Abbott wins; Labor thrashed

Image: Larry Pickering on our 'selfie' obsessed ex PM

Australia’s six years of Labor government with its inherently profligate spending, waste, disorganization, and leadership tensions are finally a thing of the past other than paying the price, which will take some time. 

Labor flared out in spectacular fashion, losing many seats in Victoria, New South Wales, and their bastion of Tasmania.  While the others remained relatively stable for them, these were states where they lost badly last time.  They failed to win back any of their previous losses and some former safe seats are looking decidedly marginal.

Current predictions are for a coalition win with a margin of thirty plus seats, with four still in doubt.  The Greens managed to retain their Melbourne seat and independents have two with the possibility of four.

Rudd’s concession speech was the most ungracious of any that have ever been made here.  He spoke on eternally, mostly about himself, failed to congratulate Tony Abbott on his victory, and to cap it off made a rather nasty aside about the Liberal candidate in his seat who gave him a scare, with; “It would be un prime ministerial of me to say Bill Glasson eat your heart out, so I won’t.”

He needn’t have bothered about being ‘un prime ministerial’ as effectively he was a thing of the past at the time.

After the 2010 election, the ratbag independent Rob Oakeshotte forced us to listen to a twenty plus minute diatribe about himself before telling us he was supporting Gillard into government.  By the time Rudd reached the twenty minute mark, he was sounding positively Oakeshottesque.

The Liberals have failed to win the balance of power in the senate, but enough seats have been won by other minor parties to tale that balance out of the hands of the luddite Greens.  To pass legislation after the first of July next year, Abbott will need the support of six of the eight minor party or independent senators.

Until that time, he will have the problem of the current senate which is Labor/Green controlled.

The great news is that our first libertarian senator has been provisionally elected in NSW, and we could have had another in Tasmania if the Liberals had preferenced us ahead of the whacky and weird Palmer United Party.

The high expectations of Katter’s Australia Party were dashed after preferencing Labor, causing a backlash in the bush, Bob Katter’s constituency.  Not only did he have to rely on Labor preferences to just get across the line in his previously safe (68%) seat, his team did so badly that they were hardly mentioned in the broadcast, being lumped in with ‘others’.

More on the libertarian senator shortly.