[Phil153]

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Phil153,

Just topically reading some new stories, it says your new government was elected on a platform of addressing climate change. What exactly made Howard so unpopular in just a year and how is Rudd going to solve this "issue". Why is climate change even a big issue - nothing else to worry about?

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I don't think it was a huge issue, although it obviously appeals to a subset of voters.

The main issue was a fear campaign about the relaxing of industrial relations laws, allowing employers to more easily sack workers (we have significant worker protections here) and allowing workers greater freedom in making workplace agreements. The Australian economy has been doing very well for a decade and many people have forgotten what recession, unemployment, high interest rates and higher taxes feel like. They simply want more for themselves and Rudd promised it - the communist ideology where everyone has great medical care, the best education system in the world paid for with public money, and so on. We can't afford these things of course, not while keeping economic conservatism, which was also promised (lol). Rightly or wrongly that's what they want and that's what they voted for, although they'll wake up to a nasty reality in a year or two.

There is also a great hatred for John Howard, especially among young people. They see him as a meddling old grandpa, and his competitor was a younger, hipper kind of guy.

I think that covers it.