- 08 Jul 2012 05:09
#14001144
My main question is, have they really been as bad as the media and others claim it has been? There seems to be this illusion nowadays that we have a very "bad government" and the opinion polls suggest that it is going to be punished next year, but is this really just nonsense?
I ask the question because personally I mostly like this government. They have introduced many policies which I think would never have come into effect had the Opposition been in power. For instance, the introduction of paid-parental leave meant that Australia was now no longer one of two countries in the world without such a policy (the other being the US), whilst the Opposition's policy response was reckless. The National Broadband Network is a much needed infrastructure boost which, only until recently, the Coalition had been recklessly proclaiming it would scrap (indicating to me that big infrastructure projects are not high on their agenda - they certainly weren't for the 11 years when they were in power). The Mining tax, to me, is in fact a sensible policy as it will seek to also reap the benefits of the current resources boom instead of squandering it away (especially with cheap tax cuts). The discussion on gay marriage nowadays and the momentum for it seems to be a result of many things, but the only reason why there now seems to be some traction on the issue is because we currently have an ALP government - such talk or possibility of progress on the matter would, in my opinion, almost certainly never occur under a Coalition government (as their leader currently refuses to budge on the conscience vote issue and also because it's a fact that conservative people are slightly behind the times on this issue).
I think there is a lot of focus away from their positives and too much focus on perceived negatives such as the Craig Thomson saga, the Carbon Tax, which, after listening to some of the hysteria, sounds like a 90% tax on your income and will lead to an imminent collapse of the sky.
In terms of perceptions, I also watch Q and A on the ABC and I personally find there to be more parliamentarians in the ALP camp that seem to be calmer and less aggressive than their opponents. I'm mostly thinking about people such as Greg Combet, Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong, Nicola Roxon, and I am drawn to this more than I am drawn to constantly angry people such as Christopher Pyne, Barnaby Joyce, Joe Hockey and Sophie Mirabella. It's also not a surprise to me that most talk-back radio hosts who corrupt the political landscape with aggressive, misinformed and intimidating rhetoric are, more often than not, Coalition supporters.
I ask the question because personally I mostly like this government. They have introduced many policies which I think would never have come into effect had the Opposition been in power. For instance, the introduction of paid-parental leave meant that Australia was now no longer one of two countries in the world without such a policy (the other being the US), whilst the Opposition's policy response was reckless. The National Broadband Network is a much needed infrastructure boost which, only until recently, the Coalition had been recklessly proclaiming it would scrap (indicating to me that big infrastructure projects are not high on their agenda - they certainly weren't for the 11 years when they were in power). The Mining tax, to me, is in fact a sensible policy as it will seek to also reap the benefits of the current resources boom instead of squandering it away (especially with cheap tax cuts). The discussion on gay marriage nowadays and the momentum for it seems to be a result of many things, but the only reason why there now seems to be some traction on the issue is because we currently have an ALP government - such talk or possibility of progress on the matter would, in my opinion, almost certainly never occur under a Coalition government (as their leader currently refuses to budge on the conscience vote issue and also because it's a fact that conservative people are slightly behind the times on this issue).
I think there is a lot of focus away from their positives and too much focus on perceived negatives such as the Craig Thomson saga, the Carbon Tax, which, after listening to some of the hysteria, sounds like a 90% tax on your income and will lead to an imminent collapse of the sky.
In terms of perceptions, I also watch Q and A on the ABC and I personally find there to be more parliamentarians in the ALP camp that seem to be calmer and less aggressive than their opponents. I'm mostly thinking about people such as Greg Combet, Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong, Nicola Roxon, and I am drawn to this more than I am drawn to constantly angry people such as Christopher Pyne, Barnaby Joyce, Joe Hockey and Sophie Mirabella. It's also not a surprise to me that most talk-back radio hosts who corrupt the political landscape with aggressive, misinformed and intimidating rhetoric are, more often than not, Coalition supporters.