Politics Super Thread - keep it all in here

[stryker]

He should have joined a union :smiley:

:laughing: not bad

 

[alien]

Just a reminder to people who want to make invalid votes, those votes go to the government of the day, that being the ALP.

That's just not true.

 

[AndTheKungFoSing]

Just a reminder to people who want to make invalid votes, those votes go to the government of the day, that being the ALP.

That's just not true.

Hahaha that's seriously funny…. noone believe this comment Alien is 100% correct.

 

[Citizen_Tiger]

I believe that Julia Gillard has what it takes to move Australia forward. Why would you vote for a man who cuts 1 billion dollars out of health care and who doesn't believe in abortions. I believe it is time for change maybe Australia is ready for a female prime minister.

Gender is irrelevant. Thatcher wasn't elected to lead her party because she was female. She was a resolute, intelligent and hard working Tory with strong views and the courage to implement them. That's what made her a great leader. Gillard is a long way from being M Thatcher.

Frankly I'm sick of Gen Y/X references to Abbot's religious beliefs. It strikes me as quite a paradox that the same people who call Abbot a 'God Botherer' or 'Religious Nutbag' are the ones who would argue that muslims have not just the right to treat our society with total and complete disdain, but their leaders also have a 'democratic' right to spit out a continuous stream of anti western propaganda.

In case you hadn't noticed the country was founded on Christian principles and they still form the basis for standards on which good people live their lives. You don't have to attend church, confession or mass on Ash Wednesday to be considered a Christian person.

FWIW the Labor Party are a disaster, I would have thought that plainly obvious. If Rudd's in hospital it must be to have the dozens of knives that are in his back extracted. Bill Hayden suffered the same fate I believe.

 

[alien]

LEAVE JULIA ALONEEEEE
http://au.news.yahoo.com/election/a/-/article/7701172/man-cries-gillard-youtube-parody/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Yossarian]

I believe that Julia Gillard has what it takes to move Australia forward. Why would you vote for a man who cuts 1 billion dollars out of health care and who doesn't believe in abortions. I believe it is time for change maybe Australia is ready for a female prime minister.

Gender is irrelevant. Thatcher wasn't elected to lead her party because she was female. She was a resolute, intelligent and hard working Tory with strong views and the courage to implement them. That's what made her a great leader. Gillard is a long way from being M Thatcher.

Frankly I'm sick of Gen Y/X references to Abbot's religious beliefs. It strikes me as quite a paradox that the same people who call Abbot a 'God Botherer' or 'Religious Nutbag' are the ones who would argue that muslims have not just the right to treat our society with total and complete disdain, but their leaders also have a 'democratic' right to spit out a continuous stream of anti western propaganda.

In case you hadn't noticed the country was founded on Christian principles and they still form the basis for standards on which good people live their lives. You don't have to attend church, confession or mass on Ash Wednesday to be considered a Christian person.

FWIW the Labor Party are a disaster, I would have thought that plainly obvious. If Rudd's in hospital it must be to have the dozens of knives that are in his back extracted. Bill Hayden suffered the same fate I believe.

I thought Australia was founded on law and order beliefs… I never considered transporting bread thieves to the other side of the world was a Christian philosophy but okay...

Bill Hayden? For real? Why not mention Billy Snedden while you're at it!! Or Brendan Nelson... Malcolm Turnbull?

 

[Geo]

What a fizzer….Election 2010......booooorrrriiiinnnnggg...

Another gripe....Negative add campaigns.....I hate it when 1 Party has a go at the other....I don't give a toss how bad the other bloke...sorry Julia,,,is.....Here's a scoop....I already know!!!!

Tell me YOUR vision of the future and HOW YOU are going to go about achieving it....stop bagging the other guy

The party that does that gets my vote...

Thoughts?

 

[hammertime]

What a fizzer….Election 2010......booooorrrriiiinnnnggg...

Another gripe....Negative add campaigns.....I hate it when 1 Party has a go at the other....I don't give a toss how bad the other bloke...sorry Julia,,,is.....Here's a scoop....I already know!!!!

Tell me YOUR vision of the future and HOW YOU are going to go about achieving it....stop bagging the other guy

The party that does that gets my vote...

Thoughts?

With you on that one Geo. Especially when it's our dollars at work to produce the advertising! At least it could be partially informative.

It is a shocking campaign this year. Not much substance to either side what so ever. All spin.

Like you, the person who just runs with policy on what they truely believe, rather than playing the political game, would get my vote.

 

[stryker]

It's funny but to me there are two people who came out swinging yesterday that would give their left ones to be the candidates.
Rudd and Howard.

Abbot and Gillard seem like ex lovers who are trying not to hurt each others feelings.

Abbot in particular is annoying me…Labor has stuffed up so many policies that the Liberal parties policies should almost write themselves....at the very least his job should be a lot easier than Julias - she's got to try and defend whats happened over the past three years....then expeand on them!!

 

[Suzie-Q]

What a fizzer….Election 2010......booooorrrriiiinnnnggg...

Another gripe....Negative add campaigns.....I hate it when 1 Party has a go at the other....I don't give a toss how bad the other bloke...sorry Julia,,,is.....Here's a scoop....I already know!!!!

Tell me YOUR vision of the future and HOW YOU are going to go about achieving it....stop bagging the other guy

The party that does that gets my vote...

Thoughts?

With you on that one Geo. Especially when it's our dollars at work to produce the advertising! At least it could be partially informative.

It is a shocking campaign this year. Not much substance to either side what so ever. All spin.

Like you, the person who just runs with policy on what they truely believe, rather than playing the political game, would get my vote.

x 2\. Just tell us what YOU'RE going to do, not how badly the other one is doing.

 

[Yossarian]

It's funny but to me there are two people who came out swinging yesterday that would give their left ones to be the candidates.
Rudd and Howard.

Abbot and Gillard seem like ex lovers who are trying not to hurt each others feelings.

Abbot in particular is annoying me…Labor has stuffed up so many policies that the Liberal parties policies should almost write themselves....at the very least his job should be a lot easier than Julias - she's got to try and defend whats happened over the past three years....then expeand on them!!

Yes. There was a time when both parties put up detailed plans with well thought out policies with detailed costings. Now everyone is looking for that one knockout policy or doing it on the run. When one of your 4 main policies is turning back the boats it's not great for a democracy like ours.

Leaving aside the partisan stuff, both sides seem to be making policy in the context of what the other one is doing (e.g. parental leave, Abbot's green army, Gillard's Timor policy). Most of them are ideas masquerading as policy. As I've said before I'm a policy wonk so the whole thing is a disappointment. I thought Hewson was nuts but at least Fightback! was an intelligently put together policy plan covering a large range of areas.

Gillard offers little and Abbott doesn't present a decent alternative. You may accuse me of bias but personally I'm happy with the status quo and we can all come back in 2-3 years time when everyone has some decent policy. Hopefully.

 

[Leroy_The_Tigers_Fan]

If you care about our country please make your vote count, an invalid or donkey vote is a poor cop out, I know that there is debate whether voting should be compulsory but if you make it to a polling station you may as well make your vote count, back your judgement.
Julia is a Western Bulldogs GayFl fan and Tony is a Sydney Uni/Wallaby GayRU fan if it's any help to our forum, at least the poor old back stabbed Krudd showed his allegiance to Rugby League, perhaps this is why he was shafted!.

 

[alien]

If you care about our country please make your vote count, an invalid or donkey vote is a poor cop out, I know that there is debate whether voting should be compulsory but if you make it to a polling station you may as well make your vote count, back your judgement.

Not voting doesn't mean you don't care about Australia if you think one is equally as bad as the other. When they show how many people voted for who, they should also show how many people donkey voted. I reckon the donkey votes would beat the greens. :laughing:

 

[hammertime]

I think both parties will announce their major policy as close to the election as they can. Abbott only just had his campaign launch and Gillard is only doing hers 4 days from the election!?

Gives the opposition less time to rip into your policy.

 

[alien]

Why is voting compulsary? I guess they want everyone to vote because it's a way to find out what the people will tolerate and what not but normally that's why they have polls.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

I'll vote for the party who makes it compulsory for all parties to raise campaign funds instead of dipping into the taxpayers pockets to spit out useless ideas, mudslinging advertising and general rhetoric that tend to infect election campaigns.

Earn your money from your supporters, not the electorate who have no say in footing the bill and will generally vote for the party with the best advertising executives.

 

[stryker]

You may accuse me of bias but personally I'm happy with the status quo and we can all come back in 2-3 years time when everyone has some decent policy. Hopefully.

Ok, but what state will the country be in after another 3 years of this particular government?

The only good thing that I can find is that Rudd is no longer the leader.

All of the stuff-ups of the past three years (and there is way too many of them), can be directly linked straight back to him. He micro-mangaed every single facet of the government. No-one was allowed to hire a staffer, receptionist, whatever without his direct approval. If you ever caught a press conference of his, he hand picked those that were to ask questions and those who were never given a second chance. He had an abusive and violently angry temper, ask anyone who works at parliament house and isnt associated with either party…they all have stories to tell. He wanted to be known for something big - to have his name written into history as our finest ever leader. George Bush wanted to be known as the president who stopped global terrorism....Rudd wanted to be known as one of the heavywieghts who stopped climate change.

In my opinion, the sole reason that all of their policies have either failed or have been totally corrupted is because this man had to be the one. He is only one man yet he tried to spread himself across single department, bill, policy, decsision. No one was allowed to make a move without him. In his eyes, the PM might as well be the King. This of course results in his time being spread far too thin on everything further resulting in everything the Labor party has done looking completely half-assed - which it was.

In a way I feel they should be given the benefit of the doubt as none of them have actually been given the chane to govern anything yet...but then I remember how much tax I have payed over the past three years and it infuriates me to see the way these people have squandered it on overseas jaunts, commitee after commitee after commitee, rorting builders ( only the big powerful ones though...the little guys can not pick contracts up due to the ridiculous amounts of red tape that have been imposed by these beauracrats), and have left us with very little to show for it.

I cant wait to throw em out on their arses.

 

[stryker]

I think both parties will announce their major policy as close to the election as they can. Abbott only just had his campaign launch and Gillard is only doing hers 4 days from the election!?

Gives the opposition less time to rip into your policy.

Little known fact here….once you have staged your campaign launch, all travel and associated costs come out of your parties pocket and not from the taxpayers......

 

[Yossarian]

You may accuse me of bias but personally I'm happy with the status quo and we can all come back in 2-3 years time when everyone has some decent policy. Hopefully.

Ok, but what state will the country be in after another 3 years of this particular government?

The only good thing that I can find is that Rudd is no longer the leader.

All of the stuff-ups of the past three years (and there is way too many of them), can be directly linked straight back to him. He micro-mangaed every single facet of the government. No-one was allowed to hire a staffer, receptionist, whatever without his direct approval. If you ever caught a press conference of his, he hand picked those that were to ask questions and those who were never given a second chance. He had an abusive and violently angry temper, ask anyone who works at parliament house and isnt associated with either party…they all have stories to tell. He wanted to be known for something big - to have his name written into history as our finest ever leader. George Bush wanted to be known as the president who stopped global terrorism....Rudd wanted to be known as one of the heavywieghts who stopped climate change.

In my opinion, the sole reason that all of their policies have either failed or have been totally corrupted is because this man had to be the one. He is only one man yet he tried to spread himself across single department, bill, policy, decsision. No one was allowed to make a move without him. In his eyes, the PM might as well be the King. This of course results in his time being spread far too thin on everything further resulting in everything the Labor party has done looking completely half-assed - which it was.

In a way I feel they should be given the benefit of the doubt as none of them have actually been given the chane to govern anything yet...but then I remember how much tax I have payed over the past three years and it infuriates me to see the way these people have squandered it on overseas jaunts, commitee after commitee after commitee, rorting builders ( only the big powerful ones though...the little guys can not pick contracts up due to the ridiculous amounts of red tape that have been imposed by these beauracrats), and have left us with very little to show for it.

I cant wait to throw em out on their arses.

You're falling into the same trap as the Libs. You're talking about how you allege the government to be a failure but not putting anything forward to suggest the Libs would be better. The Liberal Party front bench is one of the all time collection of duds and no hopers ever assembled. Hockey talks rubbish, Morrison just feeds the yahoo redneck hysterics, Bishop is a proven failure, all the Nationals are hopeless, and Abbott is a conservative doing his best to appear middle of the road.

Anyway we'll disagree on how well the current government has been because we obviously view the past 3 years with different perspectives. I will say I preferred Rudd to Gillard. Rudd at least was driven by policy more than polling.

 

[stryker]

Fair points Yoss except for Rudd…he wouldnt know an original idea if it bit him on the bum. How else could you explain his ridiculous 20/20 summit?
Just finished watching QandA with Gillard and on the whole I thought she did pretty well. As one twitterer said though..."she is working the room beautifully". I thought the same. She seemed to be very poised, confident and to have all the answers. But if you listened to what she actually said, most of her answers were merely a re-arranging of the crowd members question - although quite a lot more articulartly - and contained little substance. Abott is on next week and he'll be exactly the same, I'm sure of it.