[Peter D]

Pete - are you sure that you are not a political analyst in real life ?? !! - Very, very well said.

Tim, as Mark intimated, it was all in the packaging for the end-play. There was no massive shift in the number of "true believers" on either side when Kevin took the leadership - his skill was in tapping into the "swinging voters" & those who haven't yet been through both periods of management by both sides. A bit like a modern version of Whitlam's "It's Time" campaign.

Kevin was clever enough to play the "economic conservative" image very hard - enough to convince many older voters that things had indeed changed away from the disasters of the Whitlam / Connor / Khemlani era.

Given the huge shift to Kevin (Labor), things look way better than a narrow victory - he stands a much better chance of resisting the power-plays of the supporting minority groups (dare I say Trade Union(ists)) & should be able to maintain his stated goals.

We have invited (or had foisted upon us by the media & the party machines) a "presidential style" election - man against man, personality against personality. If Kevin can maintain his dominance over his political machine, I reckon we'll be ok. BUT, if things degenerate & we see the real power base move back to the other major Front Bench players (about 75% Trade Union backgrounds), then I see trouble. Some of us older folk will be contemplating :

- Mortgagor or Mortgagee ?
- Cook Islands ?
- Gold Bullion ?

Either which way, how lucky are we here in Oz - a change of government & nobody gets killed, no crazy protests - every one just either says "Ripper" or "Bugger", then gets on with life !!

Kind Regards,

Peter D.