2007 Federal Election - Coalition or Labor/Howard or Rudd? (21 Viewers)

[jb_nc]

At election time? No, couldn't be. I'm appalled by your cynicism.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/15/2060274.htm

Gotta give the money to the government, I cannot be trusted to spend the fruits of my labour how I want.

PROTECT INTEREST RATES!!

EDIT: Before I was 50/50 either way, now I'm an absolute LOCK on Liberal. I think I might even campaign for them now.

 

[Triangulum]

Howard stumbles with interest rate gaffe

I believe this may well show him to be out of touch with the concerns of Australian working families etc etc etc etc. Given the media's obsession with trivia at election times, this might even put a dent into the coverage of tax policy tomorrow. (Edit: maybe.)

 

[LCollins]

Why the democrats? Don't all parties share these values, just show them in different ways?

Well I'd hardly say (as shown with my above points) that the Howard government supports either a fair go or an egalitarian society, and I'm not naive enough to think Labor is going to be perfect (though I will be voting Labor in in the HOR). By having the Democrats getting the balance of power (or even the Greens), you have much more centralist ideals in policy making as negotiation has to occur for bills to pass. I specifically labelled the Democrats, as that party develops its policies in a democratic process with its members.

 

[P_Dilemma]

Well, we're not exactly in a downturn now, are we? Even so we still need to worry about and be aware of other issues besides economic ones.

-P_D

 

[Rafy]

Anybody else getting sick of Rudd trying to add "working families" to the end of every sentence?

i.e "We'll fix hospitals for working families" (Rudd this morning)

What about the rest of us?

 

[Iron]

It's a catch-all phrase for the mainstream. Howard uses it too.
Labor's sensitive about being perceived as standing for only certain interest groups on the fringe of the mainstream (indigenies, gays, feminists, environmentalists, unions etc).
It's also handy because of Howard's comment that working families have never been better off.

 

[townie]

ah, it feels good to be in an election campaign.

i doubt labor will win (unfourtunatley) do to the enormity of the task, what i'd really like to see though is people stop and realise that there is more to life than money and a strong economy.

besides which, we're heading for a reccescion within the next few years anyway

 

[chicky_pie]

Anybody else getting sick of Rudd trying to add "working families" to the end of every sentence?

i.e "We'll fix hospitals for working families" (Rudd this morning)

What about the rest of us?

i agree.

my a$$ Rudd does give any flying trees about 'working families'. He's trying to be the people's people.

 

[volition]

Apart from unionists I cant imagine any of these group are impressed with Labor/Rudd at all. Thats the trouble with our political system. Only the mainstream are represented at all. Proportional representation is the way to go.

One possible economic reason for this: Hotelling's law:"Hotelling's law is an observation in economics that in many markets it is rational for producers to make their products as similar as possible."

This principle applied to politics: Pollies have to appeal to the 'centre', or they'll lose too many votes.

This is also why we see me too-ism in politics. The parties are drawn close together because they both go there appealing to the centre of Australian politics. Democracy sucks doesn't it?

 

[withoutaface]

This tax cut announcement makes me all warm and fuzzy inside

 

[Hipchadd77]

I think there has to be a question of the reason why they've become so similar though. I mean with product's it is quite possible that they've all just realised the superiority of trait X... In the case of Kevin Rudd, he's said himself he'd do anything to win this election (and I believe him), it's likely that on some issues he is lying about his true stance and thus hasn't realised the superiority of stance Y at all.

 

[_dhj_]

Hotelling's Model is so juvenile that I found it hilarious when I learnt it.

'SOEMTIEMS, PEOPLE COPY EACH OTHER TO GET MORE MARKETA STHARE"

pffft sif mock Hotelling.

I see its application to be honest. However the parties still have a tendency to rely on their private markets - groups that will always vote for the party even if its policies imitate that of the other party.

Then there is zimmermann's claim that Hotelling is not as applicable to Australia as to the the U.S (or maybe he is just talking about proportional representation). In some respects that is true, and the political application of Hotelling's Model originally stemmed from the U.S. But the fact that voting is compulsory in Australia makes the model even more applicable given that there is no danger that individuals are unwilling to travel to the poll booth if ideologies of the parties are too far away from their individual ideologies.

 

[volition]

In the case of Kevin Rudd, he's said himself he'd do anything to win this election (and I believe him), it's likely that on some issues he is lying about his true stance and thus hasn't realised the superiority of stance Y at all.

I would say that the liberal party 'want' to be more economically right wing than they currently are, and are just kept a little closer to centre because of voters (so they don't look like 'evil capitalists'). An example here is Nick Minchin, who actually felt that WorkChoices didn't go far enough to deregulate, but just had to settle because voters wouldn't take it.

In the same way, I get the feeling the labor party want to be more economically left than they currently are, but don't want to look like a bunch of weirdo communists in comparison to the rest of Australia, so they stay centre. An example of this is Gillard, who is very left-wing afaik, but she has to make out like she cares about small business etc.

There's this perception that an 'extreme' position is somehow less valid purely because its an extreme. (eg WorkChoices had to be softened because people thought it was 'too harsh', even when the only solution that makes sense is zero labour market regulation) This kind of thing keeps politics from getting too far away from centre, although the 'centre' is moving over time too.

 

[jimmayyy]

Anybody else getting sick of Rudd trying to add "working families" to the end of every sentence?

i.e "We'll fix hospitals for working families" (Rudd this morning)

What about the rest of us?

its almost as catchy as johnnys "70% of which are former trade union bosses who are anti small business"

 

[ffsjoe]

Do you want the puppet on the left or the puppet on the right?
In the end theres no real difference.
I for one am going to be voting Green, they actually have their policys listed on their site in bullet point form. As opposed to other sites for the liberal or labor where they dont because they chop and change.

And how about this bullshit tax cut, if you look at it the rich get richer while the poor stay much the same.

 

[withoutaface]

Do you want the puppet on the left or the puppet on the right?
In the end theres no real difference.
I for one am going to be voting Green, they actually have their policys listed on their site in bullet point form. As opposed to other sites for the liberal or labor where they dont because they chop and change.

And how about this bullshit tax cut, if you look at it the rich get richer while the poor stay much the same.

But it's increasing the tax free threshold and significantly bumping up the rate where the second tax bracket cuts in, which indicates that it's actually helping the poor.

 

[Rafy]

PM's stock rises on IR, economy

Issues Newspoll - Full result table

THE Coalition has stretched its commanding lead over Labor on the key vote-changing issues of the economy and national security.

And although Labor continues to hold a comfortable lead over the Government on social issues such as education and health, the Coalition appears to have negated the union movement's multi-million-dollar anti-Work Choices advertising campaign.

A Newspoll survey conducted exclusively for The Australian reveals that Labor's lead over the Coalition on the question of who would be best to handle industrial relations has almost halved this year and is back to where it was when John Howard proposed Work Choices.

But Australians also continue to rank industrial relations last on the list of issues that will determine their vote.

In February, the ALP had a lead of 24 percentage points on the issue of industrial relations - 51 per cent to the Coalition's 27 per cent.

In the latest Newspoll survey, Labor support on the issue of industrial relations was 47 per cent compared with the Coalition's 34 per cent. The shift follows an extensive multi-million-dollar taxpayer-funded advertising campaign from the Government promoting its Work Choices laws, particularly the fairness test to protect lower-paid workers. [...]

 

[Silver Persian]

Howard is making a come back, he's caught labor sleeping pretty bad.

Tax cuts was a surpise

Well, AFAIK the opposition party does not have access to the same amount of information about the state of the Treasury that the government does. So it is pretty unfair to expect them to whip out a tax policy based on completely different figures just a day after that information has been released.

 

[walrusbear]

why are tax cuts a surprise?
isn't that all this party have done for years?

 

[Iron]

PM's stock rises on IR, economy

Issues Newspoll - Full result table

Ar, Labor still leads in the top four issues. THe coalition only beats them in 2/9. Interesting how these people rated Nat sec, economy and ir so low.