In Australia, an election has just taken place. And Tony Abbott is now their Prime Minister. Abbott is the leader of a right-of-center coalition of two parties: the so-called Liberal Party (which is anything but what we would call “liberal” in the United States) and the National Party, which used to be called the Country Party. Australia's Liberal Party was founded by Robert Menzies in the period around World War II, and has always been the friend of the United States and the opponent of the socialistic tendencies of the third important party in Australia, the Labor Party. (Note that, while most Australians write “labour” like the Brits, the Australian Labor Party spells their name the way we in the USA would, without the “u.”)
Let me not imply that friendship with the USA was the most important issue in this election. it was certainly based primarily on Australian local issues. The Labor Party has been in a lot of disarray lately. In the previous election, their then-leader, Julia Gillard, became Prime Minister, but the election was so close that she had no majority in Parliament and was able only to form a minority government. She turned out to be so unpopular within her own party that they called back their previous leader, Kevin Rudd, before that Parliament's term was over. And Rudd was no more able to hold the public's support than Gillard. He has now indicated that he is resigning as Labor leader.
But Abbott's victory was not just because Labor was falling apart. He has proposed repealing a carbon tax — and in a Parliamentary system like Australia's, the Prime Minister can usually get his way very easily — showing that Australia's public is no more in favor of such monkeying with the economy for dubious environmental reasons than the USA's public is. nd in general, Abbott's agenda is a center-right agenda, much like the moderates in the Republican Party. I cannot help saying that we can only be happy that the Australian public has chosen Tony Abbott.
Let me not imply that friendship with the USA was the most important issue in this election. it was certainly based primarily on Australian local issues. The Labor Party has been in a lot of disarray lately. In the previous election, their then-leader, Julia Gillard, became Prime Minister, but the election was so close that she had no majority in Parliament and was able only to form a minority government. She turned out to be so unpopular within her own party that they called back their previous leader, Kevin Rudd, before that Parliament's term was over. And Rudd was no more able to hold the public's support than Gillard. He has now indicated that he is resigning as Labor leader.
But Abbott's victory was not just because Labor was falling apart. He has proposed repealing a carbon tax — and in a Parliamentary system like Australia's, the Prime Minister can usually get his way very easily — showing that Australia's public is no more in favor of such monkeying with the economy for dubious environmental reasons than the USA's public is. nd in general, Abbott's agenda is a center-right agenda, much like the moderates in the Republican Party. I cannot help saying that we can only be happy that the Australian public has chosen Tony Abbott.
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