Australia Votes 2007: Roundup - Come in Mr Howard, your time is up!

So, the Australian electorate has spoken, and they told John Howard it was time to retire, not just as premier, but also from politics. This is despite the fact that no count has been completed yet and most are no further along than about 75-80% complete.

There are some seats that are too close to call, such as Bowman, where after 78% of the votes have been counted, the Liberal and Labor candidates are neck and neck. There is a hair's breadth between them and this one will go right down to the wire.

Peter Lindsay could be out of his seat in Herbert in Queensland, but the margin between them is so narrow, that no victory declaration can be made yet. At the moment though, Labour's George Colbran has a slender 0.2% lead.

In La Trobe in Victoria, Jason Wood (Lib) lloks like he might just hold on, but his lead over Labor's Rodney Cocks is just 0.4%, and still too close to call, with just under 75% of the vote counted.

In Macarthur in New South Wales, Liberal's Pat Farmer is so far holding on, despite an 11% swing to Labour candidate Nick Bleasdale. A miniscule 0.2% is all that separates the two candidates. The seat does have an uncanny history of going with the government, despite it being a Liberal stronghold.

Liberal Fran Bailey, who was previously the Minister for Small Business and Tourism, may just hold on to the McEwen seat in Victoria, but with a slender 0.4% lead, and over 25% of the votes still to be counted, the result is far from certain yet.

To the Northern Territories we go, and the seat of Solomon, where Labor's Damian Hale could unseat Liberal's David Tollner. But with a lead of only 0.4% and only 73% of the votes counted, there is still time for Tollner.

In Western Australia in the seat known as Swan, the sititng MP, Labor's Kim Wilkie, is in a tussle with Liberal's Steve Irons, who holds a tiny 0.2% lead, with just over 25% of the vote still to be counted.

These however are the stragglers. There are some Senate seats to be decided too, but to all intents and purposes, the result is known, we are just waiting to find out the exact margin of victory.

For John Howard, it was a very bad night. Not only did his premiership end, but his political career too. He joins Stanley Melbourne Bruce as the only other sitting Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat at a general election. Bruce lost his seat, Flinders, back in 1929, when the government went from being Nationalist Party to being a Labor goverment.

It will mean a new leader will have to be selected for the Liberal party. That will be one of the big stories over the following weeks and months.

The other will be following Kevin Rudd as he settles in as the new Australian Prime Minister. People across Australia and all over the world, will be watching events with great interest, as Kevin Rudd begins his term in office. What will the initial priorites of the Rudd government be? Time will tell.

Australia Votes 2007: International response

Not surprisingly, word has spread round the globe and the responses have been coming in from world leaders.

US President Bush called Howard a good friend and staunch ally, and congratulate d Kevin Rudd on his victory. UK PM Gordon Brown and New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark also both praised Kevin Rudd on his victory.

Australia Votes 2007: Democrats out in Senate?

It wasn't long after Kevin Rudd's victory speech that some news came in from the Senate side of the federal election, and it wasn't good news for the Democrats who held 2 seats in the Senate. Both of their senators were contesting their seats, and both seemed very likely to lose out.

Australia Votes 2007: Rudd looks to future, but has grace for Howard.

The new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke to his supporters about an hour after John Howard addressed his. He was graceful to his beaten adversary, but focused mainly on the future and pledged to never to take the sacred trust of the Australian electorate for granted.

Thanks to the internet, there will be many people and blogs who will be following your words closely, Mr Rudd, and your actions too. Make sure both speak with the same voice.

Australia Votes 2007: Howard conceeds defeat

At around Midnight AEDT, 11am GMT/UTC, Liberal leader John Howard conceeded defeat in the federal election. It was the end of a long era. John Howard had been PM for 11 years, and had been an MP since 1974 in the constituency of Bennelong.

It seemed he realised, even then, that this wasn't just the end of his premiership, but also the end of his political career, as he noted in his concession speech that he might even lose his seat in Parliament.

Australia Votes 2007: The leaflet scandal

I'm sure you remember the scandal concerning the fake leaflet from the non-existant "Islamic Australia Foundation". I covered it in a recent news roundup. Well, some justice looked like it was going to be done as just after 8pm on election night, the expectation was that the Liberals would lose and Labor, the victims of the fake flyer would triumph. This victory was confirmed a couple of hours later.

Australia Votes 2007: Labor showing signs of closing in

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's equivalent 0f the BBC, was already pretty certain at 9am GMT / 8pm AEDT that Labor were heading for victory. Election analyst Antony Green was also predicting that John Howard was in trouble in his own seat of Bennelong, even though only 17% of the vote had been counted.

Australia Votes 2007: Exit Poll

The early signs for the Liberals were not positive as a Channel Seven/Sky News exit poll put Labour as the winner by 53% to 47% for the Liberals under the two-party prefered outcome method.

However, few people were putting much faith in the exit polls, as they have a bit of a chequered history in Australia, much in the same way that they have had a chequered history in UK elections too.

Australia Votes 2007: Melbourne voters drives car at journalist.

One of the early stories to come out of this election was not a positive one at all.

Liberal campaigners and a voter clashed over posters outside a primary school in Heathmont. The posters got ripped down, and a newspaper journalist almost got run down.

Whilst I'm all in favour of being passionate about your political beliefs, and any other beliefs, there are times when you shouldn't take action, and temper your instincts. Politics is currently polarised enough, without people thinking that action needs to be taken to support their beliefs.

Australia Votes 2007: The stats

I promised earlier that I would report the stories of this election and that's exactly what I'm going to do. First, we're going to look at this election statistically.

Two seats in the Australian House of Representatives did not go to any party, but to independents. Kennedy in Queensland went to the Independent Bob Katter, who was a National Party MP until 2001, and Tony Windsor in the New England constituency in New South Wales.

The National Party has 10 MPs so far, The Liberal Party has 48 MPs and Labour has a massive 83 seats. 76 seats are needed for victory, so Labour will form the next government.

Looking at the State of the Parties, we see that Labour and Liberals dominated the voting.



Labour had 43.5% of the vote, Liberals 36.5%, the Greens 7.8%, the National Party 5.5% and Family First just 1.9%.

In the Senate, the Liberal coalition is still the biggest force with 37 senators, Labour with 32 senators, the Greens have 5 senators, Family First has 1 senator and there is 1 other.

Okay, those are the 'boring' but essential numbers out the way. Next, we'll start looking at the other stories that came out of this election.

Australia Votes 2007: Online Coverage

As I have previously reported, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is likely to be the first choice for the international reader following the Australian Federal Election. But other broadcasters have their own election sites.

SBS have their own site, and will start their election coverage at 9.30pm AEDT. Seven Network have teamed up with Yahoo! for their site. Nine Network and MSN are together for their special election site. Sky News Australia also has a dedicated election section.

That's the one good thing about the web. If you go hunting, you can often find exactly the information you're looking for, and sometimes, like this time, you can find it many times over.

News Roundup: Wednesday 21st November 2007

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Australian Labouor Party is accusing senior members of the Australian Liberal Party of being involved in the distrubting of fake flyers from the non-existant "Islamic Australia Foundation", which attempted to link the Labour Party with islamic terrorism.

Fox News Channel: Three men who jad been previously arrested back in 2005, have been re-arrested over the disappearance in Aruba of teenager Natalee Holloway.

Russia Today: A female politician has repeatedly slapped a journalist live on national TV in Venezuela, leading to concerns over press freedom.

MSNBC: Opposition politician Imran Khan has been released along with over 5000 lawyers and political activists.

And Finally...

Fox News Channel: A group of Swedish women have staged topless protests over what they call gender-biased rules on swimwear!

Australia Votes 2007: Online coverage news

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation have confirmed that they will be streaming their ABC Television coverage of the Australian Federal Election from 6pm EST, which I believe is 5am UK Time on Saturday morning.

Not sure yet if BBC Parliament will relay coverage, or whether BBC News 24 and/or BBC World will provide some form of coverage as well. I definitely think that there will be an election programme as well on ABC Radio National and/or ABC NewsRadio, which are both streamed live online anyway.

News Roundup: Monday 29th Ocotber 2007

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Coalition is gaining ground on Labour according the latest poll in The Australian.

Comment: I have a poll of my own here too, albeit somewhat less scientific. Don't forget to add your vote. You can vote on the poll anytime before November 24th.

Al Jazeera: Somalia's Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, has resigned.

NY1: New York's Governor Eliot Spitzer is under fire over his driver's licencing plan.

Comment: CNN's Lou Dobbs notably has taken aim at Spitzer. The Quick Vote on his main show page is about the story and he also has a list of those who oppose the Governor's plan, under the title "Great Americans"! Hmm, methinks Dobbs is showing some bias here.

CNN Politics: FEMA's Public Affairs Director will not be taking up his new job as Head of PR for the Director of National Intelligence in the wake of the fake news conference last week.

ESPN: Boston sweep Colorado to win World Series for second time in 4 years.

Comment: Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox. It was a richly deserved victory. But let us not forget, the Colorado Rockies are champions too. They are the National League Champions, and thoroughly deserved their place at the big game.

France 24: Shilpa Shetty has been so busy since winning Celebrity Big Brother, including currently starring in a musical in Berlin, that she hasn't found the time to start a family.

Comment: Shilpa, I'm available, and I would consider it an honour to have a family with you.

And Finally...

Ananova: A thief has accepted an unusual invitation - they stole a book from a modern art exhibition called "Steal This Book"!!!

Comment: This was a real book, written by Abbie Hoffman and published in 1970. I guess the thief took the title a little too literary-ly!!!

News Roundup: Wednesday 24th October 2007

KNX NewsRadio 1070, Los Angeles: FBI agents have raided a home in Orange County in connection with an arson investigation into one of the wildfires.

Press TV: At least 23 people have been killed in a bus explosion in a northern district of Mogadishu.

Channel News Asia: Myanmar/Burma pro-democracy protestors have been staging protests in front of Chinese Embassies around the world on Wednesday to mark 12 years of detention for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Coalition MPs are playing down fears that a likely interest rate rise in Australia next month will spell electoral doom for the party.

RTE News: A Chinese lunar orbiter, named after a legendary goddess who flew to the Moon and never returned, has successfully launched from the Sichuan province.

Yahoo! News UK: Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeline McCann, has angrily denied claims that he and Kate drugged their children.

And Finally...

BBC Bristol: A man used a false identity to get a job a Bristol Magistrates Court, despite having 129 convictions!

Comment: The daft thing was, he held down the job for a whole 17 months!!! You'd think with 129 convictions, someone there would have recognised him!!! He must have been up before magistrates there many times!