Belated election notes

One of the best lines of the long campaign was by the shadow minister for health, who, before Tony Abbott turned up late to a debate, joked: “I could do an impression of him if it helps.”

Howard appeared old and cynical throughout. One faux pas was described generously by a commentator as Howard dealing with “the semantics of a politically difficult moment.

The swing against the government was decisive and consistent. For nearly a year polls had shown this. Occasional sample surveys produced equivocal results — some commentators ignored these, and even implied that a survey only has credibility if it’s not erratic — but I suspect these late polls were a media beat-up, pretending it would be close to sell papers on election eve.

During the landslide Labor victory, whoops could be heard from parties nearby to us. Their win felt most satisfactory, and the piece de resistance was Maxine McHugh —remembering her fondly, maturing like a big sister, from decades of ABC reporting — winning the PM’s seat. (I suspected that Howard would rather have lost government if he could have retained his seat.)

I hope it augurs a more compassionate Australia.

I want to see nothing ever again of John Howard. I hope, though, that he will always painfully regret he didn’t resign a year ago while he was on top. But instead, against advice (since the 1980s, Howard has been a one-man band) he stayed on — and he will be remembered as the one who cast the Liberal Party into the wilderness for half a generation.

Indeed, the next day a radio commentator said Howard crashed the car then handed Costello the keys. (Costello immediately threw them away, and resigned himself.)