2010 Federal Election

[SmellyTerror]

Or do you trust the Greens? Who think everyone should go back and live like the Flintstones?

God, I'm going to sound like a greeny, but...


...they actually have some reasonably sensible policies.


There, I've said it. I disagree with a lot of what they want, but their plan for using fewer coal-powered power stations does actually involve replacing that power with other power. Now, you may think that their plans for alternate power are completely stupid (raises hand) but the result of this - by their own policies - would actually mean that if they can't find economically viable alternatives, we keep the coal power. In fact, they expect to keep a lot of it for a few decades at least anyway - they just want new projects to be something else.

That "something else" might boil down to "magic", but at least they're not proposing to reduce the amount of power generation in the country.

They've also consistently come out AGAINST idiotic boondoggle crap like ethanol in fuels (!) and KRudd's lobotomy of a ETS (!). Their climate change measures include stuff like greater efficiency of existing systems and investment in public transport, and basically getting ready for disasters in general (climate change or no, disaster preparedness is a bloodgy good thing, and at present is pretty sub-standard). All of these are good even if you think global warming is bunk.

I know all this, because I got my **** kicked in an argument with a mate a couple of weeks ago. ****ing greeny.

On the other hand, they hate nuclear, which as far as I can see means they've got pretty much no hope at all. It's like saying "Everyone! I have a plan to save the world!" "How?" "With this awesome carrot!"
Ok, yeah, so they are still bat**** insane...

Oh well. Donkey it is then, I guess.

 

[Calliope]

Unless you can convince me that your posts are completely objective? Er..Um Yes!

Why? Are yours? Are anybody's?

 

[drsmith]

The Australian Political Service statement of oath:

A member of parliament can squander billions of dollars, a member of parliament can run naked down George Street and survive but a member of parliament cannot mislead this place and survive.''

What is remarkable is who said it.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/ute-saga-puts-brakes-on-parliament-20090622-ct80.html

 

[wayneL]

Re The Greens

The catchphrase du jour is "The greens are to yellow to admit they're red"... or they're watermelons, green on the outside, red on the inside.

When people vote for the Greens, they're not just voting for saving the world with ST's carrot, they're voting for a party with an internationalist socialist/communist agenda.

Is that the sort of protest vote people really want? Maybe, maybe not, but I really don't think people are thinking it through or realize what those clowns have in their manifesto.

 

[SmellyTerror]

Even if they're not communist, they have a lot of similarities, don't they? Massive awesome plans, but only if you think of a "plan" as an objective, with no actual method for achieving it.

I even have a soft spot for the commies, but again: bat**** insane. Capitalism has the amazing property of being strengthened by human greed. Communism is destroyed by it. So unless your political system is intended to govern magical fairies, then....

 

[Mofra]

He came by boat and has since made a productive life in Australia. From his (and his family's perspective), that's very much good on him. From a broader perspective however, it does not justify people smuggling.

Is that really too difficult for the Australian public at large to understand ?

It does make it a little hard to demonise "the brown hordes coming across the seas" when they are shown to be human and productive though, doesn't it?

 

[Mofra]

Even if they're not communist, they have a lot of similarities, don't they? Massive awesome plans, but only if you think of a "plan" as an objective, with no actual method for achieving it.

Massive awesome plans like spending $43b on infrastructure with barely a rudimentary plan of the project first?

Oh, wait...

 

[SmellyTerror]

Ahhh, Australian politics.

Step 1: make a massive bonfire of money

Step 2: ???

Step 3: profit!

 

[Southern X]

If the Greens are commies then the Liberals are fascists by any UNreasonable extension of the Australian political spectrum.

Now, if the commie Greens give their preferences to Labor (why no "u") and Labor reciprocates with senate prefernces does that make Labor a bunch of pinkos?

This leaves us with a political palette of: Green, red; Labour, pink, and; Liberal, black (but they'd prefer white thank you very much).

Throw in some purple Monarchists, grey for a nod to demographics...

... et voila: A Technicolour Yawn!

SX

 

[son of baglimit]

do we have a thread where we can be critical of various policy releases, or shall we add it here.

i admit i had a good laugh at todays news of abbotts plan to expand the education refund to include pretty much everything else associated with schooling, and then expanding the refund by 20% and bringing forward the upgrade to jan 2011.

these additional costs he wants eligible are, if you wanted to generalise, the domain of the private school kid, rather than those attending government schools.

the education tax refund is based on eligibility to receive family tax benefit part A from centrelink, a payment based on a families income - ie mum & dad combined. essentially its an extension of FTB-A.
the problem is though how many of those receiving FTB-A do send their children to private schools ?

for many the limits set currently, or even the limits set under abbotts plan, are fully spent on the current 'eligible essentials', and adding uniforms wont leave much scope to add anything else.

if you ask me its a headline grabber but the detail, for those who have some ability to logically approach things, would see it is very much a hollow, and pointless policy announcement.

if there were any sectors of the economy it would suit, that would likely be those with larger families, who may provide the necessary resources, but have their kids share them, or hand them down.

hey, a good policy for catholics - i knew there was something in it !!!!

 

[wayneL]

If the Greens are commies then the Liberals are fascists by any UNreasonable extension of the Australian political spectrum.

Now, if the commie Greens give their preferences to Labor (why no "u") and Labor reciprocates with senate prefernces does that make Labor a bunch of pinkos?

This leaves us with a political palette of: Green, red; Labour, pink, and; Liberal, black (but they'd prefer white thank you very much).

Throw in some purple Monarchists, grey for a nod to demographics...

... et voila: A Technicolour Yawn!

SX

Let's call a spade a spade:

Labor => Social Democrats

Liberal => Conservative (a conservative is not a fascist)

Green => Social Democrats/Communists

What is missing is a true liberal party.

 

[drsmith]

i admit i had a good laugh at todays news of abbotts plan to expand the education refund to include pretty much everything else associated with schooling, and then expanding the refund by 20% and bringing forward the upgrade to jan 2011.

From a tax management perspective, this along with the ALP's school uniform counterpart are crap.

Tax rebates and deductions should be reduced (simplified) if not eliminated alltogether. This would provide the scope to increase the tax free threshold and reduce marginal rates and make income tax overall much simpler.

 

[son of baglimit]

From a tax management perspective, this along with the ALP's school uniform counterpart are crap.

Tax rebates and deductions should be reduced (simplified) if not eliminated alltogether. This would provide the scope to increase the tax free threshold and reduce marginal rates and make income tax overall much simpler.

SIMPLER LOL

you havent done ya tax return for this year yet have ya.

blows ya mind - they used to calculate a lot of things themselves, now we have to do it for them.

 

[drsmith]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/07/21/2960540.htm

He's as thick as he looks.

Meanwhile on Hey Hey............

 

[dutchie]

Predictions and observations.

Libs looking pretty pathetic.
Labour will win in a canter.
Australia will suffer doubly in next economic downturn.
Libs will have to clean up the mess in 4 years time.

 

[SmellyTerror]

Libs will have to clean up the mess in 4 years time.

Yeah, I mean all they need to do is what they did last time to become brilliant financial managers: engineer a global commodities boom. Which they did with their awesome voodoo powers and their extensive contacts with the Crab People. Or something.

...and THEN they'll piss most of the windfall away bribing the electorate with short term guff, while our infrastructure continues to fall further and further behind. Just like last time. Just like the current mob.

I've never been able to find any significant difference in policy between the big parties. The stuff they choose to argue about is all fire and noise. On fundamentals they are almost identical.

I honestly do not understand how people can have such loyalty to parties that have blatantly nothing to stand for.

 

[Logique]

Indeed Dutchie and ST,
another economic downturn under a Labor government would see us very vulnerable without a national surplus to buffer the impact. Labor won't create a surplus, only fritter it away, as they have done this term.

They cannot help themselves but to shovel out more middle class welfare, and to adopt madcap schemes that do little more than raise cost of living and cause inflation. This won't get any better with a Greens balance of power in the Senate.

All the Labor election rhetoric is of a smaller Australia, of revisiting migration levels, and of financial conservatism and fiscal restraint.

This is so much hypocrisy from Labor. I predict ever bigger buckets of money be flung like confetti over that demographic slice of Australia qualifying as 'working families', who doubtless can scarcely believe the welfare sweet spot they are in.

Once upon a time it took two parents to raise a child, and parents accepted the responsibility for supporting their children. Now apparently in 'smaller Australia' the financial responsibility has devolved to become the collective responsibility of all taxpayers, and 18 weeks of sitting down on 'parental leave' is apparently a productivity measure.

Increasingly one parent can raise a child, because day care and education rebates kick in. Think of the social consequences in a couple of decades time.

Being fair, the Liberals are just as culpable as Labor in this respect.

 

[noco]

One just cannot help think there may have been some conspiracy in the change of leadership in the Labor Party before the election.
Within a week after Rudd's political assassination, he (Rudd) flies to the USA to see UN General Secretary Moon and comes back with the news that Moon would like Rudd to be his Climate change adviser. Was this a deal stitched up at Copenhagen? One could not beleive an appointment of this calibre would happen over night.
Rudd always did have his eye on the UN Secretariat job and it would appear he may have had a leg up which was too good to refuse.
So to relieve himself of the Prime Minitership and the fact Labor had "LOST IT'S WAY", according Gillard, the opportunity arose for Gillard to dispose of Rudd to free him to take up his long desired ambitions to enter the UN.
Rudd's 'CROCODILE TEARS' MAY HAVE BEEN A GOOD ACT INDEED.
Conspiracy????????? We may never know!!!!!!!

 

[Calliope]

.
Conspiracy????????? We may never know!!!!!!!

I don't think so. At least I hope not. He is cleverly hiding his rage at his fall from head rooster to feather duster at the hands of a traitorous deputy.

But he is Australia's best chance of delivering us for the evils of Gillard's destruction of our economy with a union power takeover.

He will exact his revenge in due course and destroy Gillard. He may self-destruct in the process.

 

[Calliope]

The Smiling Assassin.

Kevin Rudd is again sucking oxygen from Julia Gillard’s campaign.

The constant focus on Mr Rudd - and chatter over his future as a diplomat - is of deep concern inside Labor, whose strategists fear he is costing them votes.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-elect...en-from-gillards-campaign-20100722-10lsm.html