Well there is no getting past the magnitude of Kevin Rudd’s stunning victory but it was always a big ask for any Australian government win a fifth term. Menzies is the only person who has done that before. So now that Rudd has a contract on the lodge we will see if he is the man that he has claimed to be and this commentator will watch with great interest to see how things go during the next parliament.
“Could I say to all of you that it has been an immense privilege every day of my life over the last 11-and-a-half -years to have been Prime Minister of this beautiful country.
“I want to thank the Australian people for the privilege that they have given me over this period of time.
“I respect it and I honour it and it’s something that has really been the most unbelievable experience.
“The Australian people are the greatest people on earth and Australia is the greatest country on earth.
“I’ve led a government that has taken this country from deep debt to strong prosperity … that has never shirked the difficult decisions .. that has reformed the Australian economy and left it the envy of the world.
I thought that John Howard’s concession speech showed the great strength of his character and I think that the very likely loss of his seat means that he can maintain that dignity into retirement.
But I suppose the biggest reason that conservatives have to be cheerful is the knowledge that to win this election Rudd had to take on just about every policy position and idea that has been made by the coalition. I know that during the campaign much derision was heaped upon Rudd because of his meTooism but at the very least we know that the philosophical basis of our politics still stand endorsed by the Australian people. Frankly apart from the “it’s Time factor” the issue that Labor was most able to mobilise was “WorkChoices”. Now this was a policy that I have always been less than excited about however the Labor alternative has every chance of being worse, but that is the subject for the future.
Speaking of the future I thought that the point made by senator Nick Minchen that Rudd gets to take over a government that has its accounts in very good order indeed should not be ignored and there is no reason to believe that the coalition is destined to wander in the political wilderness for as long as the ALP have done federally.
So, as I allude to in the title of this piece, we conservatives should not be too disheartened this morning in the wake of the election because we are actually in a far better position that a certain Ms O’Hara was when she found some optimism in the wake of disaster .Tomorrow is indeed another day and this blogger will keep fighting the good fight for the things that he believes in and he will take great pleasure watching the more extreme minions of the left as they discovery that a change of government will mean that we have a conservative in the lodge.
Well I’m just going to post a couple of bon motts that have given me some smiles this morning.
The demise of the Australian Democrats is all but complete with deputy leader Andrew Bartlett poised to lose his Queensland seat.
The Democrats have gone well past their use by date. and as much as I think that Bartlet is a nice guy …
Defying the trend, environment minister Malcolm Turnbull, viewed by some as a future leader has held his seat.
Mr Turnbull said he was confident that the Liberals would hold the seat of Wentworth with strong swings in some booths.
I like Turnbull and I agree that he has potential as a future leader with far more electoral charm that Peter Costello
Finally I note that Kerry Nettle may very well not be returned to the Senate, if this is the case I will be very pleased indeed.
Cheers Comrades
Filed under: Australian Politics, Federal Election
“… it was always a big ask for any Australian government (to) win a fifth term. Menzies is the only person who has done that before”
Actually Iain that’s only sort of half right. Menzies is the only PM to win 5 terms but the ALP won 5 consecutive terms under Hawke (83, 84, 87, 90) & Keating (93).
My view of Mr Howard is that he was obsessed with his own longevity and place in history and had lost all sight of the future direction for this country, if he ever had one.
That is what ultimately brought about his downfall and the collapse of “liberalism” as we’ve known it for the past decade. I think it’ll be a long time before the Liberal Party returns to power. My guess is their next PM is not even an MP yet.
Hi Ray
welcome to my blog.
I really don’t think that this win by the ALP is necessarily the beginning of a very long term in government. Firstly as I said in the piece the coalition has not left office with the any notion of their being incompetent. Historically for a government to stay in office for a long time it has to face a disorganised and unelectable opposition. This was true of the liberals during the Hawke Keating years and it was true of the ALP for almost all of the Howard government. While I expect that a return to office after one term of Rudd will be a big ask it is by no means impossible, especially if Garrett was actually telling the truth to that radio person. But a change of government after two terms, is very likely indeed.
Personally Iain, I think it will be most interesting to see how long it takes the ALP to realise that they are being led by a Liberal in all but name. Then how long it will take them to dump him for the unelectable Orange Roughy. Depending on how long it takes the rank and file ALP members to go off the reservation due to the stultifying influence of the Prissy Little Bitch, (Yes, I will always call him that) , it could make for a return in one term. Unlikely, but stranger things have happened at sea.