I am a Liberal Party voter, but that doesn’t mean I agree with every little thing they do, and I have reservations about the detention camps ( I agree with them too in some ways). However don’t forget it was the KEATING LABOR GOVT that abolished the nine month limit on detention for an individual.
The situation in Iraq is not “illegal”. It is a WAR. Wars by definition tend to be a tad on the dodgy side, even if they are being fought for the right reasons. The US and allies, IMHO, gave the internatonal community more than enough time to get their act together - more than ten years of pissant UN resolutions. Iraq is actually a relatively safer place now than it was under Saddam’s “peace time”, in terms of casualties and erm… “disappearances”.
Mainly I voted Liberal for economic reasons.
Liberal and Labor are very very close together on the political spectrum, and have been for years. But I cannot in any sort of conscience vote for the ALP. The ruling right faction is a bunch of corrupt thugs.
It most certainly is not. The people of Iraq never wanted this. U.S. promises that this will soon be over were patently false.
Imagine if Sydney or Melbourne were the battleground. Do you think the Aussies would be happy to support the war then?
People in Iraq just want to get on with their lives. Shopkeepers, businessmen, actors, cab drivers, it doesn’t matter what they do. They just want the occupying force to get out of their country, so they can continue doing what they were doing.
Also, remember it was Whitlam that said, “I don’t want fucking boatloads of Vietnamese Balts turning up in Australia”. It was Fraser that relaxed government policy with regard to them.
It was under a Liberal government that Aborigines were given the vote. Both parties had shameful complicity in the invasion and occupation of East Timor but it was the Liberals that showed even the small amount of guts to keep the peace after independence was declared. It was under a Labor government that the closest ties between Australia were made (a good thing) but this included defence ties and Australian SAS training of Kopassus troops (definitely not a good thing).
I’m another one who voted on the conservative side on Saturday (although I did vote independent first, but the Libs before Labor, Green or Democrat).
My reasons are pretty complicated, and I’m not even sure of them all myself, but I’ll try to explain:
Economics. I have a newly minted mortgage on my first home, and as a young, single person, I’m paying it off all on my own. As one commentator said (sorry, I forget who, where and when) “it’s very hard to oust an incumbent government during economic good times”. And these are pretty good times - despite much of the world having gone into recession a few of years ago, Australia didn’t. Unemployment is low. Interest rates are low. If it isn’t broke - why fix it?
I don’t like Latham. Remember that just a year ago, he was the Tony Abbot of the Labor party - their bully-boy head kicker. He has no problem dishing the dirt, and I don’t want someone like that leading the country.
Despite 2. Latham is untried as a leader.
Medicare Gold. It strikes me as an inherantly unfair policy. By accelerating all the old people through waiting lists of course it will increase waiting times (as public patients) for the rest of us. The problem with hospital waiting lists isn’t just about the money required to treat the patients (although it is a large part) - we just don’t have the medical staff on hand - you’re looking at 6 years just to graduate a doctor from medical school, so even if you raised the quotas of graduates, you just won’t see any benefit from it for quite some time. Meantime, we’re in a world of pain. Besides, I really don’t see how it would work - they say that everyone over 75 will get to choose to have treatment in either a private or a public hospital - wouldn’t they all choose private if they could - wouldn’t we all? How does that not overload the private system and if it does how do they select which old people get their choice and which ones don’t?
However, I also didn’t put the libs first - Howard seems to have shown that he has little problem bending the truth to suit his needs. He’s a negative politician who lacks the backbone when it counts. I strongly oppose the FTA because of it’s intellectual property clauses, I find the treatment of refugees abhorrent. In the ICT sector (where I work) Senator Lundy (Labor) really, really impresses me - she knows her stuff, unlike the Lib’s outdated fluffy approach to technology and R&D in this country.
So faced with a choice of two major options where I didn’t like either - I cast my vote to the independents as a protest and then chose the lesser of two evils for my preferences.
I think the most interesting thing of all from this election is how Family First are going to get a senate seat in Victoria (probably) despite only collecting about 2% of the primary vote - talk about careless preferences by all the minor parties and labour in particular.
I don’t think Family First’s Senate win in Victoria can be ascribed to Labor preferences. Family First and Labor were actually fighting it out for the 6th seat there - in such a situation, all votes cast above the line for Labor would be going to Labor. If you want to blame someone for that particular disaster, blame the Libs and the (even more) minor Christian nutbag parties (Fred Nile et al).
This is about as I expected. It’s interesting hearing from liberal voters. I’m surrounded by chattering classes who can’t stand Howard and just don’t understand how popular he is and how he keeps getting re-elected.
I won’t bother commenting much because it’s all water under the bridge but there’s a couple of things.
Howard is too consummate a politician to kick heads. He gets others to do it for him so that people don’t form a negative impression of him. Bush uses the same technique. I believe that Australians like to think they like straight shooters. Perhaps that’s not now true, perhaps it never was. Machievelli can teach you all you need to know to win an election.
I tend to agree. However an advantage of being an incumbent is that election campaigns tend to focus much heat on election policies but none on existing policies. The incumbent’s policies can be awful, but they are old news. If the opposition put up awful but slightly less awful policies, all that anyone will talk about is how awful they are, not how they are slightly better than existing policies.
I voted Liberal for many of the reasons that **robinc308 ** stated. There was certainly an element of “the devil you know” about my decision too. I did consider voting Labor, but the ALP’s campaign didn’t do anything to convince me. The tax policy offered me nothing. The policy on Iraq was confusing. The policy on asylum seekers was non-existent.
Also, I have very little faith in the key ALP leaders. Simon Crean in charge of the Treasury? I don’t think so. And Mark Latham has no appeal for me, particularly when he keeps invoking Gough Whitlam as his mentor. Anyone who remembers the disastrous Whitlam years (as I do) would have shuddered at the very thought of a Latham government being driven by Whitlamesque philosophies. Put that together with his own admission that he’s driven by hatred of his opponents, the “arselicker” stunt, the taxi assault…it all adds up to someone whom I wouldn’t trust for the top job.
Yes that’s what the stupid Danes say when they muse lyrically over their goddamn socialist welfare experiment by which they think to have reached the exalted state of a classless society. Bah… We kiwis no better then that, right Calm Kiwi?!
Indeed. There’s room for vast improvements - but lets get real here. Nobody’s breed is improved by marrying the inbred bastard spawn of convicts shipped in chains to the bottom of the earth, it has been suggested he could have done better marrying a Swedish moose.
Just so you know: rolleyes is the mark of satan.
But enough with the stupid Danes… Voting is like masturbation: a matter between you and your consciousness. You do not vote to send a signal to Timbuktu, Teheran or Washington. If you personally think the Liberals stink, Iraq a disaster of biblical proportions and Howard the anti-Christ – fine, by all means vote Labour, just don’t do it because you want other people to have a favourable impression of you. Or worst of all, because you’re intimidated by terrorists.
Another thing that really bothers me, is this drive to make politics by judges when the popular vote lets you down. The people (by proxy) decides the proper policies not some unelected bureaucrats.
Impressive. Two mistakes in one go. You obviously haven’t been voting on the party which supports the education policy.
How fucking childish. Couldn’t think of anything better to say?
Yes, we’ve all seen how effective the U.S. policy of “not being intimidated” by terrorists has been. There’s a difference between standing up for whats right, and purposely provoking an attack. (The Iraq war was provocation)
Furthermore, this happens to be a battle that cannot be won. You can’t erradicate evil, you can only contain it.
Stop talking out of your ass if you don’t even know how a government is voted.
The people vote for the party, not for the policies. Unfortunately, as shown in the Aussie election, policies can conflict, so the voter has to decide which policies are more important to him/her. You may support some policies and dislike others. In the end, you can only pick one side.
Or in Calm Kiwi’s case…Voting is like masturbation: They both involve a twat. (…sorry couldn’t help it!)
Naa. Just a personal message to calm kiwi. You wouldn’t understand because you’re an idiot.
Oh my. Are you accusing me of being immature?! I’m absolutely mortified! And you’re using child and fucking in the same sentence, you’re obviously a latent paedophile.
First you accuse our prince of being a fucking moron, and now me! You’ve got serious issues my friend. I think you’re projecting. Personal insecurity, low self esteem and weak ego seems to be the cause of your bullying. Go see a doctor.
Bah… I used “bad English” on purpose. It was the message. And if you guys could manage to reply to a post without personal insults (or at least try make them funny!) we could get an actual discussing going.
