Oh what a night!
What a great night! Who would have thought that staring at numbers and graphs for six hours could be so exhilarating! The Howard era has finally ended.
I must say that Howard's concession speech was both dignified and gracious. He has (finally) accepted the responsibility for the Libs' woes. And, to be fair, a political career spanning a third of a century must be acknowledged and honoured, no matter how repugnant one considers his policies. Howard should also be given credit for remaining in his long-held, but somewhat marginal seat of Bennelong, rather than seeking a safer harbour. He looks likely to lose that seat, which would be symbolically appropriate - a captain going down with his ship.
Personally, I am not a Rudd fan (Gillard is closer to my end of political spectrum), but he deserves enormous credit for turning around the Labor party when it was drifting aimlessly in the political seas and leading the party to a decisive victory in a way somewhat reminiscent of Tony Blair. One can only hope that the party will be able to stay true to its principles and to its promises. We must also hope that the Labor government will repair some of the damage done to our values and our political institutions under Howard. That it will put a higher value on accountability, transparency, fairness, responsibility and intelligent public discourse. Eleven years is a lot of damage to repair and I'm not sure that Labor has the will to do it. But here's to hoping.
RSS
