Cutting, Cutting, Gone...

I'm back, and I'll try to post a couple of times a week now.  What better way to come back with a general political whinge?  As you may know, the older I get, the further I go to the left, and in case you haven't heard the news I resigned from the ALP in August last year (after Gillard's so-called Malaysia "soultion".  I joined the Greens early this year after ensuirng my ALP membership had well and truly lapsed, not only in spirit, but financially.  Although I resigned by email, and I receivd a reply saying that it was acceptable to do it that way, I decided to wait until my financial membership truly lapsed, at the end of the calenadar year.  I then sent away my subscription to the Greens, and was welcomed to the fold.

On Facebook, I was referred to an item on a website alluding to Gillard's supposed criminal involvment back in the days when she was working for Slater-Gordon and sold a shelf company and bank accounts she had setup to her then boyfriend.  The allegations against her were initially raised in the Victorian Parliament in 1995, and concern the then union boass Bruce Wilson, whom Gillard was having a relationship with.

When  I read the name of the website "Kangaroo Court" I approached the story with trepidation. I read the article stopping to chuckle many times along the way. I am not and have NEVER been an apologist for Gillard. She is a bad Prime Minister. Her inability to cut through the media beatups and publicise the fact that we have the best economic circumstances for over fifty years is a sad reflection on her lack of communications skills - sort of something you'd seem to need as a Prime Minister.

But this is a mere distraction. I'm not too concerned over the history of a leader, particularly if it's events over fifteen years ago. I'm sure we could find some grubby little incidents in Mr Rabbit's affairs as he underwent tertiary education, but I wouldn't be worried about that either.

What worries me are the policies both parties plan to carry out, the direction they are going to lead the country in and how they go about promulgating them. I see sickening performances from the Liberal party who are essentially devoid of any policies. They're not telling us what they are now because they know we won't like them. And why should they open their mouths and say a word? They don't have to. In fact the minute they do they'll start losing votes. We might get some policy information from them in the last couple of days before polling starts, but by then it will be too late.

This has been exemplified by yesterday's release of not policy, but a policy direction paper aimed at discussing limitations of foreeign owenership of farmland in Australia.  This policy intends to garner a few more votes from racist conservatives who allege that Chinese investors are buying up all of Australia's prime agricultural land.  They are supposedly getting around the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) limitations (scrutiny only kicks in when the land is worth over $244 million) by buying smaller adjacent lots and then consolidating them.  Anyway, they've got a long way to go, because in 2011, a total of 1% of farm holdings in the country were foreign owned.  The proportion is greatest in the Northern Territory (3.2%) but in Queensland, where a lot of the fuss seems to be going on, the proportion is only 0.5%, lower than any other state or territory.  (See this ABARE report )

Irrespective of the facts, the Liberals seem to be interested in reducing the threshhold value for FIRB involvement.  Since the land sold to foreign interests is usually land that existing farmers have walked off and can't make a go of it, you'd think Australia would be glad someone else is providing the capital to keep farms running.  But the Libs want to tap into that hysteria which might ensure them a few more votes from the racist rednecks who'd support this sort of issue.  Already there has been extensive criticism levelled at the policy, not only from the ALP, but also the National Farmers' Federation, and a significant former Howard government minister, Peter Reith, who are calling for the existing situation to be maintained.  (If Reith supports the current government's policy on something, that speaks loudly!)

So we finally get to see some policy from the poor old Libs, and what happens?  People criricse it!  They were, of course, quick to point out that this is not actually policy, but a policy direction statement, open for discussion.  In other words, we might be wrong, and we're still not going to release actual policy.  Gutless wonders, indeed, but what do you expect?  They'll be less inclined to release any concrete policy from now on, leaving the voters completely in the dark as to what the hell they're going to do.

It's what's going to happen after the election that really worries me.  Bouyed on by their resounding election win (it's going to happen, isn't it?  Gillard hasn't got a hope) and all the accompanying hubris, we, the people, are going to be subject to a shellacking when it comes to government services. We'll see reductions in services across the board, mass public sector sackings, and billions sucked out of the economy. It will mean a substantial increase in people on unemployment benefits - something Liberal voters tend to really hate anyway - and it will mean people are going to be literally dying from the reduction in government services those who most need them can least afford to go without.

Sorry for such a maudlin post on my return to the blog.  Hopefully I can find some cheerier topics soon!