Australia's Howard 'loses seat'

[Nutmegger]

Source: BBC News

The Australian Labor Party candidate who contested outgoing Prime Minister John Howard's seat in last week's general election has claimed victory.

If Maxine McKew's win is confirmed, Mr Howard will become only the second sitting Australian Prime Minister ever to lose his own seat in an election.

"Bennelong is now a Labor seat for the first time," said Ms McKew.

The Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd, won overall victory in the election, ending Mr Howard's 11 years in power.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7122936.stm

[Doctor Cynic]

1. This was actually projected on election night.

I'm not sure why this is news.

[Alexander]

3. But McKew didn't declare victory then.

Now she did, meaning she's apparently confident enough in the results to assume they are correct.

[aquart]

2. They don't like him. They really don't like him.

[Breeze54]

4. This "news" is a week old!

Where've you been? :shrug:

[Nutmegger]

5. ???

McKew is confident enough to declare victory now, a week after the election. It seems pretty likely now, whereas last week people were saying it was probable but wanted to wait it out.

But thanks .... I was watching in the wee hours. I'm sure others were sleeping.

[depakid]

9. " I'm sure others were sleeping."

Not me!

It was history in the making- and I wanted to feel it right there beside my Ozzie friends, even if I couldn't party with them 8,000 miles away.

[oscarmitre]

7. Not a week old, just out

McKew refused to claim it. There still has to be a declaration by the Australian Electoral Commission but mathematically she can't lose from here. AEC - http://www.aec.gov.au/

[OneBlueSky]

6. "Australia's Howard 'loses seat'" . . .

while working as a butcher, backed into a meat grinder and got a little behind in his orders, did he? . . . :hippie:

[LeftishBrit]

8. I know someone who grew up in Bennelong and he's really pleased at this!

It's been predicted for some time, but only just become official.

[rodeodance]

10. bye bye

[tom_paine]

11. I predict that BushPtunism will make a run at Australia now

Howard was an ally of the Imperial Bush Family (and therefore an enemy of the American People), but the very fact that he was defeated by actual honest-to-God progressives (as opposed to most of what passes for the Democratic Leadership these days) but he ruled a Free Nation (well, freer than Amerika undoubtedly).

Now that this has happened, watch for BushPutinists to begin establishing their form of government down under.

Signs to watch for:

Privatizing voting, no more inspections for machines except by the BushPutinists who built them.
Gleitschaltung ("bringing into line") of the media by bullying and intimidation (not the violent kind though).
A continual assault on Reality and the infrastructure which disseminates information (soon to be disinformatoion and half-truths) to the Australian People.
Packing the judiciary with criminals in robes.
Much, much more.

Now, I don't know enough about Australia to judge whether these things will be effective. Bushies, at least in their takeover over Old America, have been very patient. The relative slowness of their movement towards Total Bushie Tyranny gives "plausible deniability" to the whole operation.

Let me warn you Aussies: You will doubt yourselves at every moment because the Sciene of Lying and Preopaganda is so fine-tuned now, that even as you enter Middle-Phase Transition to BushPutinism, with ourbreaks of naked evil and cruelty now becoming noticeable, 99% of your population will still be in denial.

An example of the New BushPutinist Amerika:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/nyregion/30journal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

You see, the Imperial Subjects of Amerika alre all ready to be Nazi followers, all they need now is the tiniest permission from authority to do so. Plus, these types of revealing incidents are skyrocketing lately. Geez, I wonder why?

But once your Bushies realize they can't with with votes based on their ideas, then they will do what our Bushies have done, seize control by other means.

Just a friendly warning to our friends down under. Beware the Aussie Bushies ebcause the Amerikan Bushies have provided them a blueprint to feed a Free Nation a Shit Sandwich of Tyranny and be praised as deliverers of the Delicious Chocolate Ration.

[Esra Star]

13. We are all aware of the antics of the CIA et al. You only have

to look at the downfall of the Whitlam government to see that.
Our system leaves less chance for a take-over Cheney style.
Our head of state is non-political and the office holder is always
a good referee. The exception was John Kerr, but to be fair he was handed
the curliest problem ever.
To answer your implied question about whether we can resist fascism:-
I think we can.
A side benefit of federation in 1901 was we had a chance to pick the best
bits of the various legislatures from around the world.
I think they did a good job. It is true that it could do with a tune-up.
All legislatures need a tune-up every hundred years. Jefferson was spot on there.
We will have our tune-up when we detach from the British monarchy. That should
happen sometime in the next five years.
We will remain ever vigilant though.... I'm afraid that is the price....

[Matilda]

14. I think we're becoming familiar with those tactics .

John Howard always sang from the Karl Rove Songbook.

He was aided by the compliant media - Murdoch controls 70% of the press here, and the powerful Nine
Network was always Howard-friendly under the Packers. The public broadcaster, the ABC, suffered
huge budget cuts under Howard because it dared to remain independent, especially during the early
days of the Iraq invasion, when it failed to take the required "patriotic" line.

The Judiciary has been packed with Howard appointees (as has the Board of the ABC), all of whom can
be counted upon to take the most conservative stance possible on any issue.

Under the guise of "anti-terror" legislation, Howard succeeded in pushing through constraints on
our freedom of speech that would have been unthinkable ten years ago, and even minors can be
detained without the knowledge of their parents.

We have been subjected to a particularly ugly kind of jingoistic nationalism, whereby the ugliest
sentiments can be wrapped in the flag and called patriotism, but which in reality have encouraged
the worst kind of xenophobia, not readily seen in this country for the last forty years.

And we've suffered the indignity of being seen as the tail on the United States dog.

But we still vote with pencils and paper, and there's no talk of taking that away from us.

[struggle4progress]

12. ...

:party:

[Matilda]

15. Maxine McKew has today officially claimed the seat of Bennelong,

and Howard has extended his congratulations (bet that hurt!).

She won by 2,000 votes after preferences, so that's pretty clear-cut.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/12/2117128.htm

Now I want to know when John and Janette are moving out of Kirribilli House. It's nearly three
weeks since the election, and if they don't start packing up soon, I think they should be served
with an eviction notice. They never had any right to be there anyway.