The Election - Just in case you don't know who to vote for

The Garage
#1

G’day,

Today at work we had morning tea to farewell an employee. But, before getting to that, my boss (and business owner) told us that she had had several people ask her who they should vote for, and some who have not voted before and were confused, so she felt she should give us an idea of who the major players were so our votes could count, because if you don’t vote, or make a donkey vote, then you really don’t have the right to groan about what the government is doing…

She then proceeded to inform everyone about our 2 major parties, Liberal and Labor, and how as tax paying employed people, Labor really didn’t have much to offer as they really were more for people on welfare. She added, that our children and grand children will be paying off Labour’s $900 hand out (ahh… from 2009). Much better therefore to vote Liberal, even though Malcolm Turnbull seems to be playing it very quietly this election instead of telling everyone about all of their great policies.

Oh, and she can’t believe Labor have been allowed to continue their “Medi-Scare” campaign, because it’s all utter rubbish. After all, the only real change that was being considered wouldn’t have affected anyone - Like, when you go to the doctor and pay him $40, and then the government pays him some money as well - it’s just that part that the Liberals wanted to change.

So, it was about then that my tongue fell onto the floor after I bit it off…

I intend to go in tomorrow and try to suggest to as many youngsters as possible to try out the Vote Compass (ABC). At least then they can make an educated choice… though, after finally saying goodbye to my co-worker, my boss then invited anyone who wanted to vote to go with her husband, who was heading off to the pre-poll booth.

cheers

cosmic

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#2

Voting and politics and all this stuff should be mandatory subjects at school.

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#3

The first (and only time) I believe we learn about politics at school is in Year 5 and people don’t retain that. I remember being the only one in Year 5 who knew that the people did not directly elect a prime minister, and judging from conversations I had with friends following the leadership challenge last year when Abbott lost out, most still don’t understand it.

Many also don’t understand the difference between state and federal governments. I clearly remember at the 2011(?) state NSW election, people saying "Vote for the LNP because they’ll get rid of the Carbon Tax… and I was just face palming.

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#4

Yeah well if voting is compulsory then education about it should be.

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#5

This is hitting the nail on the head, really…

When I was in junior high (ie years 8-10, circa early 1990’s), I know I did learn about preferential voting (in computer science!), gerrymandering, and something about the upper and lower houses… But it’s not like we had any kind of education in the history of political parties/etc…

I remember my dad telling me I’d wasted my vote after my first election when i told him I voted Green. Ultimately that’s never really fully rung home til just this election, looking at the ABC’s graphic showing how few people’s votes are actually going to “make a difference” in this election.

Still, I don’t feel it’s my boss’ place to drum up votes for the Libs…

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#6

You’re right! It’s absolutely not.

#7

God I hate the Liberals. Its perfectly fine for them to run a scare campaign - Oh don’t trust the ALP because of the ‘Unstable’ Gillard government (Who managed to govern and pass a huge amount of legislation in a minority government, compared to this mob who still have huge amounts of their 2014 budget un-passed). Or the whole last election which was won on a scare campaign over the debt (which the Libs have at least doubled) or over the Carbon tax which was ‘ruining Australia’, when it obviously wasn’t.

Last time they got in they tried to break a heap of promises, so I don’t believe them AT all when they say they’ll protect medicare - the Libs hate it to the core.

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#8

IMHO, compulsory English should be replaced with ‘general skills’ which should include politics, economic management, english related skills (resumes, letters, emails etc), and other skills that are helpful.

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#9

All the editorials are giving the win to the Coalition, with all of them going on about how they are the only ones who will deliver a stable economy. Nothing about social issues, industrial relations, the arts, healthcare, education. The economy is the be-all and end-all. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, that’s all the Libs seem good at. Looks like it’s going to be another 4 years of this ratbag Turnbull.

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#10

It’s a total myth that the Lib/Nat coalition are good economic managers. The Howard/Costello years were marked by large mining revenues and large middle-class welfare vote-buying, while leaving infrastructure to languish. Now that the mining revenues have dropped like a stone, the coalition govt is running larger deficits than ever before, while throwing $50 billion over 10 years in tax revenue out of the window for a measly 1% gain in GDP.

The issue that made me most angry was the NBN, where Turdball promised a minimum of 25 megabits per second and actual recipients of Fibre-to-the-node are getting much slower speeds.

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#11

The Liberals usually have the good luck of being in during booms. Menzies/Holt/Gorton/McMahon and as you say Howard were in during booms. If you look at the percent of spending, Howard was probably the most wasteful. So much money went into tax cuts to buy votes, when it should have gone into proper infrastructure investments.

#12

The fairfax poll has given it to the ALP. Who knows with the editorials, I don’t trust the Murdoch owned press overly much. They activity tried to take down Rudd and Gillard.

What people don’t get is that the ALP can manage the economy fine - Hawke and Keating showed that, so did Swan. Debt is not always a bad thing (though i would say the levels that the Libs have grown it to are a bit of a worry), but regardless, people can not see the connection between (for example) a good educational system which leads to a boost in the economy.

#13

As already mentioned in this thread, there is good and bad debt.

Mindless drivel about ’burdening our children and grandchildren with our debt’ ignores the fact that investment in good infrastructure, such as hospitals and schools, does not evaporate at the end of three years.

The Story Bridge and Royal Brisbane Hospital are still in daily use by the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the visionaries who built them.

Typical of what concerns me is the eleventh-hour vote-buying, pork-barrelling netball facility announcements costing tens of millions in marginal electorates following the LNP’s collective epiphany that women are allowed to vote……expensive, but could sway one percent of the vote.

( If the LNP win this time there will be even fewer women in parliament.)

While it’s important that girls, too, have access to good sports’ facilities some of the lavish election money-splash could have gone towards sheltering the homeless and victims of domestic violence, most of whom, however, are too traumatized to vote.


As pat Conroy commented:
I’m a big fan of netball but what’s clear is that Mr Turnbull’s national economic plan is all about a netball-led recovery.

While I’m having a rant….do the Liberal/Nationals really think that nobody noticed the Big Lie and that the cost of living didn’t go down when the carbon tax was repealed?

I kept grocery and other bills from before and after the repeal of the tax. Prices continued to rise. Nothing went down.

The repeal of the carbon tax only helped the major polluters.

Rant over!:relaxed:

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#14

This handy article busts a lot of myths about the Libs that the media don’t bother to fact check – http://www.howtotalktoyourliberalmate.com.au/

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#15

Australians continually forget Coalition lies. The whole last election was majorly based on the ‘big scary evil’ carbon tax. The Libs were running around telling people that the carbon tax was punishing the poor and the elderly, when it really wasn’t - Both received rebates which left them better off.

Gillard got destroyed for the ‘No carbon tax’ thing, despite the fact that as we now know, it (some sort of price on carbon) was a condition of forming minority government (so it would have been an Abbott Government policy had they formed government in 2010 as well), and people still remember that, yet in 2010, people couldn’t remember the 12 years of lies from Howard!

I love that video - I have a lot of respect for Tony Windsor from what I’ve read/seen.

In fact the biggest myth of them all is that the Liberals are the party for the poor person! So apparently the ALP with the Carbon tax (that had mechanisms to protect the poor) hate the poor, but the Abbott Turnbull gov. who tried to deregulate uni, impose a co payment for medicare, etc are for the poor? Give me a break.

#16

As far as I am concerned, its simple: Without a healthy, well-educated, and safe population, you have nothing. So health, education and policing being not just adequately, but fully funded, is the only way to go. Climate change and what can we do? Sob sob we are trying… Um… No you arent. I am sorry for those who work in the coal mines, but they really need to be leaving to find something else to do, because renewables are the only solution. Solar energy is cheap, god forbid there isnt much profit in it (oh wait… did they find a way?) and yet a simple change of legislation to make solar power mandatory for all newly built homes has gone ignored. Nobody is interested in that, because coal would lose profits, and politics would lose a big payer. They just arent serious. Not even the ALP. Carbon tax? That was a drop in the bucket for most of the polluters, and all I could see was that they got to pay to keep on polluting. BAH HUMBUG!

I know, I am rambling… Its just crazy. These people are our employees!!! Why can we not just sack the buggers when they do th wrong thing? And who do I vote for tomorrow? I have NO idea.

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#17

While I don’t think the Carbon Tax was perfect, the point was that at least some of the companies did invest in greener technologies and other things to bring their levels down, and the Government had a big income source of money they were able to put towards green energy. C02 emissions were going down as well though. I do agree though, significant effort is needed and at this election, its a dirty phrase so no one will mention it.

#18

YES! I’ve been saying this for a while. Would be a great way to improve update.

#19

Its the only thing that makes the slightest bit of sense. Yes, it would add to the cost of the build, but not much. Its the complete insanity of not even trying that makes me crazy. And its the one thing that makes me realise that none of them are that serious about making changes.

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#20

Our very own @decryption wrote a fabulous blog post about the Victorian Senate Candidates. Well worth reading if you aren’t to sure about your choices and you live in Vic. http://decryption.net.au/index.php/2016/06/20/who-the-hell-are-all-these-people-on-the-victorian-senate-ballot-paper/

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