The idiom "know which side your bread is buttered on" was reportedly first recorded in John Heywood's 'Proverbs', published in 1546: 'I knowe on whiche syde my breade is buttered.' As was the case, at the May 2019 federal election, Australian voters (some 16.4 million reportedly enrolled to vote) went to the polls and decided to let the Coalition retained government than brought Labor to power.
It was "an election that surprised the nation" because "Labor came into the election the favorite to win." 'ABC News' reported, "Labor went into the 2019 federal election favorites off the back of almost three years of opinion polls, but within hours it became clear that the polls had failed to capture the mood of the electorate."
Of the total Lower House seats (some 151), the Coalition won 77 to form government. It could govern in its own right. Some 1056 candidates were said contested for seats in the House of Representatives.
Mike Cook of 'news.com.au' explained, "Deciding the timing of the federal election is fraught with complications. Three important factors come into play when discerning when the 2019 election will be held: guidelines in the constitution, timing of the 2019 Budget and the prevalence of holidays during the eligible period. The Australian Constitution dictates what can and cannot be done in parliament, including the timing of the House of Representatives and the Senate (Upper House) elections. While state senators have fixed six-year terms, the House of Representatives maxes out at three years."
Jacob Kagi of 'ABC News' informed, "Unlike the Senate, where each state gets 12 representatives, the number of Lower House seats in each state is determined by population. The Australian Electoral Commission uses a formula which determines each state's entitlement, based on its population."
Political commentator George Megalogenis told readers of 'The Sydney Morning Herald' prior to the election, "This election will be decided along cultural lines, but with a twist … It is the realignment of Sydney and Melbourne, where more than 40% of the total population lives, that is transforming our politics … If Labor prevails, Bill Shorten will have overturned a century of political practice in Australia.
"Our habit as a people has been to swing to the centre left when we wanted to be inspired, and revert to the conservatives when we sought comfort and relaxation. Only five Labor opposition leaders have taken office at a general election: Andrew Fisher in 1910 and again in 1914, James Scullin in 1929, Gough Whitlam in 1972, Bob Hawke in 1983 and Kevin Rudd in 2007. All rode a wave of community enthusiasm, carrying ambitious reform programs."
The Parliament of Australia website (infosheet 20) informed, "Australia is a federation of six States which, together with two self-governing Territories, have their own constitutions, parliaments, governments and laws. The Constitution of Australia establishes the Federal Government by providing for the Parliament, the Executive Government and the Judicature (more usually called the Judiciary) - sometimes referred to as the 'three arms of government'.
"Political theory recognises three powers of government - the legislative power to make laws; the executive power to carry out and enforce the laws; and the judicial power to interpret laws and to judge whether they apply in individual cases. The principle of the separation of powers is that, in order to prevent oppressive government, the three powers of government should be held by separate bodies - the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary - which can act as checks and balances on each other."
Before May 18, Vivienne Pearson informed 'ABC News' readers, "The upcoming federal election will see a huge temporary workforce swing into action to ensure the wheels of democracy turn smoothly. I was one of 10,107 election officials who worked on the NSW polling day, 23 March. The work of an election official is not difficult but requires high levels of concentration.
"As with all work involving the public, there are moments of satisfaction (flipping the huge book of names to the exact page needed), periods of monotony (my polling station saw nearly 3000 people checked off by three or four people across the day) and the occasional stressful incident (it turns out not everyone enjoys exercising their right to vote)."
Jackson Gothe-Snape also informed, "Standing in the polling booth this Saturday, Australians will do more than vote. They will channel tens of millions of dollars to the country's political operatives — to fund advertising to those same voters. Whether an Australian backs the party of their parents, follows the first how-to-vote card they come across or votes like a donkey, the result is almost always the same: $2.76 will go to the party or candidate alongside the box marked '1' to meet their advertising costs.
"That means a vote for the same party in both houses returns about $5.50 per person. The only exceptions are votes going to a candidate with less than 4% of the vote, and informal votes." Joo-Cheong Tham, a professor in democracy from Melbourne Law School, told 'ABC News' most voters were oblivious to the scheme. The system of public funding was set up in the 1980s by the Hawke government to reduce the risk of corruption associated with donations.
"With eight years in office (1983-1991), Bob Hawke was Australia’s longest-serving Labor Prime Minister," the National Archives of Australia informed. "He became Prime Minister after only two years in parliament, and only one month as Leader of the Opposition. Building on his success as trade union president, Hawke established consensus with unions and business to stabilise wage growth, improve the ability of business to compete in global markets and to deregulate the Australian economy and promote growth."
At the 1983 federal election, Bob Hawke's supporters chanted, "We want Bob! We want Bob! We want Bob!". Speaking to the 'Australian Story' program in 2014, Bob Hawke recounted, "The night of the election I realised now I had an enormous responsibility, ah... the country was divided and the economy was in an absolute shambles and going backwards. So there was a mixture of excitement and elation and a sense of sombre responsibility. I had promised as part of my campaign that within a month of becoming Prime Minister I'd call a national economic summit."
Gareth Evans was a former Cabinet Minister told 'Australian Story', "He touched every leadership base you can think of. He had a very strong sense of policy direction. He was an excellent communicator to the public, world at large. He was charismatic to go with it and he was a terrific manager of people. The important thing about Hawke's cabinet was that it operated on the basis of argument, not authority. Sometimes that process could be pretty ugly, pretty rough.
"Any normally sensitive human being, any normally modest human being simply can't survive in politics. You have to have profound psychological defects of one kind or another to get to high places and Hawkie was absolutely no different from the rest of us in that respect. Bob was an outstanding foreign affairs Prime Minister. He understood the patterns, the shapes, the dynamics. He was personally familiar with a number of players on the world stage not least the Americans to whom he was very close." Bob Hawke made known, "Well I enjoyed a very close relationship with both Reagan and Bush, facilitated by my friendship with George Schultz."
In his review of the two-part 'Australian Story' - 'Just Call Me Bob', Greg Hassall told 'ABC News' readers, "Bob Hawke's rise to prominence coincided with the birth of television and he was quick to understand and harness its power. As a union advocate in the 1960s and 1970s, he used television as a platform to put his case, often outfoxing less media-savvy opponents.
"Television helped create the brash, charismatic Mr Hawke persona but it also revealed a quick temper and emotional fragility some found disconcerting. He courted journalists and could be charming when it suited, but he was never a patient interviewee. His default position, after years of advocacy, was to concede nothing. Television and radio interviews enabled Mr Hawke to reach the Australian people directly. The print media, however, didn't facilitate such unmediated access.
"Journalists could editorialise, interpret and distort, and this clearly rankled. Mr Hawke made this point explicitly in an interview with Jana Wendt in 1992. 'The level of journalism in this country is just so pathetically poor and I've, in a sense, gone over the top of them, which they don't like,' he said. 'They've been irrelevant to me, the print media, because my link does not depend upon the menial minds of the scribblers in Canberra or anywhere else. I prefer to deal directly with the Australian people.'"
Annette Sharp told readers of the 'Daily Telegraph' in 2013, "Jana Wendt was smart, beautiful and a ready-made star – unique to the nation’s TV news landscape. A perfectionist, the '60 Minutes' reporter was at her best on the set of 'A Current Affair' throwing curly questions. Her style is the most emulated of female news presenters with voice coaches instructing young news reporters on how to sound 'like Jana'."
In his article, 'U.S. Will Take 1,194 Days to Elect Its Next Leader. Australia Needs 38. Here’s Why," Russell Goldman informed readers of 'The New York Times' in April 2019, "If, at more than a year long, the race to elect the president of the United States is an ultramarathon, Australia’s campaign season is a sprint. Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia fired the proverbial starting pistol on Thursday, declaring a federal election for May 18 and kicking off a 38-day dash to the ballot box counting today and Election Day.
"It’s still not clear exactly how many days of campaigning will be allowed; the Labor Party leader, Bill Shorten, has called for a campaigning ban on at least two holidays between now and Election Day. But clearly, Australia’s race will be quick. By contrast, the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States lasted 596 days, counting from the date of the first major candidate’s official declaration to Election Day. The 2020 campaign, one of the longest in history, is set to last 1,194 days — the equivalent of more than 30 Australian election seasons.
"On the surface, a shorter campaign period would seem to prevent voter fatigue and limit the extent to which questionable financial contributions can muddy the process. But experts say campaigns of even a few weeks are marred by many of the same problems seen in longer elections. Ultimately, a shorter campaign has less to do with perfecting the process and more to do with simply speeding it up.
"The length of a campaign can be boiled down in most democracies to this question: Are you electing a president or a prime minister? Put another way: Are you voting for an individual who you need time to get to know, or are you voting for a legislating party that is headed by a leader with whom you’re already familiar? A 2015 study, analyzing more than 26,000 polls in 45 countries since 1942, found that voters’ preferences take much longer to form in a presidential election than a parliamentary one because presidential voters need more time to assess the candidates.
"Parliamentary systems also differ from presidential republics in the frequency with which elections can be called. In a presidential system, the term of office is fixed, and campaigning for the next election effectively starts when the last election ends. But in a parliamentary system, general elections can be called more regularly and with less notice. To avoid lengthy gaps without a government, many countries have laws limiting the duration of a campaign.
"Australian campaigns last between 33 and 68 days. That’s short by American standards but an eternity compared to Singapore, a country that has been governed by the same party for five decades, and which gives voters just nine days to choose a candidate. Campaigns in Japan run for 12 days. In France, campaigning before the first round of voting can last no more than two weeks. The campaign period in Canada lasts about 36 days, in Britain five to six weeks and in Israel 101 days. Like Australia, those counties all have legally fixed campaign periods."
Bob's daughter, Sue Pieters-Hawke told the 'Australian Story' program, "People ask why was Dad so popular? You knew where you stood with Dad. He was clear and unlike a lot of politics of today, conducted politics as a contest of ideas. I think the period that I call the Canberra years were really good years for our family. And the other very, very important element of the Canberra years is that, that was when we all started to have kids. It was the beginning of the grandchildren era."
Mike Cook of 'news.com.au' explained, "Deciding the timing of the federal election is fraught with complications. Three important factors come into play when discerning when the 2019 election will be held: guidelines in the constitution, timing of the 2019 Budget and the prevalence of holidays during the eligible period. The Australian Constitution dictates what can and cannot be done in parliament, including the timing of the House of Representatives and the Senate (Upper House) elections. While state senators have fixed six-year terms, the House of Representatives maxes out at three years."
Jacob Kagi of 'ABC News' informed, "Unlike the Senate, where each state gets 12 representatives, the number of Lower House seats in each state is determined by population. The Australian Electoral Commission uses a formula which determines each state's entitlement, based on its population."
Political commentator George Megalogenis told readers of 'The Sydney Morning Herald' prior to the election, "This election will be decided along cultural lines, but with a twist … It is the realignment of Sydney and Melbourne, where more than 40% of the total population lives, that is transforming our politics … If Labor prevails, Bill Shorten will have overturned a century of political practice in Australia.
"Our habit as a people has been to swing to the centre left when we wanted to be inspired, and revert to the conservatives when we sought comfort and relaxation. Only five Labor opposition leaders have taken office at a general election: Andrew Fisher in 1910 and again in 1914, James Scullin in 1929, Gough Whitlam in 1972, Bob Hawke in 1983 and Kevin Rudd in 2007. All rode a wave of community enthusiasm, carrying ambitious reform programs."
The Parliament of Australia website (infosheet 20) informed, "Australia is a federation of six States which, together with two self-governing Territories, have their own constitutions, parliaments, governments and laws. The Constitution of Australia establishes the Federal Government by providing for the Parliament, the Executive Government and the Judicature (more usually called the Judiciary) - sometimes referred to as the 'three arms of government'.
"Political theory recognises three powers of government - the legislative power to make laws; the executive power to carry out and enforce the laws; and the judicial power to interpret laws and to judge whether they apply in individual cases. The principle of the separation of powers is that, in order to prevent oppressive government, the three powers of government should be held by separate bodies - the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary - which can act as checks and balances on each other."
Before May 18, Vivienne Pearson informed 'ABC News' readers, "The upcoming federal election will see a huge temporary workforce swing into action to ensure the wheels of democracy turn smoothly. I was one of 10,107 election officials who worked on the NSW polling day, 23 March. The work of an election official is not difficult but requires high levels of concentration.
"As with all work involving the public, there are moments of satisfaction (flipping the huge book of names to the exact page needed), periods of monotony (my polling station saw nearly 3000 people checked off by three or four people across the day) and the occasional stressful incident (it turns out not everyone enjoys exercising their right to vote)."
Jackson Gothe-Snape also informed, "Standing in the polling booth this Saturday, Australians will do more than vote. They will channel tens of millions of dollars to the country's political operatives — to fund advertising to those same voters. Whether an Australian backs the party of their parents, follows the first how-to-vote card they come across or votes like a donkey, the result is almost always the same: $2.76 will go to the party or candidate alongside the box marked '1' to meet their advertising costs.
"That means a vote for the same party in both houses returns about $5.50 per person. The only exceptions are votes going to a candidate with less than 4% of the vote, and informal votes." Joo-Cheong Tham, a professor in democracy from Melbourne Law School, told 'ABC News' most voters were oblivious to the scheme. The system of public funding was set up in the 1980s by the Hawke government to reduce the risk of corruption associated with donations.
"With eight years in office (1983-1991), Bob Hawke was Australia’s longest-serving Labor Prime Minister," the National Archives of Australia informed. "He became Prime Minister after only two years in parliament, and only one month as Leader of the Opposition. Building on his success as trade union president, Hawke established consensus with unions and business to stabilise wage growth, improve the ability of business to compete in global markets and to deregulate the Australian economy and promote growth."
At the 1983 federal election, Bob Hawke's supporters chanted, "We want Bob! We want Bob! We want Bob!". Speaking to the 'Australian Story' program in 2014, Bob Hawke recounted, "The night of the election I realised now I had an enormous responsibility, ah... the country was divided and the economy was in an absolute shambles and going backwards. So there was a mixture of excitement and elation and a sense of sombre responsibility. I had promised as part of my campaign that within a month of becoming Prime Minister I'd call a national economic summit."
Gareth Evans was a former Cabinet Minister told 'Australian Story', "He touched every leadership base you can think of. He had a very strong sense of policy direction. He was an excellent communicator to the public, world at large. He was charismatic to go with it and he was a terrific manager of people. The important thing about Hawke's cabinet was that it operated on the basis of argument, not authority. Sometimes that process could be pretty ugly, pretty rough.
"Any normally sensitive human being, any normally modest human being simply can't survive in politics. You have to have profound psychological defects of one kind or another to get to high places and Hawkie was absolutely no different from the rest of us in that respect. Bob was an outstanding foreign affairs Prime Minister. He understood the patterns, the shapes, the dynamics. He was personally familiar with a number of players on the world stage not least the Americans to whom he was very close." Bob Hawke made known, "Well I enjoyed a very close relationship with both Reagan and Bush, facilitated by my friendship with George Schultz."
In his review of the two-part 'Australian Story' - 'Just Call Me Bob', Greg Hassall told 'ABC News' readers, "Bob Hawke's rise to prominence coincided with the birth of television and he was quick to understand and harness its power. As a union advocate in the 1960s and 1970s, he used television as a platform to put his case, often outfoxing less media-savvy opponents.
"Television helped create the brash, charismatic Mr Hawke persona but it also revealed a quick temper and emotional fragility some found disconcerting. He courted journalists and could be charming when it suited, but he was never a patient interviewee. His default position, after years of advocacy, was to concede nothing. Television and radio interviews enabled Mr Hawke to reach the Australian people directly. The print media, however, didn't facilitate such unmediated access.
"Journalists could editorialise, interpret and distort, and this clearly rankled. Mr Hawke made this point explicitly in an interview with Jana Wendt in 1992. 'The level of journalism in this country is just so pathetically poor and I've, in a sense, gone over the top of them, which they don't like,' he said. 'They've been irrelevant to me, the print media, because my link does not depend upon the menial minds of the scribblers in Canberra or anywhere else. I prefer to deal directly with the Australian people.'"
Annette Sharp told readers of the 'Daily Telegraph' in 2013, "Jana Wendt was smart, beautiful and a ready-made star – unique to the nation’s TV news landscape. A perfectionist, the '60 Minutes' reporter was at her best on the set of 'A Current Affair' throwing curly questions. Her style is the most emulated of female news presenters with voice coaches instructing young news reporters on how to sound 'like Jana'."
In his article, 'U.S. Will Take 1,194 Days to Elect Its Next Leader. Australia Needs 38. Here’s Why," Russell Goldman informed readers of 'The New York Times' in April 2019, "If, at more than a year long, the race to elect the president of the United States is an ultramarathon, Australia’s campaign season is a sprint. Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia fired the proverbial starting pistol on Thursday, declaring a federal election for May 18 and kicking off a 38-day dash to the ballot box counting today and Election Day.
"It’s still not clear exactly how many days of campaigning will be allowed; the Labor Party leader, Bill Shorten, has called for a campaigning ban on at least two holidays between now and Election Day. But clearly, Australia’s race will be quick. By contrast, the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States lasted 596 days, counting from the date of the first major candidate’s official declaration to Election Day. The 2020 campaign, one of the longest in history, is set to last 1,194 days — the equivalent of more than 30 Australian election seasons.
"On the surface, a shorter campaign period would seem to prevent voter fatigue and limit the extent to which questionable financial contributions can muddy the process. But experts say campaigns of even a few weeks are marred by many of the same problems seen in longer elections. Ultimately, a shorter campaign has less to do with perfecting the process and more to do with simply speeding it up.
"The length of a campaign can be boiled down in most democracies to this question: Are you electing a president or a prime minister? Put another way: Are you voting for an individual who you need time to get to know, or are you voting for a legislating party that is headed by a leader with whom you’re already familiar? A 2015 study, analyzing more than 26,000 polls in 45 countries since 1942, found that voters’ preferences take much longer to form in a presidential election than a parliamentary one because presidential voters need more time to assess the candidates.
"Parliamentary systems also differ from presidential republics in the frequency with which elections can be called. In a presidential system, the term of office is fixed, and campaigning for the next election effectively starts when the last election ends. But in a parliamentary system, general elections can be called more regularly and with less notice. To avoid lengthy gaps without a government, many countries have laws limiting the duration of a campaign.
"Australian campaigns last between 33 and 68 days. That’s short by American standards but an eternity compared to Singapore, a country that has been governed by the same party for five decades, and which gives voters just nine days to choose a candidate. Campaigns in Japan run for 12 days. In France, campaigning before the first round of voting can last no more than two weeks. The campaign period in Canada lasts about 36 days, in Britain five to six weeks and in Israel 101 days. Like Australia, those counties all have legally fixed campaign periods."
Bob's daughter, Sue Pieters-Hawke told the 'Australian Story' program, "People ask why was Dad so popular? You knew where you stood with Dad. He was clear and unlike a lot of politics of today, conducted politics as a contest of ideas. I think the period that I call the Canberra years were really good years for our family. And the other very, very important element of the Canberra years is that, that was when we all started to have kids. It was the beginning of the grandchildren era."
