AusPoliGAF! Came across a good article that seems to round up your election nicely in one of the US blogs I follow.
Australia’s conservative Liberal/National Coalition won a landslide victory in the House of Representatives on Saturday, Sept. 7. The Coalition led by Tony Abbott was expected to win; it had been polling 10 percentage points ahead of its main rival, Labor, for more than a year:
Within a half hour of the final polls closing, outgoing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd conceded the Labor Party’s defeat and announced that he would not stand for his party’s leadership in the new parliament. In total, the Coalition secured 90 seats in Australia’s 150-member House of Representatives, while Labor won only 55 seats. Full results from this and the previous election are displayed below. Abbott’s government was sworn in last week.
Abbott is not very popular among the Australian public. Although his party had a clear advantage, more people reported that Rudd would make a better prime minister as late as Aug. 24:
Main issues at stake: The threat of a changing economy, carbon emissions, and immigration
Abbott’s positions are more conservative than those of many members of his own party, and he has a history of making sexist remarks. (Previous Prime Minister Julia Gillard made international headlines last October when she said during a parliamentary address, “if [Abbott] wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror.”
Yet he ran a highly disciplined campaign over the past few months, avoiding any major gaffes. Ultimately, Abbott portrayed himself as a viable prime minister to about half of the voting population, which was sufficient to guarantee victory.
This election should lead to a significant shift in the policies of a country that has managed to sustain sizeable growth while almost every other industrialized democracy has suffered financially. Most of Australia’s recent economic success can be attributed to a boom in commodity prices, particularly iron ore and coal, driven by a steady demand from their largest export partner, China. Yet, sensing a future economic slowdown, voters worried that Labor could lead the country in the wrong direction. One potential concern was that the incumbents pledged to return the budget to a surplus by now – a promise they were unable to keep.
Abbott’s first order of business? Repeal taxes on both the mining industry and carbon emissions. The Labor government instituted a 30 percent “super tax” on companies that mine non-renewable resources and make a profit exceeding $75 million annually. The country has also installed one of the most comprehensive carbon emissions programs in the world by taxing the biggest polluters. Although the government planned to transition from the tax to a cap-and-trade system (linked with Europe’s) by 2015, Abbott has vowed to repeal the tax altogether and start from scratch. Australia is the largest per capita emitter of carbon dioxide on the planet, and an outright repeal would be a major step back for those fighting climate change. However, the carbon emissions tax was widely unpopular, and many voters blamed it for rising electricity and gas prices,
Abbott will need support from members of the Senate to repeal either tax. Final results on Senate seats will not be available for a month, but it appears as though he will have to rely on the support of several Independent and small party candidates – once the Senate is sworn in during July of next year. Until then, Labor and Green party members have vowed to vote against the Coalition’s plan to scrap the carbon pricing scheme. Abbott is already putting pressure on members from both parties to “respect” the people’s “mandate” and abolish both taxes.
Immigration also took up much of the campaign’s focus. Thousands of asylum-seekers from the Middle East and South Asia travel each year to Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand by plane and then embark on a perilous journey by boat to Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory that is significantly closer to Indonesia than mainland Australia. While the number of immigrants seeking asylum is steadily increasing, the absolute number is still quite small – 16,000 in 2012 – compared to the total number of annual immigrants – 200,000 in 2012. Nonetheless, 52 percent of voters reported that this issue was “very important” to their voting decision – a number higher than climate change, national security or interest rates. Abbott threatened to prevent Indonesian boats from entering Australian waters, and in his victory speech he reiterated his promise to “swiftly implement Operation Sovereign Borders” and turn boats around that can return on their own to Indonesia. During the campaign, Rudd countered with his own hardliner plan to send asylum seekers to refugee camps in Papua New Guinea, where the conditions are, in many cases, reportedly below international standards of living.
Abbott is also opposed to gay marriage, and he campaigned on promises to cut foreign aid. He has questioned the existence of climate change in the past.
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