Nov. 24 -- Australians around the world vote today to decide whether Prime Minister John Howard or Labor Party challenger Kevin Rudd is better for their mortgages, the booming economy and the global environment.
Voting in a general election is compulsory, so more than 13 million Australian citizens will go to far flung polling stations -- in central London, Hong Kong, and a remote diamond mine in Western Australia -- to vote for Howard's Liberal- National Coalition, Labor, the Greens, or candidates from fringe parties, including the What Women Want Party.
Yesterday's ACNielsen opinion poll gave a 14-point lead to Labor's Rudd, 50, who has matched the promises of Howard, 68, to cut taxes and extend Australia's 16 years of economic growth. Rudd has also pledged to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and to give more government payouts to first-time home purchasers.
``Labor has neutralized the government's attacks on their inexperience and economic credibility,'' said John Warhurst, a political analyst at Australian National University. While the economy helped Howard win in 2004 and ``is still pretty strong,'' he may have ``outstayed his welcome,'' Warhurst said.
More than 1,400 candidates from 46 parties are contesting the 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 vacancies in the Senate. Voters will begin casting their ballots from 8 a.m. local time. Polls close at 6 p.m. Adults who fail to vote are fined A$20 ($18). The party with a majority of seats in the House forms the government.
Voting in Baghdad
In the 2004 election, the polling station at the Australian embassy in London, where about 200,000 Australians live, had the largest number of overseas votes cast. Hong Kong came in second with 55,000. Australia's 1,600 troops in Iraq, whom Rudd has vowed to bring home, vote in Baghdad.
Overseas voting began on Nov. 10, and postal ballots accounted for five percent of the 2004 vote.
The 600 workers at Rio Tinto Group's Argyle diamond mine near Kununurra, in Western Australia's East Kimberley region, will vote at one of the country's most remote polling stations.
There are 7,723 booths in Australia and while final official results may not be declared for weeks due to postal votes, either Rudd or Howard is expected to concede defeat tonight on the basis of early results and projections.
Voters will choose between candidates ranging from Pauline Hanson, the red-haired former fish and chip shop owner whose One Nation party once attracted one in 10 votes, to Liberty and Democrat Party Senate candidate Lisa Milat, who lists target shooting as one of her hobbies and wants to relax gun control.
`Pro-Liberty'
``We're anti-left, anti-right, we're pro-liberty,'' said Milat, whose brother-in-law Ivan is serving seven life terms for murdering seven backpackers and still proclaims his innocence.
In the main parties, candidates include Peter Garrett, Labor's environment spokesman and former lead singer of rock band Midnight Oil. The Liberal Party has attacked him for saying that his party may change its policies after an election victory, branding him an ``extremist.''
While Labor's platform has mirrored many government promises on tax cuts and spending, Rudd in his Nov. 15 campaign launch offered just A$2.3 billion of new pledges, and accused Howard, who had announced A$9.34 billion of programs the day before, of risking inflation and higher interest rates with ``reckless spending.''
Pricier Mortgages
Australian interest rates have risen six times to 6.75 percent since Howard won the 2004 election with a promise that he would keep borrowing costs low. That's hurt Australians' ability to afford mortgages, and the government's economic management reputation.
Howard may lose his own seat in the Sydney suburb of Bennelong if voters of Asian backgrounds, who account for 41 percent of the population compared with 2 percent when he was first elected in 1974, swing against him.
The prime minister, who once called for Asian immigration to be reduced, said Nov. 22 that he has made Australia ``stronger, prouder and more prosperous,'' ridding it of political correctness and making it ``gloriously and distinctively Australian.''
``We no longer agonize as to whether we're Asian or European or part-Asian or part-European or too British or not British enough or too close to the Americans or whatever,'' he said.
Kim Huynh, a political analyst at the Australian National University, thinks that message appeals to the ``bogan'' vote, the rough equivalent of trailer park trash in the U.S. or Chavs (Council Housing and Violent) in the U.K.
AC/DC Fans
Bogans like untucked plaid shirts, the heavy metal group AC/DC, fast cars, mullet hairstyles and drinking bottled beer out of paper bags. The Web site http://www.bogan.com.au/ has been recognized by the Australian National Library for cultural significance.
``Young cashed-up bogans have never been jobless, they have plasma televisions and a near-new house, they've never experienced a non-Howard government and generally they're pretty affectionate toward the coalition,'' Huynh said from Sydney. ``I think they'll be a big factor this election.''
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