Election Time
So this Saturday is election time for Australia. The incumbent Prime Minister John Howard is fighting for another term in office (He has been PM for 11 years now). However, the Australian Labor Party, and its leader Kevin Rudd is looking like they are set for victory right now.
Being an outsider, it is interesting being here right now. It seems that the whole media world in Australia seems to be against John Howard.
In an echo of the Tony Blair / Gordon Brown power transfer deal, it seems that John Howard is going to transfer power to his number two man when he retires, but he has not said when he is going to retire. The ALP has been using this as a whipping stick saying that the Australian voter is not really voting Howard in at all.
On the other hand, the Coalition that Howard leads has been pulling some interesting stunts. Yesterday it emerged that a leaflet purporting to come from the ALP advocating forgiveness for the Bali bombers, and support for more Mosques to be built around the country actually was being distributed by the husbands of some of John Howards party leaders.
I will leave others to comment on the fact that preaching forgiveness and religious tolerance is seen as a negative factor here…
