The seemingly "untouchable" Premier of the state of Victoria, Jeff Kennett, has been smashed at the polls, following a massive voter backlash against his slash-and-burn economic "reform" policies, and his Nero-like arrogance. At the state election on September 18, Kennett's Liberal Party/National Party coalition lost its huge majority of 15 seats in the 88-seat Legislative Assembly, and, as of this report, the election outcome is unknown: Kennett's side holds 43 seats, the opposition Labor Party holds 41 seats, two seats are held by anti-Kennett independents, and the outcome of two seats is undecided.

The election outcome was all the more astounding, given that, in pre-election polls, 85% of the population thought Kennett would be comfortably re-elected. Knowing that his economic policies were unpopular, but vainly believing himself to be widely admired, Kennett attempted to limit any serious reflection on the issues by calling a snap, one month election during the height of the national football competition finals, and centred his campaign around one issue—himself. He gagged all his candidates and ministers from speaking on behalf of the campaign, and made himself the only spokesman; he also set up a campaign website with the address, www.jeff.com.au. Like Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias, who demands, "Look upon my works ye mighty, and despair", Kennett's election advertising trumpeted the bread-and-circuses culture he established in the state in his seven years in office, such as images of the Formula 1 grand prix auto race, and the Crown Casino complex, the largest gambling emporium in the southern hemisphere.

What Kennett did not address was the reality: a public hospital system which he has slashed to the bone, in which waiting lists have soared and patients are needlessly dying; an underfunded education system whose class sizes are ballooning because he closed over 1000 schools; and a chilling environment of official secrecy, where the pro-big business wheelings-and-dealings of Kennett's government are kept tightly hidden from view, in matters ranging from his nearly $30 billion privatisation program of state assets, to the extremely generous license for the Crown Casino awarded to Kennett's mates. Three days after the poll, with its outcome still unknown, Kennett and his ministers were reported to be frantically shredding casino-related documents.

These issues were successfully exploited by the opposition Australian Labor Party's (ALP) new leader Steve Bracks, who made health, education, law and order, and increased powers for the government business watchdog, the auditor general, his main campaign planks. However, the election results are a testament to just how much the electorate hates Kennett and his slash-and-burn policies, given that the ALP is not much better, having remodelled itself on the Third Way model of Britain's Tony Blair. Bracks' first action upon becoming leader just 6 months ago was to court, and gain, the approval of big business for his economic policy. He thus proclaimed that his party intended to maintain the radically "downsized" state government which Kennett had established under the direction of local think tanks of the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS). Notably, although he attacked the clearly corrupt aspects of the Kennett government's business dealings, Bracks ignored the cosy relationship between the Kennett government and the British Crown's MPS, which, through its Melbourne think-tanks, the Tasman Institute and the Institute of Public Affairs, had written every major policy initiative of the Kennett government since before it was elected in 1992.

The Kennett election disaster parallels the hiding handed out to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Red-Green coalition by the electors of Saxony last week, which won just 13 per cent of the vote. These elections show that voter outrage at brutal austerity measures is becoming a universal theme in democratic politics. In Victoria, the electorate was discerning in its punishment: Kennett's closest friend and appointed heir, Health Minister Rob Knowles, who has been the public face of the Kennett government's disastrous health policies lost his safe seat, which was reportedly a crushing blow to the premier.

In a suspicious, bizarre twist to the election, one MP who did represent real opposition to Kennett, former Liberal turned Independent MP Peter McLellan, died of an alleged heart attack on the morning of the poll. Given how tight the election was, McLellan would have played a key "balance of power" role in the next parliament. He was a fierce opponent of Kennett's dope decriminalisation policies, and had used EIR's work on drug-money laundering and other issues to fight Kennett's agenda, earning him the latter's undying hatred. McLellan had also signed the Schiller Institute's call for a New Bretton Woods monetary system.