How beautiful is this? Sometimes, not often, but just occasionally the poetry writes itself.

Now in the twilight of his life, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, quoted the final line of Dante Alligheri's masterwork "the Inferno" on hearing the result of November 24th's election.

"E quindi uscimmo a reverder le stelle" translates to;

"and we emerged to see the stars", the poet refers to his return from the depths of hell.

I suspect tonight Bernie Banton is looking down from those very stars, I hope he's smiling.

"I'd like to see much less George Bush style and more Hugo Chavez grass root democracy and local solutions." - maggie on November 25, 2007 6:18 PM

If Rudd turns out to be a fraction of the economic conservative he keeps pretending to be, a lot of his followers are going to be mighty disappointed.

It seems that with all the hype in what became a very presidential-style campaign between Howard and Rudd, that votes were more "polarised" than usual - meaning that minor parties/independents attracted an even lower percentage of the votes than usual.  The result was, of course, a landslide win for Labor and Kevin Rudd, who will become our new prime minister.  Outgoing PM, John Howard was gracious in defeat.  Is it just me, or are politician's best speeches always when they're conceding?

What sort of PM might Rudd be?  Helen (aka skepticlawyer) has an excellent (but long) post over at catallaxy suggesting he'd be a Blair-like 'trendy vicar'.  I hope she's wrong.  Here's an excerpt:

He reminds me – with his relentless ‘on-message’ rhetoric and carefully scripted ‘socially conscious’ Christian conservatism – of Tony Blair in his prime, a type that some of my Oxford friends deride as a ‘trendy vicar’.

One of Blair’s enduring political legacies was his nanny-statist determination to ‘make people behave’. This found expression in the creation of some 3000 new offences since New Labour took office in 1997 – more than the sum total of offences in UK law until that point. However, more than simply rushing to lock more people up for more stuff, Blair began to intervene in his citizens’ lives in ways that are spookily Orwellian. The most meretricious of these interventions is undoubtedly the ‘anti-social behaviour order’, or ASBO for short – although talking CCTV runs a close second.

ASBOs are civil orders, not a criminal penalty. This means they don’t appear on an individual’s criminal record – at least initially. However, breach of an ASBO is a criminal offence punishable by a fine or up to five years in prison. Crucially, their civil status means there is no objection to the use of hearsay (the UK abolished the rule against hearsay in civil proceedings in 1995). Oh, and then there’s the definition, under section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Anti-social behaviour is ‘behaviour which causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more people who are not in the same household as the perpetrator’. As you’ll appreciate, it’s entirely subjective.

I am glad that Australia's PM speak Mandarin and understand Chinese culture. He also have a Chinese son-in-law. With this background, hopefully his policies will not discriminate against the ethnics minority.

With his understanding of Chinese Culture, hopefully Kevin Rudd will have a better relationship with China. In this era where Chinese economy is booming, having a PM who speak Mandarin will be good for Australia's economy.

Kevin Rudd, congratulation.  陆克文， 恭喜了.

Not for the victory of Kevin Rudd you understand, but for the defeat of Howard, I long for the heady days of the early 90's when the life expectancy of a leader of the liberal party in opposition was similar to that of a serving soldier on the western front during WWI, two weeks tops.

Even Downer got a guernsey back then, what does that tell you?

I want to be driving around with an airhorn and streamers, singing in a manner reminiscent of the munchkins celebrating the demise of the wicked witch of the west, but I can't, not yet.

In fact, I really won't even begin to feel anything like relaxation until about 9:00pm on election night when a clear trend emerges, then I'll either be barely able to contain my excitement, or my excrement, one or the other.

Maybe it's because I live in one of the safest liberal seats in the country, and the local media have been huffing and puffing the co alition's chances like the big bad wolf doing a spot of B&E at the piggies pad.

Maybe it's because I remember the stinging defeat of Kim Beazley in 1998 when he won on votes but lost on seats, maybe it's because am all too aware of the right's myriad of underhanded tricks, conscienceless ploys to retain power, never better illustrated than by Jackie Kelly's arrogant endorsement of playing to the lowest possible denominator, wheeling out the race card for yet another airing. Reinacted all over the country, the political right's contempt for electoral laws is matched only by their contempt for human decency.

Maybe it's just because I have lost faith in the ability of Australians to make rational, compassionate and sensible decisions when electing a government.

I don't know, but for me the nightmare won't be over until Howard concedes, then, who knows? maybe a new nightmare, but at least it won't be as bad as the one we are living now.

Among the insightful headlines, "Rudd is not fit to rule", "Rudd's blame game" and "Kevin Rudd's glib grab for power". And they're not three of the best, they're just three in a row!

Piss, you might call yourself "One of the nation’s most respected journalists" in you're blog's header, but we know the truth. You are nothing but a cheap copywriter for Liberal party advertisements.

There is nothing wrong with having an opinion, but when all you do is repeat yourself over and over and over again, perhaps you need to consider GETTING A LIFE!

Prodos like a lot of right wing dumb fucks has seen the parody Maoist Propaganda Video about Kevin Rudd, and like a lot of right wing dumb fucks he seems to think that it's a critique from the right. Aside from the obvious fact that anyone supporting Howard by definition lacks the creativity to put something as good as this together, it's pretty obvious that this is a critique from the left.

The fact of the matter is that anyone with a heart in this country is pissed off at the complete lack of imagination, vision, idealism and yes, even leadership, displayed by those representing the supposedly left wing major party (no one ever expected these from the Libs).

Aside from the obvious critique of the status quo implicit in the video, there is the rather obvious fact that it was compiled by the genius hmatkin.

One final point about Prodos's dumbfuckery, he reassures viewers:

Note: Includes English subtitles, translated from Chinese.

Well, if the subtitles were translated from Chinese, they would be about the war between China and Vietnam in the late seventies. Next Prodos will be claiming that Osama really does say those silly things on The Chaser...

Would you trust this man with your children?

I wouldn't trust him with the lawn clippings!

This year, the election will be a little different. Online media is going to have a stronger role than it has in the past. Politicians have been keen to try new ways of campaigning and even the political coverage is changing to meet the needs of the online generation. However, the tools have changed somewhat, but the policies are all pretty much in the dark ages.

The Australian Federal Election will be held on the 24th of November 2007.

Peanut
Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal's YouTube Channel
John Howard's opening speech - Right Leadership (transcript)

Pistachio
Kevin07
Labor's YouTube Channel
[Waiting for Kevin Rudd's speech to be uploaded - New leadership doesn't including fast updates for the public] - [transcript when available]

Mixed Nuts
FederalElection.com.au - MyElectorate, Hot Issues, Rolling Debate, Blogs
Google's Election 2007 - Follow Australian politics with Google's map, videos, gadgets & more
For the Nut Intolerant
Leadership seems to be a key topic for this election, so here are some videos from thought leaders on the subject.
Dr Peter Ellyard - Futurist
Al Gore on Leadership in Global Warming
Barack Obama: Leadership On Energy

"The truth is, we can't afford to let the same old politics stand in the way of our future anymore."