Australian Federal Elections…

Compulsory voting in the Australian Federal Elections was completed this weekend. In the House of Representative the Coalition Party defeated the Labour Party for the first time in six years. The 81 seat win puts Tony Abbott in the Prime Minister’s office, solidly defeating Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Labour Party.

Even though Australia has somehow avoided a lot of the World’s economic woes, the country is facing an expected economic slow down and the Coalition is hoping to avert that…

The ALP (Labour) points to continued growth, low inflation, low unemployment and low interest rates as well as comparisons with other OECD economies, particularly those in the US and Europe, as a sign of Australia’s continued economic strength in the wake of the global financial crisis. Labor argues that its strategy of stimulating the economy during the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) saved Australia from the worst of the crisis…

The Coalition’s main line of attack on the economy is based on the mantra of “debt and deficit”.

It says the rise in debt over this government’s first four budgets has been bigger as a share of GDP than over any other four year period since at least 1970, when the historical records in modern budget papers began.

It blames the Labor government’s stimulus packages, and a continuing high spend, for pushing Australia’s debt to unsustainable levels. It also contrasts Labor’s repeated deficit budgets with the former Coalition government’s run of surplus budgets.

Australia has a very low percentage of debt as part of GDP at 3.2%.

The Senate race has nearly been decided and it may have a makeup that will put a thorn in the Coalition’s side. Of 76 seats the Coalition has 32 seats, Labour has 25 seats. The Greens have 9 seats and generally will vote along with Labour. There are 8 seats from minority parties that are going to cause some uncertainty in the Senate…

Instead of Labor and the Greens being able to form a blocking majority, the Abbott government must deal with the uncertainty of minor party senators, including one or perhaps two from the insurgent Palmer United Party, South Australian Nick Xenophon and an allied candidate, and potentially a Motoring Enthusiast Party senator from Victoria.

Results are highly provisional, with less than half the upper house vote counted and counting at an early stage in Western Australia, but the new Parliament would seem unlikely to be entirely free of the uncertainty that dogged the minority Labor government in the last.

Australia isn’t without its media issues in elections, too….

Australia’s commercial TV networks have banned an advertisement that criticises the anti-Labor coverage of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers.

Channels Seven and Ten refused to air the ad commissioned by GetUp, while Nine screened it over four days in Brisbane – then cancelled it after blaming a “coding error”.

GetUp (a progressive action group) says it will report all three networks to the competition watchdog for alleged “misuse of market power”…

The group has accused the broadcasters of censorship to avoid displeasing Murdoch and his company, News Corp. It intends to lodge a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, claiming the networks have breached rules by refusing to supply their services.

In the banned advertisement, a man is seen scooping up dog feces with a copy of News Corp’s Courier Mail.

The man tells viewers: “It was great when you could pick up a paper and get, well, news. Recently, the Courier Mail and the Daily Tele have been using their front pages to run a political campaign instead.”

The man says it is “fair enough” for Murdoch to hold a personal opinion about Prime Minister Kevin Rudd but adds: “Political bias presented as news is misleading crap”

Oh, REALLY? I am shocked! Here is the ad…

http://youtu.be/grqp-JQMFuM