Is the Australian electorate angry and fractured; complacent and indifferent; or suddenly energised and engaged? All of the above, it seems. Last weekend's extraordinary election is causing the biggest shake-up of political verities in decades with the vote fragmenting unevenly across the country. It is not clear where politics is headed. What is certain is that it is not where it was even three years ago. Back then, Australians came together behind Kevin Rudd to throw out a tired Coalition. It was time for a fresh start as Labor courted the battlers who had switched to John Howard in 1996. Only Western Australia stayed outside the surge to Kevin07. This year, the nation split its support with unprecedented variations between WA and Queensland compared with the other states, with NSW hedging its bets. Whoever forms government could be haunted by this inconclusive result.
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