Why was the Aussie Prime Minister reelected?

[Bombtrack]

I don't know about their politics as I'd like. But I would think that being seen as the more pro-Bush candidate would have been all that was needed for their labor party to win. Did the lefties fuck something up or something? Is Murdoch's media as entrenched in his home country as it is here?

[Droopy]

1. The way I heard it

is that Australia has seen steady economic growth under Howard's leadership so most people voted with their wallets. The report I heard also said that Australia hasn't seen any loss of life regarding their soldiers so maybe they weren't as concerned about war and terrorism as most Americans are.

[sam sarrha]

2. He is a lap dog of the corporate Robber Barrons.

[dolo amber]

3. They voted counter-clockwise.

[rooboy]

4. The three main reasons:

1. Howard won the "mortgage belt" - people who have over-committed on their expensive houses and are terrified of higher interest rates. Howard (incredibly) promised that his government could keep interest rates low.

2. The Labor party screwed up their campaign really badly. They didn't get their candidates introduced to the public well enough and they didn't sell their policies very well either.

3. Howard ran on the economy (which will be proven to be a mirage in the next year or so), and succeeded in getting Iraq off the agenda.

All of this was underlined by a strong right-wing bias amongst the major newspaper editors in Australia.

[Droopy]

5. Where do the parties in Australia fall on the political scale

I heard that Howard was a member of the Liberal Party. Does liberal mean something else to Australians than it does to us? Is there any party in Australia that is to the right of the Liberal Party?

[rooboy]

8. The Liberal party is the equivalent of the republicans...

and there are probably 2 parties that can be seen as being on the right of them. The One Nation party (which is almost non-existent) and the Family First party. Family First is a brand new party which appears to be founded by the Assemblies of God church. This was their first election, so we'll have to wait and see what their policies are.

[Gyre]

6. As to #3

I heard that the Australian economy is pretty strong right now (unlike America).

Gyre

[rooboy]

7. It's perceived to be strong...

a few weeks ago the government gave every family $600 per child as a kind of bribe. The country's economists waited to see the retail sales figures jump, yet nothing happened, and it confused them terribly. Simple fact is, people used the money to pay off their mortgages and credit card bills. The average Australian has a credit card debt of $6000 (not too different from the USA), and pretty soon this credit squeeze is going to bring a lot of households down.

The reason our situation is not as dire as America's though, is partly because we have a small economy which is offset by huge mineral exports, and the government is much more efficient at collecting taxes.

[Huckebein the Raven]

9. Was immigration a big issue during the campaign ?

[rooboy]

10. No, but I don't know if people were thinking about it... n/t