http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/17236469/support-for-labor-dismal-as-...

Despite polling showing federal Labor has failed to stimulate voter support with its budget, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she remains focused on "things that matter".

The latest Galaxy poll, released on Sunday, found about 48 per cent of voters felt worse off under the government's budget, announced last week.

Asked of her party's ability to claw back support before the September 14 election, Ms Gillard pointed to Labor's efforts.

"The focus here is on things that matter to the Australian people," the prime minister told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.

"I have been working hard with the team particularly in recent weeks. We have been so focused on the things that matter for our nation's long-term future: securing disability care, now seeking to secure school funding improvement and better ways of working in Australia's schools."

Galaxy analyst David Briggs said voters appear to have switched off federal Labor and history suggests the party will have trouble regaining confidence before the election.

"There were no sweeteners in the budget," Mr Briggs told Network Ten.

"The big difference between this year and last year is that in 2012, 23 per cent of voters thought they would be better off and now it's only 14 per cent."

Labor's support rose one percentage point and the coalition's dropped one point in the latest poll, but on a two-party preferred basis the government was stagnant at 46 per cent and the coalition on 54 per cent.

"When Labor has a really good week in politics the polls don't move," Mr Briggs said.

"When Labor has a really bad week the polls don't move and that suggests to me the voters are either not engaged, or even worse, are just not listening."

Asked if federal Labor could make up the numbers needed to win the September 14 election, the pollster said: "It's looking very unlikely".

The government did find support from a majority of the 1006 voters polled for its cuts to the baby bonus, with 64 per cent agreeing it was a good idea.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon agreed the outlook for federal Labor appeared grim.

"I think that even if (Treasurer) Wayne Swan gave every voter a solid gold baseball bat for the budget, most of them would still use it on the government," he said.

"People have stopped listening."

Ms Gillard said voters will have the final say.

"It's the nation's choice: better schools, putting our kids first, or school cutbacks and a lesser standard of education. That's the choice, and I'll be making that choice very clear in the weeks to come," she said.

Armchair_Politician wrote on May 20^th, 2013 at 6:37am:


Every country in the world is in debt and are still struggling with the downturn in the world economy much worse than Australia.....I cannot see how the Liberal Faithful justify such blatant crap.....Australia is doing very well by International Standards and is not in any danger of losing its AAA credit rating or reneging on its debt.....Australia should be thankful our Government where able to stave off the worst of the GFC and leave our economy in relatively good shape....This scare mongering is all about Tony Abbott's quest to be PM and has nothing to do with economic reality of the last 6 years!!!



If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), (attributed)

philperth2010 wrote on May 20^th, 2013 at 7:18am:




phil those countries have had mountains of debt on the rise for many years and they did nothing about it in fact they encouraged more... isnt that what the sub Prime debt was all about?..


we didnt have any of that in 2007.. in fact we were in the black.. not only that our income from mining INCREASED it didnt even hiccup....we were sitting on top of the world....


the govt did stave off anything.... because it didnt happen here... dont you get it......


MINING has saved this country....not the bloody govt although they want you to believe that... and you do!

cods wrote on May 20^th, 2013 at 11:15am:


cods

Possible ?

The unions very very rarely will help the coalition ..... its a constant any Liberal leader has to deal with.

I think the union dominating anything era is over, 2007 was their last gasp which the ALP repaid the debt on that one.

I feel for low paid workers who now have a small corrupt/toothless group left to represent them

cods wrote on May 20^th, 2013 at 11:13am:


In a loose sense thats the case cods.

Subprime lending basically in layman's terms means to give credit facilities to people with poor credit terms who may fail criteria in other tests.

What essentially happened in the subprime crisis is that in the 1990s under Bill Clinton, controls were relaxed in the home lending market enabling many to borrow for collateral to their homes but who may not make the payments.

What happened was the people who would offer loans - were the same people who would gain commission from the number of loans offered.

These debts were then packaged with other debts and sold to larger investment banks in what were known as multi-facet investment vehicles.

Where the problem existed is that they were packaged several times over so a loss of control happened in regards to what was in them and the amount of bad debt within that.

You had Lehman for example raising a provision on their balance sheet for doubtful debts based on regular vehicle testing.
However when the vehicle was unwound following audit testing it was discovered they had 60% bad debt coverage and yet were provided for around 9%.
They held a tonne of bad debt that nobody would pay.

Therefore Lehman couldn't pay what they owed, the people who loaned to Lehman couldn't collect so couldn't pay who they owed etc etc etc and so on.

Hence the crunch in capital as many would not loan out given people just didn't know who owed what and what was valid.

Subprime was the original cause but in reality it was a lack of control, easing of restrictions and an over-supply of poor debt on the balance sheets of large capital loaning entities.

When you are left picking up the pieces of a basket case budget smithy - sometimes desperate measures need to be taken.

No different to what we are finding in Britain at the moment with Cameron having to do the same thing.

Unfortunately if the people behind you leave a mess, you have to clean it up.

Labor make a mess, Coalition cleans it up leaves a surplus, Labor make a mess, Coalition cleans it up etc

The circle continues.

Dsmithy70 wrote on May 20^th, 2013 at 12:07pm:


wrong. the budget reply is a pointless exercise in general and all abbott did was to not give Labor a wedge issue to campaign dishonestly on. if they can go on and on and on about a return of workchoices and an increase in the GST - both things having been ruled out - then you certainly don't want to give them a legitimate issue.

longweekend58 wrote on May 20^th, 2013 at 5:33pm:


Perhaps my post wasn't clear enough to get through your rapture.

Individual compensation continues despite the eradication of the tax

Companies are also paid with tax $$ through direct action.

After years of being told no tax no compo required, after being told what direr situation the budgets apparently in, after being told of the Class warfare being raged, it's suddenly smart politics, all OK.

As long as I'm questioning or kicking Labor you seem keen to discuss the issue, when I do the same to Liberals suddenly your a fanboy with all sorts of excuses

My disappointment is palpable.