Electioneering

I was reading through April’s edition of The Monthly magazine (see how dropping that in an early sentence makes me seem heaps more intelligent and cultured – well only if you are an intelligent and cultured person – whose opinion will now have been tainted by the fact that I tried to generate cheap pops by name dropping such an austere publication – everyone’s a critic these days). As I said, I was reading through the aptly named The Monthly (on closer review there are only 11 editions per year – so it’s a misnomer) magazine where an op ed (opinion editorial) piece suggested this year’s (or early next year’s) Australian election is likely to be fought out on the issues of Climate Change, Industrial Relations, Iraq and the Australian Government’s treatment of David Hicks. Now I’m no disillusioned lefty – I’m not overly worried about any of those issues – sure we should probably not have entered Iraq, but getting out now creates a number of major problems. I’m not a worker who has been disadvantaged by people’s greedy exploitation of the IR reforms – nor am I a small business owner with increased freedom under those laws, I’m an educated professional (haha) worker with a better than average chance of competency based career advances, the Howard Government has a track record of creating jobs and stimulating the economy that can’t be argued with. David Hicks is another issue – the question of the civil rights of Australian citizens and how far the protection of those rights extends when the person in question is essentially fighting against the ideals their citizenship represents is a murky one. Global warming is one of those issues that really should not be a political football – if humanity is too blame for a change in climate – then it’s a corporate and individual responsibility to deal with it. The government has enough issues on its plate without having to save the planet.
K-Rudd is yet to score any points on his economic scorecard – and what really matters to Australian voters is the hip pocket – we can rant and rave about the environment all we like – but when it comes to the crunch people aren’t going to make a conscience vote on an issue that is likely to cost them money or jobs. I can’t even begin to comprehend why these issues have taken precedence over traditional government staples like education, health and roads.
The issue of immigration has taken a back seat in recent times – but the Department of Immigration and Citizenship struck an early blow (that’s a pun which you’ll pick up shortly) preventing US Gansta rapper Snoop Dogg entering the country due to a checkered past dotted with drugs and guns. Snoop Dogg was scheduled to host the MTV music awards but was not granted a VISA – I predict a four point bump in the polls for the government on the back of this decision alone. What do you think the election issues in the next elections should be?

Comments

Joel says:

Taxation. We desperately need tax reform in this country.

Leah Maria says:

Why do you say that?

Joel says:

Ask anyone who owns a business. Or who has bought a house. Our taxation is so complicated and I think unfair. The GST was supposed to make things simpler until the democrats got their dirty hands on it and made it so complicated.
There is a tax for everything: an income tax for what you earn, a GST for the goods and services you consume, capital gains tax for any money you make from stocks or assets, stamp duty for when you buy a house etc, even car registration is just another tax (which is something else I’m angry about – because it sure isn’t going back into north Queensland roads).
The single mum who works two jobs to keep her kids fed gets taxed half of her second job.
The young family who saves up to buy a house has to find another 5k to pay the stamp duty so some bureaucrat can have a job.

I have no problem with paying my taxes, but I do think that it is entirely too complicated, and that if we simplified it then we probably wouldn’t have to pay as much tax because we wouldn’t have to hire as many tax agents!

Susie says:

Hmm i wonder who changed my homepage to such an interesting blog? Could it have been you nathan…

Tim says:

pity they couldn’t do the same thing to keep Ben Cousins OUT of the country.

Leah Maria says:

I don’t think Ben Cousins needs to be kept out of the country… just out of the AFL.