#314: Power To The People

That was amazing. I have not followed an election as closely with as much interest since the 2007 Federal Election.  Last night's Victorian State Election was as exciting as they come, for all the same reasons as the 2007 Federal effort - because it was the PEOPLE who led the way - not the incredibly biased media or the large corporations - and rightly so.

The Murdoch media did it's best to call the result for the Liberals. They believed that, by running a negative campaign, that they were a lock, all they had to do was turn up.  But they didn't take into consideration the complete an utter disgust that the average Australian has for the current Federal Government, and that this disgust will impact upon State politics.

It was interesting that the Victorian Liberals claim that this election had nothing to do with Federal policies, yet they distanced themselves from the power brokers of the current Cabinet.  I counted one appearance from the PM, nothing from the Treasurer an the rest. In fact only Julie Bishop popped up and that was a token effort.

My hope now is that this very powerful message is heard in Canberra and things start changing for the better. The reality is that it simply won't as the Liberals have Rupert Murdoch and his media empire on their side, which will spin this crushing defeat into a State issue and not an election run on Federal issues.  It was both. The people in Victoria who booted the Liberals out were just as frustrated and annoyed by decisions made in the Federal arena as they were the many State issues (the East-West City Link, Arts funding, rogue MP Geoff Shaw).  The truth is Tony Abbott now faces the very, very real prospect of being a one-term PM (just as Dennis Naptime was a one-term Premier). But, the way things are going, with the infighting over dumped policies and the inability of ministers to agree on policies, he may not even last that long.

The Liberal Party, a party that has prided itself for being such a strong, united party for so long, is now rapidly imploding beneath it's own hubris.  For far too long they have treated the people of Australia with total and utter contempt, heaping lies upon broken promises and expecting that all will be forgotten come the next election in just over eighteen months time.  And always remember, as was stated last night, 'Corporations donate, people vote'.  As an individual your vote counts, you can make a difference.  On your own, in an election, you may think that you have no power, but when millions feel the same as you do, together you have the power to toppled entire governments.