This is a first... an Aussie actually saying that not everyone has escaped the GFC in Australia!

What would be a first anywhere, Alan Kohler has written in the Drum on the Australian ABC website a few home truths and dispelled some currently-held myths surrounding the current political and economic climate in Australia. Most of his points are elaborations of those that I have been making - that the plan for broadband internet investment in Australia is good and important; that the only reason why Aussies vote out a party is because they are sick of them and not because of issues (though Kohler does fall into the myth in the end by saying that unpopular state governments had a role to play in the way NSW and Queensland voted); and that this year's election focused solely on local issues that have no bearing nationally. The biggest point he makes is that the much-publicised belief that Australia made it through the GFC unscathed is not true for all Aussies, with the manufacturing, property and tourism sectors in particularly suffering. Much hope is also pinned that with a hung parliament that change will come to the way Australia is governed, though I am quite sceptical that any change will occur. What seems most likely is that the conservative Liberal Party (in particular, though not exclusively) is establishing a climate to facilitate renewed elections as soon as possible, perhaps 12 months time, to ultimately regain power they lost after 12 years in November 2007. In the meantime, we'll just have to wait and see.