air, even if he makes racist comments or breaches the code of practice and even if he is often reprimanded by ACMA,  or temporarily suspended by his own radio station. There is not a day that Allan Jones and Ray Adley have not discredited the government and never said a positive word about Labor's policies like Better Schools, the NDIS, support for low income earners, effective foreign policy, but it has been  all negativity and never allowed their audience to make a balanced opinion. It has been and continues to be all spin and  propaganda always complimenting the opposition for what ever they say and do.
But this is also Australia, this is democracy and the free press. Australia is not Russia or China or Cuba or North Korea, neither is it like in Mauritius or Indonesia or other third world countries where the press is controlled, where there are censorship. In Australia freedom of opinion and expression is sacrosanct, so is a free press.

After five weeks of campaign, all the polls are indicating that there will be a change of government on the seven of September. The polls in Australia have always been right. The Labor  party of Kevin Rudd will surely and squarely lose the elections and the Liberal/National coalition will win with a considerable majority there is no doubt. Kevin Rudd's big return has not worked, the strategy of the change over from Julia Gillard has had limited results. With Julia Gillard as PM, the Labor party has made many mistakes and has never been in a winning position. If Julia had remained leader, the Labor party would have been wiped out. Kevin Rudd has only managed to keep some seats and can pretend to be a strong future opposition.

The opposition will win the elections on the weakness of the government. Labor  has mishandled  the government finance ( the people's money, the budget,) the continuous deficit and spending are not well regarded by the voters. The opposition has been effective in scaring  people on the deficit and debt although the overall  economy of Australia has never been in a better shape with a AAA credit rating. But it seems a strong economy is not enough to win the elections. John Howard was flatly defeated in 2007 with a strong economy and a $50 billion surplus.
The other big issue that sank the government's boat is the 50,000 asylum seekers coming by boats under the Labor government. They have never been able to stop the boats coming; the PNG solution came too late.
The other problem of the Labor party  is that during the six years in power, they have been dysfunctional and the changes of leaderships and instability within the party have not been seen with a good eye by the voters. The biggest mistake has, however, been the Julia Gillard's alliance with the Greens and the introduction of the carbon tax. This policy has been toxic and dealt the Labor party the deadly blow.
The voters also opine that Labor has been too long in power and coupled with the many mistakes and problems they faced, the people of Australia is looking for a change.

The change is necessary according to the people even though this change is uncertainty. The people have already made up their minds and want a change even though they have not studied and understood clearly and fully the policies of the opposition and even if they have no idea how the opposition will fund its promises.A change is legitimate as long as it is a change for the better, but having seen the Labor party in action for six years, most people think that it cannot be worse. It was indeed so bad, they say.

The Labor party is a centre left party which has governed mainly from the centre all while being sincere to its ideology of caring for the working class, the lower middle class and  strong on social policies. The Labor party has always been the party of the poor, migrants, pensioners, the party of the disabled, the party of education, medicare and superannuation for all ,but in Australia not many people understand the left ideology. This is well demonstrated when workers and migrants are turning their backs on Labor, when the pensioners and the middle class are voting for  the Liberals which is a centre right party.
The people do not care anymore if the Liberals favour the rich and big business at the expense of the working families and those at the bottom of the ladder.Ideology it seems, has been relegated for a change for a new government in the hope of a less dysfunctional government, looking forward to a more stable government which can mange the public finance better, make savings and one that will stop the boats and scrap the carbon tax..
The change is only two days away and according to Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition who will be the PM on Saturday 7th September, the change will occur in the first 100 days.