I'd say this was the main issue. For better or worse, people like to see a change after this much time.
In the usual pattern, the Lefties years in power are passed spending freely on idiotic social programs, over taxing the economy, and wallowing in corruption. When things get bad enough, the call goes to the Conservatives, who clean up these messes and get things rolling again.
But then, after things have been good for awhile, the electorate once again falls for that old siren song by the Left: "We'll give you a benefit, and make somebody else pay for it." Thus the cycle repeats.
G’day. Well said about the “pattern”. “Howard inherited a Labor-led government in 1995 that had wall-to wall debt and an Australia that was described by the then outgoing Labor PM, Paul Keating, as a banana republic that had a recession “we (Aussies) had to have”! Howard’s government went about the painstaking job of clearing the debt Labor left behind, over along period, to minimise pain to the average Aussie, while implementing tax cuts. Howard’s government was a financially prudent one. Recently, Australia went into the “black” - just in time for Labor to come in, rubbing their hands with glee, over how they can, again, redistribute wealth, through their social programs, to beshackle the electorate, to vote Labor for “handouts”.
Here’s something telling about the mentality of Labor (our version of the US Leftist pinkos) - Maxine McKew, ex reporter on ABC(Oz’s version of PBS, contesting the seat of PM Howard, prmised to start a new Government Departtment to cater for jobless youths. YES, another government department to inject SELF ASPIRATION into the down and out. How naive or is it SHREWD? Get the needy and desperate to DEPEND on you, says the Labor Party’s motto, so that they will keep voting for you.