Australian politics

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This is a new thread discussing Australian politics in general. It's a continuation of a previous thread discussing the 2013 federal election:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt238879.html

To recap:

• On 7 September 2013 the voters of Australia elected the centre-right Liberal/National coalition into government, with Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott becoming the Prime Minister.
  
• The centre-left Labor Party, after a tumultuous six years in government, forms the main opposition. Its current leader, Bill Shorten, is the third leader the party has had in the last 12 months.
  
• The Coalition won a commanding majority in the House of Representatives, but no party won an outright majority in the Senate. The Labor and Greens parties will form a sizeable opposition bloc in the senate, with a group of independent and minor party senators set to hold the balance of power there.
  
• Major policy actions for the Coalition government include wide-ranging budget cuts to reduce the national deficit; scrapping the carbon and mining taxes; stopping the boat people (immigrants arriving illegally or without documentation by boat); and changing the National Broadband Network in favour of a cheaper option. Expect more policy actions during the current political term.

There's an article from the Courier Mail outlining the challenges facing the Coalition government in 2014. Should make for an interesting year in politics.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opin ... 6790233091

...

Feel free to post any discussions, articles, analyses, opinions or questions on Australian politics in this thread.

Last edited by Murihiku on 02 Jan 2014, 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well i wont start though i do think it's incredibly sad the state of manufacturing in this country does my "analysis" stack up ? that Australia is some where in the dangerous middle look at Holden Commodore as an example it couldn't compete with the Asians on price nor the prestige of the Germans, retail is a classic example you will see a Mercedes outside Aldi but not a kia outside Harrods.

AS a massive Paul Keating fan he had his ffs moments, the lost jobs are one of them we can say with certainty these workers did not find better/better paid service jobs.

We need to ask if rich countries like Germany and relatively wealthy ones like Czech republic have manufacturing at 50% and 75% of gdp respectively why can't we ? and wages i don't accept if that where the case Eu business would all be in Albania

Last edited by aussiebloke on 01 Jan 2014, 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

have you seen this troll effort :

www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-ana ... d-riddance

do you really belief the labor party is centre left? I would have thought is was a soft-ish centre right party with some centre left policies on the margins, kudos to k rudd for a real rise in the pension and tripling of the tax free threashold etc ...

You mean this one?
http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment- ... 2z63t.html

At least the author prefers a more innovative manufacturing sector. Shame she didn't specify what industries would fill the void left by Holden. The government is asking businesses for ideas (article). The video was telling, too: combine the Holden workers with those at automotive component manufacturers, and we're looking at around 50,000 job losses by 2017. If there's no way to fill the void left by Holden's departure, then "good riddance" is going to seem like more than just trolling.

Yes that's odd it did that

and lets not for get it's a high unemployment area all ready and many people live in that region, Australia's own Detroit.

It's funny the right wing economists where telling Germany to consume consume consume in the 90's they held their nerve and continued tp manufacture stuff and it's paying off, that maglev train in China is truly amazing , yeah to the Germans !

I don't think the author believes in anything she was trolling..

it's nice to see their are real economists seeing it for what it is ,a tragedy.

Damn, you're fast (or I'm just slow – either or both).

Labor is generally described as a centre-left party, especially when compared with the Coalition in a left-right political dichotomy. Australian politics may have broadly taken a lurch to the right, but Labor is still centre-left by Australian standards IMO. They still have more progressive stances on social issues, and their national platform as a whole is what you'd expect from a centre-left party.

It's an interesting point about pensions. I was amazed when Labor tripled the tax-free threshold. But the Gillard government, in their attempt to bring the budget back into surplus more quickly, also started making single parents move onto Newstart once their youngest child turns 8 (making them around $60–$100 a week worse off). It seemed too hasty, in retrospect.

And now Abbott wants to add a $5 fee (i.e., TAX!! !) to visit a doctor under Medicare. Plus, didn't he say he was going to bring the tax-free threshold back to around $6000? Now there's cost-cutting.

and Howard 1/2 the amount of hours you can work while you can still receive the pension to 15 hours a week . Though I got on it before they changed the rules , of cause if I end up working 30 hours I get nothing from Centrelink which I'm fine with , though getting the discounts for medication/ electricity comes in handy especially so the latter I am to admit I did not know humidity is bad for anxiety thank good I installed the air conditioner recently it's a life saver...

the reality is Howard and co are only interested in the big end of town and the cub's ie cashed up bogans, one of the reasons we will never see tightening of property rorts, eg Labor bought in capital gains tax Howard 1/2 it . Property "investing" is a national sport in this country

compared to the liberals I agree

The Week in Oz Politics
8 January 2014

• Finance – Upcoming government inquries and reforms for 2014 (ABC Online)
• International – Greenpeace activist freed from Russian jail; govt may try to recover legal costs (The Australian)
• Climate change – More details on the govt's Direct Action climate change plan (Sky News)
• Finance – ACCC recommends govt sell public assets like Australia Post (Sky News)
• Society – Celebrating ANZAC centenary; possible referendum (Sky News)
• International – Gay man facing deportation to Pakistan allowed to stay temporarily (news.com.au)
• Climate change – Abbott business adviser: Australia taken 'hostage' by 'climate change madness' (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Health – Co-pays: the end of Medicare as we know it? (ABC Online)
• Govt expenditure – New VIP jets for top Australian politicians? (news.com.au)
• Environment – Greenpeace vs Japanese whalers: whalers on the run (news.com.au)
• Asylum seekers – Govt silent on turning back asylum seeker boat; may scrap weekly briefings (The Australian)

What are you reading this week?

well I should read "Battle Lines " by t Tony Aboot and perhaps uncover who the real Tony is , One of the main reasons I'm so fond of Keating and yes you read correctly Latham for the fact is what you see is what you get unlike phony tony, Costello accused him of being a "big spender" coming from that whip that's not saying much. I really don't know why Turnbull isn't leading the Liberals...

apart from paying political bribes to the voters why on earth sell Australia post ? it's profitable and offers a good service, it's as crazy as selling "public" transport.. Banks and airlines I'm ok with did you know Swiss Air was never government owned ? and nearly all ways profitable , it used to be known as the "flying bank" .

Well it seems your right about people not wanting to talk about politics , as much as i despise the liberals with the odd exception i'll give credit where credit is due , Howard was as cunning as a sewer rat, I'm dumbfounded he got away with his interest rate lies, he went back as far as Whitlam yet ignores his record at least under Labor the economy continued to grow under his watch he gave us stagflation though to be fair it was a difficult period for all the Swiss had those pesky cheaply made Asian knock off watches to worry about. I don't have theses interest talks talks with these people as they say about talking with fools...