Victorian Election

The shock defeat of the Brumby state government last weekend has unleashed the usual muttering within the ALP about how to shore-up a crumbling base.

Already, some Labor MPs - let’s call them the GOM or “grumpy old men’’ - reckon they have it pegged. Too much focus on the inner-city elites at the expense of the majority, the ordinary folk in middle and outer-suburbs. That’s their message: Labor should concern itself exclusively with bread and butter issues such as relieving cost of living pressures for ``ordinary’’ families. Nothing else.

Analytically speaking, this ‘government-out-of-touch’ critique is a soft target. Self evidently, if you lose, you were not in tune with voters. But it is rarely that simple and ignores the fact that in this instance that Labor was asking for another four years to add to its existing eleven in office. History shows this is almost always a bridge too far.

Continue reading "The big headaches are just starting for Julia" »

The Labor rout in Victoria is an undoubted victory for the Liberals, even though there was a possibility they would yet again come in second. It was at very least a huge morale boost.

Julia Gillard will end 2010 with one Labor bastion being pulled down and will start 2011 with the destruction of another —the NSW Government in March. Tony Abbott’s Liberals will have the momentum going their way. Well at least in a parallel fashion. The Victorian election was about state issues, and was not a federal test.

There was another boost for the Liberals, and that was the performance of their Victorian director, Tony Nutt, the former John Howard trooper and once the party director in NSW.

Continue reading "The Libs will be looking to spread some Victorian magic" »

As Victorians await the final counting to determine which party has won the State election, one outcome is clear. The green bubble has burst.

For the past few weeks, every prediction by the Greens - that they would claim 18 per cent of the vote, win four lower House seats and control the balance of power in Victoria - was breathlessly reported by the media.

The Greens are an anathema to Coalition supporters, who were dismayed that Adam Bandt was elected to the House of Representatives with their preferences.

Continue reading "Victorian voters burst the Greens bubble" »

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be among the more nervous onlookers at Saturday night’s Victorian election count.

While not in the frame herself, the poll is another test for a tarnished Labor brand and the first since her own underwhelming result in August.

She will take comfort from the facts Federal Labor did quite well in Victoria and the State Government of Premier John Brumby is widely seen as competent.

Continue reading "Gillard’s got a lot riding on Saturday’s Victorian election" »

News this morning that NSW Premier Kristina Keneally will add points NSW residents’ licenses, apparently in a bid to give drivers “a fair go.”

One can’t help but think it’s an attempt to give Kristina Keneally’s Government a fair go, although she may need to do more than add one point to everyone’s license. More exciting bribes will be necessary to save the NSW Government, and perhaps the Victorian Government who faces re-election this weekend can get in a few last minute sweeteners in as well.

Here’s a few suggestions:

- F3 Housing development: The Government will build a new 20,000 home development along the side of the F3 freeway, the home of the nine hour traffic jam. This will allow people to sleep where they now spend most of their time, and allow long standing F3 relationships to blossom into what are becoming known as “F3 families.”

Continue reading "What would make you vote for state Labor?" »

There is a certain weathered look to the Greens today. The deep rich hue that has characterised that lovely new t-shirt in recent months has been slightly dulled by political reality.

The decision by the Victorian Liberals to preference the Labor party ahead of the Greens in the upcoming state election is a kick in the guts to the minor party’s chances of, not only holding the balance of power in the new parliament, but getting any seats at all in the lower house.

It’s important decision not only in the context of the Victorian election but the emerging story of the Greens as a real third force in Australian politics.

Continue reading "Liberals’ decision will change the new Green paradigm" »