[retired_nafrally]

I think if Howard has governed for 11 years without any major ****-ups, that should really be enough for him to win. Surprised to see him so far behind in the polls.

[Nicoblu]

If ****ing Howard wins again I am leaving the country. I am not going to put up with another 4 years of neo nazism.

Howard has:
*Sent troops to Iraq which has put the Australian public at greater risk to terriorism
*Refused to act on climate change
*Workchoices I think are absolutely disgusting and are an absolute moral injustice, giving employers far more power over young and experienced employees. Its all well and good saying the economy is strong and blah blah but untill someone close to you has been brutally sacked without reason in order to employ workers in China you cant say how bloody brilliant the economy is.
*More money being pumped into the private sector and thus basically worrying about the more middle class people than the working class young people that we need to have a proper education in order to properly have the trade workforce running properly
*Complete inaction on hospitals leading too shortages of beds and disgusting conditions in hospitals- The food is ****, shortage of nurses and doctors.
*11 years of lies and broken promises. The children overboard scandal 6 years ago underlies to me what a wanka John Howard is. The "there will never be gst lark" is another one.


I wanna ask how the **** Howard has managed to pull 34 million dollars out of his arse at the start of an election campaign and why has this money not been previously been invested in education and hospitals.

On the other hand you could do the arguement about how strong the nation is economically and how unemployment is at record lows. And fair play to John Howard he has done well in this area (although it is debatable that the increase of trading with china can some what be creditied with this). I still think that because the country has a good economy and low unemployment really is the only thing going for Howard. Although that is infact a huge thing as Australian voters tend to vote with their pockets.

The tactic Rudd is trying to use is quite clever as well, agree with Howard on the smaller monetairy issues and not just try and brutally attack Howard. Beazley, crean and to a much greater extent Latham's tactic has been to consistently attack Howard and where has that got anyone, it got Latham no where but the lowest 2 party preffered vote for 20 years.

Rant over.

[retired_musiclova31]

little jonny's reign of terror is about to come to an end \o/

surely the electorate can't bve stupid enough to believe ANYTHING he says this time.

oh... wait...

[retired_chinioti22]

Key issues polls

Rudd has announced his tax policy: Australian, ABC

He has basically removed cuts to those earning over $180,000 in order to fund a 50% education tax refund, and plans to reduce tax rates to 15, 30, 40 by 2016 (that's a bit optimistic). Costello is claiming it is "91.5%" copied from the Coalition.

It'll be interesting to see how this polls, considering Howard has halved the lead after his policy.

[retired_chinioti22]

Originally posted by Rdysn5:
I think if Howard has governed for 11 years without any major ****-ups, that should really be enough for him to win. Surprised to see him so far behind in the polls.

His industrial relations reforms and views on the environment are somewhat unpopular.

[retired_musiclova31]

no major ****-ups?

he's one of the worst prime ministers in our history ffs.

[retired_miki57]

Originally posted by Scatter:
no major ****-ups?

he's one of the worst prime ministers in our history ffs.

I don't know whats worse Scatter, the major generalisation of Australian history or the smiley at the end.

John Howard has started the campaign a lot stronger, coming out of the blocks faster, that massive new tax cut dominated the press, and althogh I don't think its enough its enough for Howard to claw back some point in the polls. Kevin Rudd has always been accused of not having any real policies or initiatives. And right now he's behind the more experienced Howard.

Saying that, I don't know who to vote for, i'll decide in the next few weeks. Leaning towards Liberal. Though am impressed that a ang-more like Kevin Rudd can speak fluent Mandarin, vastly better than my Mandarin.

[retired_anne walter]

Originally posted by joeyb:
If ****ing Howard wins again I am leaving the country. I am not going to put up with another 4 years of neo nazism.

Howard has:
*Sent troops to Iraq which has put the Australian public at greater risk to terriorism

What risk? How do you possibly measure something which has no yardstick?

*Refused to act on climate change

tbh, something I don't gaf about. And Labour doesn't either, so that doesn't change my vote.

*Workchoices I think are absolutely disgusting and are an absolute moral injustice, giving employers far more power over young and experienced employees. Its all well and good saying the economy is strong and blah blah but untill someone close to you has been brutally sacked without reason in order to employ workers in China you cant say how bloody brilliant the economy is.

Cheers, you're clueless about HR. What it's about is rewarding people for their contribution to the workplace by allowing them to negotiate to their own worth. These 'brutally sacked' loads of horseshit that come up are the best though, <3 Union scare stories.
The worst thing about the old system was lazy inept fools getting paid the same amount as people who were exceptional in the same position.

*More money being pumped into the private sector and thus basically worrying about the more middle class people than the working class young people that we need to have a proper education in order to properly have the trade workforce running properly

Working class young people? You mean how there's more people graduating with tertiary qualifications than ever before? That tradespeople are earning SHITLOADS more than ever before? Precisely where is this 'working class' you speak of?

*Complete inaction on hospitals leading too shortages of beds and disgusting conditions in hospitals- The food is ****, shortage of nurses and doctors.

State government service, state govenment issue. Nice try to pin that one on the federal situation though.

*11 years of lies and broken promises. The children overboard scandal 6 years ago underlies to me what a wanka John Howard is. The "there will never be gst lark" is another one.

Ah another idiot with a grudge to bear. You'll find that the public knew about GST policy before he went to the polls after his first term.

I wanna ask how the **** Howard has managed to pull 34 million dollars out of his arse at the start of an election campaign and why has this money not been previously been invested in education and hospitals.

l2read budget. More than expected growth = financial surplus.

On the other hand you could do the arguement about how strong the nation is economically and how unemployment is at record lows. And fair play to John Howard he has done well in this area (although it is debatable that the increase of trading with china can some what be creditied with this). I still think that because the country has a good economy and low unemployment really is the only thing going for Howard. Although that is infact a huge thing as Australian voters tend to vote with their pockets.

Voting with anything else doesn't put food on the table.

The tactic Rudd is trying to use is quite clever as well, agree with Howard on the smaller monetairy issues and not just try and brutally attack Howard. Beazley, crean and to a much greater extent Latham's tactic has been to consistently attack Howard and where has that got anyone, it got Latham no where but the lowest 2 party preffered vote for 20 years.

Rant over.

I find it comical how people attack politicians for their moral values as though they're supposed to be the model example for everyone to look up to. Because there's going to be another candidate who's any different.

[retired_aishwarya]

First up, I'm a member of the ALP, so there's a little disclaimer for all and sundry.

I'm an international relations student (actually, by November 24, a graduate \o/) and am really excited to hopefully see Labor's foreign policy for the first time since I've been politically cogent. I'm reasonably impressed with Howard's work with China, but basically looking forward to ANZUS (or AUS, these days) not playing such a big part in our FP.

Don't know a heap about Mclelland, but Rudd seems to have a pretty firm grasp on things - and while his Mandarin speaking can come across as a huge pile of w*nk, I don't think anyone can deny its usefulness in terms of relations with the world's fastest growing economy.

But if I'm being totally honest, I'd rather party like it's the mid 90s with Gareth Gareth Evans doing his thing.

[retired_anne walter]

Originally posted by hermolt:
But if I'm being totally honest, I'd rather party like it's the mid 90s with Gareth Gareth Evans doing his thing.

What, doing Cheryl Kernot?