Election 2010 August 21

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

Cove

i think the issue is more that we tend to not notice so much when the price of a good or service drops, and these days it's more the traded sector where prices are falling, as the high $ and excess capacity in the rest of the world have made imports a lot cheaper.

I suppose it's easier to forget how cheap the new LCD was last month, when you get a few bills showing price rises.

Still, Coles and Woolworths were showing that food inflation was quite low in the last 6-12 months.

As for gas & electricity prices increasing, well we seem to love the extra income from the energy resources we're selling, but the flip side is that we need to pay more, and frankly it's a good way to make us all think a lot more about our energy consumption.

Which ever party gets in on the weekend is going to be so scared of loosing their wafer thin majority i fear we'll have 3 years of policy paralysis

 

[serfty]

... Which ever party gets in on the weekend is going to be so scared of loosing their wafer thin majority i fear we'll have 3 years of policy paralysis

Great - the more than hinders governing the better

 

[medhead]

I think we need a better Cost Of Living index than the CPI because it is a BS figure that only the Reserve Bank/Treasury use and does not help us understand the real pain caused by interest rate and State and Local Government charges that have risen sharply.

I think CPI is kind of ok. One of the big reasons I jumped from State government employment was the constant requirement to cut the budget by X percent or increase incomes (meaning fees for services). The income of the people providing the services are not getting bigger, in fact for using the same knowledge and skills the salaries in industry, other state governments and even public hospitals are much greater. But the workload was increasing. Meanwhile the non service providing sections of that government are getting bigger. (but i've banged on about that already)

The point being that in some case government fees are increasing as a form of pseudo-taxation. Those increases also get passed onto local government say via increased levies.

 

[oz_mark]

I suppose it's easier to forget how cheap the new LCD was last month, when you get a few bills showing price rises.

What a lot of people don't realise is the effect that goods such as LCD's (and cars) have on the CPI. Basically, if the price stays constant, but the manufacturer adds features this shows up in the CPI as prices decreasing.

 

[JohnK]

It has not happened many times in my life but this will be one of those times where I will vote for the person I dislike the most rather than voting for the party I think will do the best job.

I would not feel comfortable with either party in government. A sad state of affairs indeed....

 

[Alanslegal]

For betting folks, there has been a huge plunge for Abbott to win, and the odds have shorted to around 2.50, whilst Gillard has moved upwards to around 1.55. So I am very GLAD that I placed some nice bets last night for Abbott when it was asking 3.67

All I know, if Abbott becomes PM - which I prefer NOT to happen - he'll be contributing towards my next oversears holiday

Ps. Go Julia!

 

[hollydavid69]

I know this may sound sad, but i'm actually getting excited about the election tommorow !

 

[cove]

Belowtheline.org.au can help you do your Senate vote.
My 18 year old first time voter put us onto it.

 

[straitman]

It has not happened many times in my life but this will be one of those times where I will vote for the person I dislike the most rather than voting for the party I think will do the best job.

I would not feel comfortable with either party in government. A sad state of affairs indeed....

I know how you feel JohnK.

Our situation is a little different as we have a sitting National member who does a very good job and a Labour candidate that even a lot of the staunch Labour supporters cannot stand and from what I can see the others standing are just filling the ballot paper.

 

[Mal]

One does wonder why Anna "Media Tart" Blight has been so quiet in QLD the last few weeks... All bets are on her being gagged to ensure she doesn't stuff up Julia's chances in QLD.

Fat chance that will help. Labour will have huge challenges in QLD.

 

[markis10]

One does wonder why Anna "Media Tart" Blight has been so quiet in QLD the last few weeks... All bets are on her being gagged to ensure she doesn't stuff up Julia's chances in QLD.

Fat chance that will help. Labour will have huge challenges in QLD.

And NSW given the campaign has been run by the NSW labor party puppet masters.

 

[straitman]

And NSW given the campaign has been run by the NSW labor party puppet masters.

And in Victoria the ETU has donated money to the Greens :!: :shock:

Go figure :?:

 

[Hvr]

And I wonder how much money the most militant union in the country has given to the Liberal party?

I am of course talking about the Aust Medical Association.

Which businesses and employer groups have paid Liberals to resurrect Workchoices by another name?

We really need a visionary government who understands what good and bad debt is and how the lack of spending on infrastructure is going to cost us more than money when it starts collapsing.

 

[JohnK]

Our situation is a little different as we have a sitting National member who does a very good job and a Labour candidate that even a lot of the staunch Labour supporters cannot stand and from what I can see the others standing are just filling the ballot paper.

I will not be voting Labour tomorrow but that does not make any difference in my electorate. Perhaps I should look at registering to vote in a marginal seat for future elections. I had the option to register in Queensland but I declined and I now regret that decision.

By the way from what I understand the election is not as clear cut as the bookmakers have it. A lot of experts believe that Liberals/Nationals will win.

No offence to the females on AFF or the rest of Australia but 2 months of Julia Gillard has been torture and I would hate to think what is likely to happen if she was re-elected for another 3 years. Hopefully people will not forget that She/Labour dumped a first term prime minister and that they get enough backlash from WA and Queensland to lose the election.

I would rather take my chance with a total unknown even though he may well be the devil in disguise.

Just as well I do not have a clue about politics and my biggest worry tomorrow is whether I will wake up in time for my game of golf and hopefully win the match play against my opponent to advance to the quarter finals.

 

[medhead]

By the way from what I understand the election is not as clear cut as the bookmakers have it. A lot of experts believe that Liberals/Nationals will win.

That will be one of the most interesting things out of this election. IIRC the bookies have a very good track record of picking the winner. (I thought it was 100% at the last election). So an Abbott win could be the end of that record.

I still don't know, but the mad monk does scare me a lot. If only Turnbull was still leader. Maybe I can hope that the ALP example will inspire the Liberals to cut off their head in the first term.

as an aside. I'm slightly surprised about the angst (from others mainly) about the axing of Rudd in his first term. It seems to me that the ALP had the recent example of Howard to guide them, a lame duck walking to the chopping block. Rudd was gone for all money and not only that he had lost his way. Without change the same fate awaited Rudd as what Howard got. Rudd and his team were elected because they had a vision and I guess that the team still have that vision. For me there is nothing special about a first term PM and given the recent history for me there was no choice but to axe him. (besides I got my second favourite BLeak out of it.

 

[docjames]

And I wonder how much money the most militant union in the country has given to the Liberal party?

I am of course talking about the Aust Medical Association.

.

My understanding is $0. They dont make political donations.


They do however utilise media exposure as required, and will back or refute either side pending policies.


/conflict of interest/

I am a member of the AMA, but am not on any boards/councils etc.

 

[medhead]

Todays Australian newspaper details costs of connecting to the NBN.
Now I know Rupert missed the Conroy bag full of money for the free to air TV giveaway so he is negative towards Labor but the writing today helps us understand why the NBN is a probem based on connecting a home to it.That excludes monthly costs of a consumer connecting to it.

I finally read that story and it is repeated this morning. Typical news limited lot of rubbish beat up. They are bringing up optional costs that do not have to be spent to access the NBN. A household has the option for wiring their house with data ports now and that would also give a speed increase over wireless. But who does that? Basically it is not a requirement to spend that money to use the NBN.

I see this morning that they call it a "rewiring" cost. Implying that something already purchased has to be replaced. Total lack of credibility. Rupert and the conservative press must take me to be an idiot. Says a lot about Abbott for allowing this BS to happen in his name.

 

[markis10]

I finally read that story and it is repeated this morning. Typical news limited lot of rubbish beat up. They are bringing up optional costs that do not have to be spent to access the NBN. A household has the option for wiring their house with data ports now and that would also give a speed increase over wireless. But who does that? Basically it is not a requirement to spend that money to use the NBN.

I see this morning that they call it a "rewiring" cost. Implying that something already purchased has to be replaced. Total lack of credibility. Rupert and the conservative press must take me to be an idiot. Says a lot about Abbott for allowing this BS to happen in his name.

So you are obviously across the current ONU costs that you need to pay for the NBN that has nothing to do with wiring your house, after all you are responsible for all costs which are past the boundary point which is outside, they are a tad more than the current cost of an ADSL CPE, in fact around 20x more . Around $1000 per house for a buy of 100000 at a time, that either means a large upfront setup cost + wiring or a long term contract.

How do you think the NBN is going to get to your house otherwise, they are only laying Fibre to the boundry point and you need to work out how to get it to your home, and that does not mean copper or wireless as neither will give you any advantage of your current broadband - " Developers—and, on their own property, property owners—will be required to cover the costs of trenching and ducting. NBN Co will cover the other costs of installing fibre infrastructure in the development, including backhaul." http://www.dbcde.gov.au/broadband/national_broadband_network/fibre_in_new_developments

The hidden costs of the NBN really need to be looked out, if fibre is really the way of the future then why has so many fibre to the home projects been closed down in the last few years because of the lack of uptake and startup costs, from memory 15 alone in WA who used to have FTTP in the last year.

Are people aware in new developments that they dont have a choice, telstra are no longer required to provide a phone service or install copper for those not wishing to use the NBN if a phone service is available on the NBN - " Telstra will be required to provide standard telephone services to end users in new developments in which retail services are not offered by another service provider (retail provider of last resort)"????

 

[Alanslegal]

No offence to the females on AFF or the rest of Australia but 2 months of Julia Gillard has been torture and I would hate to think what is likely to happen if she was re-elected for another 3 years. Hopefully people will not forget that She/Labour dumped a first term prime minister and that they get enough backlash from WA and Queensland to lose the election.

I would rather take my chance with a total unknown even though he may well be the devil in disguise.

And I hope people won't forget that Abbott dumped on Turnbull late last year despite it being called an open 'ballot'. I would have had no issues voting Turnbull, he was the only real progressive person in the LNP and now they've gone (imo) backwards, though the correct term would be conservative.

And furthermore I'd take my chances with Julia as I could not stand Abbott, something about him just gives me the creeps.

 

[oz_mark]

We really need a visionary government who understands what good and bad debt is and how the lack of spending on infrastructure is going to cost us more than money when it starts collapsing.

The infrastructure issue is what lies behind both parties looking at immigration policy and the dumping of the big Australia policies.

The problem is, the responsibility for a lot of infrastructure developments lie with the state governments, and some states (e.g. NSW) just don't seem up to the task.