Liberals gain seats, Labour lost seats, Greens and Democrats seem to be wiped out, all calculations show Liberals on track to win the election.
And more importantly, it appears that the religious right-wing Family First gain significant votes, though not winning any seats. This clearly shows that there is a significantly growing social conservative movement here in Australia. Politicians would ignore them at their peril.
I have already predicted that the Liberals would win, as Labour try to appease the lunatic lefty Greens by “protecting” forests and destroying jobs. Why do they not learn?
The big question is, why has the left-wing Reformation that happened in the British Labour party, and the Clintonite Democratic Party in the US, not happened here in Australia?
Voters look for moderate positions in the center. That explains why Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were who they were. Tony Blair was very much instrumental in turning Labour into New Labour, as Bill Clinton could claim credit for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council within the Democratic Party.
The big question is, why are there no transformative leaders for the Labour Party? Mark Latham seemed different to me initially, up until the point where he waffled about returning to the days of a centrally planned collective bargaining union policy. To make things worse, he pandered to the crazy tree-huggers of the Green Party, which promptly lost him votes in Tasmania, where the timber industry would lose jobs.
Don’t get me wrong, I am an avid environmentalist. I am also however, an avowed libertarian. I don’t believe in state intervention to achieve social, economic or environmental goals. Just as you don’t want governments to legislate on private morality, such as what consenting adults do in the private, you also do not want governments telling you what forests to protect. If you want to protect trees and forests, come up with some private solution, they always work better than state intervention.
Anyway, until an Australian version of Tony Blair or Bill Clinton comes along, Labour will always remain on the outside.
