Winds of Change
Today’s news in Oz is the political victory by Labor and their golden boy, Kev. In terms of Oz democracy, Labor has indeed secured a historic victory with a record percentage (53.8%) of the popular vote. Interestingly, the right’s vote has held up in areas that could safely be described as their heartland, electorates such Warringah and Higgins where Abbott and Costello reign, and in WA where the right managed to pick up a seat. With WA in the grip of mining boom, the gung ho mentality of right-wingers was no doubt quite appealing to the locals. Taken to its natural conclusion, Howard’s neo-conservative politics favours opportunistic capitalist wanting to get richer regardless of the impact on anyone else, economic darwinism where only the rich will survive. Fittingly, Little Johnny looks like getting kicked out of his own seat which would have to be the absolute icing on the cake.
The so called two party system is far from perfect, in many ways. At its essence the choice is just that, between two parties, in this election one was right wing and moving more to the right, the other was slightly left or more likely centre left. That’s it. If you want anything else, tough. A case in point is the result for the Greens. They polled 7.8% of the popular vote, far more than the farmer’s National party, yet they end up with nobody in the lower house and the farmers get 10 seats. Our so-called democratic system fails to deliver one vote one value. Some might argue that the National party is just a branch of the Liberal party anyway, but their “party” status affords them significant concessions in parliament which in turn helps to sustain their political survival. On the other hand, the Greens must largely fend for themselves which greatly handicaps their chances of success, yet still they succeed and today they may finally get a position of power in the upper house which would be a fair reflection of voter sentiment.
All in all it looks like the people of Oz voted for change. Its a brave act, it embodies a popular choice for hope for the future and compassion for your fellow humans as opposed to the fear and division espoused by the right. After 11 years, enough people have said let’s turn the lights back on and get on with getting on with each other.