Re: General Election Time
 

New Zealands nice, Papua New Guinea is within reasonable distance and will have a better economy :eek:

Re: General Election Time
 

We do! I was listening to the Senate yesterday to quite a funny speech where some chap (not sure which side of politics) basically announced that if it was a Liberal mistake it was certainly a lie, while a Labour mistake either meant a change in policy or that Mark Latham wasn't quite sure of the question he was answering.

Well we'll see how that pans out. I seem to remember that when Howard sought to bring in the GST he didn't lead the polls, and in Victoria Jeff Kennett led the polls with a clear majority right up till the last day and still lost the election! There's 6 weeks of the election left, so I guess there'll be a lot of muck raking and a lot of policies thrown around.

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And with both we'd have the advantage of keeping our Sovereign :D

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I think the Liberals chose the 6 week campaign because they can't imagine Latham can run that long without basically setting fire to himself.

With Howard you get the 'safe pair of hands' option. That's what they'll be playing on very heavily. Once the negative gearing brigade start smelling large interest rate rises things will go awry for Labour. If they'd have stuck with Beasley they'd have every chance of winning, but Latham I think will prove a disaster.

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[QUOTE=RichS]I think the Liberals chose the 6 week campaign because they can't imagine Latham can run that long without basically setting fire to himself.

QUOTE]

:D Or the Country.


You have to laugh tho imagine how BAD you have to be when Beasley was a better choice. :D :D

Re: General Election Time
 

As a temp resident I don't have a vote and so feel free to take an 'objective' stance (if that is at all possible in politics).

Whilst Latham may be one of the least experienced people to run a country, I think he has a very strong chance of being elected. Since his appointment Howard has been running around implementing Labor policies (quite effective of Howard I thought as it quickly kills debate). I think in part this shows the Coalition's real fear of a Labor win.

I think the country may go for the 'change' and 'new younger man' factor. I see Howard is trying to kill the Costello issue (vote for me and get a different PM later) whichis wise - in fact everything point to Howard's grim determination to hang on to office (which is no bad thing).

Anyway, I look forward to the first meeting of Latham and the "incompetent and dangerous" Bush (if the hanging chads save him again).

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I think you are correct, I think Latham will win, as incredulous as that seems.

I would imagine most will give it no more thought than as you said hes younger/change/and the poor vote, I dont like Howard that much either, but I did live here before him and he has pulled us out of the haystack. I would suggest the economy is brilliant compared to pre howard too, not all his doing but he deserves some credit. In fact the last 3 years have been some of the best for our economy and our international relations and I dont just mean Trade.

So why we need to go back to being an economical backwater that thinks it can survive alone :rolleyes: and insulting nations like Indonesia and USA with their 200 million populations I dont know, we had just begun to move on a bit and with time might have got away from our wheat and sheep economy. Sure Lathams selling the poor vote, but to keep the poor you need the wealthy to support them, thats just a fact. You also need immigrants and I dont really think hes big on that either.

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I would suggest that the open market policies of Keating prior to the coalition gaining power started the ball rolling. The coalition carried on the same economic policy and we now have the result.

The 2 powers behind the above international average performance of the last few years has been high commodity prices and a soaring housing market.

The only thing Latham is big on is the last thought that crossed his mind. 2 seconds later, like a goldfish, he is is off on a different tangent.

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GDP - composition by sector (2003 est.):

• agriculture: 3%
• industry: 25%
• washer folk: 72%

CIA - The World Factbook -- Australia

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Exporting washer folk is difficult so no profits there :D Export wise wheat sheep and yes I should have said mining products too.

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I actually think that change may make up their minds for the benefit of Howard. It's almost a consensus that Australia has it pretty good (unless you ask the Greens) and I can imagine chappies will be walking to the ballot box and just as they get near them have that last minute hesitation and head for the tried and tested method. It may come down to a case of the 'Better The Devil You Know' mentality.

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Don't worry if the ship sinks,at least you know nopbody will be thrown overboard, whatever Captain Johnny says.