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Aussie, Aussie, Aussie - Gone, Gone, Gone.

I was in NZ when the election was called, it was one of the headlines on that nights news. I am not sure if a NZ election would get anywhere near that amount of coverage in Oz.

I also find it interesting that despite low unemployment and strong economic growth in both our countries, our governments are both so far behind in the polls.
 
My bet is the polls are correct. John Howard is facing every politcians worst nightmare, people are just ignoring him. They have heard him lie to them too many times, so they no longer bother listening.

The alternative is not much better, though.
 
a_unique_person said:
My bet is the polls are correct. John Howard is facing every politcians worst nightmare, people are just ignoring him. They have heard him lie to them too many times, so they no longer bother listening.

The alternative is not much better, though.
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You are probably right, but remember that any swing is unlikely to be uniform. WA, for example, still largely supports the coalition. A lot of seats have to change hands. And your last point is relevant. When people get into the poll booth they may very well think "is Rudd better?".
 
After watching the big debate, I didn't really see a huge issue between Howard and Rudd. Rudd just wanted to do more in terms of fighting climate change and getting out of Iraq. But he pretty much agreed with what Howard was saying as well. I do like that he wants to increase broadband access.

But wait, Rudd can't leave the coalition of the willing! Progress is being made! The terrorists will follow you home! Stay the Course!
 
gtc said:
I was in NZ when the election was called, it was one of the headlines on that nights news. I am not sure if a NZ election would get anywhere near that amount of coverage in Oz.

I also find it interesting that despite low unemployment and strong economic growth in both our countries, our governments are both so far behind in the polls.
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I think we'd have exactly the same hysteria here right now if an election were called - not that there's a chance in hell of that.

I think the government lag is more about people just being sick of the same old faces, although do note that Haglen Clark is making a storming comeback for no reason at all just lately.

Tsukasa Buddha said:
After watching the big debate, I didn't really see a huge issue between Howard and Rudd. Rudd just wanted to do more in terms of fighting climate change and getting out of Iraq. But he pretty much agreed with what Howard was saying as well. I do like that he wants to increase broadband access.

But wait, Rudd can't leave the coalition of the willing! Progress is being made! The terrorists will follow you home! Stay the Course!
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This is probably the most disturbing thing about it all, in NZ, UK, USA, Aussie, all of the political options seem to be clones of each other - with a few regional variations - the clear choices of the past have blurred as everyone strives to "centrism".
 
The biggest problem is the factional problems in the Labor party. Getting a strong left-leaning candidate is virtually impossible as if the Labor leader is left leaning he is undermined by the Labor Right and the Coalition achieves victory (Latham). However if the Labor Right is in power in the party they don't have much opposition from their own party and they attract a lot of conservative voters but keep a lot of liberal voters because they're still to the left of the Coalition. The problem with this is you get two very similar parties with only minor differences.

Australia is completely void of a major socially liberal political party. Both major parties are Right-Wing (Labor would disagree but they're lying). One hope would have been the Democrats if they weren't a week away from complete annihilation. A lot of people are moving to the Greens but they're far too radical to make even a small dent in the conservative vote.

I only hope Peter Garret wasn't joking when he said they'd change all their policies to something more progressive. I mean a lot of their policies are a joke (because they aren't even their policies). However they're just different enough for me to prefer a Labor government over a Liberal one (don't be fooled the Liberal party is the conservative one).

Whatever happens, this weekend I'll most likely vote for the Democrats, even though it's a bit of a waste. But elections aren't about voting for someone just because they're popular.

What angers me the most is that I live in Tony Abbott's electorate, and I hate that man with a passion but he's never going to lose.
 
bah stupid party system...

I can't see anything changing. Labour will get in and **** everything up and liberals will come back again next time and have to fix it. I know way more people who will get pay cuts if work choices are abolished as opposed to people who have lost money from work choices.
 
I'm not laying any bets on who's coming out on top. I can't underestimate Queensland's dedication to sticking to the conservative vote, no matter what.

Athon
 
athon said:
I'm not laying any bets on who's coming out on top. I can't underestimate Queensland's dedication to sticking to the conservative vote, no matter what.

Athon
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I would normally agree with this athon, but have spent a fair bit of time up north in the past 18 months, and Rudd being a Queenslander is a great advantage.

But, like WA, those who are doing well up there are really doing well and it's hard to see them moving to labor in large numbers. And Beattie is not there anymore. You may well be right. (Ouch, splinter from the fence I'm sitting on).
 
Diamond said:
Rudd signing the Kyoto Protocol won't be enough. What Australia needs is a much more radical solution to "climate change" involving sending all Australians back to the stone age.

There can be only one answer
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What you have hit on here Diamond is one of the really worrying probable outcomes on Saturday - the balance of power in the Senate held by the unholy alliance of the Greens and the bible-bashing Family First Party. Scarey.
 
lionking said:
What you have hit on here Diamond is one of the really worrying probable outcomes on Saturday - the balance of power in the Senate held by the unholy alliance of the Greens and the bible-bashing Family First Party. Scarey.
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That would really be annoying though. Here Family First had done and are trying to do some really stupid things, like messing around with the sex-ed system, or trying to ban nudity on Maslin's.

They have got to be stopped...

But hey, we will probably see Mr. X in the Senate after this election.
 
Wildy said:
Here Family First had done and are trying to do some really stupid things, like messing around with the sex-ed system, or trying to ban nudity on Maslin's.
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and trying to raise the legal drinking age to 20.
 
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It's not so much their policies (and some I don't like) it's more the fact that a party which can get only single figure support will have such overwhelming power.
 
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