Abbott/Liberal Govt Watch

[Mr Beefy]

Keating was the last PM to give us what we needed, not what we wanted.
Easily the best parliamentary performer I've seen.
But made decisions without fear of losing votes or what was popular.

The early years of Howard were good.
Taking the guns off he farmers was clearly a policy against what his party faithful would want, but he did it cause it was the right thing to do.

Howards final term was bad though, especially in relation to the massive swelling of middle class welfare in an attempt to hold power.

Farmers could still have guns.

[tipper]

Keating was the last PM to give us what we needed, not what we wanted.
Easily the best parliamentary performer I've seen.
But made decisions without fear of losing votes or what was popular.

The early years of Howard were good.
Taking the guns off he farmers was clearly a policy against what his party faithful would want, but he did it cause it was the right thing to do.

Howards final term was bad though, especially in relation to the massive swelling of middle class welfare in an attempt to hold power.

Farmers could still have guns.

cant get the good ones as easily though (dang it)

[tigerpie]

Keating was the last PM to give us what we needed, not what we wanted.
Easily the best parliamentary performer I've seen.
But made decisions without fear of losing votes or what was popular.

It’s funny because the staunch Labor supporters hated Keating with a passion.

Because of the reason I stated. And maybe the fact there was so much love for Hawke.

[cracka]

Yeah I'm as blue as they come but I thought Keating was reasonable.

Did a hell of a lot of the work to kick start the macroeconomic reforms that the Country benefitted from between say 1995 and 2010.

Sure the line about the recession we had to have was a bit of bull, but i'm not willing to hang the bloke over one mistake.

I think a lot of the more recent ones (from both sides) have been very poor, as politics has moved from "running the country" to "maintaining power".
I can cut them some slack with the knowledge that it's been hard to govern over the last 15 or so years given no one has had a majority in both houses to be able to effectively govern, but with that in mine, the recent groups are still fairly uninspiring leaders for mine.

The problem for the major parties now is they have as much opposition from the factions within each party as they do from the actual opposition political party

[tigerpie]

I think a lot of the more recent ones (from both sides) have been very poor, as politics has moved from "running the country" to "maintaining power".
I think its more along the lines of keeping a higher paid job for longer.
Its a career now, not a vocation.

[Trader]

I think a lot of the more recent ones (from both sides) have been very poor, as politics has moved from "running the country" to "maintaining power".

I think its more along the lines of keeping a higher paid job for longer.
Its a career now, not a vocation.

Yeah, and it's not just your individual salary, its also all the other jobs that come with it. All the administrative positions that get employed by one party or the other not just in parliament but all of public service. Maintain the power and you control 100s of millions in wages.

[tigerpie]

I think a lot of the more recent ones (from both sides) have been very poor, as politics has moved from "running the country" to "maintaining power".

I think its more along the lines of keeping a higher paid job for longer.
Its a career now, not a vocation.

Yeah, and it's not just your individual salary, its also all the other jobs that come with it. All the administrative positions that get employed by one party or the other not just in parliament but all of public service. Maintain the power and you control 100s of millions in wages.

Up steps Sophie Mirabella into a $400k job as I posted earlier.
They are now a class all of their own.

[shoe boy]

[quote="tigerpie"]Keating was the last PM to give us what we needed, not what we wanted.
Easily the best parliamentary performer I've seen.
But made decisions without fear of losing votes or what was popular.[/quote]

Very true , now we have a leader(if you could call him one) that pushes his religious personal mandate

[Jimmy_041]

I think a lot of the more recent ones (from both sides) have been very poor, as politics has moved from "running the country" to "maintaining power".
I think its more along the lines of keeping a higher paid job for longer.
Its a career now, not a vocation.

I hear this from both sides and arenas: "You can't do anything from opposition"

[tigerpie]

I think a lot of the more recent ones (from both sides) have been very poor, as politics has moved from "running the country" to "maintaining power".
I think its more along the lines of keeping a higher paid job for longer.
Its a career now, not a vocation.

I hear this from both sides and arenas: "You can't do anything from opposition"

Yes you can.
You stop rubbish legislation, workchoices for example, from going through.
And you can accept a good piece of legislation as a good idea and let it passed.

[mighty_tiger_79]

ScoMo having a bad run of form at the moment.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[Jimmy_041]

I demand justice!

https://abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View?abn=19648825290

[Psyber]

Keating was the last PM to give us what we needed, not what we wanted.
Easily the best parliamentary performer I've seen.
But made decisions without fear of losing votes or what was popular.

The Hawke/Keating government changed the Australian economy, I think, in a bad way in the long run. It looked good at the time but no allowance was made for how the states that ran public care would respond and economise.

Their "accord" with the unions as I remember it, was that the unions would not demand wage rises above CPI. Then the ALP government lowered the rate of growth of the CPI by lowering our tariff barriers and, as a side-effect, strangling our manufacturing base, making us dependent on imports from those current that still had a manufacturing industry. The effect of that has built up gradually, but we are now paying the price for that policy. Sure, manufactured goods are cheap compared to what they were, but we have no real economic independence from those we now import manufactured goods from, and this has been highlighted in recent times by the CV-19 pandemic.

The other issue of that ALP government was their effect on health care. They formulated the view that Medicare cost so much because we had too many doctors who were seeing people unnecessarily to make money. The AMA figures on waiting times for appointments and the average doctor being 55 years old at the time were dismissed. Ultimately, that lead to a shortage of doctors. In addition, Medicare was run in such a way the the "Schedule Fee" has risen by only about 64% of inflation ever since leading to increasing gaps above the Medicare Rebate.

This actually happened first under the Whitlam government, and the Fraser government that followed saved the situation by allowing private health fund to cover some of the gap. That also helped to keep private health cover affordable by maintaining higher membership rates.

Keating dumped this and, as a result, gap fees have increased steadily. Then because they were less useful to the young private fund memberships declined, making private health insurance more costly. State governments, no longer as well subsidised by the diversion of non-urgent health care to the private sector, then found the public centres expensive and started limiting public beds and staffing, and selling off the land, leading to our current problems in public hospitals an in the Ambulances ramping outside them.

Until 1988 I bulk-billed all pensioners and unemployed people who presented to my private practice. By the mid-90s that was no longer viable because overheads were going up a lot faster than income. By 2007 I packed in private practice in favour of paid locum work in rural public health services.

[stan]

ScoMo having a bad run of form at the moment.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

His mates are not helping him out as well. Andrew Lamming has also been a bit of a loose cannon. Something was always going to pop up.

I remember him leading the charge having a crack at teachers and couldn't work out his angle there.

Strange guy, not helping out ScMo at the moment.

The issue with ScMo at the Rugby is a non issue if you ask me.

[tigerpie]

How the hell can the wicked witch from the west, be our attorney general.
Its like giving a monkey a machine gun isn't it?
She's not a fit and proper person to hold that portfolio surely.

[cracka]

China now trying to dictate how much Australia can spend on defence. The sooner we reduce/cease trade with them the better

[shoe boy]

China now trying to dictate how much Australia can spend on defence. The sooner we reduce/cease trade with them the better

[Senor Moto Gadili]

China now trying to dictate how much Australia can spend on defence. The sooner we reduce/cease trade with them the better

There is only one product that would hurt China if we put an embargo on trade and that is iron ore. The Australian government is never going to kill the goose. China is still our major trading partner and whether we like it or not they hold all of the aces.

[stan]

Nats Spill, old mate Barny roars back in.

[Senor Moto Gadili]

Nats Spill, old mate Barny roars back in.

As Roger Daltry sang ...
"meet the new boss,
same as the old boss"
.... maybe we have been fooled again.