2007 Federal Election - Coalition or Labor/Howard or Rudd? (5 Viewers)

[ihavenothing]

The reasoning behind the failure of the NSW Opposition, is that aside from 'leadership', they are not a capable alternative. Yet for some reason, it is widely percieved that Rudd and the ALP are. Whether this is because of Rudd's ability in the media, I'm not quite sure. However, when deciding this, let's have a look at the key potential cabinet positions:

Treasurer - Wayne Swan (heaven forbid)

Health Minister - Nicola Roxon (ah..who?)

Attorney General - Joseph Ludwig ( CAptain Von Trapp?)

Education - Stephen Smith ( )

Foreign Affairs - Robert McClelland

Defence - Joel Fitzgibbon (Factional hardman extraordinaire)

Workplace Relations - Julia Gillard

As they say, Different Leader, Same Old Labor..

Try and name me anybody out of Malcolm Fraser's cabinet. Of course you would have no idea of names, its how good their politics are.

 

[withoutaface]

Try and name me anybody out of Malcolm Fraser's cabinet. Of course you would have no idea of names, its how good their politics are.

I doubt there'd be many who couldn't name his treasurer

 

[ihavenothing]

or his foreign minister who if elected could have led the country ina far different direction

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

The reasoning behind the failure of the NSW Opposition, is that aside from 'leadership', they are not a capable alternative. Yet for some reason, it is widely percieved that Rudd and the ALP are. Whether this is because of Rudd's ability in the media, I'm not quite sure. However, when deciding this, let's have a look at the key potential cabinet positions:

Treasurer - Wayne Swan (heaven forbid)

Health Minister - Nicola Roxon (ah..who?)

Attorney General - Joseph Ludwig ( CAptain Von Trapp?)

Education - Stephen Smith ( )

Foreign Affairs - Robert McClelland

Defence - Joel Fitzgibbon (Factional hardman extraordinaire)

Workplace Relations - Julia Gillard

As they say, Different Leader, Same Old Labor..

You're an imbecile. I'm sure the same was being said of Howard when he won in 1996, I'm sure the same has been said for pretty much every government. It means shit.

 

[frog12986]

You're an imbecile. I'm sure the same was being said of Howard when he won in 1996, I'm sure the same has been said for pretty much every government. It means shit.

I beg to differ. These are the same people who produced policy of the quality 'Knowledge Nation' and 'Medicare Gold' (including the masterminds Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard). It think it's highly relevant.

Additionally, in 1996 as in many other elections, serving Ministers were performing abismally or below par. Regardless of David Hicks and the War in Iraq, that is not presently the case. The quality of the shadow ministers is only relative to the quality of the serving ministers. When combined with the policy initiatives developed by these individuals it certainly supports my point.

 

[ihavenothing]

Yeh right Peter Reith was must have been an excellent Industrial Relations minister in 1996-98 the waterfront dispute went down very well indeed

 

[Iron]

I agree with the general proposition that the government currently has more talent than the ALP. There are major organisational problems with Labor, which is keeping their gene pool low.

But I dont agree that Liberal talent is being directed towards what (I believe) is best for the subjective national interest. An unprecedented majority in the polls also agree with this. This government, however more talented by comparison, can no longer convince the 10% of swingers that their policies are better, so they will be defeated.

As Nebuchanezzar suggested, there's an inevitable interim period where ministers aquaint themselves with their portfolios, but as long as their departments are given broad goals, then ministers can rely on them to keep things ordered until they find their feet.

 

[withoutaface]

1. Santoro, not Santorio.
2. Santoro was a Queenslander, Pyne is South Australian.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Rudd dumping Lathams hitlist policy doesn't bode well with me.

 

[kenny156]

You're an imbecile. I'm sure the same was being said of Howard when he won in 1996, I'm sure the same has been said for pretty much every government. It means shit.

I agree. I seem to recall some fairly laclustre policies from the coalition while Hawke/Keatin were in power, none of which were any better than some of Labor's stellar efforts such as Medicare Gold etc

I beg to differ. These are the same people who produced policy of the quality 'Knowledge Nation' and 'Medicare Gold' (including the masterminds Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard). It think it's highly relevant.

Additionally, in 1996 as in many other elections, serving Ministers were performing abismally or below par. Regardless of David Hicks and the War in Iraq, that is not presently the case. The quality of the shadow ministers is only relative to the quality of the serving ministers. When combined with the policy initiatives developed by these individuals it certainly supports my point.

I wouldn't say that in 1996 all Ministers were performing abismally or below par. People seem to focus on the economic "failings" of the Keating Government, but some of their remaining policies in other areas were still quite good (I emphasise the word some). The problem was that they forgot the electorate they were representing.

And I also wouldn't say that today's cabinet ministers are performing brilliantly. How many more Immigration, Defence, industrial relations, foreign affairs and legal bungles can we expect? Sure, the economy is good and the govt appears to be doing something on water and climate change, but very little has been done about health, roads or education. Apart from being a hypocrite in criticising Rudd over talking about his Christian values, Abbott (who has a monopoly over christian values by talking non-stop about them) has given us very little policy substance in recent times.

The government keeps talking about Labor's lack of policies, however, the government has only truly given us policies on water, climate change, the economy (same ol' same ol') and foreign affairs/terrorism. Maybe instead of trying to sling mud at labor, they should look at themselves and try and win this election on policies for the future, rather than the usual scare campaign.

I know that last statement is overwhelming optimism, considering this is Howard, and he doesn't know how to win without a scare campaign, but we can all hope...

 

[gnrlies]

Chris Pyne deserved to be promoted...

 

[withoutaface]

Chris Pyne deserved to be promoted...

Except that in his younger days he was head of the "free university" brigade.

 

[frog12986]

Except that in his younger days he was head of the "free university" brigade.

He is also a Costello supporter.

 

[Rafy]

Santo Santoro will resign from the senate next week.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/santoro-to-quit-parliament/2007/03/20/1174153065715.html



Newspoll: 61/39 TPP in Labor's favour. (was 57/43)
Coalition support has fallen off the edge of a cliff in the past month:
http://www.ozpolitics.info/election2007/pollchart-newspoll-tpp.png
http://www.ozpolitics.info/election2007/pollchart-newspoll-tpp-comparative.png

Some qualitative research reported in The Australian (Gen Y sides with PM, as boomers drift) offers some explaination:

...the feedback from voters offered the first non-partisan insight into why Labor had soared in published opinion polls over the past three months.

"It has less to do with Rudd and more to do with a tiredness with the Government and with Howard," she said.

"But one of the things we are picking up strongly is that the Opposition has well and truly arrived in town and there is now a genuine contest.

"I feel the huge swings towards Labor and Rudd are mainly about that - registering interest and relief rather than a commitment to vote Labor.

 

[kenny156]

Sure the opinions polls are nice but Labor are still going to struggle to get the 17 seats to form government in their own right.

Howard may have lost his touch a little, but there's still a long way to go.

One lesson we've all learnt: never write off Howard

 

[frog12986]

I think Andrew Bolt makes a fair assessment of the polls..

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_pm_going_going_not_gone/

 

[Triangulum]

Labor launches $4.5b broadband policy:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1877739.htm

Costello launches into almost ridiculous hyperbole re same:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1878045.htm

 

[frog12986]

Labor launches $4.5b broadband policy:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1877739.htm

Costello launches into almost ridiculous hyperbole re same:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1878045.htm

I wouldn't call it ridiculous. I think it highlights a pertinent point about the ALP's continued affinity with expenditure..

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Kevin Rudd is beggining to piss me off. Oh Messrs Rudd and Gillard (take that how you want), don't make me vote for the greens!

 

[Triangulum]

I wouldn't call it ridiculous. I think it highlights a pertinent point about the ALP's continued affinity with expenditure..

It's infrastructure investment, not pure expenditure, yes? A better broadband network would, I assume, bring economic rewards over time.

In any case, this is probably more a political tactic to contrast Labor's positive policy-making, commitment to nation-building, etc etc to the pool of sleaze in which the Coalition is currently mired. It's an image thing. The policy, in its current form, with its exact details, will probably not be implemented. It'll change; but at this point they're showing that they have forward-looking policy, which is what they want to get out of it.