It’s done
It’s not so much that the ALP are in denial when they say it was disunity that lost them the election, it’s that they say it and expect people to believe.
To help them with their debrief I give them some hint of why they were turfed out.
- The Craig Thomson scandal and the alleged misuse of credit cards;
- The prime minister openly defending and supporting Craig Thomson in parliament, an additional scandal;
- Defending Peter Slipper’s behaviour with the hypocritical misogyny speech;
- Killing the beef live export industry overnight;
- FBT changes that hit ordinary workers;
- Introducing vast amounts of red tape for business;
- Demonising immigrant workers and using the ATO to hound immigrant workers;
- New regulations that made child care costs skyrocket;
- The Australia day race riot;
- The AWU affair;
- The suppression of reporting of the AWU affair;
- The Finkelstein attempt to remove free speech;
- 300 billion in debt with an annual interest bill for us taxpayers of over 10billion;
- The numerous promises to deliver a surplus;
- the announcements that a surplus had been delivered when it hadn’t;
- The attacks on the most profitable sector of the economy and then surprise when that sector slowed down;
- personal vilification of wealthy individuals such as Gina Rinehart;
- The hiking of electricity bills;
- The chaos of border protection;
- The carbon tax lie;
- Getting in bed with the Greens when they didn’t have to – the Greens would never have supported Abbott in anything; and
- Any amount of other debacles.
It would be un prime ministerial of me to say Bill Glasson eat your heart out, so I won’t.By far the strangest concession speach I have ever heard. Be gone and be quiet Rudd. Slipper got 920 votes in the election but more importantly, nearly 3,000 people voted for Craig Thomson in Dobel. What the hell were these people thinking? Worse still, over 29,000 people voted for Swan in my electorate Lilley, indicating they have no concept of debt. I would hate to see their credit cards. I look forward to a stable and competent government and the wailing of the children of the Left. It will be music to my ears.
Facebook
Twitter
funny break from ALP bashing!
Sex with a Land Rover
I’ve been around for a while, Kev, have voted in 15 federal elections, and have seen plenty of federal governments booted out during that time. It’s constructive to examine what they have left behind them.
Only one of them (the McMahon government) made any real difference to my life. That benighted administration packed me off to Vietnam without giving me any say in it. That will never happen again.
All the other Coalition governments I saw go their merry way made no difference at all to me – positive or negative, although Howard’s crew added 10% to just about everything I paid for when the GST was introduced in 2000.
Contrast that record of no impact with the succession of Labor governments that actually made a positive difference to me and mine, and to most Australians, especially those who are the most vulnerable and least powerful in our community.
Whitlam introduced human rights legislation that underpinned most of the improvements that have emerged for people with disabilities since the mid seventies. His government provided the finance for a new school for children with disabilities which I opened in Townsville. Seventy kids who had lived all their lives within the four walls of a closed nursing home suddenly were able to attend a real school and participate in the life of the community. This phenomenon was quietly repeated all over the country.
His administration also introduced universal health cover called “Medibank” in its first iteration. Despite trenchant opposition from the Coalition, this legislation was passed at a joint sitting of both houses on 7th August 1974.
Fraser’s Coalition watered it down, but Hawke reintroduced it in modified form in 1984. This great reform of universal health cover is now part of Australian life and is now bi-partisan.
The Hawk/Keating era saw extensive economic reforms ironically setting the platform for stable economic conditions that were largely responsible for the prosperity of the Howard years. These reforms included the deregulation of the financial system, dismantling of tariffs, privatization of state sector enterprises including the Commonwealth Bank.
Keating introduced the Superannuation Guarantee in 1992, and as a self funded (semi) retiree, I’m very glad he did.
As I continue to work in bush schools, I see every single one of them now accessible to children in wheelchairs- even the little up-on-stumps one-teacher schools out west have one accessible building – a consequence of BER. Despite the smearing of this scheme, these improvements will remain for generations of kids to come, leaving a lasting legacy which has a daily positive impact on the lives of these kids.
We now have a bi-partisan commitment to a national disability insurance scheme and real school reform. – something that would never have happened under a Coalition government.
The bi-partisan brutality on refugees, stolen by Labor from the Coalition, prevented me voting Labor this time – a great pity, as the vast majority of their policies reflect the great Labor tradition of social reform, something that has never been part of conservative culture.
So I look forward to the next three years in the clear understanding that nothing will change – for the better until a progressive government is elected. Past performance is always the best predictor of future performance.
We will hear no more of your list of “debacles”, Kev – they were only ever used to smear. Notice how little we’ve seen on dodgy blogs about these issues since the elections?
The LNP government in Queensland, on the other hand, is obviously going to continue to provide great entertainment – think Caltabiano, Driscoll, Flegg, Bates, and now apparently, O’Sullivan.
And sweetest of all – I am no longer part of the establishment. Thank Christ for that….
“The bi-partisan brutality on refugees, stolen by Labor from the Coalition, prevented me voting Labor this time –”…..Question….is this an admission of lying previously about being a Greens’ voter or were you almost convinced to change your vote to Labor by the last six years of Labor enterprise?
Suggest you read my post again – slowly – one word at a time……
Just pulling one point out of your post……previously you have claimed to vote Greens rather than Labor although you follow the Labor mantra.”The bi-partisan brutality on refugees, prevented me voting Labor THIS time.” This time gives the indication that you either voted Labor previously but changed your position due to the refugee stance, or you were on the verge of voting Labor but due to the stance on refugees remained a watermelon…..just trying to clarify your position. It’s not ana arguement about the subject of your post (pointless exercise arguing with nobility), rather an indication of your veracity and therefore your credibility. As pointed out to you previously on your service overseas…..you actually had a say about whether you made the trip, you just didn’t have the nerve to put your position across…..or if you did have the courage of your convictions, you actually went with the flow and became unhappy a few months into the tour.
Nice one Stu, love it, still pissing my self laughing.
“you actually had a say”
Total bullshit.
It’s about time that myth was busted.
So…..1735099, are you a watermelon who considered changing to a Laborious voter but decided not to because of your love of illegal immigration, or have you been lying about being a Greens backer and voted Labor all along and decided to change at this election?
We’ve had the overseas trip shit before and I know I am correct…..not a myth at all.