The Australian Labor leader, Mr Kim Beazley, with the whiff of victory in his nostrils, claimed yesterday the party had shaken off the legacy of a past when it was often vilified. In his final set piece of the five-week campaign, Mr Beazley pitched for the trust of the electorate of 12 million, whom he admitted were disillusioned with all politicians. The opinion polls are tipping a narrow win for Labor, but only if there is a uniform swing around the country. Insiders admit the party, which lost power after 13 years in the landslide defeat of 1996, will be hard pressed to win the 27 seats it needs.
The battle has been between the coalition government's tax reforms, which include introducing a 10 per cent VAT-style goods and services tax (GST), and Labor's optimistic plan to cut unemployment to 5 per cent. But the secret weapon of Prime Minister Mr John Howard has been a negative reminder to voters of the last Labor government led by the pro-republican Mr Paul Keating, which left behind painful economic rationalism and high unemployment.
Mr Howard and others, including Australia's richest man, Mr Kerry Packer, have argued that Labor has not spent enough time in the political wilderness. Yet the GST has been a godsend to Mr Beazley and has transformed him from obscurity to a contender.
A former Rhodes scholar, Mr Beazley is a good friend of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and a committed Christian. Married with three children, he comes from a political dynasty and at 36 became the youngest defence minister in Australia's 200-year history.
He admits he has taken a risk with the ambitious jobs target, which includes creating 500,000 jobs in the first term, but says it was necessary to sharpen the choice between Labor's plan for real action and the government's "do-nothing" approach.
The wild card in the whole deck is Ms Pauline Hanson and her xenophobic One Nation party, which under the compulsory preferential voting system is likely to have a significant impact even if few of her candidates are elected.
At one point yesterday Mr Beazley seemed almost moved to tears when he was asked about the rise of One Nation, and he recalled the abuse his Aboriginal and Chinese friends had experienced as a result. "I began to be worried about what was happening in the hearts of my fellow Australians and that is why I object to Pauline Hanson," he said. "That's why I object to her views and the fact she has turned Australians against Australians and that is what I will be trying to make a difference to."
He might get his chance on Saturday.