For my politics class the first essay is 600 words on why Howard lost. I've already got my own opinion on the matter - I think Australians wanted new leadership in general, and no longer cared much for Howard's spiels on the economy, particularly when this was undermined by interest rate rises (which, by the way, I don't think had anything to do with Howard given that his government tried to have a neutral stance on the economy through fiscal consolidation and ultimately, interest rates - and most of the economy, really - are controlled by the RBA, that was neither his success nor his failure). Australians are largely concerned with simply making ends meet now, while still indulging in luxuries that were once only accessible to higher income earners and as such became 120% in debt and really needed more job security than what they perceived they had under WorkChoices (whether or not job security was any higher or lower under WorkChoices was irrelevant, what was important was their perception). WorkChoices also was seen as largely unfair, because we all knew that they would only pass under a Coalition majority Senate. Also, given that Howard has been PM since most of us were 6, and many of his speeches were framed based on the reflections of previous success he had had, he didn't really seem to be someone who was looking at the present (and very much changing) attitudes of Australia, but rather was focussed in the past. He was seen somewhat like a great uncle, old, familiar, caught up in the past and very stubborn in his ways, not receptive to the beliefs of a new generation. He said things like, I'll always do the best of Australia, even if the decision isn't popular which suggests that he had an attitude of "I know best". Labor, on the other hand, learned to appeal to Australia's moderates (i.e. most of Australia), which I think was the key to their success.
Anyway, I found the assignment pretty interesting, so I was wondering what you all thought too. Changing the government is a pretty big thing, especially since Australia so rarely changes theirs, and even more rarely do they boot out the PM altogether! I think Keating once said that if you change the government, you change the country. So, why was Australia so keen to make that change? Especially since, as Howard put it, none of the prerequisites of a change of government were at all present.
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