As you’re all no doubt aware, the Prime Minister has just held a press conference announcing the election will be held on November 24. Didn’t hear the whole thing, but after all the justified outrage about the government’s changes to electoral laws, I am surprised to learn that the legal formalities will be conducted on a timetable that will leave the rolls open until October 22.
UPDATE: Those who have had time to think about this point out that the writs will be issued on Wednesday, so the deadline for new enrolments is 8pm that evening. The October 22 date invoked by the Prime Minister is the closing date for amendment to existing enrolments.
UPDATE 2: An AEC press release announces: “If you’re not on the electoral roll and you’re entitled to enrol, you must fill in an enrolment form immediately and return it to an AEC office by 8pm, Wednesday 17 October. If you’re already on the roll but still need to update your address details, to ensure your vote you must complete an enrolment form and return it to an AEC office by 8pm Tuesday 23 October”.
Only another 41 Rodent days to go before the stench finally lifts. 🙂
At last….
Been looking forward to this for ages, despite there being no real difference. The economy…. Outside governments control. Health, education… Rudd will be a little less centralist, but his history doesn’t indicate a growth of public sector so no real change in these areas. Safe for a change really.
I reckon the electorate is picking this up and is focusing on Howards perceived arrogance. It’s almost as though it’s waiting for him to apologise, but as we all know sorry is the hardest word to say, so maybe Howard might have better luck with these words… TAMPA, Iraq, Workchoices, AWB.
Whatever, have fun and roll n democracy, just watchout for the Stokes and Packers of the world…
Anybody think “new leadership” is a theme of the ALP? 😉
Decent speech – general stuff, but Rudd is speaking confidently.
Cliched crap.
Is this guy honestly the best we can do ?
Drover’s Dog syndrome sadly.
I think we will see the two leaders running two quite different campaigns.
Kevin Rudd will be off on his new ideas, new leadership, finally take action on global warming, fix up hospitals and junk those IR laws.
John Howard will be stressing his experience and the safety of staying with the devil we know.
Trouble is for him more and more voters are seeing him as a devil.
The momentum is just so great now for a change, I think it will simply gather pace.
There’s little reason for people NOT to vote for Kevin Rudd, apart from the Greens.
He’s a conservative, he won’t rock the boat, he won’t make any drastic changes to our lifestyles.
This is shaping up to be a catastrophic election for the Coalition.
Liberals are beginning to wish that Peter Costello had had the guts to challenge John Howard. It might have been a very different election then.
Peter Costello could have announced significant changes to the IR laws and other measures to me-too Kevin Rudd.
I really can’t see John Howard and the Coalition clawing back enough votes in the next six weeks. It would be a gargantuan task even for a new and younger leader.
It will be interesting too see what sort of strategies the Coalition adopts to firewall their seats on 6-8% margins.
No doubt they will write off most of those below 3%-4% and throw the hapless incumbents to the wolves.
Even with protection strategies for the 6-8% seats, there are bound to be local outbreaks in seats with even higher margins.
It is likely the Coalition does not have the resources the protect all its vulnerable seats when so many are at risk.
Why would donors want to throw money at a losing party? It might prove counterproductive over the next few years.
They would be better advised to back the party most likely to win.
Labor has waited nearly long 12 years for payback and no doubt there will be payback if they win.
The changes to be made by Kevin Rudd might be quite Whitlamesque and surprising.
He will need to gain enough seats in the Senate together with the Greens and maybe a Democrat to be truly effective, otherwise we may be going to the polls again in another 15 months.
Look how the Greens did in the Qld by-election – a huge vote – compared with Family First and One Nation.
That is an indicator of how well they may do in in both the House of Reps and the Senate.
Don’t be surprised to see the Greens win one or more lower house seats.
If the polls are so far out in favour of Kevin Rudd on the day, many people will feel comfortable about checking him with a Greens vote.
Now that will be interesting.
Possum, I think Rudd read your post.
Its a good pitch, three simple themes, each of which is positive, but undermines Howard’s complacent assertions of progress.
Im not big on the ‘leadership’ theme, myself, on the ‘pawking meter’ principle, but maybe it’ll play well.
The major points are clear though – thats important. I had no clear sense what Howard was putting forward.
Hey, he’s ramping it up! He’s gone the biff on Howard’s negative campaigning history!! Yeah!
Not a bad speech, got better toward the end…..
Wish he hadn’t knocked the microphones and made the 1 year fluff up!
“New leadership” mentioned fifteen times in his speech.
new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership new leadership, new leadership
Wow Kevin something original how about inexperienced leadership…i dont consider it a fear campaign to say Rudd has been a leader for less than 1 year and doesnt understand how our economy works…
Rudd was all over the place he wants to do 101 things in his first term ill do this and that and that and this its just like Whitlam…
Bring on Gillard! We need some entertainment!
Where have they been hiding Combet, and the many other union bosses?
He got better at the end.
Why did the ABC cut off Rudd’s address when he was about to respond to questions?
That’s not cricket.
Grrr who told us Rudd would be on at 2.30? I missed it.
So the ABC shows Howard’s election announcement in full but Kevin Rudd’s no… yep the ABC is certainly biased these days and Channel Nine shows Howard’s announcement but not a piece of Kevin Rudd’s reply…
Interesting to see how the international media are covering….
CNN
“War ally Australia sets election date”
“The results could see one of the United States’ staunchest remaining allies in Iraq lose power to the anti-war opposition.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/13/australia.elections/index.htm
BBC
The poll is also expected to decide whether Australia starts bringing home its troops from Iraq.
Mr Howard’s unflinching support for US President George W Bush has proven unpopular with many Australian voters, our correspondent says .
The war and the refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change have found Mr Howard on the wrong side of public opinion, he says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7043619.stm
The ABC has a policy of giving exactly equal time to the majors and equivalent time to minors. They will be monitoring it by the second.
What Kevin Rudd loses now he will make it later, same for John Howard. The rules have changed now the election has been called.
The part on education was really passionate and gave me a fuzzy feeling inside.
Basically he was saying he wouldn’t be where he is today without a good education and that humans need the best education they can to excel in life.
Glen,
it beats
“trust me . I’ve been at best mediochre and at worst diabolical for 11 years”
I thought it was strong and clear. Importantly, he just looked better than Howard. Superficial impressions count for a lot.
Rudd’s was certainly far more upbeat than Howards. Peter Hartcher nailed Howard’s pathetic effort.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/federal-election-2007/bpeter-hartcherb/2007/10/14/1192300579701.html
“This country does not need new leadership, this country does not need old leadership. It needs the right leadership”
Sick burn Mr Howard that will teach Rudd to say new leadership 15 times…
A good speech by Rudd, only criticism I would make, when he was talking about Workchoices he should have made the point that the Liberals will talk about how they are the small business party yet their actions have shown they don’t stand for small business and these are why
1-GST red tape
2-Lack of investing in skills for workers
3-Workchoices red tape.
otherwise I give him a 7/10
Election is on but Libs still haven’t found a candidate for Banks.
I guess they will end up selecting Mr Mansour snr, even though he is of middle eastern appearance.
Rudd was nervous at the start but he got better..
Far better than Howard (but I’m biased), Howard’s was full of scare tactic stuff… but not much else..
liked it when he was asked about which Australian’s
are missing out… could not answer it other than i think aboriginal people…
and the New Leadership slogan.. just perfect… much better than Howard’s scary leadership view…
Well those shredders in Barton on Friday night weren’t working overtime for nothing!
Election is on. Finally.
To Rudd’s credit this is a solid, but not spectular response. Certainly no clarion call to rally the troops – quite forgettable, but more than enough to get the job done.
A presidential start from both. If leadership’s the issue, the libs must be made to sweat the handover of power “late in the next term”. I think the head to head leader approach is a huge tactical error for Howard. Labor must exploit it every day.
The think that struck me most about Howard’s diatribe was his obvious resentment of Rudd’s popularity and vision. The old Rodent knows he’s gone for sure, won’t last the distance.
Rudd had a dig at Crosby/Textor in his last question. hehe
‘Broadband’ started slowly but came back strong in the end
Woah! Nailed Howard on the “taking responsiblity” nonsense. Nice sound bite.
So, I guess the “new leadership” theme is to innoculate against the inexperience fear campaign.
Good effort all round Ruddster.
To Rudd’s credit, a solid but not spectacular performance. Certainly no clarion call to rally the troops – but good enough
Richard Jones..
What rubbish.. this is important day in the campaign and both parties should have been given full coverage… sorry in view the ABC is now right wing biased… and i am not sure how you measure coverage time… is it in minutes… fair dinkum talk about being trivial…
The Ruddster does it again! 10/10
New leadership = Inexperienced leadership…
Looks like the Labor PR team made their first stuff up…
how about aspirational leadership?
OMG…. 42 days to go…get me a Bex!
Marky Rudd probably didnt want his questions televised after all there would be questions over his inexperience his front bench’s inexperience and his lack of economic policies who’d want the public to see that?
Don’t be picky people. Rudd really nailed that. He’s the man for the times.
Incentivational leadership!
and Bold, Visionary Leadership…
Generic leadership!
Wow, surprising Ruddock didn’t like Rudd speech.
I’ve never liked Ruddock, i look forward to him reduced to being a house husband.
“Darling, will you put the bins out?”
“In relation to that matter, I will put the bins out at the appropriate time as part of my obligations as a husband.”
Yeah, very obvious pro-Howard bias from the ABC. I guess the conservatives on the board are now running the news department.
Good stuff from Rudd, nothing earth shattering, but it still contrasted well with a tired, old and increasingly irrelevant looking Howard.
Glen, I guess we’re in for 6 weeks of baiting and negativity from your good self!
Glen,
Rudd made a very good point, where in Howard’s speech did he mention a plan for the future, afterall that is what Elections are about.
Glen, Sky News televised it, so that rips in to your argument. I think the ABC are back to programming as usual. In fact, Rudd didn’t squirm like Howard in answering questions.
So the first scare in this campaign is based on inexperienced leadership… Negative Glen at his best..
The long campaign is designed to run down Rudd, put him under sustained pressure and see if he cracks.
Howard looked pained at times like an uler is eating into him. Rudd looked nervous – he will do everything to stay on message – because it’s worked so far, minimise risk to avoid the above senario.
Trouble for Howard is, voters have made up their minds on WorkChoices and Howard’s yesterdays leader and looks more like a mean old dotty grandfather with high pants and a smelly cardgian