I'll be fit for poll: Latham

[no safe haven]

By Chris Jones
August 19, 2004
OPPOSITION Leader Mark Latham expects to be fit enough to fight a gruelling election campaign that could be called within weeks, despite being in hospital yesterday with an inflamed pancreas.
...

The 43-year-old Labor leader was transferred early yesterday to the larger St Vincent's Hospital for further tests to determine the cause of the attack, the results of which were not conclusive last night.

...

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday wished his opponent a speedy recovery but refused to say whether Mr Latham's illness would mean a delay in the timing of the federal election, which is expected to be held in October or November.

But Mr Latham's spokesman last night said the Labor leader would be ready to fight the five-week election campaign whenever it was called, with his doctors confident he would recover quickly.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10490371%255E421,00.html

[the Kelly Gang]

1. he'll come back stronger and boot the liar out

[struggle4progress]

2. Latham waits for test results

August 19, 2004 - 8:24AM
Opposition Leader Mark Latham is today awaiting the results of medical tests to tell him what caused his crippling inflammation of the pancreas. <snip>
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/19/1092765062869.html


False claims about boat people could sink Australian leader

David Fickling in Sydney
Thursday August 19, 2004

<snip>
One of the most controversial issues of the last Australian elections has returned to haunt the prime minister, John Howard, as support for his coalition slumps in the run-up to federal polls.
Mr Howard faces the threat of a second Senate inquiry into claims that he lied to the public over the "children overboard" affair.

False claims that asylum seekers sailing from Indonesia to northern Australia were throwing children into the sea in their attempts to enter Australia emerged two days after the start of the election campaign, on October 7 2001, based initially on a confused report from a naval officer.

A correct account of the encounter between Australian coastguards and the would-be refugees reached the prime minister's office three days later, but Mr Howard continued to back the children overboard story in the month leading up to the November 10 polls. "In my mind there is no uncertainty because I don't disbelieve the advice I was given by defence," he told reporters.
<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,1286158,00.html


I didn't mislead, PM reiterates
August 19, 2004 - 8:22AM

<snip>
Prime Minister John Howard is insisting he has not deliberately misled the Australian public over the children overboard affair.

The prime minister also says his personal staff witnessed and backed his version of a sensitive phone call with former ministerial adviser Mike Scrafton over the children overboard affair in just days before the 2001 election.

Mr Howard's comments came after a second former senior public servant, Jenny McKenry, publicly supported Mr Scrafton's claims that he told the prime minister that nobody in the Defence Department believed children had been thrown into the water.
<snip>

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/19/1092765062827.html


Trade wrangle lifts Latham
By ALAN GOODALL
Special to The Japan Times

<snip>
A Latham victory is not, of course, how Howard sees it, with the undeclared election campaign already heating up. His compromise in letting through Labor-dominated Senate amendments is being touted by the veteran prime minister as consistent with his reasonableness, not to mention his power tactics.

And he wants the last word: "I'm warning," Howard said as midnight parliamentary sessions dragged to a close, "that the enabling legislation could be construed by the Americans as inconsistent with the free-trade agreement."

"The truth is," crowed a re-energized Latham, "the Labor Party has nailed this government flat to the floor."

Latest prevoting polls suggest Latham may be right. The conservative government and the reform-promising opposition are running neck and neck. Latham is flaunting zeal; Howard a steady-as-she-goes approach.
<snip>

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20040819a1.htm


Poll Update
Thursday, August 19, 2004

<snip>
The polls do confirm the Democrats are a spent force for the retiring Senators, with the Greens the big winners, and the Nationals look like their Australia-Wide Vote has almost halved since the last election, confirming some of the non-metro seats should return interesting contests.

With the election timing, I thought it would be all over by now, as it would have been in the PM's interest to hold the election straight after the Budget and the associated advertising campaign. This would have been well before any rises in interest rates overseas, or further declines in the fortunes of the US-led war in Iraq, with associated risks for petrol prices or the fate of George W Bush.

John Howard has waited, possibly to avoid risks for George Bush with another Spanish-style outcome, and this does not appear to be paying off, at least not for John Howard. If he waits until after the US election, as he is hinting, and Bush loses, then surely Labor would claim to be more in step with the US electorate and Howard would be in serious electoral strife, as would Tony Blair.
<snip>

http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/stories/s1179968.htm