John Howard to stay on! (2 Viewers)

[wheredanton]

Confirmed on the today show. Article later!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/costello-gets-back-in-line/2006/07/31/1154198059677.html

 

[ihavenothing]

I hope they don't say the same about Beazley or there will be no chance Labor will win.

 

[volition]

here's an interesting article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19962720-7583,00.html

"The doomsday scenario for Howard is that he unveils the ministerial reshuffle now, then announces he'll be at his Kirribilli address for some time yet, and Costello pulls the pin and goes to the back bench. Howard would then have to set about rebuilding his Government again from the ground up, twice in potentially a matter of weeks."

 

[frog12986]

Any person who believed that he wouldn't lead the Coalition to the next election was either delirious or hanging on to a faint hope.. all the 'Howard haters' out there will now begin their campaign.

As for Beazely, does he have the image to sway the Australian people? I don't think so...

Whilst the 2007 election will be tough and very close, it will be a 'correction election' that merely corrects the sway of traditional Labor voters who voted Liberal in 2004..

 

[Lorie]

Any person who believed that he wouldn't lead the Coalition to the next election was either delirious or hanging on to a faint hope.. all the 'Howard haters' out there will now begin their campaign.

As for Beazely, does he have the image to sway the Australian people? I don't think so...

Whilst the 2007 election will be tough and very close, it will be a 'correction election' that merely corrects the sway of traditional Labor voters who voted Liberal in 2004..

I don't think it strictly a case of the howard haters trying to bring him down. It was one of their own who made the case public. There had always been little hints and comments that suggested there would be a hand over over the years. I remember comments by Tony Abbot before the children over board election saying how there would be say 2 years of howard and 1 of costellio or 1 year of howard and 2 of costello, pretty much admitting that there was something there.

Now howard has made it clear in black and white that he is running and ruin any doubt that has arisen. Yeah i agree that it a correction election. Policies such as the IR reforms, VSU, cross-media laws etc. aren't really what some converted liberal voters in the last election. i think voters who were influenced by the interest rate campagins will vote labor.

I dont think there will be a senate majority, but it remains to be seen if labor can do enough to win.

 

[wheredanton]

Any person who believed that he wouldn't lead the Coalition to the next election was either delirious or hanging on to a faint hope..

Dead right. Howard was never going to go.

 

[turtleface]

hey people! get it right, its J-Ho.


lol! best post ever...pity it was locked http://community.boredofstudies.org/214/news-current-affairs-politics/116799/who-blame.html

 

[iamsickofyear12]

As for Beazely, does he have the image to sway the Australian people? I don't think so...

Whilst the 2007 election will be tough and very close, it will be a 'correction election' that merely corrects the sway of traditional Labor voters who voted Liberal in 2004..

I'm not so sure about that. They have done nothing about the petrol prices so now we have interest rates going up and an economy on the way down. People are pissed off.

 

[Dougie]

I'm not so sure about that. They have done nothing about the petrol prices so now we have interest rates going up and an economy on the way down. People are pissed off.

but can u really c anyone else with the personality to lead the country? howard isn't dumb, and i don't know if there is a smarter politician in australia

 

[iamsickofyear12]

but can u really c anyone else with the personality to lead the country? howard isn't dumb, and i don't know if there is a smarter politician in australia

No I can't but most people don't care about that. They see petrol at $1.50 a litre and interest rates going up and they need someone to blame.

Howard has screwed up big time with this petrol thing. He needed to do something to reduce the price, even if it was as simple as removing the GST, but he didn't and now we have inflation, rising interest rates and small businesses suffering because people aren't buying anything.

 

[BradCube]

No I can't but most people don't care about that. They see petrol at $1.50 a litre and interest rates going up and they need someone to blame.

Howard has screwed up big time with this petrol thing. He needed to do something to reduce the price, even if it was as simple as removing the GST, but he didn't and now we have inflation, rising interest rates and small businesses suffering because people aren't buying anything.

I would have thought that reduced spending would lead to a loosening of the monentary policy rather then a tightening. If consumer spending is down, we will have an economic downturn, which the Reserve Bank will have to counter by loosening the policy, in effect given everyone more money.

As we can see, the opposite has happened. That would indicate to me that petrol prices have had no or very little bearing on consumer spending.

Can someone explain this to me?

 

[P_Dilemma]

$50 says howard will lose next election.

 

[gerhard]

are you serious? because i will take that bet.

 

[wheredanton]

$50 says howard will lose next election.

Ill take that bet up too!

 

[iamsickofyear12]

I would have thought that reduced spending would lead to a loosening of the monentary policy rather then a tightening. If consumer spending is down, we will have an economic downturn, which the Reserve Bank will have to counter by loosening the policy, in effect given everyone more money.

As we can see, the opposite has happened. That would indicate to me that petrol prices have had no or very little bearing on consumer spending.

Can someone explain this to me?

The problem is petrol prices are not just causing a reduction in consumer spending they are also causing inflation at the same time. The role of Reserve Bank is to control inflation, not manage the economy. They have to raise interest rates to keep inflation down.

It's up to the government to manage the economy and it seems to me like they are doing a pretty bad job of it.

 

[Dougie]

we should consider ourselves lucky with petrol, for example the price in the uk is close on $3/L

 

[transcendent]

i think Howard will win. he has personality.

 

[frog12986]

It's up to the government to manage the economy and it seems to me like they are doing a pretty bad job of it.

A pretty bad job eh? One of the additional reasons for the likelihood of an interest rate rise, is the strong employment growth that has been consistently occurring in recent time. Now whilst this is by no means a negative, the RBA needs to act in such a way that it preserves the medium term viability of the economy in its current condition. Overall, the economy is still performing strongly, and although rates may increase it is needed..

The OECD report released this week commends the work of the government both fiscally and structurally, and even goes so far as to say that more needs to be done in relation to workplace reform, GST extension and fiscal preparation for the longer term implications of an ageing population. It does make note that the fiscal responsbility of government in recent years has facilitated much of the prosperity Australians have seen, with living standards increasing more than any other developed, western nation. Whilst many will dismiss the report, if it was negative, the media would jump onto it like a viper..

The petrol situation is in no way the fault of the government, and it would be irresponsible to remove taxes in order to reduce the price, as not only is it a finite resource, but it is a resource that can be extremely damaging. The emphasis should be the development of alternatives...

 

[iamsickofyear12]

They have done a good job in the past that's obvious but how does that help the current situation. Even though it may not be all bad at the moment it' clearly on the way down and as long as petrol prices remain the way they are or even increase further it is only going to get worse. Petrol prices and interest rates are hitting people hard and small businesses are struggling.

The government can't control oil prices but they should be doing something about it considering the impact it's having.

Unfortunately there is no alternative to petrol. It's easy to say we need to invest in the development of alternatives but that is a long term strategy, we won't see any widespread benefits of it for 10 years. Something needs to be done in the short term.

 

[xeuyrawp]

I'm not so sure about that. They have done nothing about the petrol prices so now we have interest rates going up and an economy on the way down. People are pissed off.

But the Australian people are too conservative to throw someone out who 1. has a proven track record and 2. is not a risky bet. Beazley's offering a change, which I think is a bad tactic because Aussies are generally happy, IR laws and fuel prices included. Australians are notoriously cautious people, when it comes to polls, and Liberal's leadership offers a certainty. Think of all the so-called deal breakers over the past elections - the government lying to the people (which people either didn't care about or thought was a bureaucratic mistake), the GST (I agree with Labour, it has 'destroyed industry all over Australia' ), etc.

There's also the fact that Labour is in shables, they can't even run a proper political party let alone a country.

And I also thought that he'd stay on. He's clearly happy with what he's done.