11月24日投票のオーストラリア総選挙で、ジョン・ハワード首相が率いる自由党・国民党が大敗北した。ハワード首相自身の落選も伝えられ、首相の落選は1929年以来のことになる。労働党の大勝利で、11年ぶりに政権が交代することとなった。
オーストラリアの豊富な資源、中国との経済関係で、好調な経済が持続しているオーストラリアでは、経済の好調は当たり前という情勢で、ハワード首相の訴えは埋没してしまったかたちだ。むしろ国民は、環境問題やイラク派兵問題の方により関心が高かったということなのだろう。アメリカ合州国やニュージーランドとの同盟関係は維持しながらも、イラク派兵に意義を見出せず、レイムダック状態のブッシュ大統領とは距離を置きたいという民意があらわれたようだ。
労働党のリーダーであるケビン・ラッド党首は2003年にニューヨーク訪問中に酔ってストリップクラブに出かけたというゴシップがあり、それほど清潔感あふれる政治家ではなさそうだが、京都議定書擁護、イラク派兵の撤退という流れが始まるだろう。
大英連邦の一員であったオーストラリアの出生は言うまでもなくイギリスにあり、長きにわたってイギリスとの政治的・経済的関係が続いてきたわけだが、太平洋のパートナーシップという名のもとで日本との経済関係が強化されてきた。クイーンズランド州をはじめオーストラリアで日本語学習が盛んなのも、そうした影響からのことだ。しかし、労働党政権の誕生で、イラク派兵問題、環境問題、そして捕鯨の問題でも、日本への圧力が懸念される。
日本と中国との経済競争も厳しくなっていくだろう。ケビン・ラッド氏は、苦労人のたたきあげで、オーストラリア国立大学で中国史と中国語を学んだ親中派で、中国の専門家だからだ。
日本の給油問題の継続が、「国益」、「国際貢献」という薄っぺらい名の下に語られるが、こうした情勢をきちんと読んだ方がいい。
私はインターナショナルヘラルドトリビューン紙の読者だが、オーストラリアの総選挙結果が、今朝の新聞には載っていなかった。
以下、インターネット上のサイトから紹介しておく。
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/24/asia/australia.1-177175.php
Australians oust Howard after 4 terms
By Tim Johnston Published: November 24, 2007
SYDNEY: Prime Minister John Howard of Australia suffered a comprehensive defeat Saturday, with a coalition led by his Liberal Party losing its majority in Parliament.After four terms in office, he will be replaced by Kevin Rudd, a Labor Party leader and former diplomat. Rudd, 50, campaigned on a platform of new leadership looking for new answers for new challenges.
"Today Australia has looked to the future," Rudd said in a nationally televised victory speech. "Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward."
He has said his first acts as prime minister will include pushing for the ratification of the Kyoto climate agreement and to negotiate the withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Iraq.
The attempts by Howard's coalition to stress their economic record failed to impress voters. The Australian economy has had 17 years of continuous growth, in latter years driven by Chinese demand for Australian iron ore and coal, and he had warned voters that a Labor victory would endanger future prosperity.
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But there was in fact little distance between the two parties on economic policy, and the defining characteristics came down to the personalities of the leaders and Labor's promise to address broad concerns about the environment, health and education. Howard, 68, was running for a record fifth term in office, but many voters said they were ready for a change.
Howard conceded the election about an hour and a half after the last polling booths closed in the western part of the country.
"A few moments ago I telephoned the leader of the Labor Party and I congratulated the Australian Labor Party on a very complete victory," Howard, 68, said in his concession speech.
The victory was so complete that Howard even lost his own seat in Parliament, projections showed, the first sitting prime minister to do so since 1929. His opponent for that seat, in the Sydney suburb of Bennelong, was a rookie politician, Maxine McKew, who used to be a television anchor. She told a jubilant crowd of followers Saturday night that the national result would change the country.
"This has been an amazing night, a wonderful night for Labor, a transforming moment for the country," she said.
Early estimates had the Labor Party gaining some 20 seats, to gain a 14-seat majority in the 150-seat lower house.
Howard had a strong personal relationship with President George W. Bush, one based on a similar socially conservative philosophy and outlook on the war on terror, one cemented by Howard's presence in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.
But opinion polls consistently showed that although Australians remained strong supporters of the Anzus alliance, which brings together Australia, New Zealand and the United States, they did not approve of Bush.
Rudd's election is unlikely to bring a radical new foreign policy, although there is likely to be a change in emphasis in the relationship with the United States.
"Australia will remain a close ally of the United States and Rudd remains committed to the alliance," said Michael Fullilove, of the Lowy Institute for International Relations in Sydney.
It was a bruising campaign, and the Liberal Party has already said it will challenge a number of results on the ground that the Labor candidates had broken electoral law by failing to resign from government jobs before running for office.
In some aspects, the Labor Party framed its campaign as a battle between the politics of fear and the politics of hope.
Rudd, 18 years younger than Howard, has a reputation as a cerebral student of policy, as opposed to the Liberal leader's image of a hardened and aggressive political animal.
Rudd's rather dry image was, if anything, enhanced by a disclosure shortly before the beginning of the campaign that he had gotten drunk and visited a strip club when he was on a visit to New York in 2003.
