I suppose Scott you are correct in some of the things you allude to.
"Right" and "Left" views are old hat these days, due to an ever changing moral and values attitude, renewed through each of the recent generations. As Australians compete with each other more, and get more greedy, decent values and morals of our past have been erased.
Howard said earlier in his term of office, that he was going to run the government on a business level, he has done just that. Aboriginals, health and education are not part of the Howard or corporate mind, unless there is a profit to be made.
Howard has made it look simple for the simple minds, that feel they have made it in life, when they qualify for a large mortgage and possess a share portfolio.
The Australian people's money [tax] is appropriated by Howard, for the corporates to prosper from. Howard's economy is all about converting the majority of Australians into conservatives, and making it easier for him to hold onto power, up till now.
Howard's inaction over the term of his office on the issues of water, global warming, and ignorance of the people's real needs, has found him caught short, in this an election year.
Maybe the collective conservative minds of Australians will sometime soon, realise that there is more to life and surviving, than money and good old American know how. Change does happen, the same as sh-- happens.
Bush cannot help Howard now, as he spends like a drunken sailor, in attempting to buy Australia's conservative minds, once again.