http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...261858231.html

Prime Minister John Howard was on track to win a fourth term


This has to be good news for Dubber... looks like his cheap hawk down south has been re-elected with a swing toward the governemnt.

we may have gone to war, but we are also experiencing the strongest economy for a long time - specifically in areas that benefit the majority of society.

New mums now get paid $3000
Our dollar is strong
Our stock market & financial industry is booming
New developments & building industry is booming
Unemployment has been around 5.7% for record time

people are confused on the whole war issue now, its all been jumbled up in details and swept under the carpet by most. anyone you ask already has their response rehearsed, a restated news byte here and there. I think we are so confused we are over it.

Well, we're all perfectly confused enough to just leave things how they are anyway LOL

I agree Howard has been a star with the economy when every country around us suffered resessions he kept us moving upward. I voted for him at the previous 3 elections.

Australian's may have really re-elected him on economic grounds.. but most of the world will see it as the Australian people supporting the only thing they know John Howard for..... rushing to support America in Iraq.


If you really wanted social services like family payments and such to be treated as a prioity, I don't think Howard is the man for that though. One thing I am dissapointed in this result is that the ALP would have pumped millions into the education system, something I really think is being neglected right now.

Anyway, 3 weeks beofre the US goes to the polls... it should be a boost for the Bush campaign. Another Spanish election style result in an ally country right now would have been jumped on by the US democrats.

I'm not sure if you guys realize I was a political campaign consultant in one of my past lives.

They are all pricks, no matter what party they allegedly originate from.

The positive of Little Johnnies 4 win?

War or no war, we retain Alexander Downer as Minister for Foreign Affairs, who I think is the best we have ever had. He sucked as an Opposition Leader, but he sure found his niche.

Costello ain't bad either.

So we get 4 more years of Howard jokes.

And the Labor party get 4 more years to find a potenial leader with an ounce of charisma.

:ph34r:

I heard Kerry had some family members downunder urging the Aussies to vote agsint Howard.

Is this true?

cj, new mothers get $3000 for having kids ??

Mike, wasnt it Kerry's daughters ??

cj, new mothers get $3000 for having kids ??

Mike, wasnt it Kerry's daughters ?? [/b][/quote]
I heard his sister....

Either way, that is pretty outragous.

yes slav, $3k upon the birth of each child

it was part of a plan to encourage more people to have kids as our birthrate has fallen yadda yadda

obviously, paying people to have kids mainly encourages the trailer park mums to have LOTS of kids :rolleyes:

Opti, I agree completely ... unfortunately it is a support for bush & for going to war - but I think it shows how poorly anti war campaigners handled THEIR chance at swaying the publics thinking.

While on one side they are screaming 'no war' on the other its 'fuck i hope interest rates don't go up so i'll vote for the war guy anyway'. People are selfish - we'll put signs in our windows saying 'no war' but we won't accept paying a few hundred more a month to own a house, even if it means supporting the war they spoke against ... blah blah people suck LOL

ye gads, see why i rather not get started on politics :rolleyes:

Anyway ... give me australia under any government over any other country in the world. Even australia at its worst still has free healthcare, clean streets and some of the most beautiful places in the world.

We aint called the lucky country for nuttin :awinky:

Is it strictly a $$ thing?? Are Aussies that synister? Or could it be the NO WAR signs are just a public display?

I mean, I thing war sucks, it is always tough to see your young brave Country have to pay the ultimate price, not to mention the expense, but sometimes WAR is needed for future survival.

This war is going to last longer then Bush and Howard.... their eventual replacements better to understand that, if they want to win future elections. Islamicists are just surging in their power..... This is indeed the challange of our generation.

It was funny how little US issues ended up playing in the election actually.. If Kerry did have operatives working with the ALP here... they failed badly.

There was a US-AU free trade agreement signed during the campaign too.. I'm not sure what happened there... the ALP decided it was safer to jump in line and not criticise the Governemnt over such close ties with the US. USA bashing in an election campaign is common fodder here usually too!

There has been at least 3 large one-off payments to wide groups of the population this year... If this election result isn't proof how easy the population is to buy here, I don't know what is.

And there isn't a significant anti-wat movement here that I can see btw.. much less anti-war signs than the US I have assumed. In fact there is hardly any effective anti-war campaign here imho.

It was funny how little US issues ended up playing in the election actually.. If Kerry did have operatives working with the ALP here... they failed badly.

There was a US-AU free trade agreement signed during the campaign too.. I'm not sure what happened there... the ALP decided it was safer to jump in line and not criticise the Governemnt over such close ties with the US. USA bashing in an election campaign is common fodder here usually too!

There has been at least 3 large one-off payments to wide groups of the population this year... If this election result isn't proof how easy the population is to buy here, I don't know what is.

And there isn't a significant anti-wat movement here that I can see btw.. much less anti-war signs than the US I have assumed. In fact there is hardly any effective anti-war campaign here imho. [/b][/quote]


The anti-war movement is not that big here either - it is just noisy, orginized, and gets a lot of press. Most of the anti-war movement is a collection of hippies, environmentalist wackos, misc socialists, anarchists, and general anti-Americans.

Because of massive money being spent in elections, professional protestors have become the norm.....