And the country is screwed

I'm looking forward to the economy slowing down and 3rd world infrastructure for the foreseeable future.

 

So yeah as most Americans out there, we forgot there were elections in other countries. What happened here?

 

We have elections every 3 years for Federal, unless called earlier.

This one was mostly fought on the economy, which even though all indicators point to a great economy (low unemployment, low government debt, increasing GDP - in fact GDP is increasing faster than debt so the % of debt is shrinking, low interest rates, low inflation, etc, etc, etc) most Australians were convinced by Tony Abbott's LNP that the economy is in absolute shambles and that the ALP (the government at the time) was to blame for not delivery a surplus and using austerity measures during the GFC. Australia mind you was the only Western nation to not go through recession during the GFC.

Most Australians are now convinced that spending needs to be lowered and that austerity measures need to be brought in even though economic experts around the world are warning that lowered spending will most likely lead to a shrinking of the Australian economy with all the pitfalls that brings.

One of the biggest losses of this election was that the ALP was going to upgrade Australians telecommunication network to be able to manage at least 1000Mbs broadband internet due to upgrades to fibre optics. The LNP said that's a waste of money as you only need 25Mbs and so they're going to deliver an "upgrade" that only promises that speed as a max, and then only if you live within a few hundred metres of a node (it's still going to use copper lines). Their claim was that theirs is superior because it'll only cost a fraction of what the ALP one would cost.

 

So basically the labor party lost an election they should have won?

 

Yes, they did though play an absolutely shockingly bad campaign. They didn't concentrate on their strengths, such as delivery a strong economy, they instead mostly played a defensive campaign against the claims of the LNP. Plus it didn't help that most of the media in Australia is right wing and they abused their position in the election to get the LNP into power. Murdoch has been especially critical of the ALP and the NBN (National Broadband Network) as he saw it as a direct threat to his almost monopoly in Australia's cable TV market.

 

Ah. Okay.

 

Oh the ALP supporters will be out with their sour grapes. People have voted and they don’t like the fact they have not got the majority.

All the complaints of negativity has been shown to be nothing but political hypocrisy and now we will see the same negativity they complained so much about before the election.

 

Is there anything that Panzer here is saying that's not true?

 

Nothing. They know it but LNP supporters believe that their layperson opinion is superior to that of recognised experts.

The LNP basically runs on a platform of, "The experts are wrong and we're right!" and completely ignore all and any facts that get in their way. Strong economy? Nonsense, the economy is in a shambles after being mismanaged, doesn't matter that the economy is growing, unemployment is low, debt is low, inflation is low, etc, it's bad because we say so!

 

So then what proof do you have? No offense but you'd be doing the same thing then if I didn't ask you for a source.

 

It was personality politics at play and labor lost because they played too hard too late!

As was reflected in numerous opinion polls throughout the labor government, people were overwhelmingly in support of their policy. People grew to hate Gillard and developed disdain and disrespect for Rudd due to internal issues that were constantly being played out in the media. Despite the coalitions lack of major policy or nation building under howard, he quietly went about business, whereas Rudd had to have his pretentious noggin and voice in every newspaper, television screen and radio around the country. Somebody probably tried to tell him, but megalomaniacs can't be told by anyone. Good riddance Dudd!

 

Why was he a Dudd when he delivered a strong economy? That's the stupid thing, the LNP have no policies and yet people voted for them because they prefer Abbott's personality over Rudd's?

That just shows how dumb voters are. They deserve the (*)(*)(*)(*) that's going to happen over the next 3 years, watching the world overtake us in everything because they didn't bother to actually listen to Abbott when he said he's going to gut everything.

 

Yep the sponges that want everyone else to fund their lifestyles lost so expect leftist tantrums for while.

 

"This one was mostly fought on the economy,"
No it was about a popularity contest... Nobody really discussed the economy for many obvious reason, most people in Australia don't understand it. As the claims of fringe benefits tax has only affected new car sales by 2%??? Of course the changes of any tax policy or any policy does not affect much in the first quarter of any announcement, things take time.

But due to the fact the government was so desperate to gain funding to spend within the economy should show more to the economic problems.


"which even though all indicators point to a great economy (low unemployment,"
Low unemployment??? Continuing to grow??? After inheriting 0.4% unemployment from a previous government, even after a GFC (which they continue to blame) with an expected increase to over 6% by ALP estimates and still importing workers on 457 visas (work visas) throughout the governance. Low unemployment???


"low government debt, increasing GDP - in fact GDP is increasing faster than debt so the % of debt is shrinking,"
While Australia is continuing to borrow at huge amounts I think this might be a stretch of the reality of truth about the debt...


"low interest rates,"
Interest rates lowed to jumpstart an economy stalling after losses of resources sector due to increased manufacturing costs. Interest rates being low is no demonstration of how good an economy is going but how bad it is expected to go as money is being banked rather than spent... but let us not look to the people and business to build the economy, let us expect the government to bail the nation out of future trouble.


"low inflation, etc, etc, etc) most Australians were convinced by Tony Abbott's LNP that the economy is in absolute shambles and that the ALP (the government at the time) was to blame for not delivery a surplus and using austerity measures during the GFC."

We could go on with the problems of the comments but the due to the fact Rudd used Keynesian policy and not Austerity measures during the GFC might speak words to the comment itself.


However, All that being said, the bug bear in the problem is the welfare the nation lives on. Neither party addressed this issue but it is expected the free money will stop. Australia cannot continue to survive on welfare and needs to adjust the economy to self-support rather than doling out money to keep the life style people continue to demand without any effort. The Coalition has indicated in the past they will address this but it was not an election promise and time will tell if they have the balls to do so...

 

It seems to me the election was more so, won out of sheer ""you suck and we can do better"ness. Is there anything here that would prove a different version of what happened?

- - - Updated - - -

You remember how Panzer was saying that LNP was going to say they were doing a good job while ignoring the experts? Post a source, otherwise you proved him correct.

 

Labor was gifted a powerful economy and didnt completely destroy it, well done! But we normal working people that pay taxes want our money spent more wisely, we want to supply people with opportunity over handouts so they can pay their own way, we dont care for lefts social justices crap or its political correct rubbish they insist forcing down our throats and we dont want an absolute rabble that cant even manage themselves.

Enjoy the next 6 years+, those that dont mind getting our hands dirty will.

 

What Australia needs are some Statesmen... badly

 

it all depends on what slant you wish to put on it. Economically being the best of a bad bunch isn't my idea of going gang busters, however they had a few hurdles to jump along the way, and all in all I doubt the Libs would of done any better. Problem was they didn't know when to stop spending and start tightening. They got the idea in the end, but we were so close to the election that they had no time to show the public. Their big fault was disorganisation in implementing reasonably good policy, and bitter in fighting that destabilised the leadership, creating confusion with the public, and distraction to issues at hand. When we are talking more about who stabbed who in the back and less about people dying at sea, we have an issue. They were not a strong government.

You will hear both sides trade tribalistic barbs, but the fact of the matter is a stronger, percievably more stable party was elected. Time will tell if it is good or bad. All the hypothetical scaremongering is part of the healing process.

For me Labor made two glaring mistakes.

1. They re elected an absolute idiot over a mid understood man hater who was more worried about the faceless men and their opinions than the publics. I said once before that history will look kinder on Gillard than Rudd.

2. They tried to play the man instead of the policies. Stupid, stupid, Kevin Rudd idea.

The coalition stayed strong and got stronger and tighter the longer the campaign went on . They were more focused on percieved weaknesses of Labor than of persecuting personalities.

labor have removed themselves from the working man and replaced him with the cafe yuppy set, who wouldn't know sh!t from clay.

They deserved what they got.

 

When one party is crushed by such as huge margin like this, yes its a bit of you suck and we think the other mob can do better.

Really its just the cycle we go through in Australia. We're a fairly conservative nation, but when doing well like to share it around. So we get a Labor govt for that because they're awesome at spending other peoples money. But then they spend too much, create deficits, create waste ect so we get bring back the Libs to fix it all up, we rinse and repeat.

 

So the argument went something like "How can they claim the govt solved the economic crisis when they can't get anything done?" And then add in a few other problems and voila.

If it's a coalition, it's bound to break eventually. Unless I'm missing something here, the fact that the Labor party got 50 something votes in the House of Representatives still says something.

Alright.

What do you mean?

Common enemies do that.

Only time will tell.

 

A few gems in a VERY depressing election outcome.

Nova Peris, first Indigenous woman to be elected to Federal Parliament.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-...ndigenous-woman-in-federal-parliament/4943820

John (Stop the boats) Nguyen lost his seat.

Jaymes (I haven't the foggiest idea how to stop the boats) Diaz lost his seat.

I hope Albanese steps up over Shorten.

 

I think we can safely say that Panzer was right about a few things.

 

Selling off all government assets isn't leaving a strong economy. Selling assets gives you a quick injection of cash but leaves you poorer in the long run.

 

As much as it is not the most intelligent analytical decision making process, people simply vote based on personalities or perceived personalities. The "Greatest Moral Challenge" of our time is where Rudd actually lost credibility. If he really believed in this issue, he would have staked his job on it. This is where his duddship started as far as i'm concerned. His lack of consultation on numerous issues, including areas I was deeply and personally involved in was purely laughable. He also allowed Garrett to take the brunt of pink batts despite him overriding Garrett's call. (The program was actually successful, but for the tragic loses!) He was out to destroy Gillard at any cost, even to Australia's future. Many worked hard to keep Australia out of recession, including Wayne Swan.

Panzer, invariably the world overtakes us whenever there is a coalition government. I still can't believe that people look at the Howard era as a measure of economic success, when we weren't performing anywhere near the highest standards across the world. Howard wasted an opportunity to position us in the economic class of Switzerland by sitting on his hands and doing nothing but skite about surpluses and selling national assets!

I'm with you, I think we are in for a rough time, unless Abbott pulls back from his plans. I think we will be in a mess after a while and they will simply try to blame labor mismanagement, which is obviously untrue by world standards! Howard was lucky but Abbott will not be!

 

You beauty! I didn't know that John "hypocrite" Nguyen lost his seat! Karma will get you.

I'm not a fan of Albanese though. I reckon we need to look for younger candidates. I'm thinking Mark Butler or Jason Clare, only because they are younger and both increased their majorities in their respective seats!