Australian Federal Election 2004

[Platypus]

Mark latham would use a different term, but I agree.

I probably shouldn't repeat Latham

[Platypus]

Australian SHEPHERD?

I presume you mean australian sheepdog, or kelpie. or Blue Heeler.

Labor is both VERY far left and moderatelty conservative, depending on who you tlk to. if you talk to former leader Kim Beazley, it is centrist; to former leader Crean 9who went to my High School, btw), it is 2 degrees left, if you talk to current leader Latham, it is 1 degree left.

I personally see it as centrist, but thats better then howard and his "Liberals", who are two degrees right.

And he broke it because the taxi driver was a dickhea. No charges were laid, but the taxi driver is voting liberal, apparently :S

[Platypus]

I disagreed with the policy, but let me play devils advocate:

they were comng illegally. They had to be stopped. the detention centers have prved to be a good detterent.

that's the argument pro-Howard.

The other 999 arguments are all against; i subscribe to about 50 of them

If  was going to vote this election, mindful that my seat is a reasonably safe labor seat (I live in Melbourne Ports; klabor by 5.8%) I would vote 1. Aussie Democrats, 2-presuming thereare no independents, or if they are they are wackos-Greens, 3. Labor, 4. Liberal.

I'm not a big fan of the greens, but i'm sick of the two party system, and I am also conscious that if I do want to become a sucesful politician, Ihave to join ne of the parties.

I think i'll probably join the right faction of the ALP. In NSW that's like joining La Cosa Nostra, but here in VIC they are alot more credible then both the Labor left and the NSW Labor right.

[Platypus]

They dominate EVERYTHING in NSW-and they dominate it corruptly :S

[Platypus]

if you live where? NSW?

Inthe cities, the Liberals run, in the country, the nationals run. there are only a couple of seats where they both run, and because of prefernces, that doesnt matter

[Platypus]

Carey-:)

The reputation, K, is he one that only 10 years ago had Australia rated as "The worlds favourite country". Where are we now?

Australia, quite frankly, is loved by the world. But our current position, 9th, is certainly quite a fall, wouldn't you say?

Oh, and Latham is a real opponent. I don't especially like him-like kerry, its a case of 'Anyone-but' (even Crean-he went to my school, so ).  Anyone who can cream an incumbent in polls, repeatedly, is certainly a real opponent.

[Platypus]

Short answer:

Locked them in the aussie desert or on a shiotty pacific island.

Long Answer:

How long do you have?

[Platypus]

I herby ban the words "Idrael" and"Palestine" from this thread.

back to the aussie federal election.

New Age poll: Two party preffered:

Labor: 52% (Down 4%)
Coalition: 48% (Up 4%)

[Platypus]

I also ban the word Israel

Seats-Labor by 5.

[Platypus]

Newspoll:

Coalition: 48%

ALP: 52%

Yay!

[Platypus]

the australian liberal party is socially conservative and economically neutral...it isn't liberal.

[Platypus]

the ALP is socially neutal and economically leftist

neither party is great; the ALP is better.

[Platypus]

Al, my mum wants me to be the next Antony Green. Not a bad idea actually, he's a master at what he does and what he does interests me A LOT, so...

Antony Green rocks

(BTW, i'm in the seat of Melbourne Ports, which he did a reasonable job analysing )

[Platypus]

52-48 to Latham.

Basically, this election will be closer then 2001. The only question is-will Latham be able to win enough seats to govern? There is no doubt he will pick up some seats, probably mainly in South Australia and Queensland. He needs to pick up 13 to win the right to govern though, and I predict he'll be lucky to get that. My prediction is that Labor wins 8 seats back, we have a hugn parliament, and the independents support the coalition for 'stablity'.