I've got to hand it to the Lib/Nat Coalition; they've done a mighty fine job in reducing Labor's majority in the House of Reps (was it a 15 seat majority?) down to nothing! I guess the electorate isn't that silly afterall....or are they?
After the ineptitude of the ALP Government over the last 2 and a bit years, I find it incredible that they've managed to win as many seats as they have - albeit with the benefit of Green preferences.
Obviously some people still believe the ALP garb that they'll spend OUR money better than the Libs; afterall, that was the Gillard line, wasn't it?
Let me take a quick re-cap on some of the wonderful decisions the ALP Government made during their dismal stint:
- Fuel watch...what a success that was!
- Grocery watch...wow - that sure helped keep grocery prices down...at a cost of how much? And how long was it live for?
- The alcho-pops tax...that sure did wonders in reducing binge drinking and discouraging the younger population from drinking.
- The Pink Batts saga...not only did it run so over budget that it's not funny, it's resulted in 4 deaths and the electrofication of some 200,000 homes, and let us not forget how many more $millions in inspection and rectification works that now needs to be spent.
- The BER...this has to be my favourite! Billions of dollars wasted, and what have we got to show for it? Canteens, school halls and COLA's. Yes, alot of the school beneficiaries needed them, but at what cost? The only winners I could see out of this program were the big builders who were managing the regions. As each project filtered up the line from little builder to mid builder to big builder the cost of each project just went up and up, so much so that in some cases I heard of canteens costing up to $8,000 per square metre. WTF??? It shouldn't cost more than around $2,000...lets say $3,000 per square metre, just to be fair. Someone please tell me where the cost benefit of that is (except to line the pockets of the big builders acting as regional managers)? Why couldn't they direct their "stimulus" to other areas that would have had a more far-reaching ripple effect on the economy, such as the residential building sector? Afterall, when someone builds a house they engage a builder, who in turn engages myriad of subcontractors. Once the house is built, flow on effects are felt in the retail sector in terms of new furniture, new whitegoods, new window dressings etc etc. Surely this would have been a better avenue to direct their stimulus than schools? And what about small business? Small business is the life blood of our country. How about giving small business some incentive to expand, grow and employ people? Small business needs to feel secure. When small business feels secure, the employees feel secure, and we all know that when employees feel secure, they splash out and spend their money. That, my friends, is economic stimulus...when the people spend the money! It's the discretionary spending that makes the economy go round...
- $900 cheques to all and sundry - people who weren't even living in the country got this one. People who weren't even alive also got it! And what did people do with it? Hmmm....they bought stuff with it...doodads such as plasma televisions (which are made in China and goodness knows where else, so the money ended up there instead of in our economy), they paid down credit card debt with it (how that stimulates the economy I don't know)
Let me recap on some of the other great decisions they've made:
- Lets import apples from China! Yay. Lets face it, Australia produces more than enough apples to meet not only our local needs, but we also export them as well. Now, we're supposed to be accepting apples from China (all in the name of international free trade and good relations) whose farming and production methods, I'm sure, are suspect (remember the poison in Chinese baby formula??), yet, in return, China will ONLY ACCEPT apples from Australia that are produced in Tasmania. They will not accept apples that are produced on our mainland. Why? Because according to the Chinese, our Tasmanian apples are the best. I'm not critisising our Tasmanian apple producers (kudo's to them), but I am highlighting the hypocracy that is this trade agreement.
- Lets import beef from Mexico! Yay. Mad Cow's disease anyone? Thank goodness for Senator Bill Heffernon for stopping this one!
- How about banana's from Indonesia? Don't we already have enough of our own already?
- Mining tax - bloody hell. Talk about a total stuff up. Here we are, a country rich in resources. Without our resources we would have been on skid row during recent times. So, instead of encouraging our resources sector the ALP decides to tax it to oblivion. Apparently, if you tax something more, they will produce more, which will in turn result in even more tax collected. I don't quite understand that logic at all. How about more incentive to produce more, to encourage more investment?
- ETS - another favourite of mine! Yes, we need to look after this wonderful country of plenty, and this wonderful planet. But please! How on earth is the establishment of a Carbon Trading Scheme (read carbon tax) going to save the environment? Taxing the polluters of our economy will not stop them polluting. It's unfortunate that to produce our steel, coal, electricity and the myriad of flow-ons, pollution will be necessary. Taxing it to oblivion will not result in the lowering of pollution, because we'll still need all these things, won't we? So, the production and pollution will still continue.
Again, there are so many more wonderful decisions the ALP have made, but these ones really stand out in my mind, and I haven't even mentioned the boat people yet!
So, where was I?
Ah...so, why on earth did Labor still get as many seats as they did? Goodness only knows, because I can't figure it out.
Kudo's to the unions for trying to run the WorkChoices fight again, though. But that's the subject of a whole other post I think.
So now we're in this fantastic position of having a hung parliament with 3 independants holding the balance of power in the lower house. And, they're already trying to flex their muscle and extract their pound of flesh. I'll be watching intently as to how this plays out.
The big question now is: who will the independants support? All three are from largely conservative electorates. Do they risk facing electorate backlash if they support Labor (for a backlash is inevitable if they do support Labor), or do they support Labor because they have the benefit of incumbency and friendlier relations with the Greens who hold balance of power in the Senate come July next year?
No matter who the independants support, I don't expect the new Government to last the full 3 year term; eventually one of the independants will become pissed off enough that a new election will be forced.
It's definately interesting and uncertain times right now in the Federal political arena. One thing I am sure of, however, is that if Labor is returned to Government, our country is in big, big trouble!
Have a great day...
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