MK’s Views - Down under on the right side

Folks, we are at the sharp end, a decision will soon be made, it’s not looking good for John Howard, the pundits might say Howard should have done this and done that, worn this tie and stood like that. I think he’s done the best he can and it’s up to us now. It falls to us to think long and hard before we cast our vote. We also have a responsibility to ensure the guy with substance wins not the guy with the best presentation and placards.

The opposition has a lot of slogans and fancy phrases, Kevin Rudd runs a hell of a campaign, but I feel he has not been tested, he’s just been around for a few months and most of us don’t know much about him apart from the fact that he’s suddenly become an economic conservative. The media in my view have given him a really soft ride, easy questions and given him a lot of coverage, I know whose side they’re on. Look at how the states are run and you’ll see the media bias, you know NSW has a premier right, hard to believe, cos the fellow is gone from the face of the earth, I don’t know if he’s dead or alive, last we heard he was headed off to China.

Now if he was doing a half-decent job, wouldn’t you think he’d be here in NSW encouraging us to vote for his mate Kevin Rudd? Where is the media, silent, no questions, no one cares. Take the challenger for Bennelong Maxine Mckew, apparently she’s really quite popular and John Howard might lose his seat to her. Regular commenter AR told me this morning she sold her 1.2million dollar home in Mosman and moved into the electorate, I just assumed she lived there, and she’s banging on about working families. Terese Rein tells us, she and her partner Kevin face that same challenges you lot are facing in raising families. Gee I didn’t know you lot are pulling in a 100 million a year. Last night I saw Anthony Mundine complaining that John Howard didn’t live on “the block” in Redfern, so what would he know about Aboriginal life? Well, does he live on the block, is Kevin Rudd spending his weekends on the block? Yet John Howard is out of touch, all this is swallowed by the media. Do you think this same media will be putting Labor to the grill if they win the election, don’t hold your breath?

So it falls to you, to do the work and remember the record of the current mob, sure interest rates have risen and grocery prices are higher and they have their faults, but examine the whole record, not what you heard last night or this morning. Folks around the world look to Australia and wonder “how do they do it”, that sort of strength and prosperity doesn’t just happen. Don’t forget this mob took on a debt of billions a decade ago, not any fool can take on that state of affairs and turn things around but any fool can take a surplus and turn that around, so you have to be very sure that the other mob can continue with that before you let them in.

The world is not going to go up in flames if Labor wins, the sky isn’t going to fall in, but make no mistake, this country will change in many ways if the left are given the reins, starting with the fact that no future party will touch employment conditions again for a very long time. Put the economy to one side, this is the left we are talking about, these folks believe in things like gay marriage, abortion, big government, coddling criminals. The left are also soft on immigration, terrorism, defense; you’ve seen it before and see it elsewhere. Kevin Rudd might be me-too on a lot of things, but his party is opposed to a lot of what the current government stands for, not just Work Choices. He might publicly oppose all these things, but I fear he’ll quietly allow a lot of their pet projects through and it’ll be Australia that pays for it. Can Kevin Rudd hold the line on gay marriage, what about immigration and boat people? I remember a long time ago, someone in another country referred to John Howard as that mad right winger.

John Howard often says that people know where he stands, well people outside the country also know him and where he stands, so you won’t get boat people setting sail confidently for Australia, because they probably know, chances are high when they get here, that mad right winger John Howard will kick their asses right on back where they came from. But they’ll test new leadership and fresh ideas, do you remember those mad leftists who were protesting and carrying on like stuck pigs at the detention facilities, they haven’t changed their minds. Do you think new leadership and fresh ideas will be able to hold the line against them too? Remember all the other protesting, books not bombs, no war, anti-war, socialist alliance and all those fringe loonies, what happened to all of them? Funny how they’re all keeping very quiet now, not a peep from them, I almost forgot about them, everyone’s suddenly become conservatives ey, gee aren’t we all the rage.

On another front, enemies of the west are watching, when you cast your vote, it’s not just people here holding their breath for the outcome. There are people in other parts of the world watching, knowing fully well the weakness of other leftist governments around the world. There is a reason the Islamic terrorist endorses the leftwing candidate and it ain’t because he fears the left. There is a war going on in the world whether you care to admit it or not, it’s hard to win, but so easy to lose. If Kevin Rudd is elected and he walks from Iraq, what makes you think he won’t walk from Afghanistan, do you think he has the backbone to stand up to the Taliban. Over in Uruzgan province and Waziristan, you walk away from a fight or don’t bother to turn up, you lose and you are weak. Over there they don’t sit around the camp fire saying that the Aussies left Iraq because Julia Gillard thinks that international law wasn’t followed and Greg Combet favors a UN-led approach.

The Taliban probably consider a 100 of them vs. 2 of our SAS a fair fight, they know the country that produced them is led by someone who won’t be pushed around, what do you think they’ll be thinking when we vote for a fellow who walked from Iraq because he thinks it’s a mistake to kill terrorists, you think they know about the unpopularity of Work Choices and penalty rates? Any sign of weakness and they’ll wear your backside out of there. Kevin Rudd says that we should concentrate on South East Asia, on their website they talk about cracking down on the opium trade in Afghanistan, with what; it talks about regional frameworks and centers for excellence. You can’t have a local framework or a centre for anything if you don’t have the spine to put soldiers with guns to guard it and never blink when the heat starts to pile on.

There’s an old saying, ignorance is bliss, not anymore folks, in today’s world ignorance is dangerous. Well, I’m tired of the election, so I’m not going to say much more, let Australia choose, it’s our decision, whatever it may be, I’ll respect it. Over to you folks, choose wisely, it’s all our backsides on the line.