ON THE WALLABY- 20th November 2007

SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN”- WHAT TYPE OF AUSTRALIA WILL WE WAKE UP TO NEXT SUNDAY MORNING?

"No country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.”- Mark Twain

Country music singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson wrote the wonderful words to the song “Sunday Morning coming down” and which was sung so poignantly by superstar Johnny Cash.The words of it have been running through my head all week as this weekends federal election approaches.

To be quite honest, apart from the nauseating eight months or so that the campaignt has been bowling along in both “official” and “unofficial” mode, I, like most of the electorate, are heartily sick of both it and politicians as a specie.

If you had to pick an Australian First XV based on ability with the team taken from all parties, for starters you wouldn’t find a Captain for there is not a leader amongst them. You may, in thinking hard, come up with enough for a forward pack but after that you would have a team of minnows that Namibia could probably beat!

If that sounds negative, it is because that is how I feel about the whole thing and, in part, for Australia’s future for we are living in a fool’s paradise.

With both “Honest John” and “Cut-out Kev” splashing away billions and being all steak and no sizzle, I wonder just what we will get, no matter who wins.

Peter Costello was right, I believe, in that there is an economic tsunami heading our way and whilst he wasn’t listened to as the statement was put down to “scare mongering”, the level of personal debt this nation currently carries, and will even more so after the Christmas splurge, when combined with the still to be felt effect of the US sub prime market fiasco in America, the effect of the drought and other credit related issues will make the economics of this nation “most interesting”.

Certainly the resources boom brought about by China and India’s seemingly insatiable appetite for iron ore etc has put a strong underline under our economy but it is when these two future world leaders appetite for foodstuffs etc sends the grocery bill and other domestic financial issues rising that this boom may well be seen by many as not quite that.

In an issue that failed to register on the radar, water is also a sleeper. Should there be little summer rain and no winter rain and the mighty Murray all but stops running, it will roar into prominence as much of our food will have to be imported and with that inflation will get a mighty boost.

Quite frankly, no matter who wins on Saturday, they will have to face this scenario and that, to me, is what this election is all about so therein lies the choice between “tweedle-dum” and “tweedle-dee”.

Sadly, this election will most probably see the demise of the Australian Democrats, the party who’s torch Sam and I so proudly carried as national Secretary and national President.

If ever Australia needed the Democrats there as a third party to “keep the bastards honest”, it is now for the Greens are, in my view, an uncontrollable political rabble with no discipline or cohesion.

However, due to an inept National Executive who thought they were part of the ”West Wing” and a team of Senators who omitted to recognise that they were in the “business of politics” and that the only way you can get your measures through is firstly to be re-elected, that dream will end and Australia will be all the poorer for it.

So what could/should happen?

That is up to you as a voter but my fear as a small businessman is that if Labor do get in, there are too many IOU’s out there to the union boys to be negotiated and that in the process of ramping back Work Choices, there will be a big effect on employment and small business.

If the government wins an unlikely feat given the current polls and if Peter Costello (assuming he gained the PM mantle-and that isn’t yet a “gimme”) had the courage ,which I doubt, he ought to pull a spill on John Howard (providing he retains his seat), clear the decks of the detritus of the Coalition and get ready for his ”tsunami”.

Now whilst those last two paragraphs will have no doubt upset my mate BA in Hobart, my vote is that the government, for all their lies, deceit and fudging, win by three seats (enough to supply a Speaker and have a small majority), John Howard loses his and we as a nation have four years to see if Rudd & Co can perform when the pressure is on them- which it has not been in this election campaign.

That should draw some emails!

Carpe diem

Tony

(Author: The Complete Guide to selling Real Estate by Auction and the e-book The Vendors Guide to selling Real Estate by Auction)

tony@fountainandco.com

Bowral NSW Australia

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