Well, he did it. Johnny succeeded in scaring the swinging voters into returning him for another four years over the fear of higher interest rates.
Quite sobering really for a hopelessly optimistic progressive like me. I suppose I just need to realise that elections in this country are decided by middle class swinging voters who care nothing about the real issues in our society, nothing about social justice, nothing about foreign affairs, nothing about the real fundamentals of our economy (and the need to increase exports). All they care about is their whopping great mortgages and they’re prepared to return the worst prime minister we’ve ever had in the misguided hope that it has anything to do with interest rates whatsoever.
I’m not just making this up. Forget all the rubbish in the papers and on the TV. All you have to do is have a look at the vox pops in the papers today that asked voters what they were concerned about. The most common response was “I’m not interested/don’t understand any of the issues, I just voted Liberal because mum and dad did/because I don’t want to pay higher interest rates.”
So well done, Johnny. Your scare campaign succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.