It’s not *just* about the economy

On Saturday 24th November 2007, Australia made history. The Liberal/National coalition government under John Howard was solidly defeated by the Australian Labor Party lead by Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.Yes, the Australian economy is going gangbusters. Yes, we’ve had about a decade of sustained growth.

No, we do not live in an economy, we live in a society.

That seems to have been the essential point that the Liberal/National coalition failed to understand. When the basics of the economy are strong – and the voting population knows it – then people tend to feel that they can afford to worry about the future: about climate change, education, infrastructure, water….One thing that I picked up on throughout the campaign was that the Coalition was really keen to remind us of their history, and the ALP’s history – but only the pieces which they could paint in the worst possible light. So we were continually reminded of high interest rates under Keating – but not that Keating inherited them from when Howard was treasurer. And unions – they’ve been portrayed as breeding grounds for thugs and anti-business, yet unions in this country are some of the most pro-business organisations we know of. Of course, the Coalition glossed over that the professional associations which most of their membership are part of (the AMA and various state Bar associations) are also unions, just with a different name.Bunch of hypocrites, all of them!The other major aspect I noticed was that for the things I care about, the Coalition had no plan for the future whereas the ALP does. Climate change, physical and internet infrastructure, education, health, freedom of information, reconciliation and social justice …. the ALP under Rudd released policies which promote all these things, and whatever the Coalition released in those areas really was a poor shadow in comparision.Today we all have to work and deliver on the changes that we as a nation voted for yesterday. It’s way past time that we moved from “yeah, this nation is great” onto “how can we make this nation even greater?”