The Sydney Siege: The wrong conclusion, the wrong lesson.

(Transcript from The Viewpoint Podcast)

Welcome to the programme, thank you for downloading and listening to this podcast. We're going to start with the story that has been dominating the news all week from Australia, and that was the siege at a Sydney chocolate cafe. When it started, I hoped and prayed for a swift, safe and just conclusion. My prayer was not answered. It wasn't swift. The siege lasted over 16 hours. It wasn't a safe conclusion, as police were forced into storming the cafe by the actions of the gunman. Nor was it a just conclusion. Two of the hostages were killed in the siege, as was the gunman. I would have prefered that the gunman had been able to be taken alive, to stand trial for his crimes.

Yes, crimes, and not just this siege. He was already on bail for a string of offences when he took those people hostage. He should have been standing trial for those crimes. Instead, he is dead, and we will never truly know what drove him to do this. Now there is a query about how the gunman was allowed to be on bail, and this is one of the issues that will have to be investigated, but it looks like an individual failing case, rather than something systemic.

However, this hasn't stopped some trying to take advantage of this issue to try to push their pet projects onto the agenda. Such as Senator David Leyonhjelm, advocating that Australia should follow the US example of arming citizens, and allowing for guns to be concealed about the person. He says he wants a discussion about the right to practical self defense, saying that “What happened in that cafe would have been most unlikely to have occurred in Florida, Texas, or Vermont, or Alaska in America...” Evidently, he's not heard about the large number of violent deaths that occur in America due to the prevalence of guns. Gun deaths in the US are around 100 times higher in the US, than in Australia. I didn't agree with former PM John Howard on a lot of things, but he was right, when he increased controls on gun ownership after the Port Arthur massacre. And so Senator David Leyonhjelm wins this week's W.T.F. Award in the Idiot Brigade Awards.

Australia Votes 2007: Roundup - Come in Mr Howard, your time is up!

So, the Australian electorate has spoken, and they told John Howard it was time to retire, not just as premier, but also from politics. This is despite the fact that no count has been completed yet and most are no further along than about 75-80% complete.

There are some seats that are too close to call, such as Bowman, where after 78% of the votes have been counted, the Liberal and Labor candidates are neck and neck. There is a hair's breadth between them and this one will go right down to the wire.

Peter Lindsay could be out of his seat in Herbert in Queensland, but the margin between them is so narrow, that no victory declaration can be made yet. At the moment though, Labour's George Colbran has a slender 0.2% lead.

In La Trobe in Victoria, Jason Wood (Lib) lloks like he might just hold on, but his lead over Labor's Rodney Cocks is just 0.4%, and still too close to call, with just under 75% of the vote counted.

In Macarthur in New South Wales, Liberal's Pat Farmer is so far holding on, despite an 11% swing to Labour candidate Nick Bleasdale. A miniscule 0.2% is all that separates the two candidates. The seat does have an uncanny history of going with the government, despite it being a Liberal stronghold.

Liberal Fran Bailey, who was previously the Minister for Small Business and Tourism, may just hold on to the McEwen seat in Victoria, but with a slender 0.4% lead, and over 25% of the votes still to be counted, the result is far from certain yet.

To the Northern Territories we go, and the seat of Solomon, where Labor's Damian Hale could unseat Liberal's David Tollner. But with a lead of only 0.4% and only 73% of the votes counted, there is still time for Tollner.

In Western Australia in the seat known as Swan, the sititng MP, Labor's Kim Wilkie, is in a tussle with Liberal's Steve Irons, who holds a tiny 0.2% lead, with just over 25% of the vote still to be counted.

These however are the stragglers. There are some Senate seats to be decided too, but to all intents and purposes, the result is known, we are just waiting to find out the exact margin of victory.

For John Howard, it was a very bad night. Not only did his premiership end, but his political career too. He joins Stanley Melbourne Bruce as the only other sitting Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat at a general election. Bruce lost his seat, Flinders, back in 1929, when the government went from being Nationalist Party to being a Labor goverment.

It will mean a new leader will have to be selected for the Liberal party. That will be one of the big stories over the following weeks and months.

The other will be following Kevin Rudd as he settles in as the new Australian Prime Minister. People across Australia and all over the world, will be watching events with great interest, as Kevin Rudd begins his term in office. What will the initial priorites of the Rudd government be? Time will tell.

Australia Votes 2007: Rudd looks to future, but has grace for Howard.

The new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke to his supporters about an hour after John Howard addressed his. He was graceful to his beaten adversary, but focused mainly on the future and pledged to never to take the sacred trust of the Australian electorate for granted.

Thanks to the internet, there will be many people and blogs who will be following your words closely, Mr Rudd, and your actions too. Make sure both speak with the same voice.

Australia Votes 2007: Howard conceeds defeat

At around Midnight AEDT, 11am GMT/UTC, Liberal leader John Howard conceeded defeat in the federal election. It was the end of a long era. John Howard had been PM for 11 years, and had been an MP since 1974 in the constituency of Bennelong.

It seemed he realised, even then, that this wasn't just the end of his premiership, but also the end of his political career, as he noted in his concession speech that he might even lose his seat in Parliament.

Australia Votes 2007: Labor showing signs of closing in

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's equivalent 0f the BBC, was already pretty certain at 9am GMT / 8pm AEDT that Labor were heading for victory. Election analyst Antony Green was also predicting that John Howard was in trouble in his own seat of Bennelong, even though only 17% of the vote had been counted.

Australian PM soon to call a federal election?

ABC Australia is reporting that there is mounting speculation as to whether PM John Howard will call an election this weekend. ABC Australia seem so certain on this that their election site is already up and running.

Out of interest, I decided to look at the other Australian news sites. NineMSN didn't show anything of interest there. The SBS World News Australia site reports that Howard says he has more to do before setting an election date. Seven News doesn't have anything to say on the matter, whilst Sky News Australia highlights the fact that unofficial campainging is already underway.

One thing I can assure you, is that when the election happens, I will cover Australia's Election Night, right here on Viewpoint.