Ironies

Irony 1 ~ "The election was won on Local Issues"

This was a Federal election. Australia voted for a Federal government not a Local or even State government (although Canberra will be next week on Oct 16). Almost every State government in Australia is actually a Labour government and yet the Federal election result produced the Liberal/National Co-alition. Special irony; "Australians are comfortable with their health, transport and education systems under the Co-alition Federal Government". Local governments have dealt increasingly with local issues while at the same time coping with decreasing funding (allocated by the Federal government) while the Federal Co-alition leader jaunts around the globe doing "important global stuff" like attending Texan bbq's.

Irony 2 ~ The second line Australia's print media have been banging away on. "The election was won on Interest Rates"

A few rowdy Australian paper journalists have managed to convince themselves that on October 11 "Australians looked over the breakfast table at each other and thought of their mortgages" (or something like that, followed by launch into vehement utter crap in the Sydney Morning Herald). The Liberal/National Co-alition ran/jogged their election campaign by "keeping interest rates low". Why (aside from the fact that the reserve bank sets interest rates not JH) is this ironic? Because the areas in Australia hardest hit by high mortgage payments are the cities where property prices have soared to heights on a par with a certain stock market era prior it's collapse and yet the cities (scroll down and study emigre's visual log aids) voted overwhelmingly for Labour (and the Greens). Canberra notably voted Labour. A substantial 9.75% (3.5% swing) of the Canberran vote went Green. In the ACT (the tiny political island/state surrounding Canberra) an astounding 16.25% of the primary vote went to the Greens with a knockout 9.03% swing. Swings of this magnitude are extremely rare in our times unless accompanied by military coup and the Greens did it all with neither fanfare nor armoury and on a limited budget. If these guys can achieve 16.25% on the smell of an oily rag think what they could do with the budget the Co-alition and Labour squandered on election campaigning (special irony - Canberra is Australia's capital, where parliament sits. Where the Co-alition government resides).

So. Why did Australians vote for John Howard? Because they believed the hype. 40.8%* of Australians believed a prime minister that took them to war would protect them from war. Ironic isn't it. And evidently too hard for paper journalists to come out with but it is not too hard for an honest John weblogger. Oh no. It is high time to face facts! And emigre will bring you more. Facts that is.

Back later, have to go and survive in real world now.

* Yes, in Australia John Howard got to be prime minister with only 40.8% of the vote for his party. Ironic.