Australia 10% Unemployment for 9.6% Dents Gillard Prosperity

Keith Darley, a 34-year-old electrician, hears from the government that Australia is the envy of the developed world. Yet the father of two, who employed 22 people a year ago, now works alone and says he’ll be voting against Prime Minister Julia Gillard in the Sept. 14 election.

The world’s 12th biggest economy boasts the lowest benchmark interest rate in 53 years, unemployment less than half of Europe’s, contained inflation and an economic growth rate double the average of advanced nations. Even with these conditions -- the best since Gough Whitlam took office in 1972 - - Gillard’s ruling Labor Party is 10 percentage points behind the Tony Abbott-led opposition.