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John Howard's conservative government was re-elected in Australia's federal elections on 3 October. Ken Davis Howard lost the overwhelming majority he had won in March 1996. There was a 5% swing by voters to Labor, which won a majority of preference votes in the lower house electorates. But this vote was not evenly distributed, and the conservatives were able to retain marginal
The Conservatives had only been in power since March 1996, after 13 years of Labor government. Under both parties, the polarisation between workers and the rich has dramatically increased. The major banks, airlines, rail, shipping, defence industries and utilities have been
The main parties all focused their campaigns on taxation and unemployment. Howard's government has rolled back social security and privatised the labour exchange, but the Labor Party were unable to offer any credible plans to create full-time jobs. Howard promised to introduce a consumption tax which would further shift the tax burden to workers and the poor, and give tax breaks to those whose annual income exceeds A$50,000 (US$31,500).
And all the main parties pretended that Australia would miraculously retain a strong economy while nearby countries are plunged into poverty.
The conservative parties were tunded by a range of Australian businesses who have profited from the sale of state and national assets, and who are keen to see the full privatisation of telecommunications. All major newspapers ran election editorials calling for a vote for the Liberals. A key backer of Howard, was Australia's richest man and international
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which now runs three of the eight state administrations, failed to rekindle the widespread anti-government hatred of early 1998. That new mood was a reaction to the government's "war" against striking dock workers, it's attacks on Aboriginal rights, and concessions to racist forces.
Labor gave no commitments to reverse the government's anti-union laws, its retrenching of public sector workers, its negation of Native Title to land, or its plans to build new uranium mines on Aboriginal lands. Given its own record of aggressive privatisations, Labor's claim to oppose further sale of profitable public assets was hardly
Labor's foreign policy differentiated only mildly from the pro-USA stance of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party were the big losers in the election. all Australian governments since 1975 The party has voiced stronger criticism of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, and called for sanctions in protest against repression by the dictatorship of the elected government of Burma.
On the constitutional question, Labor retreated from outright support for the adoption of a new republican constitution and new flag
The new government will not only be able to introduce a new tax to punish the poor and reward the rich, but the silenced issues of the election campaign will allow Howard a clear run to pursue
Australia * vicious attacks on social security, trade unions, indigenous communities, public health, public education, and the environment. Racism unleashed
Australians are an increasingly diverse population. One quarter of the households in Melbourne and Sydney speak a language other than English; 40% of the national population, and 60% of the industrial working class, is of nonAnglo background.
Unfortunately, Labor offered only lukewarm defence of its multicultural policies of the 1980s, in the face of racist attacks from the populist One Nation party of Pauline Hanson, and right-wing
Prime minister Howard has made even greater concessions. After Hanson's first speech in Parliament in 1996, Howard refused to condemn her, and instead chose to defend her right to free speech" against "political correctness". In 1988, he jumped on the bandwagon, and began speaking out against Asian immigration.
Before the 1996 elections both major parties had expelled local candidates for racism. One, Graeme Campbell, former Labor member for Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, was re-elected as an independent and set up a right-wing party called Australia First. He failed to win any
Much more successful was Pauline Hanson, a local candidate expelled from the Liberal Party just before the 1996 election. Once elected to an outer-Brisbane seat, she established a party called One Nation, uniting disparate elements from small business, disaffected farmers, the gun lobby and small fascist sects.
She called for economic isolationism, an end to immigration and overseas aid, and destruction of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, which is elected by the indigenous communities. She marshalled support in small towns, among people who see the big cities as becoming "Asianised", and threatened the traditional base of the rural National Party, the junior partner of the ruling Coalition.
Her campaign provoked mass protest mobilisations in the cities and rallies outside all her election meetings. But she maintained popularity nationally through mass media promotion, in particular through constant propaganda by extremist broadcasters on commercial radio stations.
In Queensland state elections in June her party won almost a quarter of the a park
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* Australia vote and 11 seats in the state parliament, generating widespread alarm and anger nationally, and embarrassment internationally.
One Nation gained almost 9% of the vote nationally. But other parties directed preference votes away from Hanson's party. As a result, One Nation will elect only one senator in Queensland, the state with the least urbanised population. Hanson herself was defeated in her suburban Brisbane constituency. Unfortunately, One Nation's strong primary vote will entitle them to A$3 million dollars of public electoral funding. The alternative vote
In response to the threat from the racist forces, a new party called Unity was launched in August, initially based in the Chinese communities, but quickly broadening to include progressive groups from other migrant communities. It was only able to win substantial votes in urban NSW.
Aboriginal candidates were prominent for the first time in Labor, Democrat and Green nomination lists. Aden