Flashback – The Federal Election of 1993 Australia is about to go to the polls again next Saturday. Yesterday I was tooling through some old essays and private notes on my computer when I came upon something I wrote up on Sunday evening, 14 March 1993, the day after the 1993 election. Have fun reading my perceptions of Australian politics eleven years ago. Now they are a mere historical curiosity:
The Federal Election 1993Last night the Labor Party and Prime Minister Paul Keating were returned to another term of office.
My wife and I were pleased about this because of the many social benefits which have come about during the past decade of Labor rule. The opposition, that is the Liberal led coalition, had little to offer. They were adamant that they were going to replace the current sales tax system, which is working adequately, with a so called GST, a goods and services tax where just about everything would be taxed at a flat rate of 15 percent. I recall an American economist visiting Australia not long ago and he said “If it is not broken, why fix it?” We agree. The Liberals were also threatening to dismantle or reshape the Medicare scheme, which is the envy of much of the world. It is certainly something Jill and I, and it seems the majority of Australians think should be retained.
The Liberals have had as their allies the Australian media, which by hook or by crook has tried to get them into power. The editorials of the final editions of
The West Australian and
The Sunday Times this weekend are sufficient proof of this. Many of the Australian Broadcasting Commission cadre of reporters and journalists have also thrown their lot in with the Liberals, and have at every opportunity quoted opinion polls in favour of them.
The Australian media generally promulgated the notion that the Labor party was going to get a sound thrashing. They have been shown to be totally wrong.
We voted Labor because of the following factors:
1. We realised that the current economic recession with one million people unemployed is part of a world wide trend amongst western nations. (It was being blamed on Keating’s governance.)
2. We have been able, under the Labor government to undertake tertiary education. Something which we were not encouraged to, nor would have been able to easily do under the Liberal governments of the past.
3. Adequate unemployment benefits are available when needed, and family support payments are generous compared to anything the Liberals were able to offer when they were in control. We feel that a new Liberal government would threaten these.
4. The Labor Government has a good progressive record in Aboriginal affairs and the Liberals were threatening to put all of this good work aside, destroying Aboriginal aspirations in the process.
5. The Liberals have the potential to foster a new wave of racism in Australia by their attacks on Aboriginal issues.
6. We agree with Keating that the economic situation in Australia is improving. It is perhaps a “gut feeling” for us, but we are now certainly better off now than at any other time in our lives.
7. Inflation is at an all time low, and it is due to the economic policies of the Labor Government.
8. We are disgusted with the “greed is good” and “born to rule” mentality of the Liberals. We do not like the bejewelled old Liberal women who hand out election material at polling booths.
9. We feel that aspirant PM John Hewson is too morally unsound to be the future leader of Australia. He reportedly deserted his wife and children on Christmas eve a few years ago for the woman who is now his wife. If he cannot be true to his first family, then why should the nation expect him to treat it any differently.
10. We were unconvinced about the Liberal arguments for the need to introduce the GST. What information Hewson gave via the media was too vague.
11. It was clear to us that the Liberals were being protected by the media. Rarely were hard hitting questions asked. When they were, Hewson skirted the issues with well rehearsed answers which the media accepted with little challenge. We have had three weeks of the same old answers in the lead up to the election.
12. We saw very little of other Liberal candidates in the media, compared to Labor. The Liberals we did see seemed inept, evasive and stumbling, so they were mostly kept out of sight of the public.
13. The ABC was very supportive of the Liberals. On the eve prior to the election, ABC radio was repeatedly describing the Labor campaign as “scurrilous” and a “fear campaign”. It did little justice to the organisation’s claims of being fair and unbiased. On election day the ABC started broadcasting election trends in the eastern states one hour before the polls closed in WA. (4pm) A former ABC radio announcer (Eon Cameron) was a Liberal candidate.
14. Neither my wife nor I considered constitutional matters such as the proposal for Australia becoming a republic in the year 2001, or the dropping of the Queen as Head of State as election issues. The British Broadcasting Commission (BBC) has interpreted the swing against the Liberals as support for these constitutional changes, which is the same sort of nonsense and misinterpretation for which a lazy Australian media has become so notorious.
© MMIV Paul R. Weaver.
About the writerCheck out the index of my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days. Topical – often humorous – no swearing – no porn – no spam – no soliciting – no religious mania – no smoking – no catches.
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