this will be an interesting campaign and election.
i’m still undecided at this point. well i think most people might be… but maybe not…
i just turned 18 and finally can vote, at the moment i’m swinning towards labor for the fact that john howard has bad policies, like the the nuclear waste dumps and the FTA with The USA. plus the cheating with the last election (children overboard). But he does have a good track record with running the ecconomy well (cos of peter C), i am however scared of keeping Alexander Downer in as foreign affairs minister, after the recent stuff he has said eg. If the USA goes to war with China over Taiwan we wouldn’t got (causing Johny Howard, to speack out and say we would) and also when commenting on our new missile capability to strike Indonesa with our FA18’s , “our neighbours will understand what we are doing”, yeah arming our selfs up for another regieme change , seriously he is a fool.
…
The only probelm with voting in Labor is that Lathem seems a bit wild and unpredictable.
also Labor is almost as far right as the liberals at the moment, i may let the greens / demmocrats rule the sennate(well help them rule), just to be safe
these are just my thoughts on the matter.
I won’t vote for Howard full stop… he is like Bush, and idiot out of his league, how in the hell you end up with idiots running a country is beyond me.
Lathem seems a bit wild and unpredictable.
I would agree, while I can’t think of anything in particular he has done, and while I prefer him over Howard any day, there is something not quite right about him.
And for those that do vote for Howard what’s the point, he will resign soon enough even if he says he won’t.
I think that I will vote greens or do a donkey vote, cause I really can’t stand the whole lot of them.
I dont think Howard or Latham is right for Prime Minister. I certainly hate broken promises as well. All these election campaigns, is it deception so they can get the position and sit back?
he is now where near as an idiot as bush is.
yeah but look who will step into his place. Mr.Costello. Thats what this country needs. A Christian leader.
Thats what this country needs. A Christian leader.
I hope that was sarcastic… Religion has no place in politics…
Australia has been running great for the last few years - why change now - Mark Lathem just seems like a tool - Maybe Johnny made some mistakes with a few campaigns here and there like the war in Iraq and the FTA - but still if Labour was in government they would also make bad decisions!! There will never be a governement that does everything so perfect for everyone. But since the economy in Australia is going great why is there a need to change prime ministers, give Jonny another chance he has been running this country for about 5 or 6 years now so keep him in.
If he wasnt a good primeminister then he wouldnt have gotten in, in the last election - and today at school in the yr 12 common room we actually talked about this and about 85% of the yr 12’s who are 18 and are allowed to vote this election said that would keep Jonny in as primeminister even though Mark Lathem has said he would lower university fee’s - Lathem just looks very untrusting…
Yeah UNI fees went up 25%. Johny tried to scrap the PBS meaning the cost of medicine would have went up 30-50%. Lathem saved us from that.
And what has Johny done, sold off telstra and what have you… So instead of making billions for the government for years to come, Johny got to spend his billions, and now what do they have…
I dont really see the difference in the parties, they both basicly want the same thing. To try and screw each other over when trying to pass legislation.
Johny doesn’t do anything, he is just a face… Some one writes his speachs, his ministers tell him what to do, they are told what to do by the accountants. It really makes no difference who the PM is except for image.
Johny is a little man who can’t carry himself well or speak well… I would rather take some actor off the street who at least looks good and can do a good job of reading his pre-written speaches.
Mmmm interesting argument you all have, my opinion, get fined $75 and DONT vote.
lol,
BeN(flashy22)
get fined $75 and DONT vote
Thats another reason why my last 2 times I voted I wrote DONKEY write accross my vote and nothing else.
For every 1 person who actually knows what the difference parties really want to do, and I am not talking about people who watch 1 debate on TV, I am talking about people who live this stuff, like lectures who really know. There is 10,000 people who have no idea at all, and just vote to avoid the fine.
So for the 1 person who votes on a educated decision, there could be 10,000 voting against him just to avoid a fine. I don’t think this works. Scrap the fine and I may start to consider elections as actually meaning something.
Lathem just looks very untrusting…
Yeh I see that as well. Its just not right for both men as the next Prime Minister. I dont see the spark where they are able to carry out economic, global affairs assoicated with Australia. Howard wanted the troops in Iraq to stay while Latham wants them back. Now is it good for our troops to come back or stay? We need someone that is really motivated. Someone that we dont know about much but has the potential to be great. However, I think Latham will get the position for Prime Minister in the next few weeks. He’ll have to deal with the different political issues, especially the Free Trade Agreement with the US.
Now is it good for our troops to come back or stay?
Ask the new Iraq Gov if they want our troops there, if they say yes, well we started it so we have to finish it.
If they say no… then we pull them out…
So true Vulcan, so so very true.
Ben (flashy22)
Although I think Latham will get the position i very much dislike the issue with him and public school funding. Uhh hello…??? Ever since I started school, public schools have always received funding from the Government at a large significant number over private schools. I remember back in primary, my school did not have any facilties like public schools. Whether it be on the news bypassing them, they had air-conditioning in every room, large number of computer, hell they even have twice the size of land area with a full size football/play field. My school didnt have that. All it had was a small playground that only had two basketball rings and a few handball courts. Will didnt even have fans. Everytime the federal budget came up, a letter would be given to every family detailing funding towards private and public and it has always been that public got much more money than private. At my old college, we had facilties that were sufficient to support the bear minimum for students. Computer facilties and science labs did not have enough equipment. We had computers that had Pentium 3 while on the news, public schools had several Macs, laptop and pcs. Now when he gets elected, hes going to redistribute the money from top private schools and use them for public schools. Am i missing something here? Students from these schools certainly dont complain about the Government being unfunded. I certainly never heard any private school associations that protested against unfair funding. You always here public school teachers protesting against the Government for a price rise. Private schools teachers on the other hand dont actually protest. While public teachers are out there crying out loud, im at school working/studying with all of my teachers at school. Dont complain about private schools that receive large funding. Its not their fault there students are educated while we see students from public schools hanging around streets smoking and jigging school. Then they go on ad campaigns saying public education, its time to give it more. Why now? Why wasnt this years ago? I have always been taught at private schools and I know that I get a better education then those at public schools. Latham should look at what he can do for public school in terms of education and reiterate rules and regulations to all public schools.
Your post didn’t make sense to me… and I can’t be bothered reading it again…
Though one thing seemed right
ts not their fault there students are educated while we see students from public schools hanging around streets smoking and jigging school.
This is correct, but then it’s the parents fault, not that of the school.
I have been to both private and pubic… And private has better everything… comptuers, buildings, teachers…
But then they can afford it…
I think that all schools should recieve the exact amount of funding per child… If your on $20,000 a year you pay nothing… If your on $100,000 a year you can contribute $5,000 a year per child to the school system…
I am one for equality… I think all stundents should have the same opportunities regardless of their parents bank accounts.
In Australia the school funding system is stuffed up. The State governmetn give more funding to public schools but the Federal Government gives them alot less.
The Catholic School system recives about 49% of what the state schools get of the sate, but the recieve alot more from the Federal Government. Independant schools (especially the anglican all boy / all girl ones of northern Sydney) get alot more funding from the Federal GOVT than anyone else, but recieve alot less from state the government.
well that is what, to my knowlege, happens and proberly in NSW.
And also don’t bag out public school teachers my mum is one (for business studies) and if you se the conditions she has to put up with, u’d understand why the want more pay. also here school was so poorly funded it was only about 1 and a hlaf years ago that they got proper sewage system in (it is in far western sydney so there were no facillities untill that the time) but there is also a huge lack in technology and up to date text books and stuff.
And also don’t bag out public school teachers my mum
I never did….
why the want more pay.
I don’t think teachers deserve more pay…… For one their use their union to extort the government.
2, given what they do, regurgitate the same rubbish out year after its not like it is really hard.
3, What does their hourly pay rate work out at… It’s fine to say they get $50,000 but they don’t work 9-5 every day and get 6 weeks off a year like the average person.
Work out the actual time they are working, not on school holidays, not on a free period, but actually teaching or marking work, I think their hourly rate would be dam good.
And not speaking of your mother as a teacher, but there are crap loads that should be fired on the spot. I have had some that were good for nothing, I have had some that are inspirational, and then your average it’s a job type.
I would like to see them reviewed by the students, and reviewed by comparing their average class scores to others. If the students complain, or their class marks are consistently down get rid of them.
There is nothing like that now, there is no checks or balance… We have all had at least one crap teacher that should have never been given a job as a teacher, but here they are 15 years on and still good for nothing.
That’s one thing I like about private schools, they only seek the best teachers, and review them and get rid of them if they have to, if they are not up to scratch.
And they have been using funding as an election ploy here…. And as I said above, 2/3 of funding goes to private who only teach 1/3 of the students.
Incidentally I went to Kingsgrove North High School, was the 3rd largest in the state if I remember correctly. I was supposed to go to Belmore Boys like Mr Howard… But I refused to go to an all boys school.
I attended a private school in Adelaide very very briefly…. I was willing to say I believe in God. But as soon as they told me I must cut my hair, I left….
