Election: November 24

[brendan]

"Who said young people weren't interested in politics? Elisabeth Tarica reports."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/rise-of-a-new-political-class/2007/10/28/1193506344968.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

[brendan]

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/595
Commentary by Richard B. Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, on WorkChoices

[Collin Li]

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/595
Commentary by Richard B. Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, on WorkChoices

Interesting! I don't know much about labour market economics yet. Now I'm not sure if I know if reversing is better than not reversing it. I personally wouldn't trust Labor to set a fair IR system.

[brendan]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22691365-601,00.html

PETER Garrett has reportedly told a journalist that Labor would change its policies once in power, in an enormous campaign gaffe.

"Once we get in we'll just change it all," Mr Garrett said to high-profile radio announcer Steve Price.

[millstone]

more people should vote for the greens
they have the peoples best interests at heart, they're not just making policies to stay in office/get in office
i know people think voting for them does nothing cos they won't get in office but voting for them gives them more seats
GO THE GREENS!

[kido_1]

I would vote Liberal because, there is no reason to take a risk for nothing much to gain.

Rudd can really ruin Australia's economy and when Johnny isn't in power who is Rudd going to copy with his me too antics?

I hope the Liberals can slide through this election on 24 Nov.

It seems it is going to be  a  close election.

[Collin Li]

more people should vote for the greens
they have the peoples best interests at heart, they're not just making policies to stay in office/get in office
i know people think voting for them does nothing cos they won't get in office but voting for them gives them more seats
GO THE GREENS!

The Greens have the best interests at heart because they have no political power. Power earns corruption. Instead, we need a much more limited government regulated by a very strong constitution, like the U.S.

Why you should not vote for the Greens?
The Greens claim they will gain the balance of power in the Senate. This would be bad: the Greens do not have any power in the Senate to pass off bills that should have been passed in any society that takes liberty seriously, such as the legalisation of gay marriages, however, their economic viewpoints are very flawed! Their so-called "compassionate" stance on the poor is going to hurt Australia, and create poverty traps and disincentives for the lower class. They will deny every tax cut from the Liberal government, and they promote dependence on the government (economically). How can a society that believes in harm minimisation in drug policy (individual social responsibility) then believe in perpetrating an economic policy based on welfare dependence, and disincentivising those who are individually responsible for their economic actions. The Greens will do more trouble than good in the Senate for this reason.

I would vote the Liberty & Democracy Party (LDP), a minor party, over the Liberal party, because they believe in limited government and do not believe in the socially conservative policies that Liberal do. If you vote for LDP, make sure that you preference the Liberal party 2nd manually, because I'm not sure who the LDP are recommending their preferences to.

I really want to challenge those who traditionally vote Labor. I am in a lower-class family. My parents are first-generation immigrants who came here with 0$ and on a loan they had to work off. Why would I support Liberal over Labor? Am I stupid? No, it's because I strongly oppose the policies that will discontinue the Australia that allowed opportunities for all, regardless of the outcome. It was my parents' effort that got me here, not the government. Don't dismiss Liberal as a voting option immediately, you may hate their social conservatism (I do too), but what about Labor? Have they shown any resolve? Nope. The only parties that seem interested are minor parties. Whether you place your vote in a minor party, or in Liberal, I don't care, but I think there is no merit in voting Labor this time around.

[gulamali]

liberal voter =]

[ninwa]

I really want to challenge those who traditionally vote Labor. I am in a lower-class family. My parents are first-generation immigrants who came here with 0$ and on a loan they had to work off.

Your situation reflects mine, but I'm planning to vote Labor. Why exactly do you prefer Liberal over Labor? Just interested seeing as I really don't know much about their economic policies :wink:

[kido_1]

The media is clearly 'pumping up' Mr Rudd as preferred prime minister with fresh ideas in contrast to a stale and outdated Mr Howard.

Better safe than sorry.

[Collin Li]

I really want to challenge those who traditionally vote Labor. I am in a lower-class family. My parents are first-generation immigrants who came here with 0$ and on a loan they had to work off.

Your situation reflects mine, but I'm planning to vote Labor. Why exactly do you prefer Liberal over Labor? Just interested seeing as I really don't know much about their economic policies :wink:

Well, Labor loves to give social welfare to "help the poor." When your parents came here, do you think they came here to live on Centrelink? I don't think so. I think they came here to escape whatever cruel oppression they came from, and to escape the restrictive governments back at home, so that they could convert their hard labour into profits. In the communist societies that most immigrants come from, they were not given the economic freedom to do this, and people were instead delegated to tasks as the central government saw fit. It was the economic freedom of Australia that was so attractive to your parents.

In Australia, we are our economic freedom is abundant, compared to the past communist societies that your parents emigrated from, but it could really do with more. An economy resembles a communist economy when it has multiple bureaucracies to file your way through before you can open a business. Small businesses take years to open if bureaucracy is inefficient! Labor wants to revive such "checks and balances" to "protect" Australian workers. They have regressive ideas on industrial reform, believing that government enforced standards should be imposed on the negotiation of a wage contract between employer and employee. These systems hurt the economy, they hurt the poor and they hurt the employers. I will give you an example: the minimum wage. It does not make sense to enforce a minimum wage of $13/hr, if an potential employee is willing to work for $10/hr, and the employee is only willing to pay upto $12/hr. If they settled on any price between $10 to $12, they both would have benefited, but the minimum wage says: "nope, the government tells you what is acceptable!" and makes it illegal. It is much too like a communist economy.

Although the Liberal party actually supports the minimum wage (lol, I just owned myself), Labor does too, and they support even more intrusive "checks and balances" in the system (such as regressing IR laws to their old state), that are unnecessary if people hold themselves accountable for their own actions. The government is not there to make economic decisions for us, they ought to be merely there to referee the economy, making sure that no deception is going on in the marketplace. Labor loves running on the stand of "protecting our workers" but the old adage applies to economics as well as society:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ? Benjamin Franklin

People can protect themselves. Checks and balances can be instituted individually. Those who choose not to be responsible should be accountable for their irresponsibility. We should not adopt this trend of handing over the responsibility to the government, because in doing so, we must hand over our liberties as well.

[ninwa]

Ah, I see your point. I didn't even know that, lol - oh well, I've got 3 days between my last exam and the election to really read up on each party's policies. Maybe then I'll be able to actually make an informed choice :roll:

I guess I'm just attracted to Labor's foreign policy as that is the only area in which I have some knowledge. My friend, who is going for Liberal, keeps reminding me that Rudd will screw up the economy. Can someone explain how?

[Collin Li]

Ah, I see your point. I didn't even know that, lol - oh well, I've got 3 days between my last exam and the election to really read up on each party's policies. Maybe then I'll be able to actually make an informed choice :roll:

I guess I'm just attracted to Labor's foreign policy as that is the only area in which I have some knowledge. My friend, who is going for Liberal, keeps reminding me that Rudd will screw up the economy. Can someone explain how?

Government interventions in economy create "dead-weight loss." This is economic jargon for economic inefficiency, because the government interventions often have adverse effects on the amount of trade that goes on, causing to differ from the "optimal" amount of trade. Basically, there ends up becoming trades that would have otherwise been mutually beneficial, but they are now prevented because of the government intervention (a tax or something).

Hm... I'm sceptical of Labor's stance on foreign policy to be honest. Rudd wants to be out in 1.5 years. This is good compared to the Democratic candidates in the U.S., who want out in 2012! What worries me is Rudd's me-too'ism, that the media has played on a lot, and I have generally interpreted this as an attack on his credibility as a prime minister. I don't think he has values that he will stick to, and will tend to cave in on his values due to popular demand. This is horrible for the economy (leads to big deficits), and is also bad in principle. Once the labourers in power plants start complaining that their jobs are being cut because of environmental reform, Rudd will cave in. He is weak on his values.

[kido_1]

Ah, I see your point. I didn't even know that, lol - oh well, I've got 3 days between my last exam and the election to really read up on each party's policies. Maybe then I'll be able to actually make an informed choice :roll:

I guess I'm just attracted to Labor's foreign policy as that is the only area in which I have some knowledge. My friend, who is going for Liberal, keeps reminding me that Rudd will screw up the economy. Can someone explain how?

Rudd and his team have a clear lack of experience.

[ninwa]

Hm... I'm sceptical of Labor's stance on foreign policy to be honest. Rudd wants to be out in 1.5 years. This is good compared to the Democratic candidates in the U.S., who want out in 2012!

Mm, yeah, I like his approach to the Iraq situation, although it could be better. I also like some of the other aspects of Labour's foreign policy, such as its advocacy for greater involvement in the UN and in the Asia-Pacific region, rather than viewing the ANZUS alliance as the cornerstone of Australian foreign policy - the Liberal stance - which I think can only be good for Australia.

I'm also worried about the "me-too-ism". I wonder, how many of the policies Rudd is pushing now will actually come to fruition?

EDIT: Then again, most parties are like that.