The Land of the Waratah and Dahlia

I’ve been going all Waltzing Matilda since Kevin 07 went official. I’m still thrilled about the election outcome and the delay in the results – due to a blackout in Bagamoyo – has only served to prolong the glee. I knew the full moon would come to good. It’s an odd jubilation, the excitement being more that the Libs lost than that Labor won. Except for Maxine. ‘Oh, Maxine,’ I keep finding myself murmuring.

I got such pleasure out of watching Howard’s concession speech. Schadenfreude is cheap, but gee, it can be fun.

There’s much that’s cheering here. Howard’s whole ‘My Fellow Australians’ spiel is one that I’ll be happy not to hear for a while. Shades of reality TV too, with the statement, delivered fists clenched, that prime ministership is an unbelievable experience. Like, totally. The joyously shickered hecklers interrupting in this clip are great, pure Aussie faux pas-dom. I ‘m not sure about Howard’s claim that he has bequeathed the ALP a stronger and prouder nation, Tampa and WorkChoices and the GST and Iraq and Reconciliation Rollback and regional political fiascos all being conveniently edited out of the picture. Still, Howard used the adjective ‘special’ like a genuine evasive battler when he referred to his ‘very special debt of gratitude to Costello.’

The fact that it seems to have been a landslide victory makes me feel slightly less despondent about apparently getting bumped off the electoral roll and so not being able to vote. When I checked the AEC rolls in that bastion of democracy, the Ukraine, I discovered that my name wasn’t on the list and that I didn’t have the time or the wherewithal to re-enrol. Irate emails to the AEC lead me to deduce that the people living at my old address, where I was registered, had sweetly sent my mail back. Probably bloody Liberals who got wind of my pinko tendencies when a mail-out from the Radical Separatist Treehugging Femo-Front (ah, the RadSTFFront, those were the days) arrived and decided to sabotage my vote. Elizabeth Bay is full of them.