'Voters reject GST, anti-union laws'

'Voters reject GST, anti-union laws'

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE — "In a highly polarised election, the Australian people have thrown out the GST, the threat to Medicare and the Coalition's anti-union laws", the Democratic Socialist candidate for Brisbane, Susan Price, commented on March 14.

"Dr Hewson's bitter medicine was too much to swallow for working people already suffering from a decade of Labor's economic rationalism.

"What people are obviously calling for is an end to high unemployment and to the cuts to living standards and social welfare. The result is far from an endorsement of Paul Keating and the ALP's record, but rather a demand for a basic change in direction for the federal government."

Dr Coral Wynter, Democratic Socialist candidate for Griffith, said that third parties, and especially the Democrats, had been squeezed out of the major media and their support had been limited accordingly.

"Nevertheless, the feeling for change has become clear in the course of the campaign. Voters want real action on jobs, living conditions and the environment", Wynter said.

"Underlined by the problems in getting a hearing, the need for greater cooperation between progressive parties is more urgent than ever in the next few years."

From GLW issue 92