A political leader actually knows what to do and announces it and gets support for it.  They don’t announce committees.”

Peter Costello the treasurer of Australia made that statement recently in a media interview. I didn’t quote that statement because it is such a great quip but more because in a quick way, it sifts out the essence of what makes a good head of government. It is not to give paternalistic advice or to make money for oneself and family members. It is certainly not to ignore what is truly going o n in the country and either sleeps his way through meetings or jet around to this part of the world. A good head of government has to determine what is best for the country, device a plan to achieve the desired outcome, gets support for it and goes out to implement that plan.

What the Liberal Party (and its junior member, the National Party) has recently done is to highlight the deficiency of Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party on this count. Perhaps as a result, we now have polls showing the Liberal/National coalition going somewhere other than south for the first time. It has reversed the trend of the past few months. Costello and Howard have recently been more successful in showing that Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party has no coherent policies. In fact they don’t have any. Even the shadow treasurer, Wayne Swan, had put up his hand and admitted he is no economist. I have never liked him and as cocky as Costello sometimes appear, he at least has substance. Wayne Swan too, appears cocky and arrogant but he appears a lot flakier. The environment shadow minister is an ex-rock star (Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil fame) who at one point wasn’t aware of basic environmental programs existing in Australia. The shadow industrial relations minister (Julia Gillard) promised to “rip-up” work choices legislation when elected but has no coherent replacement policy. She has in fact said work choices would remain well into this decade and may not be touched till 2012. In other words she does not have any idea – she would continue with the current government program for industrial relations. What many fear is that this vacuum would be hijacked by trade unions, who continue to have very strong influences over the Labor Party.

All of this isn’t really exciting. You can pick up any newspaper in Australia or tune in to any radio or television station and you’d get the necessary stories and commentaries over these and other issues.

What is really intriguing is the fact that a church minister has come out and said, virtually in public, that Howard and Costello would win a November election. He titled a short message “Prophetic Word Regarding the Federal Election 2007”. That is an extremely brave statement to make. That minister said he met with Howard and Costello over a month ago, spoke with each of them separately and also prayed with them. That statement was said to have been made on 11 August 2007. The really interesting points are that Howard would be re-elected in a November election, and he would hand over the leadership to Costello “sometime after”. If this was really said over a month ago, that statement would have especially gained a lot more traction in the past week. Howard was on the verge of being dumped by the Liberal Party.

Political commentators (including Andrew Bolt, my current favourite columnist) have pined for Howard’s resignation, saying that offered the best hope for a Liberal fight back. Bolt had cited several examples in the past, including Bill Hayden’s handing over of the Labor Party reins to Bob Hawke on the very day Malcolm Fraser called an election. Hawke of course, went on to win the election. Costello of course, does not have the wide popularity Hawke had. The cabinet had met and had wanted to do a Brutus on Howard, only for Costello to refrain from plunging the knife. Could it be that he paid heed to this church minister? He could of course, have gone with the wishes of his cabinet colleagues and dumped Howard. But that would have been to ignore the “prophetic word” and taken things into his hands and the hands of his fellow (human) colleagues.

By all accounts, many who cared for the Liberal/National coalition thought Costello should have done it. He was accused of “lacking ticker” for holding back. The fact that he did not do it, and let Howard continue to lead, and the fact that Howard then undertook to continue being PM well after the election but would hand over to Costello some time during the next term, gave the “prophetic word” a lot of credence. It is especially stark given Howard’s and Costello’s action went against what many thought was political wisdom and absolutely necessary for Liberal survival. The fact that both of these very wise and experienced leaders didn’t do what many experts thought they should have done, gave the “prophetic word” even more colour. I got really excited when I read that message last night, just before I left the office. When I thought about it today, I said “wow” again.

Is there a catch to all this? I don’t know – I really don’t want to sound like doubting Thomas and cast a shadow over this really exciting stuff, but that church minister did throw in a proviso. He said this:

“I will boldly declare that Prime Minister John Howard will be re-elected in the November election (if the Body of Christ unites in prayer and action) and pass the leadership onto Peter Costello sometime after.”

When does a prophecy depend on the prayer of Christians? The prophecies in the bible are never dependent in this way (as far as I know). The outcome of certain events can very well be affected by prayers of Christians and they often do. We can for example, be concerned over Labor party philosophies which tend to be humanistic and exclude God and for that reason, pray for more Godly persons to be victorious in elections. That however is not a prophecy. That is a case of answered prayers. To qualify a prophecy in this way somehow makes it a lesser case of God planning to do something and more a case of we wanting something and made an appeal to God to let what we want come to fruition. Often – where what we want is in accordance with His plans – God answers our petition but that isn’t fulfilment of a prophecy. It is a petition granted.