"The world is a better place this morning."

As the sun rose over Australia this Sunday morning, the Long Dark Night of the Soul was ended. "The world is a better place this morning," said the Climate Change Coalition candidate for the electorate of Parkes in western and far western New South Wales, Michael Kiely.

"I'm astounded!" he said on seeing the results on Saturday night. Mr Kiely attracted 660+ votes (with 72% of the vote counted). Nationally - with 72% of the vote counted - the Climate Change Coalition's 7 House of Representatives candidates attracted a total of 7,358 votes (or an average of 1,000 each). When asked about the worse than average performance of his campaign in Parkes, the Candidate pointed to the intense conservatism of the electorate and the high concentration of climate sceptics in the bush. "Just to introduce yourself as from a party with the word 'climate' in its name is to invite derision," he said.

"Don't underestimate our contribution: we made sure climate change was on the agenda for all parties - we made sure the ALP and the Greens stayed on message, for fear of giving us any oxygen. It was almost impossible to get media interest for the CCC. And this is, perversely, a measure of our success."

[Nicki Schmidt worked tirelessly all Election Day, swimming against the Ruddslide Tsunami.]

"I am proud to have contributed to a swing of 15% against the National Party because it has served the people of this electorate so poorly, despite their loyalty," said the Candidate. Thanking his booth workers in Mudgee, Dubbo, Coonabarabran, Moree, Parkes and Gunnedah, he said: "We were swept way by the Ruddslide. It was clear when only around 1 in 10 voters took a How To Vote flyer. They charged into those polling booths and they knew who they were after."

The Climate was the winner last night.

"Australia will now ratify the Protocol. It will no longer give President Bush moral coverage for his immoral actions on Climate Change," he said. "We can get up off our knees and face the world with pride now that the Axis of Evil between Australia and the United States is over."

The Candidate - who spent the first 5 weeks of the 6 week campaign organising the recent Carbon Farming Expo & Conference in Mudgee last week - shot an email off to Peter Garrett as the Government crashed. It said: "Congratulations! Now to work.... I believe we have a solution to gaining the cooperation of farmers to transform agriculture to regenerate the farmland ecology. It is enclosed: Carbon Farming. Change without conflict. When can we make a presentation to you?"

The Candidate with Spicers Creek grazier and carbon farmer Tom Green, who also did a full day on his feet for the cause.



"There are 660 good souls (and more) in the Parkes Electorate who care about climate change. If I could build an ark I would make room for all of them. God bless you."



We helped push the Nats to the brink: our preferences flowed to Labor and the Greens.



Vote for the "Good Looking" Ticket.



The Friday before the election we were in the local press in three separate publications. Blanket coverage! No wonder people were looking at me funny while I was in the supermarket."


This political action vehicle contains quotations from the Coalition, including "Where will the Polar Bears live?" It was parked in a prime spot outside the polling station at Mudgee High School.







Dr Karl is quoted on the "Environment Cab" which is a Mudgee feature.



IN MEMORIAM: JOHN HOWARD'S AUSTRALIA

John Howard set out to transform Australia, to remould our society from what he calls ‘the old order’ to what he describes as ‘the new order’. Unions are part of the old order. In John Howard’s Australia, workers are isolated from the support of their coworkers and left to fend for themselves in negotiations with management.

In John Howard’s Australia, every one can have a job, but they need two jobs because wages are too low to pay the mortgage or tollways

In John Howard’s Australia, every home can have a plasma screen television, but not hospital services worthy of a civilised society.

In John Howard’s Australia, we declare a national emergency and send the Army in to stop the Aboriginals abusing their children, but they don’t find much evidence of it.

In John Howard’s Australia the Prime Minister defends Pauline Hanson’s right to make racist remarks and dark-skinned people from the Middle East are locked away in concentration camps in the middle of the desert for up to 7 years – including children – but no white people. Then we express surprise at the Cronulla riots – “race riots” – the ultimate outcome of John Howard’s ‘dog whistling’. Moslem women are spat upon in the streets.

In John Howard’s Australia, the Minister For Immigration demonises one community (Sudanese), accusing them of being violent, lawless and incapable of living peacefully in a civilised society. He neglects to mention that these legitimate migrants from a war-torn African nation were dumped here without support and left to fend for themselves.

In John Howard’s Australia, neighbours are encouraged to spy on each other and report any suspicious activity to security forces. Our banking and telephone activity records are trawled by secret police for evidence that we are terrorists.

In John Howard’s Australia we ban books that the Attorney General believes are likely to encourage terrorism. He defines terrorism. Anyone critical of the Government’s foreign policy could qualify as a terrorist or one encouraging terrorism.

In John Howard’s Australia, the Prime Minister does publicity for a company set up to build nuclear power plants, despite the fact that the majority of citizens are against nuclear power.

In John Howard’s Australia, young people show no respect for authority, but what example have they had? The Prime Minister introduced to our children the concept of the ‘non-core promise’. He explained the lie of ‘keep interest rates at record lows’ by saying he only told the lie for 2 days. He told some very public lies – like ‘they threw their children overboard’ and “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction”.

In John Howard’s Australia, country people are left without decent mobile phone coverage and third world Internet access, even though the nation owned the biggest telecommunications company in the market. With the compliance of the National Party – the true blue defenders of country peoples’ rights – the Government sold Telstra, using another lie: that country people would not be left behind.

In John Howard’s Australia, government scientists are gagged when their findings about global warming contradict government policy. Reports were rewritten or not released.

In John Howard’s Australia, we can see the countryside disintegrating under the weight of a freak drought, but refuse to call it Climate Change. When we finally admit that it might be Climate Change, we refuse to do anything serious to curtail emissions because the coal miners and energy companies might suffer a reduction in profits.

In John Howard’s Australia, a $35billion tax cut to bribe voters is more important than reducing our greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2030 – which would cost the same amount.

In John Howard’s Australia, everyone is better off, but no one feels better off. Youth suicide is at a record high. Rural males are killing themselves in record numbers. Mothers are murdering their children.

How can there be such despair in our booming economy?

There was something wrong in John Howard’s Australia.