May I get in early?
Is this out of the cash for clunkers stable?
A good idea but so very complex.
I could not get NSW Government Ministers, including MacDonald in his time at National parks, and several in the then RTA, to buy Australian.
Even in the end uniforms.
How will this help, are we the ultimate bill payers for government infrastructural going to pay much more.
Steel to cement is mostly imports, I would love to forget free trade rules and embargo such imports but no government will or should.
We should support our industry.
We should use our country's manufacturing first and last.
But is this a real policy, will it work, how?

Quote "THE Prime Minister is to paint herself as a leader capable of making tough choices, saying only Labor would be prepared to take $1 billion from the richest top 20 companies to fund a job-creation plan for smaller ones."

Just like her other WINNER the mining tax, How many people will the top 20 lay off to compensate for the loss and how many people will small business hire?

You are on a winner here Juliar, why not fix up the mining tax debacle first, incidentally most of those top 20 are in the mining business.

I write as the person I am, a true believer, Labor supporter, disliker of Gillard and her supporters.
In Parliament not out side.
What is the business of political party's if not policy's/plans and direction?
To me, educated by my time as a construction union official, this plan cannot work.
Seemingly thrown together in a back yard shed, it ignores the truth business runs to make a profit.
While some way must be found to off set the impacts of the high Australian dollar, this is not it.
Government, may have the power to insist its contractors use only Australian made goods, but that says pay more for less.
A continent wide construction project, say airports roads or my wished for flood reconstruction and moving homes to higher ground idea may not do it.
Currently we would have to import 457 visa holders, we do not have enough workers to do it.
What is the answer? some may know I doubt this is it.
Continued.

This mornings polls bring no surprise to me, and no joy.
In a final effort to defend myself, I divert, for this post only my own thread.
I can not play the foolish game many supporters of Labor are doing.
Burying ostrich like heads in the sand.
Pointing to Abbott chanting a truth, he is bad, without knowing, Gillard is worse!
And the dream time stuff that Labor can ignore, or at best pay lip service, to the fact Kevin Rudd is our only chance.
What if no voice is raised? no one within our party, HIGHLIGHTS NSW cry,s over HSU, stands publicly to oppose power brokers, OWNERSHIP of my party.
This policy requires me to ask, are those we sent to govern for us interested in public opinion.
Do they wave this lolly bag with no bottom as empty as cash for clunkers at us, is that how dumb they think we are?
Use the raised cash to dump payroll tax on Australian manufacturers for ten years.
But build no castles insult our ability to think no more.
And?
Dump Gillard and Swan.

What would be really interesting to know is the liberal parties job policies ?
We have claims from from Abbott that he is going to create 2 million new jobs
but on the other hand he is going to bring the budget back into surplus.
I can see no way that these two policies are in any way compatible
in anything under a decade. My guess is that the liberals will go
for the surplus and bad luck about higher unemployment.

What is needed is for a government to steal a march on history and
disconnect Australia from globalisation.
One of the causes of the worlds economic problems is globalisation, but
not just on its own.
We are indeed at a turning point of history, with the end of growth here now.
There are two ways governments try to increase growth;
By pumping more money into the system, ie printing money.
By introducing severe cutbacks in expenditure.

Those two methods are no longer working and economists do not seem to
know why. However there are economists and others who do state that
we have reached the end game of growth because net energy has fallen
too low to maintain our economies.
Net Energy is the available energy to do work after the energy used
to produce the energy itself is subtracted.
It is known as the Red Queen syndrome.
ie run as fast as you can to stay in the same place.

I do not think either party is capable of making the mind set change
necessary to handle the coming changes. It is just too radicle.