The current economic prosperity of most Australians is a debt-fuelled sham. The author does not seem to understand that Work Choices has led to reductions in real wages and conditions for many of the lesser paid workers at the same time as mortgage payments take a larger than ever bite from incomes while food and fuel prices are rising much faster than "core inflation".

Also, why no mention of the role played by the Green vote in getting Labor into office (and Howard out of his seat)?!

If Work Choices can be repealed quickly then we may have a little more protection for lesser paid employees when the global economic tsunami hits that Costello was warning of (and which the Liberals will, of course, ultimately blame Labor for) - see last Friday's article:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6681

P.S. My prediction is that, when the Liberals eventually win power again, they will do all they can to destroy the ABC. For this I regret Maxine McCue's decision to run against Howard - although the Rodent got what he deserved.

Whilst the article mentions the freshness and political acumen of Kevin Rudd, it neglects the most obvious reason for Rudd's success.

Queensland. Look at size of the swings in that state.

It is one thing to recognise that the electorate is more volatile than it has been in decades. It is another to recognise exactly where it is most volatile. The ALP caucus most certainly engaged in an act with a modicum of tactical genius when they picked Rudd as the leader - and the swag of seats is ample proof of that choice.

A good summary ruined only by the use of “bored of” instead of “bored by”.

If voters have changed the government because they were bored and wanted change just for the sake of change – there was absolutely no logical reason for a change – then Australia is in big trouble.

The author referred to the naïve Australian voters’ assumption that the strong economy will continue under the new Government. The poor fools are probably wondering why their mortgages hadn’t disappeared by this morning, and why the interest rates are still the same. Even Kevin Rudd simple cannot help people who have over-committed themselves, and Rudd has not made any silly promises about interest rates as did Howard. Losers who think that other taxpayers should spoon feed them might be about to find out that Rudd really is the “economic conservative” that he claimed to be during the election campaign. The so-called battlers will be no better off with Labor, simply because their financial problems are of their own making. They will, of course, turn on Rudd and blame him for all their problems just as they have always blamed Howard.

With regard to Work Choices, don’t let’s forget that there will be a hostile Senate until July and, in the meantime, employers will be looking hard at their options: getting rid of those they don’t want while they still have the chance, moving back to casual employees etc; unemployment could well be back to double figures in 6 months.

And, if the unions don’t ruin the new Government’s attempts run the country as they are now entitled to, the Greens will.

Already, Comrade Brown is squealing about Labor’s lack of appreciation for the help he and his extremists gave them in gaining seats. Brown is also demanding – on the very first working day of the new Government – that Rudd give the Japanese curry on whaling, to the extent of stopping Japanese ships from loading woodchips in Tasmania.

I don’t doubt Rudd’s sincerity. I doubt that he will be allowed to put it into practice.

Folks I think the single most important strategy that won the election for Labor, was Rudds ability to paint the Liberals as being old and out of touch with the electorate under Howard.

I know because I collected information from electorate booths around the state that night as a paid AEC employee "for the night" which we then fed directly into the AEC grid.

Forty-five minutes after the booths closed we were recieving information from electoral officers all over the country saying that punters kept saying they wanted a change. Our raw data across the eastern states seemed to indicate that this was the case and by 7.20 pm est the game was well and truely over for Howard long before WA and Queensland even started to come on line

Rudd thinks he can run the government the way he ran a government department. He has told the electorate he can do this. It cannot be done.

With the Liberal's holding the Senate, reckon smart-arseness destroyed them.

Virtually wrecking the Arbitration Court and shaping it their way with Work Choices certainly reeked of political suicide, because it had all shapes of students like my old self joining the young ones against them.

Certainly it was a win for democracy, and though it is unlikely to change the Stormtrooper mentality of George Dubya and Co, reckon it might pep up the minds of the Democrats, who seem to have developed a phase of fuzzy unsureness just of late?

Cheers - BB, WA.