Australia changes Government

[Pete.]

I have noticed a couple of comments on Paolo's thread about yesterday's change of Government in Australia and thought it would be better to start this thread so those interested might comment.

Australians yesterday voted to change from the right wing Liberal Coalition. (Yes my U.S. friends Liberal in OZ means Right wing). To the left wing Socialist Labor party.

The previous Government had been in power for eleven years and has taken Australia from a situation of a massive debt, high interest rates, high unemployment and continual union led workplace strikes,under the previous Labor Government.

To today where Australia is debt free, has low interest rates, no unemployment and massive prosperity.
But the people decided to kick them out! Go Figure.

Personally I think this will go down in history as Australia's darkest day, but I am a little further right than Attila the Hun.
I have just put on the flame suit.

[Jac Mac]

Hopefully that will mean a change for NZ to the Right in the next election, only problem I have with that is, are we 12 years ahead of Aust or behind ? [[[ Question mark was for Russ N who is becoming a stickler for correct punchthenation]]]

Jac Mac........

[flatchat(Chris)]

G'day Comrades! --- better go "fix" the (bank loan) interest rates.

We're probably due for a change as people tend to become accustomed to a comfort zone, so's that the left or right doesn't become too radical

[woodz428]

Pete, you're there and I'm not...but in the U.S. it's been reported that although the debt has been paid off and there seems to be a growing economy, that interest rates on home loans are still high. They are suggesting that the high interest rates that remain are what triggered the change. So, it can't be both, low interest rates or high, which are they??? The comments about the rates were from some Aussies that were voting. There was also mention that the rates plus the troops in Iraq were stimulii. It was also reported here that the new PM campaigned on removing AU troops immediately when taking office.

[roaldin]

Pete/Attila, whatever name you'd like, no flame from me mate.
I remember the days (seems so long ago) when a certain highly vocal and well known Tasmanian federal pollie would insert the word "socialist" in front of "labour" for effect at any and every opportunity so I admit to having a nostalgic giggle when reading your post.

Flatchat, pretty much I reckon. Being so far south and merely a club racer I hope I'm worthy to agree. I doubt it somehow but I will anyway. ;p
This is what I wrote on Paolo's thread - "Best thing to do with politics is to keep changing the bastards around, and to mix up the various levels, that way they can't become too extreme". Don't forget BTW, Qld played a large part in this change so we can be important together hey!

To this Australian the dark clouds are parting and the snakes are scattering, I hope the same happens elsewhere. Happy days are here again, at least on the horizon, for a while anyway.

FWIW I think Australia was finally fed up with the lies and dodging of the "extreme" right wing (just for you Pete ) liberals who took Australia IMO to a very dark place.

Lets not forget health and education, my and my families experience of the Howard years has been disgusting.

Can't say any more than that as I promised myself I wouldn't discuss Australia's er foreign policy etc on this forum anymore.

Tim.

[Ricky]

Home loan interest rates had previously been up around 17-18% under previous governments which under liberal and over a period of time came down to 5.5 - 6%. They are now on the way up again. (around 8% if I recall.)

Unemployment levels are such that you would have to be dead not to be able to get a job.

And the finances of the country appear to be in surplus.

so.... lets just hope the newly elected mob don't stuff up what is really quite an enviable position for any country.

[Pete.]

Originally Posted by flatchat

G'day Comrades! --- better go "fix" the (bank loan) interest rates.

We're probably due for a change as people tend to become accustomed to a comfort zone, so's that the left or right doesn't become too radical

Chris, how often did you fix your GT40 when it wasn't broke?

I think you will get well out of your comfort zone over the next few years. I can remember mortgage interest rates of 17% and if you wanted to lease a car 25% was the rate.
That will take you out of any comfort zone.

[Pete.]

Here are some performance comparisons.

[Dalton]

We have some very political discussions at our home, as I'm fairly to the Right and, like Pete, believe Australia has been travelling very well in terms of employment, productivity, stability, and our economy. We have weathered several overseas financial crises without much trouble. However my lovely wife, who will accept my views on cars and things, is a Professor and rather to the Left, and doesn't accept my political views. And the Federal Government has cut Uni funding back to about 40% of their required budget, so she spends lots of time overseas doing consulting work and other things to improve the Uni's bottom line. I'm not arguing with her on this, but there are other subjects such as the level of immigration, reconciliation with indigenous people, the importance of unions, our involvement in Iraq, and so on. It can be quite frosty some nights, I can tell you.

If the new Prime Minister is an economic conservative, as he claims, and the public service positions are not altered the way they are in the UK, and he keeps control of the Labour Party factions, and can stand up to the unions (no mean feat), we may go OK. We'll have to see. Typically the Labour Party comes in and has a hand-out mentality and stuffs up the economy by getting us into large debt again via union lead wage rises and social welfare. I'm now in my flame-retardant overalls waiting for an attack .

Dalton

[flatchat(Chris)]

Pete --me "broke " never the GT40 --and looking at the (Gov't.)"performance" statistics I can see why that southern club racer lefty is a bit bent left --Labors drug seizures are a good deal less than Libs "Happy days are here again"

[roaldin]

Now you accuse me of taking drugs, you have me a little perplexed Chris.
Most of my posts on here have been in good spirit I think, with the possible exception of some early political discussion during difficult times and before I censored myself. (Much of that was written after reading posts by people calling others "Satan's" etc, talking about Armageddon or some such thing and talk of nuking entire countries including entire populations (some of whom may just have been innocent...). I remember being pretty startled by those posts.)

You may feel you have enough importance here to make comments about my lack of it but junkie is a pretty low accusation.
I admit to a couple of celebratory drinks re' election and I probably piped up when in hindsight I would prefer not to have done (being a fairly inexperienced drinker), but drugs? Beneath both of us I hope. Or maybe you are including anyone that isn't, er, bent to the right...?
After a re-read I think my comments were pretty harmless in a tipsy kind of way.

Sorry to screw up your thread Pete. I hope you have never felt you needed a flame suit to deal with me. As much as we disagree on politics I enjoy your posts.

Probably time I left before this degenerates any further. Chris if there is a specific incident in which I have offended you then I am sorry. I don't remember it but I doubt I meant anything except in jest. If it's just re' political view then that is unfortunate but there's nothing I can do about it. Just because we disagree shouldn't be basis for insult and put-down; rib-poking maybe but...

As for political discussion, it is my experience here that there are very few willing to speak up in disagreement, those that do speak up have my respect (for the little that's worth here). It's easy to go along with the group and tough to stand up and be counted as being in disagreement.

One last thing - Ron, thank's for a great forum and a great job. I've had an interesting and informative few years here. As my method of payment to you was a little unorthodox (it was done through a third party if you remember) I really don't know how much I ended up giving you (it was supposed to be in the hundreds) but I hope it covered the bother I've given you.

This started as a PM to Chris and became a public goodbye on a thread about Australian politics (Not important enough to have it's own thread I realise Chris). I thought it better to do it this way than just disappear like so many others.

Hah, reads like a resignation.

Tim (roaldin) (I'll change it back to roaldin in case this account can't be deleted. The "Southern Club Racer" thing was supposed to be light-hearted jest, I had hoped Chris' comments had been light-hearted as well)

[Gregg]

Originally Posted by roaldin

Now you accuse me of taking drugs, you have me a little perplexed Chris.
Most of my posts on here have been in good spirit I think, with the possible exception of some early political discussion during difficult times and before I censored myself. (Much of that was written after reading posts by people calling others "Satan's" etc, talking about Armageddon or some such thing and talk of nuking entire countries including entire populations (some of whom may just have been innocent...). I remember being pretty startled by those posts.)

You may feel you have enough importance here to make comments about my lack of it but junkie is a pretty low accusation.
I admit to a couple of celebratory drinks re' election and I probably piped up when in hindsight I would prefer not to have done (being a fairly inexperienced drinker), but drugs? Beneath both of us I hope. Or maybe you are including anyone that isn't, er, bent to the right...?

Tim, I can not see where any of Chris' comments remotely can be distorted to these statements. Maybe I am missing something??

[roaldin]

quote - "I can see why that southern club racer lefty is a bit bent left --Labors drug seizures are a good deal less than Libs "Happy days are here again" "

The rest was earlier and elsewhere, I was a little taken aback by those previous comments at the time but not having any reason to believe they were more than jest I tried to take them that way.

Anyway -
"Southern Club Racer" is something I called myself recently as a joke; "bent left", "drug seizure" etc take as written it doesn't seem too cryptic; "happy days are here again" quotes something I wrote. It seems pretty clear to me.
As I said in the above post it started as a PM so was aimed at the person and the (confusing for my part) situation between us, but as I continued it became a "that's all folks". I don't think my understanding of the situation will befuddle Chris too much.

As someone who tries to see the light-hearted side of things I am upset that I have managed to get to this point with someone who I had no beef with, in fact I don't really remember saying much at all to Chris except in reply, although this may not be accurate. I vaguely recall saying that I would like to meet him during Targa Tas' one year but that may well have been someone else with a similar pseudonym.
I am not leaving because of what was said even though I thought it low, I leave because I have somehow caused offence to someone somehow, unknowingly, and that is something I regret.

After going through this again I think maybe the earlier stuff wasn't meant to be too harsh and I think I probably should have restrained myself a bit better with my comments post election but the drug thing is something I find pretty dirty and below the belt. Maybe it doesn't seem so to others.

Prior to the "lefty" "bent left" post I thought I had agreed with Chris about the need to change gov'ts occasionally to stop them becoming too extreme, so I don't know how I got from there to being someone who would vote Labour because less drugs were allegedly seized during Labour's previous time in office.
I think my comments, tipsy or not, were hardly radical when compared to others I've seen, including the rather unnerving ones I mentioned.

Tim.

[Russ Noble]

Tim, Don't get your knickers in a twist. Are you referring to me calling Scott Satan?

Scott and I get along fine. He called himself Satan and I ran with it....

Quote from Scott's post....

"If my calculations are correct that would make me ......Satan. No wait.... the anti-christ. Must be the avatar."


It can be easy to see animosity where there is none sometimes. Always take everything with a grain of salt. I enjoy you contributions and hope to see more in the future.

Cheers,

[woodz428]

Originally Posted by Dalton

Typically the Labour Party comes in and has a hand-out mentality
Dalton

You're Lucky, both of the major parties here have that mentality. It just varies on who they want to give it to, but it never wanes under either.

[I LOVE GT40- Paolo]

all this means any significant change for foreigners there?

[Keith Hardy]

You'll be OK Paulo, it's just the English they don't like......