Public humiliation is a sobering experience. In my poll predictions I picked the bleeding obvious in New South Wales and completely misread Queensland, writes Paul Comrie-Thomson.
Election 2007
The polls: who got it right?
Here are the final week opinion poll results, writes Peter Brent.
MacCormack: The cliffhanger that never hung
Most of us were braced for a close election night, a nail biting, down-to-the-wire, smoke-‘em’-if-you-got-‘em cliffhanger. It was never even close, writes David MacCormack.
When a swing is on …
While the overall result was about what I expected, the seat-swing make-up wasn’t, writes Peter Brent.
TV ratings winners (ABC) and losers (Nine)
The Nine Network’s last remaining claims to be “the one Australia turns to” were killed off on Saturday night when the network comprehensively lost the election night coverage battle with the ABC and Seven, writes Glenn Dyer.
Hardy: The pain of being at a wedding on election night
Consider this: it’s particularly difficult to stay connected to the comings and goings of an election call when you are stuck at a wedding in the middle of the countryside.
Simons: What this means for the media
There will now be at least a change in what elements of the national mindset are articulated in the public sphere, and this will mean a change in the networks of media power, writes Margaret Simons.
Abjorensen: What will the Liberals do now?
Malcolm Turnbull has put his hand up and Peter Costello has withdrawn from the leadership race - two tiny positives for a party facing the bleakest crisis in its 62 years, writes Norman Abjorensen.
Bahnisch: Why Labor did so well in Queensland
There are four basic reasons why Labor did so very well in the Sunshine state, writes Mark Bahnisch.
Pearse: Ratifying Kyoto will be the easy bit
Kevin Rudd will get a hero’s welcome at the upcoming climate change negotiations in Bali and Australian ratification of the Kyoto Protocol will be warmly received by national leaders everywhere but Washington and Ottawa, writes Guy Pearse.
Smith: Rudd win has more than a touch of Tony Blair about it
Kevin Rudd’s respect for his predecessor was manifest in a poised victory speech. It was all very Tony Blair. Déjà vu recalls similar tributes to Margaret Thatcher’s role in Britain when Blair won office, writes Ian Smith.
Errington: Unity and policy the challenge for Howard’s successor
The fact that opposition leaders who take the party leadership from a defeated prime minister never make it to the top job won’t stop some ambitious Liberals putting up their hand this week. And whoever ends up in the leadership will have a difficult time, writes Wayne Errington.
The King is dead, let’s assassinate the King
And now the worms turn. Perhaps not today – they’re a bit distracted by the Liberal Party rabble – but soon enough. The journalists who have been bagged by Coalition toadies and would-be Liberal candidates as being a bunch of doctrinaire Howard-haters will start to show their true colours, writes Michael Pascoe.
The story so far … in numbers
Did those last minute polls rattle you? Did you detect a whiff of Major/Kinnock ’92 in the air? Relax. Compulsory preferential voting tends to smooth down those last minute anomalies.
Kilgour: The class war is dead
The class war is dead - so is the wedge. On Saturday, plenty of Australians got out of bed and decided either they were keen to have a bunch of union thugs running the country, or that the Coalition campaign had been crap, writes Adam Kilgour.
Barns: Turnbull 1, Cousins 0
Geoff Cousins, the ad man and former Howard government adviser promised that he would make life hell for Malcolm Turnbull in Wentworth, after Turnbull as Environment Minister gave the green light to a proposed pulp mill in the Tamar Valley in Northern Tasmania, writes Greg Barns.
Memo to a new PM: Some thoughts on managing risk
Governments are defined not only by ideas, but by events. You’ll never be thanked for dodging a bullet. Risk management alone can’t make your government a success but poor risk management will make it a failure.
Pasquarelli: Howard held hostage by Bennelong’s ethnic make up
It is now very clear that more and more electorates are having their fate determined by ethnic minorities, writes John Pasquarelli.
Brent: Liberals out of office and a million miles away from the action
Labor will probably get a few terms in government, and anyone who thinks the Coalition can get back in three years is dreaming, writes Peter Brent.
John Winston Howard: The highlights
Howard biographer Wayne Errington lays out the highs and lows of a remarkable political career.
St Kevin’s Letter to The Electorates
Chapter 07, verses 23-28: Though I speak with the tongues of Australian working families and of fair-minded citizens everywhere, and have not votes, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal, etc.
Crikey Election Awards: the winners
And with almost no further ado, we turn to the winners of Crikey’s Election Awards. Unlike The Age, we have made a decision…
The Last Daily Verdict: Labor wins the campaign but …
By our measure Labor has clearly won the campaign with yesterday being no exception, writes Richard Farmer.
