What a disaster...

J

jadedskies

Part Of The Furniture
PF Member
I could just about cry.
It's election night out here, and it looks like the right-wing's going to be returned with about the same margin.

But let me give a bit of a background here. It's amazing how short sighted voters can be. Six months ago, the current prime minister, the guy who introduced the GST, was heading for the biggest smashing in Australian electoral history. The prime minister and deputy prime minister were headed to lose their seats, with an absolute swath cut through the government.

Then, bring on September 11. By sheer coincidence, the prime minister happens to be in Washington. He milks that for all it's worth, and uses the events of September 11 for political points - more than that, he's basically won the election on that. His whole election campaign was pretty much policy-less, his main platform capitalising on fear of future terrorism. Then he pulled a racist stunt on refugees, and now it looks like he'll be returned with a couple more seats. By capitalising on September 11, all the domestic issues got pushed to the back. He got away with ripping off public schools, the closest thing yet to outlawing unions, an evil education plan which tries to push the poor into menial traineeships, and tries to make university only for the rich, and he got away with introducing a GST. All because of September 11.
 
It's a tax, although I'm not sure how it works. They have this in Canada. When I was up shopping in Canada this spring, I was able to get a refund of all my GST at the duty free shop before I left, since I'm not a Canadian. But I think if a Canadian buys stuff outside of Canada, they have to pay GST on it when they get back in the country. I'm nowhere close to fully understanding it though.

And PIT - as far as short sighted voters, I totally hear ya.
 
Yeah, hermie's pretty much right. But when the Canadian government introduced it - they paid for it at the next election, dearly.

It's amazing how a couple of stunts can distract people from the real issues. Hell, this year, every single state in the country, bar South Australia, swung back to the left, and the country seemed to be heading the same way. Then, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN, the premier of South Australia, the last state still controlled by the right, gets forced to resign in a corruption scandal, and it doesn't hurt the right a bit. And on top of all this, the ****s not only got back, but got back with an increased majority - seven or eight seats more than last time. :no:
 
oh, i have no idea about australia and its politics. it's just that big island where the crocodile hunter comes from ;)
 
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