John Howard, Prime Minister, defeated
John Howard, Australia’s second longest serving Prime Minister has lost the 2007 election. Here’s a commentary on what went wrong.
By Matthew Holden.
JOHN HOWARD and the Liberal Party have suffered a significant electoral defeat loosing up to 20 seats to the Australian Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd. The loss was far greater than anticipated.
In a carefully crafted strategic exercise it looks highly likely that John Howard may also loose his Sydney electoral seat of Bennelong to the Labor challenger, Maxine McKew who forced Howard to fight his election campaign on two fronts; firstly in his home electorate of Bennelong and, secondly, as leader in the national campaign which resulted in failure on both fronts.
The Liberal party seemed to fail to execute to a coordinated electoral plan. Day after day, news of more problems with candidates emerged only to culminate in the last minute debacle in the marginal Sydney seat of Lindsay.
The Liberal candidate Karen Chijoff husband, Greg Chijoff, posted threatening and bogus phamplets about Labor and Muslims. The fake leaflet said “we gratefully acknowledge Labor’s support to forgive our Muslim brothers who have been unjustly sentenced to death for the Bali bombings” and called for more mosques to built. Chijoff and the Liberals suffered for such Ku-Klux-Klan tactics with a swing against her of 8%; handing the seat comfortably to Labors David Bradbury.
HUMBLE IN DEFEAT
Eloquent and the ever professional polished politician John Howard accepted his defeat and said “it’s been an immense privilege to be Prime Minister of this beautiful Country” and further “thanked the Australian people for the most unbelievable experience”.
To the casual observer, there were no significant political issues fought over. A number of elements surfaced, such as health, internet communications and troops serving overseas, but none of these were as hotly contested as in previous elections. Add to the fact that Australia has had one of the western worlds most significant financial growth and stability for the past 16 years, it is a wonder the Liberals lost office.
But loose it they did. Flawed electoral execution, key issues and policies not forthcoming from the Government and the leadership comparison of the younger, Kevin Rudd to the elder John Howard was one element of differentiation and the ALP use of positive, forward looking slogans helped ensure their marketing campaign. The biggest issue however, was that after 11 years in Government the Australian people simply wanted a generational change.
Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd, 50, and Australia’s first female Deputy Prime Minister-elect Julia Gillard, 46, have their work cut out for them to ensure Australia maintains it superb economic performance whereas John Howard, after 33 years of public service and the second, longest serving Prime Minister of Australia can now, at last, relax. The people have spoken.
Tags: Australia, commentary, Election, John Howard, Labor, Liberals, Politics