Howard hands Labor power in WA

Prime Minister John Howard must bear a huge responsibility for the crushing defeat of the coalition government at the West Australian election on February 10. Instead of showing leadership, he caved in to media threats and ordered Premier Richard Court to place One Nation last on how-to-vote cards (see Australian media a threat to democracy ). The WA coalition fate was sealed from that moment.

The West Australian newspaper quotes a senior party source as saying the Liberals would have won reasonably comfortably if the party had done a preference deal with One Nation.

In his victory speech, in front of the Labor faithful, including the union bosses, Labor leader, Geoff Gallop, proclaimed he had led the WA Labor party out of the wilderness. With only 37.6% of the primary vote, Mr Gallop has little cause for triumphalism. He owes his victory, ultimately, to the dangerous influence of the Australian media. 

A grim-faced Howard tried , on Channel 9's Sunday program, to deflect responsibility and downplay the influence of One Nation. Howard just doesn't get it. The more he vilifies Pauline Hanson, the more he alienates the million Australian voters, many of them Liberal, who voted for her at the last federal election. Pauline Hanson is the lightning rod of voter discontent. People vote for her, not so much for her policies but because they are sick of the arrogance, rorts, and ineptitude of the main parties. Howard, living in the rarefied atmosphere of Canberra on a massive taxpayer-funded salary and perks has no concept that petrol prices are hurting ordinary Australians. If you put Costello in a room without his minders, do think he could fill out a B.A.S.?

Howard now has a massive dilemma. Does he continue to vilify One Nation and risk Pauline Hanson's backlash, or does he reach an accommodation with her before the next Federal election. 

Or do his head-kickers find a way to nullify or destroy her?