Australia speaks - Kevin 07

Kevin Rudd is 30th Prime Minister of Australia ..

.. and a great sigh of relief was heard throughout the land.

(and Julia Gillard is the first female to achieve deputy Prime Minister).

Reminds me a bit of the time when Tom Playford was Premier of South Australia (1938-1965) .. for 26 years, all the men were neck-tied by tradition; stuffy and stultified, wore suits, hats and ties; and the twittering women all wore twinsets and plastic pearls .. until Don Dunstan took over as Premier of the State in 1967 (forced to retire, ill, in 1979). There was a sudden sense of joy and freedom, an upsurge of Arts and Theatre, flowered open-necked shirts in the streets, pink shorts in Parliament, homosexual law reform, and our first (and only) Aboriginal Governor.

[now THAT would be something to look forward to .. an Australian of Aboriginal descent as Governor-General .]

Despite the grandiose promises of the Rudd team, it will be interesting to see if there will be a similar sense of freedom - and flowering of new ideas and industry.

Whatever happens, it seems that a large proportion of the rest of the 13 million voters in Australia had felt a similar sense of constriction, control; shackled to an era where "stuffy tradition", fear of mythical "bogeymen under the bed" had subdued us into stasis - and voted for relief.

Team Rudd needed 16 seats to form a Government majority in their own right and now- I think - have 23.

One of things that has always fascinated me is that the Liberal Party has never(?) been able to muster enough support from the population to form a Government majority on their own, but always had to rely on a "coalition" and support from the "National (Country) Party" - whereas the Labor Party has always been able to form a rather more representative Government - from across a broad and diverse section of the population - in their own right. No need for murky "coalitions" with other "sectional" political parties.

Have to admit that I was unable to assist Team Rudd in the voting process since the sitting member for the electorate where I live (Andrew Southcott. Lib. Boothby.) IS, and has been, a good, strong, effective politician for the local area and the Labor candidate, while probably a nice, caring person, gave me (us) the impression that - even if she was, by some miracle, elected - would have been totally ineffective in the Canberra parliament as a representative for the local area - so one was left with a dilemma. How to register a strong protest against John Howard and his band of fossilised goons, while still hanging on to a popular and effective local Member - even if he does belong to the "wrong" party. (I didn't vote for either of them, so in some ways my vote was wasted).

As it turned out, there were enough people in Australia to resoundingly evict the incumbents.

The political Party that I would prefer to support (Australian Democrats) seem, come June 30 next year, to have vanished off the Federal political landscape, and it's my guess that that was due, in part, to the "retirement" of Senator Natasha Stott Despoja. (but will subdue my thoughts about conflicts of interests - females, "family", and politics).

In many ways it was sad to see some excellent Politicians lose their seats. Gary Nairn in Eden-Monaro, and Mal Brough .. while some of the more insidious and unsavoury characters from the past eleven years held theirs - Tony Abbott, Helen Coonan, Phillip Ruddock, Brendan Nelson et al.

It also seems too early to be absolutely sure, as the votes are still too close to call a clear winner - but it looks very much as if John Howard will have the distinction of being only the second Prime Minister in Australian history to lose an election AND his seat at the same time.

One has to allow a sneaking admiration for the tenacious old basket, though
- his "handover" speech last night at 10.30pm. was a masterpiece of dignity, grace in defeat, and fair play.

He could have shifted to a "safer" seat, or handed over the reins to Peter Costello much, much earlier so as to "retire" with some semblance of political dignity still intact .. but no .. Hung on to the old notion that a "captain always goes down with the ship"

It's my guess at the moment that Peter Costello won't last long without the cloak of John Howard's shadow [Update; 12.40pm - gee, gutless bastard -that was quick!], and that there's a strong probability that Malcolm Turnbull will be the NEXT leader of the Liberal Party .. but only if he has the patience to remain in politics for that long.

[For overseas readers, Timesonline has a good background story.]

[Update 1;2.30pm: Have just watched Kevin's first press conference on the ABC. Had, slightly, thought that he might begin to "fall apart" after the great goal had been won .. but Nup. Looked as if he was "born to it". Was calm, confident, articulate, self assured, very much "in control". Answered every question honestly, directly, without weasel words. Am beginning to think that we could become VERY proud of this character.]

[Update 2; 3.46pm: This "Road to Surfdom" post is also worth a look. Amazing, the number of americans who have come to think of Australia as yet another "red" state of the USA.]

[Update 3; 11.50pm; Hah, said so .. heh heh, Turnbull tries. sheesh .. it's all happening, now that the political floodgates are open, we don't muck about, apparently. Whoo hoo. .. who ARE these people? .. heh.]