The rise of the Greens attracted Labor comment, some of it is uniquely self-absorbed we have those who blame their rise on the 1990 election when Labor appealed for second preference votes. Or historian true believer Nick Drenyfuth who identifies a looming battle betweenLabor’s social democracy and Green environmentalism, in fact the Greens are currently [...]
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Just go on the record. Some may call this a history-making campign, but I expect that this will be a campaign that will inspire low levels of interest and enthusiasm compared to 2007, Julia Gillard notwithstanding (see my recent article here and my earlier one here) Tony Abbott has done exceptionally well so far, he [...] Whilst away read Chris Bellamy’s excellent Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War, it tells a story that makes teaching about Kokoda seem a trivial waste of time and as an epic of human suffering puts politics in perspective. But back to Australian politics, Julia Gillard: always puzzled by the cult around her [...] A Labor government that replaced a controversial and polarising conservative administration loses ground at its first election to the surprise of observers who expected an easy victory and Labor loses votes to its left from voters disillusioned with its record in government. It happened in 1984 will it happen again? In many aspects current politics is a case of history repeating. Labor’s current political woes are reminiscent of the last days of the Keating Labor government, environmental politics had been an important component of Labor’s electoral success in the 1990 election and to a degree at the 1987 and 1993 elections (graph is from Australian Election [...] The current British political landscape of looming fiscal austerity and Alternative Voting actually now favours the Conservatives and to a lesser extent their new Liberal Democrat coalition partners both against Labour but also against minor party challenges from the Green left and the populist right. The curious fact about the recent population controversy is the absence of any historical context. Since the early 1970s immigration has been a theme of conservative campaigns in Australia, before then it was Labor that wrapped itself in the banner of White Australia. The conservative critique of immigration came direct from Britain where the Conservatives [...] Could Tasmanian Labor go the way of the Queensland Nationals? One it was common to argue that Queensland was politically distinct from the rest of Australia, the special 1987 issues of Social Alternatives was an example. The Bjelke-Petersen regime and the dominance of conservative politics by the Country/National Party provided evidence for this argument. |
   
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Copyright © 2010 Geoff Robinson - All Rights Reserved |
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