Well, that’s that then…

Having survived last Saturday handing out How-To-Vote cards, and been subjected to several rather unedifying examples of triumphal “Liberal” males as the day closed, I am crawling back into my shell to work out what to do next.

One thing I am even more aware of is that I, as a voter and citizen of this country, need to be more aware of the standards that my representatives meet (or fail to meet). I also need to start examining more closely, and challenging more often the extent and manner in which language is used to frame various arguments. Both these things can make a difference in how our society grows.

For the first I need to construct an email alert that will notify my of anything that my parliamentary representatives do (both Federal and State). For the second, I need to start reading about how to frame my own language so as to express the world in the way I would prefer when I communicate my approval or opprobrium to those representatives. And I need to write to them when they do something that I find troubling, not leaving it until later because it is too hard.

But apart from writing to the major parties to express how I feel or understand their policies, and reading more books and articles from both 4th and 5th Estates of the media, I haven’t worked out what else I can do to make my country better. Yet …

Two days to go

I think the dilemma we are facing on Saturday is that there is a perception in general that politics is more about people who have grown up in the system and both sides have their apparatchiks (a lovely negatively connoted word that has overtones of ‘control from the top’ in an aggressively controlling, yet incompetent manner).

But for my money, the difference between the two major parties is that the Liberal/National Party coalition (and I wonder that they still maintain that fiction) believes that they are the ones with the answers, there is that droit de seigneur  about their attitudes and behaviour that has poisoned more than one national psyche in the past.

The Labor party has, for all its faults and they are many, still has the idea that everybody is of value, and that if we attempt the fair go then even those who have little will be able to contribute and everyone will be richer. Which does not necessarily imply ‘having more dollar value’, because not all riches can be measured in that way.

This may be a bit confronting, but I think that it is a reasonable outlay of the differences between the two major parties.

[LINK]

Yet more reasons to prefer a Labor government next week

Reposted from the Australian Independent Media Network

Your vote might just be worth something after all

 

Thinking of going informal on Saturday?

Read this, vote strategically and annoy the “big boys club” like a true Australian.

Don’t make them happy by voting informal

You also get to support your local school’s sausage sizzle or cake stall.
(And you can’t get much more Aussie than that!)

Some reasons to vote Labor on September 7th.

A particularly appropriate summation of what the ALP has already done and looks likely to continue with, compared to what can be extracted from the Liberal-National Party.

Thanks to John Ward for posting this on The Political Sword which is always worth the read, particularly this week’s posting.

This list seems to be at odds with Tony Abbott’s account of waste and mismanagement, confusion and dysfunction.
Abbott is holding democracy in contempt by bombarding us with the the appeal to ignorance, to prejudice, and the brutality of the negative political campaign the lies and  misrepresentations, the repetitive slogans and half truths, that he has done, for the last three years.
Kevin Rudd has began the battle to persuade the people of our country to reject the lies and misrepresentations, the repetitive slogans and half truths of the Rupert Murdoch’s, the hard
right and the LNP under Abbott.
The people once again, take their future in hand, to once again embrace the cooperative, open, decency of the politics that has been the backbone of the Australian Labor Party for the last 121
years.
These policies will result in low- and middle-income earners paying billions of dollars more in tax while those on higher incomes receive billions in tax cuts and new benefits. Rather than take from the rich and give to the poor, the Coalition policies are a case of take from the poor and give to the rich. And this remains the case even taking into account the flow-on effects of the abolition of the carbon price and the funding of the Coalition’s paid maternity leave through a tax on big companies.

Look at what The Australian Labor Party have achieved! _And what the LNP plan to do to those achievements. They already plan to privatize or sell of Assets

ALP
· NBN (the real one) – total cost $37.4b (Government contribution: $30.4b)

LNP
Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and
privatise any sections that have already been built
Rule out any government-supported or mandated internet censorship

ALP
· BER 7,920 schools: 10,475 projects. (completed at less than 3% dissatisfaction rate)
· Gonski – Education funding reform

LNP
Repeal the National Curriculum
Introduce competing private secondary school curriculum

ALP
· NDIS / Disability Care
· MRRT & aligned PRRT

LNP
Repeal the mining tax

ALP
· Won seat at the UN

LNP
Abandon Australia’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council

ALP
· Signed Kyoto

LNP
Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol

ALP
· Signatory to Bali Process & Regional Framework
· Eradicated WorkChoices
· Established Fair Work Australian Labor Hub

LNP
Repeal the Fair Work Act
Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them
Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors

ALP
· Established Carbon Pricing/ETS (7% reduction in emissions since July last year)

LNP
Repeal the carbon tax, and don’t replace it.

ALP
· Established National Network of Reserves and Parks
· Created world’s largest Marine Park Network
· Introduced Reef Rescue Program

LNP
Repeal the marine park Legislation

ALP
· National Apology
· Sorry to the Stolen Generation

LNP
Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act

ALP
· Increased Superannuation from 9 to 12%

LNP
Abolish the low-income superannuation contribution. This will reimpose a 15 per cent tax on superannuation contributions for 3.6 million workers earning less than $37,000 will pay more than $4 billion extra in tax on their super over the next four years.
Abolish the proposed 15 percent tax on income from superannuation above $100,000 a year. The combined effect of these two superannuation changes is that 16,000 high-income earners with superannuation savings in excess of $2 million will get a tax cut
End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace relations laws. Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement

ALP
· Changed 85 laws to remove discrimination against same sex couples

LNP
Defund Harmony Day

ALP
· Improvements to Sex Discrimination Act
· Introduced National Plan to reduce violence against women and children

LNP
End all government funded Nanny State advertising

ALP
· Introduced Plain packaging of cigarettes

LNP
Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other
products, including alcohol and fast food
Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling

ALP
· Legislated Equal pay (social & community workers up to 45% pay increases)
· Legislated Australia’s first Paid Parental Leave scheme

LNP
Introduce a paid parental leave scheme that replaces a mother’s salary up to $150,000. To put it crudely, this means a  low-income mum gets about $600 per week while a high-income mum gets close to $3000.
Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784
Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16
Slash top public servant salaries to much lower international standards, like in the United States

ALP
· Established $10b Renewable energy fund

LNP
Abolish the Clean Energy Fund
Abolish the Department of Climate Change
Repeal the renewable energy target

ALP
· Legislated Murray/Darling Basin plan (the first in a hundred years of trying.)

LNP
Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme
Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board
Encourage the construction of dams

ALP
· Increased Education funding by 50%
· Established direct electoral enrolment

LNP
Introduce voluntary voting
End mandatory disclosures on political donations
End media blackout in final days of election campaigns
End public funding to political parties

ALP
· Created 190,000 more University places

LNP
Introduce fee competition to Australian universities
Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities
Means test tertiary student loans

ALP
· Achieved 1:1 ratio, computers for year 9-12 students
· Established My School
· Established National Curriculum
· Established NAPLAN

LNP
Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools

ALP
· Increased Health funding by 50%

LNP
Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency
Abolish the means test on the private health insurance rebate. This will deliver a $2.4 billion tax cut over three years for individuals earning more than $84,001 a year, or couples earning more than $168,001. People on lower incomes will receive no benefit.
Repeal the alcopops tax

ALP
· Legislated Aged care package
· Legislated Mental health package
· Legislated Dental Care package
· Created 90 Headspace sites
· Created Medicare Locals Program

LNP
Means-test Medicare
Privatise Medibank
Privatise Australia Post
Privatise SBS
Cease funding the Australia Network
Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function
Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport
End all public subsidies to sport and the arts
Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction
Privatise the CSIRO

ALP
· Created Aussie Jobs package
· Created Kick-Start Initiative (apprentices)
· Funded New Car plan (industry support)

LNP
Cease subsidising the car industry
End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education

ALP
· Created Infrastructure Australian

LNP
Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database
End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering

ALP
· Established Nation Building Program (350 major projects)

LNP
Introduce a special economic zone in the north of Australia including:
Lower personal income tax for residents
Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states
Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold
Allow the Northern Territory to become a state

ALP
· Doubled Federal Roads budget ($36b) (7,000kms of roads)
· Rebuilding 1/3 of interstate rail freight network
· Committed more to urban passenger rail than any government since Federation
· Developed National Ports Strategy
· Developed National Land Freight Strategy
· Created the nations first ever Aviation White Paper
· Revitalized Australian Shipping
· Reduced transport regulators from 23 to 3 (saving $30b over 20years)
· Introduced NICS – infrastructure schedule
· Australia has moved from 20th in 2007 to 2nd on OECD infrastructure ranking
· Awarded International Infrastructure Minister of the Year (2012 Albanese)
· Awarded International Treasurer of the Year (2011 Swan)
· Introduced Anti-dumping and countervailing system reforms

LNP
Remove anti-dumping laws
Deregulate the parallel importation of books
Remove all remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade

ALP
· Legislated Household Assistance Package

LNP
Eliminate family tax benefits

ALP
· Introduced School Kids Bonus

LNP
Abolish the means-tested School kids Bonus that benefits 1.3 million families by providing up to $410 for each primary school child and up to $820 for each high school child.

ALP
· Increased Childcare rebate (to 50%)

LNP
Abolish the Baby Bonus

ALP
· Allocated $6b to Social Housing (20,000 homes)
· Provided $5b to Support for Homelessness
· Established National Rental Affordability Scheme ($4.5b)
· Introduced Closing the Gap
· Supports Act of Recognition for constitutional change
· Provided the highest pension increase in 100 years
· Created 900,000 new jobs
· Established National Jobs Board
. Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers
· Allocated $9b for skills and training over 5 years
· Established Enterprise Connect (small business)
· Appointed Australia’s first Small Business Commissioner
· Introduced immediate write-off of assets costing less than $10,000 for Sm/Bus
· Introduced $10,000 immediate write-off for Small Business vehicles over $16,500
· Introduced Small business $1m loss carryback for tax rebate from previous year

LNP
Return income taxing powers to the states

ALP
· Legislated Australian Consumer law

LNP
Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

ALP
· Introduced a national levy to assist Queensland with reconstruction
. Abolish the First Home Owners’ Grant
· Standardised national definition of flood for Insurance purposes.
· Created Tourism 2020
· Completed Australia’s first feasibility study on high speed rail
· Established ESCAS (traceability and accountability in live animal exports)
· Established Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse
· Established National Crime Prevention Fund
· Lowered personal income taxes (Ave family now pays $3,500 less p.a. than 2007)
· Raised the tax-free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200

LNP
Lower the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $6000. This will drag more than one million low-income earners back into the tax system. It will also increase the taxes for 6 million Australians earning less than $80,000.

ALP
· Australia now the richest per capita nation on earth
· First time ever Australia has three triple A credit ratings from all three credit agencies
· Low inflation
· Lowest interest rates in 60 years (Ave mortgagee paying $5,000 less p.a. than 2007)
· Low unemployment
· Lowest debt to GDP in OECD
· Australian dollar is now fifth most traded in the world and IMF Reserve Currency
· One of the world’s best performing economies during and since the GFC
· Australia now highest ranked for low Sovereign Risk
· Overseen the largest fiscal tightening in nations history (4.4%)

LNP
Legislate a balanced budget amendment which strictly limits the size of budget deficits and the period the federal government can be in deficit Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a percentage of GDP

ALP
· 21 years of continuous economic growth (trend running at around 3%pa)
· 11 years of continuous wages growth exceeding CPI
· Increasing Productivity
· Increasing Consumer Confidence

LNP
Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification

AlP
. Record foreign investment
· Historic levels of Chinese/Australian bilateral relations
· First female Prime Minister
· First female Governor General
· First female Attorney General

LNP
Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be ‘balanced ‘
Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law
End local content requirements for Australian television stations
Eliminate media ownership restrictions
Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games

ALP
. A fiscal strategy to return to budget surpluses over the economic cycle without damaging its economy with austerity measures already proven to fail. A future linked to the National Broadband Network, renewable energy and greater productivity through higher education and infrastructure investment. Improved social equality and has a larger voice on the world stage.

All this (and more) despite a hung parliament, a recalcitrant press and the most negative and asinine Opposition since Federation.
In my view this has been one of the finest parliamentary periods in our history.

·2012 Albanese Awarded International Infrastructure Minister of the Year. Created Infrastructure Australia
· Established Nation Building Program (350 major projects)
· Doubled Federal Roads budget ($36b) (7,000kms of roads)
· Rebuilding 1/3 of interstate rail freight network
· Committed more to urban passenger rail than any government since Federation
· Developed National Ports Strategy
· Developed National Land Freight Strategy
· Created the nations first ever Aviation White Paper
· Revitalized Australian Shipping
· Reduced transport regulators from 23 to 3 (saving $30b over 20 years)
· Introduced NICS – infrastructure schedule
· Australia has moved from 20th in 2007 to 2nd on OECD infrastructure ranking
. Introduced a national levy to assist Queensland with reconstruction
· Standardised national definition of flood for Insurance purposes.

So, who or what do I vote for, and why?

These are just rambling thoughts as I’ve come across topics in the last few days, in no particular order or coherence. They are making me think about who to vote for this time around. I may add to these thoughts, as I’m still thinking about some of them.

National Broadband Network
Pros
I really like the idea of investing in something that will provide infrastructure that might last into the next century. It offers the opportunity to provide all sorts of new ways of doing things that could change rural Australia relieving the living pressures on the major cities. It also replaces/improves basic telephonic infrastructure that was required anyway. (And copper is more useful in other things, rather than stuck under the ground
Cons
It’s going to take a long time (in political time) to connect everyone.
Not every one realises why physical connections are more secure and capable of even faster speeds (as the technology improves) than wireless connections can provide.
I get really annoyed when the Shadow Minister apparently finds it acceptable to invest in France’s FTTP network, but thinks his fellow Australians don’t deserve a similar service!
Some business plans will profit, some will not, and the intervening period will be painful (again)

Disability Care
Pros
lt should provide something like a third-party insurance in case of accident or misfortune. Considering how swiftly disaster can strike leaving an individual with life-long debilitating conditions through no fault of their own, knowing that financial support for housing or equipment to make that life more livable does make sense.
It also makes sense from a particularly Australian egalitarian perspective that we look out for each other. A national peculiarity of which I am particularly fond.
Cons
Not yet fully funded.
Not yet rolled out across all Australia.
Very vulnerable to ideological destruction at this stage of its development.

School Funding Reform
Pros
Making more money available for primary education and early childhood education is a good thing.
Providing money for non university and life long education is also a good thing, but l think that various business sectors should also invest in more trade training too.
Cons
Cutting funding to universities is not necessarily a long term thing, and it would seem some universities are taking the opportunity to up prices and student numbers while cutting teaching and support staff and reducing the quality available (but that has gone on for a while, the Gonski proposals have just made it more visible).
There doesn’t seem to be any provision for means testing so that the money can be directed to the schools where it will be the most needed.
The current “Gonski proposals” are also being used as an ideological bludgeon by both ALP and LNP governments to wring more for their favoured education style. The ALP seems to want a more centralised curriculum, the LNP states want the money but not the direction.
(Which reminds me: how many LNP politicians objected to the BER, yet cut the ribbon on the buildings that it paid for?)
The LNP, or more specifically the Liberals, have a policy of returning control of schools to local communities. A procedure in the US and the UK that has led to a lowering of literacy and numeracy and a return to the small-minded education that I remember from books on the history of education as being of use to the servant classes.

Paid Parental Leave
I’m conflicted on this one. Partly because it wasn’t available when my children were born, although we did get a child endowment that helped when they were small. We made the choice that Mum would stay home, my sibling chose that Dad would stay home, but we both chose to manage on a single income. So it is worrisome to think that current young parents seem unable to cope with those choices.
I think of all the policies that been proposed, this one is really only half-baked.
1) Because once the baby is big enough, and the parent needs to go back to work, where do the babies get parked until the work-day is done?
There are insufficient current resources for child care and the cost is getting positively ridiculous! What profits a family if both parents are working, yet the child-care costs are more than either of their incomes? They would be better off just dropping down to one income and provide the labour. Essentially that’s what we did, but then, things were a lot less expensive then!
2) Alternate visions of PPL are on offer, but while the ALP version is already operating and not particularly costing too much, the LNP’s has been questioned quite heavily by the very people who could benefit most from it (and the whole idea of taxing big companies to pay for the PPL of “women of calibre” is just so … let’s say big business don’t seem overly impressed either).

 

Blue means …

This week the PM stirred a bucket of trouble by giving a speech that, in passing, featured blokes in blue ties.

This week saw the mainstream media give a collective gulp and try to parse this as the PM ‘having a moment’, igniting a gender war, raising fears about access to abortion (something about which some people think has been long settled in women’s favour … how little are they aware), and in general make yet another faux pas that didn’t fit the narrative that has been constructed for her.

This was followed by most papers splashing images of blokes in blue ties on both sides of the political divide. And by Fairfax papers running an article in their “Executive Style” column on “What does your tie say about you?”

I think the most appropriate comment came from Mr Rudd who claimed that “Therese and Jessica buy my ties, I just wear them.”

What has me really annoyed though was listening to ABC RN’s The List on the radio on my drive home this evening, and their tentative examination of what “blue ties” could possibly mean.

Blue = conservative. How original!
What about all the other things that are associated with it: Purity, Masculinity, Dignity, Creativity, Sorrow, Depression, Security, Dependability, Coldness, Trustworthiness…

That last one is worth noting as the suggestion to those reading the Executive Style column is “Wear it to: establish trust and credibility ”

Hmmmm.

Wear it to ESTABLISH trust and credibility.

I’m thinking about Mr Rudd’s comment about who buys his ties, and likely packs his bags too. I’m thinking that a majority of politicians (or those who buy their ties) these days are very well aware of particular “meanings” that accrue to particular things like colour and cut of clothing …

Why do these politicians (or their stylists) need to ESTABLISH trust and credibility?

The really sad thing is that the mainstream media seem uninterested in the rest of the speech that PM Gillard gave to the “Women for Gillard” gathering, which was far more interesting in listing areas where Ms Gillard’s government and the ALP have made a difference to the lives of all women in this country and contrasted those achievements with what might be on offer from the other side (not that we know what they are offering).

It’s enough to make me see red …

PS – I note that members of the media in reporting on this speech, chose to coyly make the point of drawing attention to the fact they were wearing blue ties. Sad, isn’t it – do they also need to establish their trustworthiness or credibility?

Open Letter to the Labor Party of Australia

Considering that the Liberal/National Party are using what appears to be an “American Tea Party” approach to the Federal election, how are you adapting President Obama’s techniques to get the Labor Party’s points across to a wider audience?

I’m providing this link that examines Mr Obama’s campaign use of data/information, as quite frankly I do not think the Labor Party is thinking sufficiently outside the narrow parameters of what has been done before.

This link is more about the PR campaign that can be run on a comparative shoe-string using social media. Not only are there a vast majority of young people who would be voting for the first time already using social media, they are the ones who do not understand that the policies of the LNP as outlined last Thursday in Mr Abbott’s Budget Reply, will really make their lives so much more difficult. Unless they are told by their peers [PDF], or by elders who respect their point of view, then the cheap labour desires of the LNP’s backers will reduce the possibilities available to them even further.

The main stream media seem to have an particular agenda about who should be running this country based on ideology. Please find a way to use other media to get your message out and find a way to explain HOW the Labor Party has benefited Australia, and WHY the Labor Party has a brighter vision for all Australians who want to live in a civilized society.

Australia has weathered one of the deepest global recessions since the 1930s with hardly a dent. Yet many Australians seem to be under the impression that we are in a terrible place. I think the Labor Party need to get the under the skin of the main stream media and get the information out about what the situation really is, what the party has done and still wants to do in such a way that Australians will see greater possibilities for themselves when all Australians are lifted up, because everyone has a chance when there is a more civil society.