FriYAY wrote on Oct 17
th, 2011 at 9:35am:
Karnal wrote on Oct 17
th, 2011 at 9:14am:
FriYAY wrote on Oct 17
th, 2011 at 9:05am:
Karnal wrote on Oct 17
th, 2011 at 8:56am:
Labor's minority status has made it take decisions it would never have dreamed of before. We now have a carbon tax and onshore processing.
Satire with out knowledge = ?? not sure? Garbage?
You think?
Labor came in with no climate change policy and a vague stance of offshore processing. It played the small target, based on internal polling and focus groups.
When it became a minority government, I thought we'd see government grind to a halt. I thought we'd see no policies of any substance enacted. I thought government would be a mere stamp for the public service.
And yet, the Greens and independants have forced them to act - at a huge cost to Labor. Where previously, Labor would have been happy to feed refugees to the sharks and do nothing about climate change - their policy was a white paper, a conference, and wait for something to happen. However, Labor have been made, by forces akin to nature, to act.
You don't see that happen very often.
All I see is a minority government trying to stay in power by bowing to parties and independents SFA of us voted for.
I am sure many in the ALP wanted exactly what has happened, carbon tax and on shore processing. The right factions not so much. But both have been well and truly on the radar, starting with Rudd.
You got it. All of us voted for an ETS in 2007. Rudd's stance was to just keep quiet about boat arrivals and hope it would all go away.
I'm sure if Alan Jones and the Telegraph ran campaigns on bringing back the death penalty, people would be screaming about that too.
As Howard loved to say, government is about making decisions that can be unpopular, but are in the nation's interests.
I'm not really sure why the carbon tax is so unpopular. Households are being compensated. The changes will be miniscule. This is a tax on polluters, not households - and I'm above the tax threshold for compensation anyway so I'll be slugged more than most.
I'll hazzard a guess: Alan Jones and the Telegraph. Tony Abbott is riding a "grassroots" protest movement started by them. I agree with Gillard: it's the CSIRO or Alan. She's picked the CSIRO, something she never would have done if she had her own way. It took the Greens and independants to make her do it.
If you don't think global warming is a reality, I can see why you'd be a tad annoyed. But it will hardly effect you anyway. Onshore processing? You'll never notice the difference. We had this back in the 80s when the Vietnamese boat arrivals were coming. No one was too concerned then.
We're taking in numbers that we'd be taking in anyway. No major political party is talking about cutting the refugee intake. In fact, Labor and Liberal (Abbott, in particular) have both discussed raising the quota.
The Right faction of the ALP is about "whatever it takes" to stay in power. It was this faction that ousted Rudd. It is this faction that is poisoning politics with its ethical compass driven solely by polling. If they continue to have their way, Alan Jones might as well be PM.
Alan was the one, if you remember, who thought Gillard was great because she took on the teachers' unions. In a roundabout way, it was his say-so that got her in.
Democracy in this country is not about the "silent majority". It's about swinging voters in marginal seats. Sometimes governments should act without this minority in mind. Sure, they can throw them a few scraps every now and then when elections come around - but they've wised up to this tactic. It doesn't work as well after Howard overdosed them on middle class welfare.
Mind you, none of this will get Gillard or Labor back in. If they had have done all this back when Rudd was in - and explained it well - they'd have had a chance. They should have captured the momentum when they had it, and they should have made the tough decisions. If you believe the polls, it's what the majority of people wanted them to do anyway.
But they blew it when Rudd went back on the ETS, and they blew it when they knifed Rudd. They are now seen as a party without a heart, a narrative, and a majority in parliament who must bend to the whims of others.
Not to mention competance. Still, a little incompetance is something people forgive if you can show you've got ticker.
The ALP have showed spinelessness from day one, and this comes down to the politics of its Right faction.