We think:

The [tag]Rudd government[/tag] will survive for two to three terms at least.

One reason is that the [tag]Liberals[/tag] will spend the next three years in the obligatory overt and covert battles over the leadership. When they lose the next [tag]election[/tag] there will be another bout of [tag]bloodletting[/tag]. One thing is almost certain: whoever is elected leader now will not be the next [tag]Liberal Priminister[/tag]. [tag]Costello[/tag] knew it and that is why he refused the “[tag]poisoned chalice[/tag]“.

The result of this election has been that [tag]extreme right[/tag] policies have been ruled out for the [tag]coalition[/tag] in future. Unfortunately for them, with Labor now taking the [tag]centre[/tag] and [tag]centre right[/tag] there is very little room left for them on the electorally acceptable [tag]right[/tag] at all without them being a joke like the [tag]DLP[/tag] or the [tag]ultranationalist[/tag]s.

This leaves a large vacuum on the left.

That vacuum, we predict, will be increasingly filled by a party of the acceptable, electable [tag]left[/tag] – probably a development of the [tag]Greens[/tag]. We predict that the Greens will form [tag]government[/tag] in [tag]Australia[/tag] 20 to 30 years from now. To do this, of course, the Greens will have to develop into a party that large numbers of people can relate to and identify with. To achieve that it will have to do brutal and upsetting things like excising the most [tag]emotional[/tag] and [tag]radical[/tag] expressions of [tag]environmentalism[/tag] and [tag]social theory[/tag] on the [tag]far left[/tag]. It will be assisted in its rise into the real [tag]mainstream[/tag] by the increasing urgency to combat [tag]climate change[/tag] and by the [tag]Labor Party[/tag]‘s [tag]future[/tag] failure to address that effectively.

It’s important to note, as [tag]Bob Brown[/tag] said, the importance of the Greens to Labor’s victory. They are already, clearly, an important political force but people, we suspect, have voted for the Greens not with the illusion that they would be elected, at least not in the Reps, but in order to tell the mainstream parties not to go too far to the right.

Why have the Liberals been so comprehensively [tag]rout[/tag]ed?

Firstly, [tag]Australians[/tag] have wanted to be rid of [tag]John Howard[/tag] for a long time. Since [tag]Tampa[/tag] and [tag]Children Overboard[/tag] and [tag]SIEV-X[/tag]. Since he stole [tag]Pauline Hanson[/tag]‘s policies. Since he showed the brutality of his [tag]ideology[/tag] towards desperate people who called for our help and the inhuman tratment of [tag]refugees[/tag]. Since his decision to invade Iraq in the face of clear majority opinion against it. Since his obsequious fawning at George Bush became embarrassing for most Australians. Since his failure, his inability, to say “Sorry”. Since his party’s dismissive attitude became clear towards innocent people caught in the [tag]refugee[/tag] and [tag]terrorism[/tag] nets. Since his inexcusable exploitation of people to further his [tag]extreme party political agenda[/tag], since his treatment of [tag]David Hicks[/tag], his support for the clear impropriety, injustice and illegality of the Guantánamo experiment and his acquiescence in numerous other subversions of the rule of law by the Bush administration. It all built up. And the moment there was someone leading the Labor Party who looked electable, John Howard was gone. This was clear and has not altered from the moment [tag]Kevin Rudd[/tag] was elected leader of the Labor Party.

Howard made us feel dirty and nasty and sneaky. He made us feel selfish and morally shrivelled. And we didn’t like it. Howard’s biggest mistake was to threaten our most treasured [tag]myths[/tag] about ourselves as a people; that as a nation and as people we are [tag]fair[/tag], [tag]just[/tag], [tag]egalitarian[/tag], [tag]moral[/tag], [tag]compassionate[/tag] and [tag]generous[/tag]. We also like to think of ourselves as [tag]clever[/tag], [tag]fun[/tag] and [tag]free[/tag], and we haven’t felt like that as a nation for several years. To a large extent we’ve felt serious, worried and threatened.

This election was absolutely a [tag]repudiation[/tag] of everything that Howard tried to do. The [tag]ugliness[/tag] of his [tag]fellow travellers[/tag] emerged today as they fell over each other claiming that he was a “listener”, that he had an “almost uncanny” understanding of the people, that he really cared, really felt, that he was the second greatest PM after [tag]Ming[/tag]. We know of no credible evidence to suggest that Howard was other than a borderline [tag]sociopath[/tag] who operated [tag]obsessive[/tag]ly to further his own agenda without consideration for the harm which that might cause to others – which it certainly did.

In fact he caused great harm to Australia.

He released the dogs of [tag]racism[/tag] to [tag]political[/tag] ends. He released the dogs of [tag]capital punishment[/tag] (and whenever we see pictures of [tag]Janette[/tag] smiling lovingly and sweetly, we remember that she is a [tag]death penalty[/tag] [tag]radical[/tag] and probably Howard’s inspiration in this).

He synthetically generated [tag]fear[/tag] and then preyed on that fear in order to curtail people’s [tag]freedom[/tag]s.

He did all this, of course, with the total [tag]compliance[/tag] of the most [tag]morally repugnant[/tag] [tag]front bench[/tag] in [tag]Australian history[/tag] – [tag]Ruddock[/tag], [tag]Downer[/tag], [tag]Andrews[/tag], [tag]Nelson[/tag], [tag]Abbott[/tag], [tag]Bishop[/tag], [tag]Hockey[/tag], [tag]Brandis[/tag], the execrable [tag]Vanstone[/tag], and of course the [tag]coward[/tag]ly [tag]bully[/tag], [tag]Costello[/tag].

In the process of achieving this [tag]debauch[/tag]ing of [tag]political values[/tag] he also dragged the [tag]politicisation[/tag] of the [tag]public service[/tag] to unheard of depths and with it jettisoned the entire notion of [tag]political accountability[/tag].

So let us not have to listen to any more praise for the man. He was profoundly [tag]anti-democratic[/tag] and we are lucky that the [tag]Australian people[/tag] understood that and removed him before he irretrievably destroyed everything of value in Australian [tag]civil society[/tag].

[tags]Australian election, federal election, government, politics, Australian politics, politics and government, government and politics, Australian values, values Australia, morality, decency, ethics, standards, quality, Guantanamo, Bush, George Bush, Bush administration[/tags]