William Pesek of Bloomberg offers an interesting outsiders perspective on the election and the economy:
Julia Gillard was a rotten Australian prime minister. Clueless, mercurial, distracted, vindictive, tin political ear: Man, did she stink.
So went the conventional wisdom that helped drive the nation’s first female leader from office in June. That doesn’t even include the sexist whisper campaign against an unmarried, childless, atheist woman. Or the 2011 television show “At Home With Julia,” which depicted Gillard lying naked under an Australian flag after having sex in her office with her hairdresser boyfriend. Or the abiding image of opposition leader Tony Abbott at a Parliament House rally alongside protesters carrying a “Ditch the Witch” banner.
…After calling elections in hopes of profiting from his personal popularity, what has Rudd offered? Hard-line policies on asylum seekers to pander to the right and small-beer tax policies.
Although he’s the favourite, Abbott has hardly distinguished himself, either. Sure, he’s against the carbon-emission policies and taxes on excessive mining profits favoured by Gillard and Rudd. But he’s moved in their direction on a variety of public welfare initiatives.
…the run-up to September 7 doesn’t bode well for Australia’s future, especially following a 2010 vote dubbed the “Seinfeld Election”, meaning that it was about nothing. Here we are, three years on, and Chinese demand is slackening. Commodity markets are in turmoil. Climate change is intensifying.
…On the other hand, short-term thinking in Canberra risks shortchanging high-return investments in technology, education, broader internet access, and a state-of-the-art rail and highway system. Australia needs to make these kinds of investments now if it’s ever to develop a growth strategy that doesn’t depend on digging stuff out of the ground and shipping it to China.
Part of the problem is the legacy of 13 largely wasted years under John Howard (1996-2007) and Rudd (2007-2010) before he returned to power. The heavy lifting done by former prime ministers Bob Hawke (1983-1991) and Paul Keating (1991- 1996) turned Australia into a Group of 20 power. It’s now the world’s 12th biggest economy thanks to their steps to float the dollar, open the financial industry, remove import barriers and create a compulsory national pension program. On the economy, Howard and Rudd simply kept the plane on autopilot.
I guess opinion polls have already answered the question in the title of this post. And I could never have voted for Gillard given she came to power in the greatest single sellout of the Australian tax-payer of my lifetime. But everything else in the piece is spot on.
