Right wing, left wing... what about the bird in the middle?

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

dungfungus said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

What the current federal government fail to acknowledge that is the moderate/swing voters that get any government elected. Putting in extreme ideology based policies is a sure fire way to upset those in the middle. The staunch left and right will always remain so but pleasing the middle seems to be much harder to do for a political party, because after all their support comes from the right or left but the ability to win an election is convincing the middle to change their vote.

I can’t argue with that but which political parties other than the “staunch left and right” ones best represent the middle?

IMO we had a much better political system when the 3rd major was the Democrats, unfortunately there demise was mostly due to the prominent rise of the Greens as an alternative at the time. The greens has actually pushed labor closer to the middle in some aspects or even right on policies revolving around immigration and asylum seekers.

It still comes down to winning the voters in the middle as the far right and left will switch to people like PUP and the Greens. In Canberra I think there are many people in the middle, who tend to vote Labor, purely because its the safest for them. That said I feel Canberra needs these little periods of forced redundancies to keep things in check, public servants don’t like to admit, but they are very well off in society compared to many. Sure they also have financial pressure on their household budgets when tough times hit, but usually come out well on the other side. However its completely understandable when Labor are basically the best cash cow to vote for.

Another great post. You should be a lecturer in politics at ANU.
The Democrats were talked about on Onesiders this morning with Barry Cassidy making the observation that Meg Lees was the only one in her party who negotiated on the GST to get it passed.
Leadership squabbles then led to the demise of that party.

Hey, that was a very positive comment from me so where are the accolades from my detractors who are always bagging me for being negative.
Credit where credit is due?

Did someone hack your account and write it 🙂
Tony Abbott would have a far easier time negotiating with say a democrat led balance of power IMO. I’m actually surprised by the stance of PUP in general. You’d say they were right wing, but they are also definitely no allies of the coalition. Many of the independent senators are also right wing/moderate. It says something about the policies. I think he has gone in too hard on many policies, thinking he’d be ok, but at the same time he has upset a lot of voters. I don’t think cutting carbon tax and MRRT was as a big a deal to the voters as they thought it was. My electricity bill has hardly changed! I think many moderate voters didn’t think the MRRT and carbon tax where vote changers. I also don’t think for all its flaws the previous Labor government was as bad as it was made out to be. The coalition did a very good job though of making them look bad.

Next election will be very interesting.

The next election may be sooner than we think. The stress that Abbott is under now that he is dealing with 4 voting groups in the sham- Senate is starting to show.
It would be responsible to dissolve both houses and have an election to eliminate the impasse there is now.
In fact, the coalition is not governing at present. Strangely, the Labor opposition isn’t goading them to hold an election either.
I don’t care who the “winner” would be as long as they have a clear majority in both houses so all uncertainty could be removed for at least the next 3 years.
Actually, I would like Labor to win and inherit the mess they left.

“Actually, I would like Labor to win and inherit the mess they left.”
It looks like the lack of any challenge to my declaration means that everyone agrees with me.

watto23 said :

dungfungus said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

What the current federal government fail to acknowledge that is the moderate/swing voters that get any government elected. Putting in extreme ideology based policies is a sure fire way to upset those in the middle. The staunch left and right will always remain so but pleasing the middle seems to be much harder to do for a political party, because after all their support comes from the right or left but the ability to win an election is convincing the middle to change their vote.

I can’t argue with that but which political parties other than the “staunch left and right” ones best represent the middle?

IMO we had a much better political system when the 3rd major was the Democrats, unfortunately there demise was mostly due to the prominent rise of the Greens as an alternative at the time. The greens has actually pushed labor closer to the middle in some aspects or even right on policies revolving around immigration and asylum seekers.

It still comes down to winning the voters in the middle as the far right and left will switch to people like PUP and the Greens. In Canberra I think there are many people in the middle, who tend to vote Labor, purely because its the safest for them. That said I feel Canberra needs these little periods of forced redundancies to keep things in check, public servants don’t like to admit, but they are very well off in society compared to many. Sure they also have financial pressure on their household budgets when tough times hit, but usually come out well on the other side. However its completely understandable when Labor are basically the best cash cow to vote for.

Another great post. You should be a lecturer in politics at ANU.
The Democrats were talked about on Onesiders this morning with Barry Cassidy making the observation that Meg Lees was the only one in her party who negotiated on the GST to get it passed.
Leadership squabbles then led to the demise of that party.

Hey, that was a very positive comment from me so where are the accolades from my detractors who are always bagging me for being negative.
Credit where credit is due?

Did someone hack your account and write it 🙂
Tony Abbott would have a far easier time negotiating with say a democrat led balance of power IMO. I’m actually surprised by the stance of PUP in general. You’d say they were right wing, but they are also definitely no allies of the coalition. Many of the independent senators are also right wing/moderate. It says something about the policies. I think he has gone in too hard on many policies, thinking he’d be ok, but at the same time he has upset a lot of voters. I don’t think cutting carbon tax and MRRT was as a big a deal to the voters as they thought it was. My electricity bill has hardly changed! I think many moderate voters didn’t think the MRRT and carbon tax where vote changers. I also don’t think for all its flaws the previous Labor government was as bad as it was made out to be. The coalition did a very good job though of making them look bad.

Next election will be very interesting.

The next election may be sooner than we think. The stress that Abbott is under now that he is dealing with 4 voting groups in the sham- Senate is starting to show.
It would be responsible to dissolve both houses and have an election to eliminate the impasse there is now.
In fact, the coalition is not governing at present. Strangely, the Labor opposition isn’t goading them to hold an election either.
I don’t care who the “winner” would be as long as they have a clear majority in both houses so all uncertainty could be removed for at least the next 3 years.
Actually, I would like Labor to win and inherit the mess they left.

dungfungus said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

What the current federal government fail to acknowledge that is the moderate/swing voters that get any government elected. Putting in extreme ideology based policies is a sure fire way to upset those in the middle. The staunch left and right will always remain so but pleasing the middle seems to be much harder to do for a political party, because after all their support comes from the right or left but the ability to win an election is convincing the middle to change their vote.

I can’t argue with that but which political parties other than the “staunch left and right” ones best represent the middle?

IMO we had a much better political system when the 3rd major was the Democrats, unfortunately there demise was mostly due to the prominent rise of the Greens as an alternative at the time. The greens has actually pushed labor closer to the middle in some aspects or even right on policies revolving around immigration and asylum seekers.

It still comes down to winning the voters in the middle as the far right and left will switch to people like PUP and the Greens. In Canberra I think there are many people in the middle, who tend to vote Labor, purely because its the safest for them. That said I feel Canberra needs these little periods of forced redundancies to keep things in check, public servants don’t like to admit, but they are very well off in society compared to many. Sure they also have financial pressure on their household budgets when tough times hit, but usually come out well on the other side. However its completely understandable when Labor are basically the best cash cow to vote for.

Another great post. You should be a lecturer in politics at ANU.
The Democrats were talked about on Onesiders this morning with Barry Cassidy making the observation that Meg Lees was the only one in her party who negotiated on the GST to get it passed.
Leadership squabbles then led to the demise of that party.

Hey, that was a very positive comment from me so where are the accolades from my detractors who are always bagging me for being negative.
Credit where credit is due?

Did someone hack your account and write it 🙂
Tony Abbott would have a far easier time negotiating with say a democrat led balance of power IMO. I’m actually surprised by the stance of PUP in general. You’d say they were right wing, but they are also definitely no allies of the coalition. Many of the independent senators are also right wing/moderate. It says something about the policies. I think he has gone in too hard on many policies, thinking he’d be ok, but at the same time he has upset a lot of voters. I don’t think cutting carbon tax and MRRT was as a big a deal to the voters as they thought it was. My electricity bill has hardly changed! I think many moderate voters didn’t think the MRRT and carbon tax where vote changers. I also don’t think for all its flaws the previous Labor government was as bad as it was made out to be. The coalition did a very good job though of making them look bad.

Next election will be very interesting.

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

What the current federal government fail to acknowledge that is the moderate/swing voters that get any government elected. Putting in extreme ideology based policies is a sure fire way to upset those in the middle. The staunch left and right will always remain so but pleasing the middle seems to be much harder to do for a political party, because after all their support comes from the right or left but the ability to win an election is convincing the middle to change their vote.

I can’t argue with that but which political parties other than the “staunch left and right” ones best represent the middle?

IMO we had a much better political system when the 3rd major was the Democrats, unfortunately there demise was mostly due to the prominent rise of the Greens as an alternative at the time. The greens has actually pushed labor closer to the middle in some aspects or even right on policies revolving around immigration and asylum seekers.

It still comes down to winning the voters in the middle as the far right and left will switch to people like PUP and the Greens. In Canberra I think there are many people in the middle, who tend to vote Labor, purely because its the safest for them. That said I feel Canberra needs these little periods of forced redundancies to keep things in check, public servants don’t like to admit, but they are very well off in society compared to many. Sure they also have financial pressure on their household budgets when tough times hit, but usually come out well on the other side. However its completely understandable when Labor are basically the best cash cow to vote for.

Another great post. You should be a lecturer in politics at ANU.
The Democrats were talked about on Onesiders this morning with Barry Cassidy making the observation that Meg Lees was the only one in her party who negotiated on the GST to get it passed.
Leadership squabbles then led to the demise of that party.

Hey, that was a very positive comment from me so where are the accolades from my detractors who are always bagging me for being negative.
Credit where credit is due?

watto23 said :

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

What the current federal government fail to acknowledge that is the moderate/swing voters that get any government elected. Putting in extreme ideology based policies is a sure fire way to upset those in the middle. The staunch left and right will always remain so but pleasing the middle seems to be much harder to do for a political party, because after all their support comes from the right or left but the ability to win an election is convincing the middle to change their vote.

I can’t argue with that but which political parties other than the “staunch left and right” ones best represent the middle?

IMO we had a much better political system when the 3rd major was the Democrats, unfortunately there demise was mostly due to the prominent rise of the Greens as an alternative at the time. The greens has actually pushed labor closer to the middle in some aspects or even right on policies revolving around immigration and asylum seekers.

It still comes down to winning the voters in the middle as the far right and left will switch to people like PUP and the Greens. In Canberra I think there are many people in the middle, who tend to vote Labor, purely because its the safest for them. That said I feel Canberra needs these little periods of forced redundancies to keep things in check, public servants don’t like to admit, but they are very well off in society compared to many. Sure they also have financial pressure on their household budgets when tough times hit, but usually come out well on the other side. However its completely understandable when Labor are basically the best cash cow to vote for.

Another great post. You should be a lecturer in politics at ANU.
The Democrats were talked about on Onesiders this morning with Barry Cassidy making the observation that Meg Lees was the only one in her party who negotiated on the GST to get it passed.
Leadership squabbles then led to the demise of that party.

watto23 said :

IMO we had a much better political system when the 3rd major was the Democrats, unfortunately there demise was mostly due to the prominent rise of the Greens as an alternative at the time. The greens has actually pushed labor closer to the middle in some aspects or even right on policies revolving around immigration and asylum seekers.

My recollection is that the Dems basically self-destructed because their party rules gave rank-and-file members the power to call for leadership spills. Accordingly, the party was consumed with leadership issues in the early 2000s (after Meg Lees agreed to pass the GST legislation), looked very chaotic as a result, and lost electoral appeal. I also recall that they were further to the left than the ALP.

I agree that the Greens criticise both Labor and the Coalition from the left. However, that’s only because they are a minority party and have the luxury of being able to demand the most expensive and complex solution to everything without ever having to worry about how such solutions will be paid for and implemented. The open-door asylum seeker policy is a good example.

dungfungus said :

watto23 said :

What the current federal government fail to acknowledge that is the moderate/swing voters that get any government elected. Putting in extreme ideology based policies is a sure fire way to upset those in the middle. The staunch left and right will always remain so but pleasing the middle seems to be much harder to do for a political party, because after all their support comes from the right or left but the ability to win an election is convincing the middle to change their vote.

I can’t argue with that but which political parties other than the “staunch left and right” ones best represent the middle?

IMO we had a much better political system when the 3rd major was the Democrats, unfortunately there demise was mostly due to the prominent rise of the Greens as an alternative at the time. The greens has actually pushed labor closer to the middle in some aspects or even right on policies revolving around immigration and asylum seekers.

It still comes down to winning the voters in the middle as the far right and left will switch to people like PUP and the Greens. In Canberra I think there are many people in the middle, who tend to vote Labor, purely because its the safest for them. That said I feel Canberra needs these little periods of forced redundancies to keep things in check, public servants don’t like to admit, but they are very well off in society compared to many. Sure they also have financial pressure on their household budgets when tough times hit, but usually come out well on the other side. However its completely understandable when Labor are basically the best cash cow to vote for.

2604 said :

…It speaks volumes of the malaise within modern Labor that the party’s spiritual head was a well-intentioned but incompetent single-termer like Gough Whitlam, rather than a competent and effective leader like Hawke.

Nicely put.

Hawke rose during a period of increasing tension between labour and capital; he and Keating effectively set us up for the prosperity and relative industrial calm of recent decades. Definitely a case of cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Perhaps we’ve had it too good for too long. We’re now so comfortable that there is no real battle to be fought – politics has been reduced to empty rhetoric and confected outrage.

HiddenDragon said :

A Labor Opposition looking for a thoughtful set of policies to take to the 2016 election – which is likely to be held against a background of a less than rosy economic outlook for Australia – could do worse than revisit the concepts of the Accord, and craft contemporary policies which reflect those principles.

I agree, but there is no chance of that. Bob Hawke and Bill Kelty were sensible, measured, courageous and genuinely acted in the country’s best interests. Bill Shorten and Ged Kearney are intellectual and moral midgets by comparison. It speaks volumes of the malaise within modern Labor that the party’s spiritual head was a well-intentioned but incompetent single-termer like Gough Whitlam, rather than a competent and effective leader like Hawke.

“We haven’t seen anything approaching a recognition of the need for this marriage since the Accord in Hawkie’s time. Perhaps it’s about time we did.”

Like any policy or set of related policies, the Accord was not perfect, but I have never understood why federal Labor apparently abandoned it so quickly and completely after the 1996 election.

It was equally surprising (ironic) to hear the leading lights of the Howard Government celebrating rising real wages and contrasting that, in a mocking way, with wages outcomes in the Hawke/Keating years. Had incomes not risen quite so quickly in the Howard years, or had the increases been better matched by genuine and sustained productivity increases, our national economy might now be somewhat less uncompetitive than it sadly is.

A Labor Opposition looking for a thoughtful set of policies to take to the 2016 election – which is likely to be held against a background of a less than rosy economic outlook for Australia – could do worse than revisit the concepts of the Accord, and craft contemporary policies which reflect those principles.