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I'm totally ignorant of Australian politics (can you believe it?? An American who doesn't know the major parties involved in a foreign election??), but this sou

by Jgrubb 13y ago

I'm totally ignorant of Australian politics (can you believe it?? An American who doesn't know the major parties involved in a foreign election??), but this sounds basically like a comparison between the Republican and Democrat parties here. The joke here is that it's all lip service and they both do and act almost the exact same way once elected. Is that the case elsewhere?

alan_cx 13y ago
One, I love your honesty. Two, yeah, the UK. Except it turned out we have three parties that are the same. We call them "the government".
shirro 13y ago
Not really. Both major parties in Australia still stand for something. They share a lot of common ground on many issues which does make some people feel there is a lack of choice but often these are issues where there is some option which is clearly more pragmatic or reasonable to both. Neither are going to stray far from the US alliance for instance. The Liberals were sometimes more progressive in the past but now are more firmly a conservative party and have conservative economic and social policies within the context of the Australian system where people would be sensitive to dismantling public health care or education beyond certain limits. The ALP fundamentally exists to give a fair go to working Australians. In the past that might have been through socialism but these days it more through an efficient market economy (they were responsible for several big macroeconomic reforms) while still ensuring protection for employees and safety nets for health and education. Economies and governments have reasonable optimum settings and experts like economists to advise and both parties will benefit their constituencies through wealth creation. The ALP perhaps would share a bit of the wealth down and the Libs would direct it more up. Either are prepared to tax and spend on their own constituency to buy votes up to a point. The point being that we are still a AAA rated economy with much lower public debt to GDP than many others. Like the US, Australia goes through election cycles and parties fortunes change. The conservatives are due for government and have the benefit of overwhelming media support (Murdoch owns nearly all the press) and lack of discipline within the ALP. The thing that strikes me about the Libs is that their policies seem very underdone. They haven't costed them. They seem poorly reviewed. There is stuff like the Internet filter backflip. I wonder if by Abbott trying to channel GWB style anti-intellectualism to gain popular votes he hasn't done his party a bit of a disservice in other areas. Time will tell.
retrogradeorbit 13y ago
Yep. Exactly the same here. And just like in America there will be 'believers in the system' who will tell you the major parties differ on several key issues (until they get elected, and then they do exactly what the real power brokers want).

by Jgrubb 13y ago

alan_cx 13y ago

One, I love your honesty. Two, yeah, the UK. Except it turned out we have three parties that are the same. We call them "the government".

shirro 13y ago

Not really. Both major parties in Australia still stand for something. They share a lot of common ground on many issues which does make some people feel there is a lack of choice but often these are issues where there is some option which is clearly more pragmatic or reasonable to both. Neither are going to stray far from the US alliance for instance. The Liberals were sometimes more progressive in the past but now are more firmly a conservative party and have conservative economic and social policies within the context of the Australian system where people would be sensitive to dismantling public health care or education beyond certain limits. The ALP fundamentally exists to give a fair go to working Australians. In the past that might have been through socialism but these days it more through an efficient market economy (they were responsible for several big macroeconomic reforms) while still ensuring protection for employees and safety nets for health and education. Economies and governments have reasonable optimum settings and experts like economists to advise and both parties will benefit their constituencies through wealth creation. The ALP perhaps would share a bit of the wealth down and the Libs would direct it more up. Either are prepared to tax and spend on their own constituency to buy votes up to a point. The point being that we are still a AAA rated economy with much lower public debt to GDP than many others. Like the US, Australia goes through election cycles and parties fortunes change. The conservatives are due for government and have the benefit of overwhelming media support (Murdoch owns nearly all the press) and lack of discipline within the ALP. The thing that strikes me about the Libs is that their policies seem very underdone. They haven't costed them. They seem poorly reviewed. There is stuff like the Internet filter backflip. I wonder if by Abbott trying to channel GWB style anti-intellectualism to gain popular votes he hasn't done his party a bit of a disservice in other areas. Time will tell.

retrogradeorbit 13y ago

Yep. Exactly the same here. And just like in America there will be 'believers in the system' who will tell you the major parties differ on several key issues (until they get elected, and then they do exactly what the real power brokers want).