Further to our hopes about John Howard going down, this article about him is pretty interesting. Some quotes:

"His relationship with Fraser started to collapse in late 1982 and early 1983 as Howard tried, and failed, to stop his leader from using budgetary measures as a tool to boost the Coalition's electoral prospects"...

"He attacked Keating as cynical, unethical, unprincipled, with a disregard for the truth and a lack of respect for Parliament and the views of others"...

"Howard vowed to restore public faith in politics and public life, to reinstate principle and honour by implementing codes of conduct, promising to oversee an Australia in which everyone felt free to air their opinions without fear of retribution or derision"...

Oh yeah, I remember that anti-political correctness campaign, which made it more difficult to call people racist because, you know, that kind of censure was 'politically correct' and constrained freedom of expression. Actually, the main kind of censure that was really allowed, the highest insult possible, was to call someone 'politically correct'. Wow, it was so freeing. Howard just loves his freedom. Yep, people have really been able to just say whatever they think under Howard... unless they're 'doddering daiquiri diplomats', or people in the intelligence services, who, you know, have experienced no retribution or derision at all. Blah. As for the codes of conduct, um, Warren Entsch still has his job.

Basic shorthand of my incessant [and it won't stop, either] banging on: Oh I hate John Howard so much he is yucky and a dickhead make him go away ew ew ew!

Anyway, on an election related point, there's also a Peter Singer piece in The Age about how a moral values campaign is just lame cant.