Ahhh……Bugger It!!!

we have an election date, and about time too. The election is to be held on the 24th of Novemeber. Here is an article from Yahoo on the election and what John Howard had to say on the matter.

Sunday October 14, 01:54 PM
PM declares poll on ‘right leadership’
Australia will go to the polls on November 24 for a federal election Prime Minister John Howard says is about the “right leadership”.

Mr Howard has dumped his “who do you trust” slogan from the 2004 election, conceding that some voters would loathe him no matter what he did
 
But he said at least voters knew what he stood for and where he planned to take the country.

And the 68-year-old, who has promised to step down before the 2010 election if he wins a fifth term, said neither his age nor the length in office of his government were the issue.

“I believe very passionately that this country’s best years can lie ahead of us in the years immediately ahead,” Mr Howard told reporters, after announcing a six-week election campaign.

“In order for that to happen this country does not need new leadership, it does not need old leadership, it needs the right leadership.

“The right leadership is the leadership which delivers the team which knows how to do the job.

“The right leadership is the leadership that has the experience to further expand the prosperity of the Australian economy and to ensure that everybody gets a fair share of it.”

The right leadership would make tough decisions in the national interest and would govern for all Australians, not a narrow section of the community, Mr Howard said.

“The right leadership is the leadership that tells the Australian people where it stands on issues and what it believes in,” Mr Howard said.

“Can I say, love me or loathe me, the Australian people know where I stand on all the major issues of importance to their future.”

Calling the election means this week’s scheduled sitting of parliament will not go ahead.

Nor will Mr Howard attend the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga on Wednesday as planned.

Entering his last election campaign, Mr Howard said he would spend the next six weeks outlining plans to reward hard work and ensure all Australians shared in the country’s prosperity.

Some people were feeling pressure and some people were missing out, he said.

“It is the responsibility of the government, as well as the alternative government, to outline plans to ensure that people do get included and that people don’t miss out,” he said.

“The plans that I will unveil in detail in the weeks of the campaign will reward hard work, they’ll create jobs and they’ll provide even more incentive for working Australians.”

Mr Howard fronted the media alone, but said his team was strong and stable with Treasurer Peter Costello and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer remaining in their key roles.

By contrast, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd had been forced into guaranteeing that Wayne Swan would be treasurer under a Labor government, while Robert McClelland would not be foreign minister, he said.

Mr Howard warned that if Labor was elected federally, it would rule at every level of government across the country, leading to a lack of balance and robbing Australians of the necessary checks and balances on their government.

Six weeks was an appropriate length for a campaign, he said.

“Why should we in any way in a great democracy not be willing to debate the great issues of the time over a period of six weeks? And I can assure you … it will go very quickly,” he said.

He said he was looking forward to the journey, particularly meeting and interacting with Australians.

“I’ve always found that a source of nourishment, a source of being re-energised, and an opportunity to continue a dialogue with them which I have found profoundly rewarding over the past 11-and-a-half years and which I seek to continue,” Mr Howard said.

This is what Kevin Rudd had to say on what the election would be about. Also from Yahoo news service.

Sunday October 14, 03:00 PM

Coalition win a big risk to nation: Rudd

A coalition win at the November 24 federal election would be the greatest risk to Australia’s future, Labor leader Kevin Rudd says.

Two hours after Prime Minister John Howard announced the election, saying it would be about “right leadership”, Mr Rudd said Australia needed something better than stale, old leadership.

“What I am offering the Australian people is new leadership,” Mr Rudd told reporters in Brisbane.

“Our country has a future too full of promise to allow a government that’s been in office for 11 years, a government that’s lost touch, and a government that’s gone stale, just to continue on.

“When it comes to our future, we need better than that.

“The greatest risk for Australia’s future is for the coalition to return and nothing changes.”

Mr Rudd said the coalition would do nothing on issues like climate change, hospital funding, schools and universities.

“Nothing changes when it comes to our workplaces except of course Work Choices would be made even worse,” he said.

Mr Rudd said he would make the case during the six week campaign why Australia needed new leadership now.

“When I became leader of the Australia Labor Party I began outlining our plan for the future and during the course of this campaign I’ll be outlining further fresh ideas, new policies and adding to the plan that we’ve already put out there for our countries future – not just for the next three years, but the next five, the next 10 years and beyond,” he said.

Mr Rudd said he was making a clear-cut commitment to Australians that if he is elected prime minister he will serve a full three-year term.

“If elected again I would serve beyond that as well,” Mr Rudd said.

“Mr Howard, by contrast, says that if he wins the next election he will retire and handover the prime ministership to Mr Costello without Mr Costello ever having to face the Australian people.”

Mr Rudd said Mr Howard had lost touch with working families and Mr Costello had never been in touch with working families.

Labor’s plan for the future, Mr Rudd said, included a ban on nuclear power plants, an all ready unveiled “education revolution”, the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the abolition of Work Choices and refreshed skills training options.

“What puzzles me is that on the day this election is called, Mr Howard with all the resources of government, has not put forward any plan for the nation’s future after 11 years.”

Mr Rudd said Mr Howard had a lot of experience, but not necessarily the right kind.

“Mr Howard has had a lot of experience into taking Australia into a war without an exit strategy … Mr Howard has a lot of experience in denying that climate change represented an economic and environmental challenge for this nation’s future,” he said.

Mr Rudd would put himself forward to the Australian people on his record in the public service, parliament and as a small businessman.

“I put myself forward as someone who has worked extensively as a senior public servant, someone who has worked as a diplomat representing his country abroad, someone who’s worked in small business and someone who has now been in parliament for nearly a decade,” he said.

“The Australian people will make their decision.”

Mr Rudd said Labor’s policies had been carefully costed.

“We are also putting forward carefully costed promises for this election campaign, all designed to put downward pressure on interest rates,” Mr Rudd said.

Mr Rudd said he is an economic conservative.

“I will always say with pride that I am an economic conservative,” he said.

“I believe in budget surpluses, I believe in the independence of the Reserve Bank, I believe in its inflation targeting regime.”

Mr Rudd said he had a passionate belief in education because it provided young people with new opportunities and was the backbone of a strong economy.

“An education, a good education, offers a new course in life, it enables you to unleash your potential as a human being, and it also provides a great opportunity, greater opportunity than people had before,” he told reporters.

“But more than anything else a good education also is a building block for the nation’s future economy.

“That’s why I believe in an education revolution.

“That’s why I believe that a trade certificate is just as good as a university degree because both are critical to our nation’s economic future.

“I believe this with every fibre of my being.”

When asked about Mr Howard’s warning about wall-to-wall Labor governments, Mr Rudd said: “I think politically it has suited Mr Howard very well to have Labor government at the state and territory level, so that the blame game, so that the buck passing, can continues as an excuse for not solving national problems.”

“Guess what? If I’m elected to become the next prime minister of Australia it presents me with a unique opportunity in the year 2008 to get to the bottom of fixing health and hospitals once and for all.

“And if we fail to deliver, we will have no political excuse whatsoever.”

Mr Rudd said Mr Howard had “used and abused” the power he gained by gaining control of the Senate to bring in the harshest set of industrial relations laws Australia has ever seen.

Mr Rudd said Labor was in for the fight of its life to win government, with the ALP only winning from opposition twice since World War II – Gough Whitlam in 1972 and Bob Hawke in 1983.

“I believe that this is going to be the fight of our lives,” he said.

“We have only won twice from opposition since World War II.

“We have 16 seats to win and we’re up against a really clever politician.

“I believe this will go down to the wire.”