Julia Gillard’s ridiculous ‘moving forward’ has made me move sideways away from supporting her.

Initially, she had my strong support because any new leader had to be a vast improvement on Rudd. Then my support grew as she started to say the right sorts of things about a sustainable Australia, etc, and to make strong moves away from some of Rudd’s worst failings.

But crikey, she’s not helping by spouting this simplistic slogan, which really is an insult to the intelligence of ordinary Australians.

I have never liked Peter Costello, but he gave me a good laugh a couple of days ago when he parodied this stupid slogan.

“moowving foorwood……….mOOOOwwvving FOOAAARRRWWWOODH!”

Hahahahahaaaa!!

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Hwaaaaw (:>(

The "Australian" article is correct in condemning both major parties for their stupid slogans and predictable advertising, but as usual fails to point out the obvious conclusions. Perhaps its owners don't want you to even think of them.
The obvious conclusions are that neither major party has anything much to offer other than the sort of mismanagement each of them has saddled us with in the past. Therefore it is high time that someone else was given a go... most likely the Greens as the leader amongst the minor parties which scarcely ever get fair coverage in the media.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- never in Australian history have our major candidates been such a waste of space, and of so little consequence if one or the other gets voted, and care just as little about Australia as the other, what better time than to not vote either and see if there is anyone else that might correspond to your political beliefs?

I mean seriously, unless your political beliefs are doing nothing, taking huge sums of money for it, and pandering to lobbyists first and foremost, then by all means pick one of the two!
You won't be disappointed then!

I have to agree with King Hazza on this. We should weep in the streets for the lack of political talent and the paucity of choice in this election.

The Greens have some bright young candidates -

Isn't that the only way to go - strengthen the presence of minor parties in the hope of keeping whichever major gains government accountable?

How have we come to this parlous state?

I think our major parties are too afraid to actually offer anything of substance, for fear of breaking promises following the election. It was, after all, Rudd's major undoing... not coming through with ALL of the promises he made. So the vague, variably interpretable slogans come in to play. No promises to break.

I strongly agree, there is almost no difference between the ideology of the two parties any more, they have both learnt from JW Howard that you don't actually need to do anything productive to stay in power. Just "manage" things and pander to the fears and greed of swinging voters in the marginal seats.

I hope enough people vote for the Greens, not because I want them to run our country, but so the major parties are shaken up enough to actually enact some meaningful, productive and progressive policy decisions. Unfortunately, policy in this country has been stagnant, and in some areas regressive, since Howard/Costello took over in caretaker mode.

I agree that the immediate benefit would be that the majors would try to actually do something- but I have no intention of letting either of them remain in government- since the 60s they have shown themselves to be so corrupt, lazy and indifferent that to expect them to suddenly turn into honest hard-working people who sincerely care is not something I hold on to.
And to WANT to believe otherwise is silly. Nothing will truly motivate them to be decent.

Leopards changing spots and whatnot.

And I do imagine the Greens would do a better job of all sectors than the current lot- as I imagine many other parties nobody knows about due to the fact that they don't accept 'donations' to advertise as much as the Libs and Labor mob does (another reason I will vote Green- they don't take donations (aka bribes) as part of party policy.
And I guarantee you, 2nd,3rd, 4th, etc WILL go to the other minors that correspond closest to my beliefs (with the majors at the very bottom to minimize the amount of Preference they can get.

And if YOU don't want parties to preference others, I suggest YOU also fill out all boxes yourself.