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The Forum > Article Comments > What sort of election campaign are we having? > Comments

What sort of election campaign are we having? : Comments

By Don Aitkin, published 18/5/2016

I want someone to be talking toughly to us, reminding us that our country is not a kind of holiday resort, but a work in progress. I’m probably old-fashioned.

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I am extremely disappointed with the Turnbull crowd. So much for good economic management communication explaining what needs to be done and how the Turnbull camp plans to achieve it. So much for advocacy for good policy.

I want the Abbot team back, please!

Some of Abbott's achievements in just 2 years:

• Stopping the boats,

• scrapping the carbon and mining taxes,

• accelerating budget repair,

• the signing of trade agreements with Japan, South Korea and China,

• removing support for the ailing car industry,

• refusing ¬financial support for (now profitable) Qantas,

• repealing red and green tape,

• the creation of innovation growth centres, and

• the commissioning of papers on

o tax reform,
o northern Australia and
o the federation

• the Royal Commission into Union-ALP corruption

These are but some of the Abbott government’s successes.

The record is impressive and will surprise many voters.
Posted by Peter Lang, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 3:34:09 PM
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Thanks Don, you outlined my quandary well, but appear to have no more answers than the rest of us.

"What sort of election campaign are we having?" a damn awful election, with not a satisfactory choice in sight.

The slimy Turnbull can't tell us what he wants to do, if people actually knew his preferred policies he would have no chance of election, & he knows what happens to barefaced liars. Anyone who trusts him is an absolute idiot.

Labor can't announce their actual policies, for exactly the same reason. They are equally trustworthy as Turnbull. God help us.

For me there are only three issues.

1/ Immigration, including illegals as first priority.

I believe Turnbull would soften the people smuggling fight so much, it will return to near Rudd proportions. He also wants more legal immigration as an easy way to employ huge numbers in the building industry, despite the damage it does to all of us.

Too many Labor candidates are pro opening the boarders & be damned to the damage to the current population. Labor would make the Rudd flood look like a mere trickle.

2/ Climate change comes in at number 2. I have no idea what any intelligent folk in either major really think. Obviously Turnbull sees it as a prospect for bankers to make huge money, & will open the flood gates on our money to go to them, regardless of his election sprucking. Labor of course have to subscribe to global warming to buy greenie preferences. Honesty & facts have no bearing on any of this.

Neither have legitimate reasons for what they will do, regardless of promises, & they will both waste billions on alternate energy projects, despite their proven failure in Europe & the USA, & avoid like the plague the question of nuclear.

Continued.
Posted by Hasbeen, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 4:10:12 PM
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Continued.
3/ Education now controlled by the feminist movement has been dumbed down to the stage where even the very high achievers, when leaving senior high school have less grounding in math & science than the average junior high leavers did 40 years ago.

When these kids require remedial math courses to even undertake an apprentiship we really are on the slippery slide to oblivion. Neither major offer any hope that they will even attempt to turn this around, ever.

We saw the result of Abbott honestly trying to tackle some of these problems even at edges. I doubt any career politician will ever again try, it is easier for them to throw money & shrug their shoulders at the lack of results.

The big question is, will the informal vote win on the night.
Posted by Hasbeen, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 4:11:05 PM
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Don, I see two major problems in this country, the first being compulsory voting, and the second being welfare, and i'm not just talking about the dole.

Compulsory voting sees some people voting who would normally struggle to wedge themselves out of their chair and, some also vote for character of those they vote for, totally ignoring the facts. A case in point is the budget reply speech from Bill Shorten whereby he came across as some type of miracle worker who has suddenly found a huge bag of dollars, dollars we simply don't have.

The other is welfare, because as it stands more than half of the population over 18 (voting age) rely on welfare and many don't give a damn where the money comes from, or more so, who pays it, so long as it gets paid. The outrage over the abolition of the temp levy on high income earners is an example of this. Unfortunately, it appears the higher the dependency on welfare, the lower the care factor.

We are about to see at least 200,000 jobs lost in the car industry, and if history is any judge, this figure could be more like half a million as one thing all political commentators are good at is under stating such facts.

We have not seen such a hit on our economy in modern times and even our pollies are ignoring this catastrophic event even though it is literally upon us.

The truth is we need a big stick approach but nobody can get past these two obstacles.

I fear we need to find rock bottom before we can throw the baby out with the bathwater so as to say, and history again suggests labor will be best to bring this upon us. God help us!
Posted by rehctub, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 4:18:47 PM
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I think you touch on some good points, though maybe you can't see the trees for the leaves.
You discuss a need for "tough love" from our politicians as opposed to trying to please everyone.

I respect your point of view but the bigger question and the one you missed entirely is WHY?

Why do they now try to please everyone on every politically sensitive topic?
And cater to and and live in fear of the welfare and minority vote?
With the lefties and their PC ideology trying to regulate every aspect of our lives?

You talk about a democratic and free election being an immense privilege, and assert that politicians should remind us that most people on earth don’t have that privilege, or have only a faint shadow of it.
And this is where I took exception to your article and where I believe you've got it all wrong.

You are wrong to assume we have democracy.
It's not something you have a measure of, either you have it or you don't, and I say no-one has it, (except maybe the Swiss) its a fantasy that you have been lead to believe exists when it doesn't.
Perhaps you should look up the meaning of the word, see here.

http://www.google.com.au/#q=origin+of+the+word+democracy

If they make the laws for us, then we should make the laws for them.
Until this happens, democracy is just a fantasy..
- a status quo that you willingly accepted, but its not democracy.

You can't sell the idea of democracy when its inherantly false, and every assumption or idea made from that false conclusion going forward will thus likely be a misled opinion.

Also because you've been lead to believe a false narrative, your now officially a pawn on the board.
Posted by Armchair Critic, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 7:10:23 PM
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Then you talk about education, spending and debt.
And summarise by discussing the topics important to you, public debt, reducing involvement in government and family life and a certain modesty in talking about ourselves and what we can do... and a note on the lack of 'climate change' discussion.

When the government panders to the welfare vote, in apparent fear of it, then we are all just rearranging chairs on the Titanic anyway.

Most people are too busy with their own week to week finances to care less what state the countries economy's in.
We're always told about the debt, all our lives, it never ever ends.
Do you think it has any impact to the average person living week to week?

Is there every a plan to pay off the debt?
What is the acceptable level of debt or is debt simply 'business as usual' something to blame and point the finger at the people for, like we're the ones making the rules?

And personally I couldn't care less about climate change, I'd sell and burn more coal if it was in taxpayers interests.
That said, I do care about the Great Barrier Reef.
Posted by Armchair Critic, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 7:12:51 PM
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