How Will You Vote On August 21St ?

[Pete A]

I was planning to be a self funded retiree and hoped to retire in a few years time. This was on the basis of a retirement tax incentive introduced by Costello a few years back which allowed up to $100K per year inc employer contributions to be put into Super at flat 15% tax and so encouraged people over 55 to pour more into self fundsed Super - great plan and most financial managers strongly endorsed doing it. Because of this "lot" this has been cut to $50K per year and they are talking about reducing or removing it completely. This stupid, and petty decision to save a few bucks effects thopusands of people like me who were fully intending to self fund retirement. This now means I probably have to work another 2-3 years to achieve my goal. Any further reduction makes it worse. The blowoput in welfare dependancy will be considerable over time. This sort of issue (and there are probalby 100's of other similar examples of this Government disadvantaging the public and themselves) is not high profile and therefore escapes the day to day scrutiny of the special interest groups "rent a crowd" and the sorry excuse for media. I cannot understand why the election polling is supposed to be so close. It does not deserve to be. This "mob" are without doubt the worst we have had for a long time and the prospects of any great change in a second term are not very convincing.

With regard to the election itself. Just about every political leader of any persuasion in the past has stood up and stated that "the Australian people are not stupid" WRONG they are stupid if they think that giving these guys another chance is going to make things better. It also astounds me how people could even consider a protest vote from Labor to Greens. Good god how stupid are they.

OK, so let's get to the lunatic Latham. I must admit it's been a bit of a hoot seeing his abtics I must admit. Yes he's an idiot to many, but he is right about one thing. If you want to protest against Labor and don't want to vote conservative - FINE. Put in a blank form or vote for someone that won't direct their preferences to Labor. Do your homework.

Let's hope that sanity prevails and I can't wait till Sunday when all this BS is over with. Problem is, it may be the start of something worse.

BTW. If Gilligan gets it, She'll be gone in about 1-2 years when she falls out of favour with the power brokers. Deja Vu here. Cheers.

[ubute]

Well said xr_velocity! That pretty much sums up my sentiments.

As for Work Choices, WTF was the problem with it exactly anyway? Other than it made the Unions a bit scared? In my industry there's no Unions to be a member, not that I can see a way that they'd help me out anyway and Work Choices would have made my life better, but nooooooo... the union hacks had to make a big scare campaign over it cos they'd be losing power. What the Union loving State Labor governement is doing to the QLD Police pay at the moment is worse than anyone would have felt with Work Choices anyway.

[tab]

Queensland Police are actually running a radio advertisement saying they'd prefer Workchoices over the Labor government

We had the same discussion after the last election when Rudd got in re: who was actually voting for him. I mix in a fairly wide and diverse circle of people and would honestly say that less than 20% of anyone I know voted Labor three years ago. So as far as the current poll results go I'm not surprised. The general sentiment is anti-labor but when it comes the time to fill in the ballot everything seems to change....yet labor voters tend to be ashamed of what they've done and won't own up to it.

I'm not for one minute ridiculing someone just because of how they vote, but I'm genuinely perplexed that none of them will openly admit it! What's the go with that?

[xr_velocity]

Talk about welfare, remember Krudd trying to mean test the health care rebate? The whole point of the rebate was to entice people to pay for their own hospital bills by going private. Reducing strain on public health. It worked, I took it up for that very reason, it cost me only a little more money. Remember the baby bonus being mean tested as well...everything was going to be means tested by Labor, meaning those who pay taxes and deserve to get the occasional tax break would lose it...effectively taking on an individual tax hike and simply because they had worked hard for their money...while Shazza Smith and her 5 bastard children were free to live off welfare forever.

I like Liberal's theory of enabling the private sector to build Australia, Government can't run business, they have no share holders and are rarely held accountable. You can't sack them whenever you want for stuffing up like a CEO can. If the CEO of BHP, Woolworths, Macquarie Bank etc had run their businesses like the BER or Insulation debacles they would have been shown the door instantly. It's time to sack these clowns all you Labor closet voters!

I am also not trying to ridicule Labor voters, I have swung many ways in my life, but you would think enough is enough.

Edited 17/08/10 04:09 AM by xr_velocity

[Smoke them tyres]

What I have found amazing during this election campaign is the sheer lack of questioning of Dullard and Co on costings....ie intensely question a $6b internet plan but blindly accept a $43b+ one (that was worked out on the back of an envelope and a couple of days "discussions"). Breathtaking stuff for it's lack of process, thought and rigour. What a gamble.

Here is a good read about this to get some sensible thinking into it:

http://smarthouse.com.au/Comment/J6H2A4E9

Edited 17/08/10 04:40 AM by Smoke them tyres

[tab]

Turnbull published an article yesterday on Business Spectator, ignore the few sly little swipes at the government and it's quite a thought-provoking article

Federal Election 2010 | Why the NBN will fail | Malcolm Turnbull, Election 2010 | Commentary | Business Spectator

You may have to register to read it, but worth it.

Scary that most of the stupid electorate really don't understand...all they see is fast internet and yippee The fact that it will cost you a ridiculous amount to use and could send the country broke is irrelevant. And the media realise that most people either don't understand the finer points or just simply don't care so they couldn't be bothered pursuing the issue.

[xr_velocity]

Most articles I have read from anyone in the private sector who analyses the NBN, can see it as the big fat white elephant it is. The company I work for stands to benefit enormously from the project going ahead....but I still don't want it. A lot of people are saying take that $43bn and spend a little on internet and the rest on homeless, hospitals etc, but really, we don't own or earn one cent of that $43bn. It's not a matter of spend it better, it's a matter of do not spend it until you can afford it unless it's a necessity or a very profitable investment.

[DUS12]

I didnt mind work choices at all. I hate unions because I think all they do is protect the lazy guys, labour are taking SO MUCH credit for the position john howard left them in, that's the reason we didnt go into recession, keating had interest rates so high its not funny cause of the debt he had us in, im only young and I know every time labour get in anywhere they financially f*ck the place,

[xr_velocity]

I remember being in a Union job, they made you feel like a traitor if you didn't join them. Howard did a great job kicking the union out of the wharfs and bringing in all new workers.

Unions have been scared of the Libs ever since and have been donating like crazy to keep themselves rich by keeping Labor in government.

[Guest XR09]

Liberal pissed telstra off and that's why they did not start the 5 billion fiber plan back in 07 that little Johnny came up with. I was auditing Telstra's optical network in QLD and SYD at the time and they rang us up and said come home it's off. Damm we were about to do the NT too.

And now Labor has done the same thing to Optus. We will never get this bloody network. Or by the time they do it will be outdated and need replacing. As a lot of it does anyway. God there is so many cables from 86 still in the ground. Big fat cables full of grease and only 20 fibers in it. A new 120 fiber cable is smaller. Not too mention the mess in the exchanges. Bird nest City.

I like Abbot because he is a hopeless liar and blind Freddy can see when he is. They all lie and don't have to hold their word, so I would rather know when I am being fudged than believing the suckers.

As for work choices. I have a few small businesses and I am all for it. Small buis is hard enough to make work without carrying bad staff that you cant get rid of. If you have a contract then you know exactly where you stand, and your rights.

I think you can see now that a PM is just a figure head for the old Geezers in the back rooms of the parties.

The Liberal party might have problems, but Labor has never been as one, a united party. They will hold themselves up and us and our country, because they cant agree on jack shoite in there own party.

This country cant afford to go into a coma for another three years. We are in a position to come out of this GFC as one of the best living standards in the world. Or stay the arsehole of the world. Think that sums it up from one of their great leaders.