The Australian politics thread

[howardj]

This would be welcome. Appeared on Sunday.

All of Rudd's announcements/spin/soft media appearances really got him nowhere. And Gillard only really turned the campaign around when she got back to the economy and the risk argument - and dumped all the spin rubbish. I think, if you're not an old Government (which this Gov is not), then election wins follow from decent policy. Announcements/spin/soft media appearances really only work at a state level, and that's because there is very little scrutiny at least compared to the Federal sphere. By all means, bring guys like Bruce Hawker in during a campaign, but don't rely on them for advice on how to run the Government during the term itself.

[Burgey]

I fear Tony Burke is far too reasonable a person to ever really succeed in politics.

[James90]

"The Minister for Climate Change has the call."





Excuse me for a few moments. I need to be alone with my TV.

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by James90

"The Minister for Climate Change has the call."





Excuse me for a few moments. I need to be alone with my TV.

Every time Combet speaks, a Nation loses its collective sense of humour.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by Redbacks

Tony Jones then got in a pop at Abbott/Liberal for 'passively' sitting by whilst Alan Jones unloaded an attack against military prosecutor Brigadier Lyn McDade based on a lack of combat experience etc. She was installed by Brian Nelson under Howard.

With all that combat experience that Alan Jones has, ofc.

[Burgey]

Much has been made about the impact of the boat people issue in the outer suburbs of the various capital cities. Certainly a lot was mafe of it in the election and it's still an issue at this time, with the unhinged sore loser having his first question in QT this week about it, and a couple more from Scott Morrision (LOL) too.

But is this really an issue? I mean, it must have gotten some traction, presumably, through the focus groups, because both sides were pretty determined to make a point about it in August. But does it bite? Do people vote on it in any significant number?

See, if you look at the election results state by state:

Qld - went heavily to the side of the evil doers. Coincidently, that state has an unpopular government and the PM who got the arse by his own party is from there. There is also the Mining Tax issue at play in parts of Redneck Wonderland.

NSW - didn't lose anywhere near as many seats as predicted, though there was a swing. Again, NSW state Labor is a mill stone here, and a copule of the seats where the Stop the Boats issue was meant to be big didn't fall at all (Greenaway, Lindsay).

Victoria and SA both swung towards Labor

Tassie was rock solid

WA was already pretty pro-Tory (their best state in 07 too), and of course the Mining Tax is a massive player there.

There's no qualitative date one way or the other, but I'm interested in what people think. It seems to be that if this issue really meant a lot to people in the 'burbs, then a **** load more seats would have fallen.

Is there really much mileage in the "bash a reffo" campaign? I'm starting to think not, and that a lot of energy is being thrown at a problem that might annoy people, but which doesn't sway that many votes.

Thoughts?

[Top_Cat]

Originally Posted by Burgey

Victoria and SA both swung towards Labor

Yeah. Labor got checked fairly sharply in state elections here and lost Adelaide in the federal ballots but one would think that was specific to the problems Rann and Lomax-Smith were having in the press. Think the boat people issue is a bit meh, right now.

[Spark]

Hope so. Most irrelevant major political issue ever.

[stephen]

Originally Posted by Top_Cat

Anyone had a look at Gittins column this morning?

Welcome to the harsher, tougher economy



How those shares doing mate?



Still scared?

Bracken's posts look even better in hindsight.

I read the article that you linked.

This had nothing to do with the mining tax, so I fail to see your point. The mining tax will cost jobs in the long term. The mining tax in its original form would have devastated the industry in the medium term.

[Burgey]

John from Eltham votes. But should he be allowed to?

(Apologies for the pic being on its side. CBF fixing it).

[Redbacks]

Originally Posted by stephen

I read the article that you linked.

This had nothing to do with the mining tax, so I fail to see your point. The mining tax will cost jobs in the long term. The mining tax in its original form would have devastated the industry in the medium term.

The arguement from economists is along the lines that we are making ourselves poor in resource terms, if we simply allow major companies and large foreign investors to extract the resources without taking our own sufficient share as a country of the profits.

The Greens probably support it in the hope that the mines will become unviable and fail, Labour more likely to want to use the money to increase public infrastructure, invest in education etc. Liberals are looking after big business.

[Redbacks]

Originally Posted by Spark

Hope so. Most irrelevant major political issue ever.

It was produced in 2002, but this is a decent anaylsis of how immigration has in fact always polled highly as an issue in Australia. The recent shift is most likely to be the same idea manifested through a new means. elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/cart/download/free.php?paper=35

In terms of the issue in SA over the past couple days, its seems a paradoxical requirement that people be told, before they are told, when any decision is made. This would cause more strife than necessary, better off just announcing it and waiting for things to settle down.

One man suggested that as a rate payer he be told of every decision the government makes. It would be great to see him cc'd in every Public Service e-mail for a few days just to keep him informed.

[Burgey]

Julie Bishop just asked Julia Gillard in Question Time "What countries constitute 'the region' with regards to the regional processing centre"? She's the shadow FA minister FFS.

Elicited an interjection of"Wow, you had a ripper of a tactics meeting this morning. You jet-lagged?" comment, followed by "Asia-Pacific, the same region we were in before you went overseas".

Honestly, wtf sort of question is that?

Mind you, the first question of the day, asked by the new Member for Kooyong (it was his first question) was about a 9-11 truth conspiracy. I kid you not. Question Time needs some "The rent is too damn high" action.

[Top_Cat]

Boat people has always been a hot-button issue, remember people speaking derisively of them as kids. There were a lot more of them coming here, though; the Orderly Departure Program re-settled 130 000+ here in 15 years. Borders on offensive it's even being mentioned any more when there have been so few coming here every year since then.

Was that 9/11 thing about this numpty? He's a fruitcake if he's really bought the whole aviation fuel bit.

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by Top_Cat

Boat people has always been a hot-button issue, remember people speaking derisively of them as kids. There were a lot more of them coming here, though; the Orderly Departure Program re-settled 130 000+ here in 15 years. Borders on offensive it's even being mentioned any more when there have been so few coming here every year since then.

Was that 9/11 thing about this numpty? He's a fruitcake if he's really bought the whole aviation fuel bit.

Yep. Asked if she'll kick him out of the party. She said no, if the Leader of the Opposition is going to kick everyone out of the Liberal party who makes a stupid comment, she'll provide him with a weekly list.