PrintAugust 22, 2010
Political Turmoil Down Under
As this is being written Australia sits on a political precipice. The most likely outcome of the Federal election conducted on Saturday is a hung Parliament held hostage by the four Independents, three of whom are conservative (having bailed out from the Coalition) with the other one leaning towards the anti-Christian Greens and Labor (the latter being Australia's version of the Democrats). There are three undecided Seats that may fall either way.
One of these Independents is Bob Katter Jr., a climate skeptic, who is actively promoting the creation of a separate State in North Queensland. He now finds himself in an ideal position to further this aim.
The conservative Coalition (a partnership between the Liberal and National parties) have achieved a double historical first with one of their candidates becoming the first aboriginal to be elected to the House of Representatives since Federation in 1901. Previously the Coalition had also made history with the late Neville Bonner being the first aboriginal elected to the Senate. The other first was one of their candidates scoring victory in this election at the tender age of just 20 - the youngest ever Member of Federal Parliament.
A notable absence in this 36-day election campaign was any discussion on climate change previously known as "global warming." In 2007 the then Prime Ministerial candidate, Kevin Rudd, preached in his campaign that climate change was "the greatest moral challenge of our time." His climate change legislation was defeated in the Senate last year.
This election, due by April next year at the latest, was brought on early by the new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, a socialist and EMILY's List member, who had earlier politically ambushed former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, widely known as "Krudd." Rudd is a mirror image of Obama -- vain, egotistical, and believing that he was born to rule. Rudd was good at speechmaking but achieved nothing constructive while in office. He has a propensity for temper tantrums and foul language.
If Gillard does retain power she'll lead a minority government at the mercy of the Independents.
An interesting aspect of this election was the success of the reborn Democratic Labor Party (DLP). The DLP split from the Labor Party in 1955 and held the balance of power in the Senate from 1960 to the early 1970's. During this time the Coalition held the reins of power in the House of Representatives and committed Australian troops to Viet Nam in support of the United States. Labor vigorously and violently opposed this commitment.
The Opposition Leader and possible Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, a climate skeptic, is an orthodox Catholic. He is married with three daughters. Abbott opposes abortion of which there are 100,000 annually in Australia. Gillard, on the other hand, is an atheist. She has never married but has a "live in" relationship. She has made political history not by simply being the first female Prime Minister but the first unmarried Prime Minister in The Lodge (Prime Minister's home) with a lover.
Tony Abbott took over the leadership of the Opposition from Left-leaning Malcolm Turnbull (an advocate for a carbon tax and homosexual rights) earlier this year having defeated Turnbull by one vote in a leadership spill.
The Australian political scene will be extremely volatile for the next three years during which the (socialist) Labor governments in the States of Queensland and New South Wales are facing big losses at the polling booth. Both Parties are very much on the nose with voters and have lost ground to the election campaigns of their Federal Labor counterparts. It was in these two States that the previous Federal Labor government lost the majority of their Seats.
If the Independents don't remain united then Australia's 14 million voters may find themselves back at the polls in short course. Voting, in Australia, is compulsory.
