FYI
No more Johnny Howard, Kevin Rudd is the new Prime Minister of Australia.
posted by jill at 9:16 PM
Saturday, November 24, 2007
No more Johnny Howard, Kevin Rudd is the new Prime Minister of Australia.
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10 Comments:
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
(the reason I ask is because this Guardian article says:
Nicholas Stuart, a journalist and author of a recent Rudd biography, said few people even within the Labor party know what the new Prime Minister really stands for.
which strikes me as confusing and bizarre.)
Sounds like an anti-howard vote to me. Not that I had any idea there even was a vote going on... :)
But that Guardian article is pretty all over the place. Seems like Buddy's got at least a few ideas (and i mean, it seems like you don't need many to beat a guy that unpopular).
Rudd, 50, presented himself to voters as a new-generation leader by promising to pull troops out of Iraq and ratify the Kyoto Protocol capping greenhouse gas emissions, further isolating Washington on both issues.
That's a start, I'd say. Also, I understand Rudd spent some time in a NYC strip club! Love it.
Not only that, but he went to the most famous strip club in the City... Scores... which we passed many a time, (while we were staying around the corner)... and in fact, Josh sees every single day on his way to work! Tight.
So what's the deal, Aussies???!!!??? inquiring minds'd like to know!
yea people in our "circles" seem quite pleased probably beacause howard is gone as much as anything else. but it does mean the end of a 12 year conservative government as well. i think its generally agreed that rudd is a bit of a weirdo, and i think hes also pretty religious, which gets downplayed alot. anyway, howard did some things recently that pissed alot of people off which is probably a big reason why rudd is prime minister now. thats all i got...im sure tom has more thoughtful insights into australian politics than i do....
yeah, that's sweet. The religious thing was interesting—the Guardian article went out of its way to call him a "Christian." Which, knowing Western politics... is usually an assumption these days.
What was it that Howard did (recently) that pissed people off (even more)?
Howard's party had, recently, finally after 12 years won majorities in both houses so he passed what he called workplace relations changes. Australia, which has long benefitted disproprotionately from a successful left wing government in the 70s, has lots of benefits for workers, such as extremely high minimum wage (around $15) and lots of vacation time. Howard's plan was to get rid of all benefits except three or four (like not being able to be fired on the spot without reason, not being denied access to toilets and those very basic rights). Now, everyone has to negotiate and sign their own contract with employers (which basically invalidates the concept of unions), and so there is no guarantee of things like overtime, protection from being fired (because almost any excuse can be covered if the employer has a good contract), and employees generally face no protection from the whims of employers.
Even the Howard government ads on tv couldn't come up with benefits for workers. They would just show workers saying they were much happier but had no reasons for it. Meanwhile, Rudd's party was running tons of ads with people explaining exactly how they got screwed. The Howard ads here literallly showed "union bosses" dressed like skinheads pushing their way into little stores and threatening everyone. Australia is stuck in the 50s though.
In conclusion, Rudd is supposedly fairly anodyne, but anybody would be preferable to Howard, who is extremely rightwing socially and fiscally. Also, unlike many leftwing politicians here, Rudd isn't violently anti-American and populist, so I'd say the country will actually start functioning like a contemporary nation for the first time.y
Also, about the strip-club:
Rudd is a very uptight and dorky guy. Many years ago, he attended some conference for the government in New York, where many of the delegates when to a famous strip-club afterward. He was drunk went to the strip club for an hour!
He should have been disqualified for being such a square.
From what I see on discovery channel Australia needs to work on water conservation or else it will only be fit to turn back into a prison colony. Howard should have forced employees to work 24 hour shifts on election day with no breaks so they couldn't vote against him, he just wasn't commited enough to sticking it to the working man.
I think we should let it become a desert.
*the spice must flow*
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