Aussie voters ride election wave of froth and frivolity

Sydney - Wine, women and song have joined forces against conservative Prime Minister John Howard as Australia rides a wave of froth and frivolity towards November 24 elections.

-- The wine is labelled "Howard's End" and displays a cartoon of the beleaguered prime minister hurtling towards a rubbish bin, which already contains a copy of his radical labour law reforms.

The trade unionists behind the idea originally planned a small run but the bottles proved so popular that they had to re-order three times, said Tim Vollmer of the construction workers' union.

"It was just a bit of a quirky idea to raise money for the 'Your rights at work' campaign while also creating something for election night," he told AFP.

"We've sold about 2,000 bottles at 10 dollars (9.17 US) each and raised about 12,000 dollars for the campaign."

The label reads: "Howard's End is perfect for any situation. Whether with friends, toasting John and (wife) Janette out of Kirribili (residence), or brooding alone on 11 years of opportunities lost."

Vollmer admits the wine is not the greatest, but says that if the opinion polls prove right and Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd ousts Howard "we will all be so overjoyed that it'll taste much better than it really is."

-- The women, dressed in 1950s style and calling themselves the John Howard Ladies Auxiliary Fan Club, this week became the latest group to ambush the 68-year-old prime minister during his regular daily walk.

The four young women offered the prime minister "Election Viagra" in the form of a jar labelled "Xenophobia" and a laminated "Race Card", references to his vote-catching hard line on refugees and would-be immigrants.

-- The song, posted on the popular video-sharing Internet website YouTube by part-time satirist Stefan Sojka, also mocks Howard's age and conservative views.

Entitled "Bennelong time since I rock and rolled", it combines the name of Howard's Sydney electorate with the Led Zeppelin song "Been a long time..."

"Bennelong time since I wasn't old," Sojka sings. "Bennelong time since I was ahead in the polls."

But it is not only Howard, seeking a fifth term after more than 11 years in power, who is being buffeted by the waves of slapstick rolling over serious undercurrents such as the economy, climate change and the Iraq war.

Labor's Rudd, who has a commanding lead in the opinion polls, and the voters themselves have had occasion to feel foolish.

A video clip of Rudd snacking on his own ear wax during a debate in parliament several years ago has been posted on YouTube and downloaded half a million times.

The clip's high yuck factor has seen it played on the Tonight Show hosted by Jay Leno in the United States and dishonourably mentioned in major newspapers in the US and Britain.

Questioned about the incident by reporters, a blushing Rudd replied: "All of us in public and private life would wish our behaviour to be more ideal."

Local media have also relished the humiliation of a candidate for the Family First party when pornographic pictures he allegedly took of himself surfaced on several gay websites.

Music teacher Andrew Quah, 21, who was dumped by the Christian values party, said one of the pictures may have been subjected to a small digital alteration, complaining: "That's not my penis."

But voters' blushes have not been spared either, with a street survey by the Daily Telegraph finding that the Kyoto Protocol on climate change was believed variously to be a Japanese banquet dish or a treaty that ended World War II. -- AFP

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