# Australian federal election announced - polling day to be Saturday 9 October **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 29, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-federal-election-announced-polling-day-to-be-saturday-9-october/262079 "2004-08-29T11:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-federal-election-announced-polling-day-to-be-saturday-9-october/262079/21 "2004-08-30T10:57:00Z")
Put me down as one voter who was extremely apathetic about the last election, and is absolutely furious that both options (Howard or Latham) disgust me. Who the heck am I supposed to vote for? The fishing party? :mad: Australia, please give us some _real_ options, or at least some issues to choose, not this crap. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-federal-election-announced-polling-day-to-be-saturday-9-october/262079/22 "2004-08-30T12:07:30Z")
> [@Atticus Finch](#): > > Something you Aussie Dopers might be able to help me with - why the fuck don’t Labor have any policies? You know, health, education, tax, that kinda thing. All I’ve heard about is populist bullshit like free books for kids. Is this some kind of bizzaro parallel universe attempt at a small-target strategy? …it seems odd that both Latham and Kerry are criticized for not having any policies, when, after a couple of seconds of google, not only the official party sites are located, but access to the policies in question are found as well. Can I ask, how exactly should they be promoting their policies? When you heard about the “Free Books for Kids”, do you think it may have been at the launch of the Labour Policy on education? [http://www.alp.org.au/media/0104/20006789.html](http://www.alp.org.au/media/0104/20006789.html) > [@](#): > > BookStart > > Encouraging parents to read aloud to their children from a very young age is crucial to their early development. Regular book sharing helps to build the foundations of lifelong learning and develop children’s literacy skills. It also supports the natural love and intimacy between parents and children. > > Labor will establish a national BookStart program that will give up to three new books for parents to read to their young children. > > All parents will receive a free BookStart Kit for their new born baby at the time of their first maternal child health nurse visit. The Kit will include a free story book and information about the importance of reading to children. It will invite parents to join local libraries, toy libraries and playgroups. The Kit will also promote parenting education. Obviously you heard about the “Free Books”, maybe you just didn’t make the connection that they were releasing their policy? In this day and age, it just seems like common sense that if you want to know what a parties policies are, you go to the webpage. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-federal-election-announced-polling-day-to-be-saturday-9-october/262079/23 "2004-08-30T13:38:14Z")
> [@Essured](#): > > Put me down as one voter who was extremely apathetic about the last election, and is absolutely furious that both options (Howard or Latham) disgust me. > > Who the heck am I supposed to vote for? The fishing party? :mad: > > Australia, please give us some _real_ options, or at least some issues to choose, not this crap. You’re on the right track. Join me in voting informal. I am morally unable to vote for the Coalition but the few times I have cast votes for the Labor party I have felt shamed by my part in electing a bunch of clowns. So now I vote informal. This ensures that I did not vote against the government. So it becomes my right to become an opposition of one and inundate the ministers with questions about any action of the government’s that I don’t like. Similarly my local member is at my beck and call to check things for me. You simply have to understand the power of the “Ministerial”. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-federal-election-announced-polling-day-to-be-saturday-9-october/262079/24 "2004-08-31T05:00:07Z")
> [@Banquet Bear](#): > > In this day and age, it just seems like common sense that if you want to know what a parties policies are, you go to the webpage. True - for those voters who are motivated/interested enough to search a party’s website. But huge numbers of voters aren’t motivated. And with compulsory voting, they still have to vote. So both the government and the opposition have to publicise their policies \*\*very \*\* widely. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-federal-election-announced-polling-day-to-be-saturday-9-october/262079/25 "2004-08-31T05:48:16Z")
[QUOTE=Banquet BearWhen you heard about the “Free Books for Kids”, do you think it may have been at the launch of the Labour Policy on education? [http://www.alp.org.au/media/0104/20006789.html[/QUOTE]](http://www.alp.org.au/media/0104/20006789.html%5B/QUOTE%5D) Well, that’d be the logical thing, wouldn’t it? But as your link clearly shows, that is not the case. The “free books for kids” policy was launched with a couple of other pieces of nothing about reading aloud and teaching parents to read to their kids, all budgeted at a grand total of $80m. If that’s Labor’s comprehensive education policy, it’s missing, you know, schools, universities, TAFES and so on, and its budget is a couple of billion short. > [@](#): > > In this day and age, it just seems like common sense that if you want to know what a parties policies are, you go to the webpage. Sounds like common sense, so that’s what I did. I found nothing. Could you please point me to the policy section of the ALP website, the bit that lays out their overall policies on health and education? There’s the party platform, which means a whole lot of nothing (strengthening our nation by working together proactively for a better future, that kinda thing) and there’s the news releases, which include a few dribs and drabs like the “free books for kids” policy. No large-scale policies, with specifics and proposed budgets. Nothing but dribs and drabs. Hell, maybe they haven’t updated their website recently. Could you therefore explain to me Labor’s education policy. Just the key points, anyway. Since it’s public knowledge, and well-publicized too, you should have no problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-federal-election-announced-polling-day-to-be-saturday-9-october/262079.md?page=1)