Singapore Expats

Oz Federal Election

A moderated forum for serious discussions only.
Post Reply
User avatar
ozchick
Editor
Editor
Posts: 1001
Joined: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 9:18 pm
Location: Germany

Oz Federal Election

Post by ozchick » Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:08 pm

Who the hell is one supposed to vote for ? This is giving me grief.
The Coalition will keep our boys in Iraq which is upsetting for all of us. The whole Iraq mess is Vietnam re-visited. Innocent Iraqi peopl dying every day and no end in sight. Mr Howard supports Gerge Dubya cos we need our allies for those 'what if' possibilities in our neck of the woods. I for one am constantly aware that the Indonesian Army is 4 times the size of the entire Oz Defence Force !

If only the US had had the support of the UN when they went in there. Now it's like a festering wound...
And if Mr Rudd gets in I could have a housing loan with a 17% interest rate and I don't want to go THERE again ! If HE gets in and brings our boys home, then George might tell us to 'go play on the road'......we're damned if we do and.....
'Are you trying to tempt me because I come from the land of plenty?'

rhino
Regular
Regular
Posts: 113
Joined: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:14 pm
Location: Shanghai, China

Post by rhino » Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:10 pm

To be honest I'm not sure Australia's involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan is the biggest issue in the mind of voters. I think more than anything the mood is that John Howard has been PM for a long time (11 years, second longest term I think?), and its time for a change.

The most surprising thing was the day after the election was called (today), with almost 6 weeks weeks to go, its suddenly raining tax cuts courtesy of the government! Would have thought that something which could be classified as "heavy artillery" would be rolled out closer to polling day. At any rate the cuts go through to 2012 - 4 to 5 years from now... A lot can happen between now and then!

Ozchick with a policy of throwing money at people (in the form of tax cuts), there's probably more likelihood of interest rates rising under Howard - mainly because you put more money in people's pockets, they go out and spend it (if it wasn't for superannuation Aussies would be much worse at saving than they are), and it stokes inflation. Guess who hates inflation? The Reserve Bank - and if it gets above their comfort zone, they'll increase interest rates accordingly.

Of course the same could happen under Labor, though I think the cause would more likely stem from wage inflation if Workchoices is rolled back and penalty rates, holiday loadings etc etc become more prevalent again.

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Strictly Speaking”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest