The freefall of Kevin Rudd in the opinion poll from the 70′s to 30′s satisfaction rate and Labor’s primary vote at 35 while Liberal, 40 got all the knives out from Labor’s factional warlords in an unparalleled political assassination.
In a matter of hours, Australia has a new Prime Minister, a female, Julia Gillard. The threat of losing power, a Labor obsession, (no matter what) is the primary motive for deposing a Prime Minister in his first year of term.
This play in federal politics is a repeat and mirror of NSW and is now taking almost 20 years for the voters of NSW to come out with anger. I hope it will not take that long before the Australian voters learn the NSW lesson. We now have either a Julia Keneally or Kristina Gillard.
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The Penrith by-elections gave an historic 25.7% swing to the Liberals and even if half of this swing is repeated in the coming state elections in March 2011, only 20 Labor MPs will be left in a 93-seat parliament.
I was in a polling booth in Penrith, and the three young Labor workers covered their Labor marked shirts and another one sported a “Worker’s Rights” shirt. These did not help at all, most voters, when handed the Labor how to vote, either said, “you must be joking” or flatly refused to accept the leaflet.
The result in the Penrith by-elections is a bad omen or perhaps confirms that the State Labor government is terminally ill. This long-serving government had grand plans only to be scrapped later. Until now, it is still issuing 20-25 year plans and act business as usual. But NSW voters can’t wait for March, or perhaps in October to vent their anger against the Labor brand.
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P-Noy will be the new President, a great hope for the long suffering Filipinos.
He has a Herculean task to overhaul the government and steer the state ship into a genuine functioning democracy and achieve economic prosperity. The President will be called upon to eliminate the systemic corruption in all levels of government. He needs to bring to justice those officials responsible for the scandals and corruptions in the previous administration. People will not take scapegoats, it must go to the top, to former president GMA and the First Gentleman.
P-Noy also needs to find closures to the “NBN”, “Hello Garci”, Fertilizer scams, and others. P-Noy was elected through an EDSA masked as “elections” and the thousands of volunteers, the yellow army, are on the watch to ensure that this is not a repeat of the previous EDSA people power.
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The Alliance of Philippine Community Organizations’ (APCO) Freedom Ball was impressive in attendance and program. It ushered new dynamics in Filipino organisations. I hope that PCC and APCO can still reconcile or at least move towards friendly working relationships in the interest of the community.
*** Lawyer Jess Diaz is a councillor of Blacktown City Council. More about Jess Diaz…
Other post/s by Jess Diaz
- Year End Political Perspective - January 1st, 2012
- Provocative: Why Rizal Today? - December 30th, 2011
- A bat to king hit the NSW State Labor! - January 22nd, 2011
- Asylum seekers' dreams ended on Australian shores - January 21st, 2011
- A case in point on mental health - December 4th, 2010
About Jess Diaz
Time might be a factor in Julia Gillard’s quest to continue wielding the power of a Prime Minister of Australia. She may want to call an election quickly, before the ‘honeymoon’ wears off and the real test begins.
Meantime, the growing disenchantment with Labor appears to be giving the Liberals’ head honcho Tony Abbott the kind of opening he needs to launch a credible challenge.
It gets interesting. But I’m not having any preferences ~ yet.