Oz Election Thread #4 - Gillard's Labor

Based on this week's performance, Tony Abbott still sits with the long list of low achievers.

His populist, contradictory, rhetorical and shallow analysis of the budget has been matched only by the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey.

For months, both have demanded deep cuts to the budget. But when the government made a modest attempt to prune welfare, they described it as war on the middle classes.

This was not the time to hurt Australians, Joe Hockey protested.

How on earth can you be fiscally tough, and make the necessary cuts, without hurting someone?

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 12/05/2011

John Clarke and Dawe on asylum seekers

.... A cartoon and a 100-point headline on the front of a tabloid can trash hundreds of thousands of words. Something like "You're too rich".

Any budget has to be seen in context and the inescapable circumstance of this one is minority government.

In that context, this is a good budget. The media cannot spend years demanding a halt in middle-class and industry welfare and then recoil in horror when something is done. Frankly, some of the hysteria that has followed the mild trimming of benefits has been breathtaking. What we should really be focusing on is why this country has developed a handout mentality.

Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics has led the charge against this kind of spending and, while he willed the Government cut harder, he noted that what it did do was of good quality.

In the current political environment, that is an achievement. Because Opposition Leader Tony Abbott could not have been clearer in his budget reply, the sole point of everything the Coalition does is to force an early election.

That is his right but it is a gamble. Mr Abbott sees a government on the ropes and is convinced that if he keeps punching it must fall. But if this fight goes the distance he risks punching himself out well short of election day. This pitch probably can't be sustained and his flaws will show with time.

That is what Julia Gillard is betting on. .......

Post-budget boost for Abbott in polls
By Jeremy Thompson and staff
Updated 1 hour 49 minutes ago

A Herald/Nielsen poll has Tony Abbott's approval rating above Julia Gillard for the first time. (AAP)

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is enjoying a big jump in popularity after last week's federal budget and the Government's asylum seeker deal with Malaysia.

Mr Abbott says the Prime Minister has "stopped listening" and sheets the result back to Ms Gillard's broken promise on a carbon tax.

But Finance Minister Penny Wong blames Mr Abbott's "relentless negativity" and says he is a "good fighter, but not a good leader".

A Herald/Nielsen poll has Mr Abbott's approval rating above Prime Minister Julia Gillard for the first time.

He rose three points to 45 per cent, while Ms Gillard slipped two points to 43 per cent.

Ms Gillard, however, has maintained her lead as preferred prime minister, 47 to 42 per cent. .....<cont>

Have you seen any of the coverage of Lindsay Tanner's book about the dumbifying of politics and the media?

I so hope that the budget does go in surplus in 12/13 and then an election is called - I want to see endless grabs of Abbott, Barnaby Choice and Joe Hockey saying 'They'll never deliver a surplus' in ALP election ads- I think it's bizarre that they would assert that so openly and repeatedly - ads to Uhlmann's thesis about Abott's high risk approach.

Yes, perhaps the tories rule will make electorate think twice here.

The electorate proves it isn't that smart - as you say the whole argument about balancing the budget is a furphy - Abbott and Hockey tell the voters it's like spending more in your pay packet than you earn (ignoring the fact that anyone with a mortgage is doing just that) when me with my year 11 economics knows that there are budget deficit multipliers and good reasons for having deficits. Sensibly Swann/Gillard have said it's time to reduce the supply of govt funds in the monetary pool to ease inflationary pressure and allow space for private investment - but that's not a sexy grab for the 'cake and circuses' mob who think the line 'building the entertainment revolution' has a Shakespearean depth of wit.

And here we are, busily considering whether an annual household income of $150 is "rich", or deserving of more taxpayer support or not.

I honestly think "the majority" have switched off politics, hinge.

Speaking as part of that middle class group the govt is warring on... We surrender. We reckon there are plenty more people who need the handout, we don't.

It's a hangover from Howard's vote buying decade.

I get the sense from the more sensible commentators that there is a fear that the current govt might muck this up too -

but at least Gillard is passionate about education and opportunity, even if it's difficult to see what else she really believes in.

I despair of a world where we are all so close courtesy of the information age, but our minds are getting more closed. How does that happen. Can't hear for listening, can't see for looking?

Yes?
What makes you think that?

I think she's been listening to the wrong "experts" & advisers on education.