The night after

OK guys, it's a Ruddslide! A Kevolution!

I'm rarely as pleased to be wrong as I was on Saturday morning. Listening to the ABC coverage streaming live down the internet on 702, it soon became clear to me (and everyone else) that the Liberals were headed to disaster, and that for only the third time in my life we would have a change of the Federal government. Elections nights are always high drama, as the calculations, congratulations and recriminations unfold over only a few short hours. Although I'm sorry I wasn't able to share this with anybody, the quick phone calls to the clan down under certainly got my blood coursing. I understand that my sister had quite a night.

There is something especially poignant about the result in Bennelong, where Howard looks to be unseated by the ex-ABC reporter Maxine McKew. What a fickle world politics is! Barely one year ago, Howard looked comfortable. Although poor Beazley seemed to be making up ground, few thought that Labor could win government at the next election. Had Howard left then, he would have been able to mimic his great hero, Sir Robert Menzies, in being only the second post-war prime minister to leave at a time of his own choosing (of course, one could argue that Gorton didn't have to go, and I'm not going to touch Harold Holt). But in every other case, the PM was ousted by an unforgiving electorate, or succumbed to a party challenger. How hard it is to know when to quit.

A subject which has understandably been somewhat neglected in all the excitement is that the ALP is going to have a rough time of it in the Senate. This will be a very tricky situation, with the Greens, the Family First fellow and new South Australian anti-pokies Nick Xenophon holding the balance of power (and only after July 1). Perhaps this is all for the good, as I think that the enforced humbleness this will imply will help to steady the ship in the first term. Personally, I will be missing the poor Democrats, who now seem a spent force. In their heyday, it was always nice to know that a good, moderate and centrist party would be keeping the bastards honest.

Kevin, Julia and Wayne are going to face some daunting challenges on the environment, the economy and also national security, and I think it unlikely that they will get the easy ride that the Libs did. Optimistically, however, I think they have the "vision thing" which the Libs lacked, and this will be crucial if Australia is to come through alright. The work begins tomorrow, so I'm told, but until then, enjoy this IWW classic from Pete Seeger.