SYDNEY — An electoral rout of both major political parties, Labor and Liberal, has left Australian voters confused and angry. After decades of economic growth the uncertainty could not come at a worse time as the United States appears to slide into a double-dip recession threatening world markets.
The shape and health of the next Canberra government are still uncertain. Votes from across the vast continent are still being counted. All that is certain is that whichever side of politics wins it will be a weak government dependent on a few independent members and the minority Green Party.
All this despite a century of robust politicking that, even in the days of dirty deals among rabid conservatives and pseudo-socialists, the country was never left wondering who they could trust to spend three years in The Lodge, Canberra's version of the Washington White House.