So, it is election day. A day I usually have only a mild interest in. Generally, I have a preference for who will win, but don't feel particularly passionate about it. I figure it is all swings and round-a-bouts, and we end up about the same in the end no matter who is in power. I certainly wouldn't feel the need to publicly write about it.
But this year I feel entirely different. I have a heavy heart. And I am deeply worried about the future. This is because, if we are to believe all the polls, the team that is going to win has the potential to do irreparable damage.
Now, let me first of all state that I am not a die-hard Labor voter. Philosophically, I probably lean more that way, but I am what is commonly called a swinging voter. I also wholeheartedly agree that their leadership battles and back stabbing have been, well, irritating to say the least. But is this really a reason to vote them out? Really??
You see, I actually vote on the POLICIES a party has. I can be influenced by personality, but at the end of the day it is the policies that truly matter. So how about this year? The Liberal Party and Tony Abbott have done an amazing job of keeping policy out of the spotlight. In fact, they waited until the eleventh hour to release costings and ideas to the voting public. The fact that they released these things just TWO DAYS ago should be ringing alarm bells with the voting public. But it seems many are not suspicious at all. SCARY!
Then there are the constant lies and scaremongering of the Liberal Party. I can't believe that Joe Public has fallen for this trickery, just blindly believing what they hear and read in the media. All this when all the FACTS actually show a vastly different story. And how come the Labor Party has been completely unable to cut through these claims to counter them? Even in political advertising, I have seen constant ads by the Liberals, and ads from the Greens and Clive Palmer. But I can't recall a single Labor ad. What on earth is their media department doing?
So, for what it is worth, here are my reasons I REALLY REALLY wish you wouldn't vote for the Liberal Party today.
- The National Broadband Network is absolutely vital to the future of Australia. VITAL! More and more things will be conducted online and in ways we cannot even begin to imagine. And yet the Liberal Party is going to only do half the job. This will then all need to be fixed up later, at a much higher cost and a great deal of inconvenience. Now is the time to do this, while the cost of money is low and the economy is booming (in a relative sense). Do the job properly the first time you fools!!!
- Which brings me to the lie that the economy is in a mess. Um, no, no it isn't. We have AAA credit rating. Most countries don't. We have low unemployment. We have low interest rates. Our borrowings are low compared to income. To assume we should have no debt as a country is ridiculous. Businesses and individuals borrow money and go into debt all the time in order to grow assets and wealth. No-one blinks an eye at a mortgage. Borrowings are not out of control. I am not an economist, but any one of them will be able to explain that this bit of scaremongering by the Liberal Party is a lie.
- The present government is not a chaotic mess. Leadership and infighting aside, they have passed a record amount of legislation, including some huge long term stuff. All of this in a minority government. Pretty impressive actually.
- Humanitarian Issues - don't even get me started here! We are NOT being swamped by millions of refugees. Far fewer come here than most other places. We take a tiny proportion of the world's refugees. The Liberal Party mantra of 'Stop the Boats' sickens me. Mind you, neither side is 'floating my boat' on this issue, so to speak. But the Labor party reaction was enforced by the constant criticism by the Liberal party. To use this human tragedy as a political football actually sickens me. And then just add cuts to foreign aid by the Liberal Party to show how mean spirited and inhumane they can be. Australia is rich. It is our moral obligation to help the poor. Here's an idea - increase foreign aid and help people in desperate situations and maybe that would stop the boats! Or you could try and buy all the leaky rust bucket boats in the world and burn them. Yep, that might work.
- Climate change has to be dealt with. Not sure if the Carbon Tax is the right way to go, but it certainly hasn't been disastrous. At least it is a start. Perhaps the rises in power costs are not all entirely attributed to this tax (seeing as it is the State Government that keeps raising them!). In any case, maybe if we all reduce our individual power use it isn't actually such a bad thing. And if you think for one second that costs will go down if the Carbon Tax is axed then you are dreaming.
- The Liberal Party hasn't fully committed to the Gonski reforms for education. You can bet your bottom dollar there will be cuts in spending there. But who would know. What are their policies again?
Rant over!
