INDEPTH: AUSTRALIA
Election 2004: Issues
CBC News Online | October 7, 2004
The economy
While major differences on foreign policy have been attracting the attention of the foreign media, for millions of Australian voters the key election issue is the economy. Most of the six-week campaign has been fought around domestic issues such as economic management, whose tax cuts will be better, and which side can better fund education and the health system.
Australia's economy has been humming along recently with low inflation, low interest rates and strong job creation.
Liberal Prime Minister John Howard is promising more of the same if he's re-elected.
"The most important goal is to maintain the strength and the momentum of the economic robustness of the Australian economy. And in order to maintain that, we need a continuity of policy,'' Howard said. "I never will take the Australian people for granted. The last thing I would ever do was to rest on my laurels.''
Howard cited his key goals as tackling the skills shortage, developing an entrepreneurial culture, placing greater emphasis on trade links in Asia and dealing with Australia's water shortage.
Analysts say that on the economic front there's not much difference between Howard and Labor's Mark Latham. Both have promised billions of dollars in new spending for hospitals, education and improving the lot of families.
Latham has admitted there would be some job losses in the public service under a Labor government. In a recent address to the National Press Club, Latham defended Labor's planned savings on government spending, saying the money would be redirected to families and communities where it's needed. He said it would mean more jobs in teaching, nursing and child care.
"Obviously in abolishing agencies and cutting bureaucracy there'll be some job losses," Latham said. "But our purpose is to cut resources at the centre of government and get those resources out to the families and communities on the edge."
The environment
The Great Barrier Reef is seen in this 1997 photo. (AP Photo/World Wide Fund for Nature, HO)
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Australia's Greens have been picking up more support over the past few years, electing several senators and an MP in recent elections. And the Greens have been making a lot of noise about old-growth forests in the island state of Tasmania.
In a country like Canada, that kind of noise might not attract much attention, but under Australia's election rules even smaller voices must be listened to. Voters make two choices on their ballots: the candidate they're voting for and their second preference. It's those second preference votes that could – in some cases – tip the balance toward either of the two major parties.
The Greens are telling their supporters to make Labor their second choice because of the party's stand on Tasmanian old-growth forests.
Labor's Latham is vowing to protect 240,000 hectares of old-growth forest from development in Tasmania. He has conceded that it won't be popular among some, especially in the logging industry.
"If it was easy and popular to save our natural resources in Tasmania, someone would have done it 10 years ago," he said.
Prime Minister Howard has pledged to protect 170,000 hectares – with no jobs lost. But his plan has been met with skepticism by environmentalists, who argue that the areas Howard has promised to protect were never earmarked for logging. The national secretary of the Forestry Union - a group committed to preserving the old-growth forest - said he was disgusted when he saw loggers in Tasmania cheering the prime minister.
Foreign policy
President Bush greets visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard at Moffett Field near Mountain View, Calif., May 2, 2003. Australian forces joined American and British troops in the war in Iraq. (AP Photo)
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This is the key area of difference between Howard and Latham. Howard has been firmly in Washington's corner for years. He was in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, and was among the first foreign leaders to commit troops to Afghanistan and, later, to Iraq.
And – according to most polls – the public has been behind Howard's support of Washington. However, that started to slip after images of American guards abusing Iraqi prisoners emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison, and reports were released concluding that America's attack on Saddam Hussein was based on faulty intelligence.
On October 7, 2004, Howard defended his decision to join the war in Iraq after a new report found there was no evidence Saddam had weapons of mass destruction at the time of the U.S.-led invasion.
"I don't see that this report alters anything," Howard said. "I'm not in any way apologetic about the fact that we were involved in a campaign that removed Saddam Hussein. In dealing with the here and now, the important challenge is to make sure that Iraq becomes a democratic country."
Latham has vowed to pull Australian troops out of Iraq by Christmas 2004. He has accused Howard of making Australia less safe by taking a leading role in Iraq and said Howard should apologize for making "a terrible mistake.''
"A person of honesty and integrity would stand up today, take responsibility for it, and say to the Australian people 'I made a mistake,''' Latham told Australian radio.
Latham is pushing for a better relationship with Asia. In the closing days of the campaign, Latham pointed out that while Howard was in opposition in the 1980s, he called for a racially discriminatory immigration policy. The Labor leader said Howard called for a cut in the number of Asians being allowed to migrate to Australia.
Howard countered that his government had achieved a significant rebalancing of Australia's foreign relations by deepening ties with the United States without harming the close and productive relationship with China, and consolidating links with the rest of Asia. He added that earlier predictions that Asia would not deal with a Howard government have proved dismally wrong. Howard is making an early meeting with Indonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a priority, if he's re-elected.
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| QUICK FACTS: |
Country Name: Commonwealth of Australia
Total Area: 7,686,850 sq. km
Population: 19,913,144
Currency: Australian dollar (AUD)
Capital: Canberra
Head of State: Queen of Australia Elizabeth II represented by the governor general
Government type: Federal-state system with the British monarch as sovereign
Languages: English, native languages
Ethnic Groups: Caucasian 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%
Religions: Anglican, Roman Catholic, other Christian, non-Christian and others
GDP: $570.3 billion
Key Exports: Coal, gold, meat, wool, iron ore, wheat, machinery and transport equipment
Key Industries: Mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing, chemicals, steel
Life Expectancy: 80.26 years
Infant Mortality: 4.76 deaths/1,000 live births
SOURCE: CIA WORLD FACTBOOK
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