Hapless and Hopeless

It's election night. It's a long story but I ended up at Carmel Tebbit's campaign victory party in Marrickville with Trevor after dropping Michael's friend Polly at the airport and then dropping Sammy off at his mom's. The Labor Government and Morris Iemma has romped it back in - a 15 seat majority at last count. They all cheered, but God knows how you could be proud with their rotten record. Nothing works. It's all palava. They had a 16 seat majority the previous time around. I don't know who reads it all, but there's been some great coverage in the final days analysing the whole debacle. Nobody deserved to win. A tragedy for democracy declared others. Why couldn't anyone have done any better? Why do we have to be stuck with these idiots? Why couldn't the world be flooded with heroes, our own lives enriched by courage? He's not a bad bloke in person, I try to say of Debnam; living in the most left-wing precint in Australia it's easy to stir the pot. You only have to suggest that a conservative is not evil and you're painted as a right wing lunatic.

It reminds me, in some juvenile way, of my university days. I ran for election of the student newspaper called Arena; and lost to the chap who ran the Student Council Rod Webb. He was a Trotskyist and it was hard to keep up with a Trotskyist when you were out vying each other for who was more on the left. In those days left equalled good and right equalled bad. The Liberal bloke, handsome devil, was painted as little more than an apologist for the death camps. There was just no way through. I wasn't born to stand on the front line. Debnam stood up to be counted, just, but common decency will get you absolutely nowhere. Clearly. Even the thugs had enough decency to look embarrassed at how easy their victory was. Marshmellow left, I used to be called. All the touchy feely issues. Social justice. All that crap. Now I've lived long enough to be able to honestly say I can't stand any of them.

Voting is compulsory in Australia; so in order to avoid a $50 fine many of us marched up to the local booth at the Darlington school and numbered our candidates one to seven in the lower house; one to 15 in the upper house if you didn't vote above the line - that is, a single one for one of the parties. I just don't believe any of them. It's a tragedy for democracy and the biggest losers are the voters of nsw, as Matt Price pointed out in an excellent piece today. I want to be moved and remain untouched. It couldn't have been more vacuous. How cruel the disaster was. I followed Debnam around yesterday; he held a presser at Captain Cook's Landing Place at Kurnell; surrounded by middle aged supporters outraged by the desalination pant that Labor are going to bnild, fucking up the area with massive pipes. Hapless and hopeless wasn't even the beginning of how hopeless the LIberal campaign was. There wasn't a single Liberal at our polling booth handing out how to vote literature. What is it with these people? They don't think they have to work for your vote? There were the Greens, latter day hippies; and there was Iemma's foot soldiers, standing proudly in front of his smarmy picture. It was a disaster and we're all the losers. I wanted to be reunited, I didn't want to sleep alone anymore, and instead we stood and watched as gusts of rain drenched the suburb; saying goodbye and dreading the future.

THE BIGGEST STORY:

SMH:

Running seat tally: Labor: 52, Liberal: 20, National: 13, Greens: 0, Others: 6
Premier Morris Iemma tonight declared victory in the NSW election, leading Labor to its fouth consecutive term in office despite widespread voter discontent.
"It's a mandate, but a mandate with a message," he told reporters saying his re-elected government would "straight back to work" to fix problems facing the state.
Mr Iemma was greeted with applause and chants of his name from Labor supporters at the St George's Leagues Club in Sydney's south about 45 minutes after Coalition leader Peter Debnam stoically conceded defeat.
"Tonight's result is a message for me, but it is also a message for John Howard," he said saying that the people of NSW had rejected the Federal Government's industrial relations legislation ahead of the federal election later this year.
Mr Debnam, flanked by wife Deborah, put on a brave face in a central Sydney hotel as he told the Liberal Party faithful that he had lost.
Later Mr Debnam told reporters "yes, yes" when asked by reporters if he intended to stay on as Liberal leader despite rising speculation that he will bear the blame for the defeat.
"The people of NSW have given the Labor Party one last chance to fix the problems in this state," he said in a quavering voice.