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I'd be more inclined to vote Liberal is they actually talked about what their policies were aside from 'Stop the Boats' and 'Make NBN terrible'.

Ugh, just tying 'Stop the Boats' made me want to punch myself.

I'm not even sure what their policies and such are, whenever I see them they're like "well labor does this"...

We need a third option.

 n0t_u wrote:
I'm not even sure what their policies and such are, whenever I see them they're like "well labor does this"...

We need a third option.

"none of the above"

 insaniak wrote:
My bigger concern is the Coalition wanting to bring back Workchoices under a different name.

I think they learnt their lesson on that. Either way, IR reforms have to happen. Labor have put in all sorts of daft regulations that have hurt businesses (eg. the minimum hours for casual workers).

I'm not so sure about IR reforms. I've been a victim of workchoices whilst working for some unknown largest supermarket in Australia and getting 600 for 55 hours a week.
After reading Open veins of South America (published in the 70s) I have dumped my support for free market and weirdly now agree with my old man on tariffs (and he is a died in the wool liberal voter - yes i do mean died not dyed - he'll probably go to his grave croaking surplus) .

Seems like alot of people here seem to have the same feelings as I do on voting this time around. We all might have to use my patented "vote - starting at who you dislike most and work your way up " technique , you really end up with some interesting choices at the end. I did once however end up voting for family first - it was the first election I'd seen them so YMMV

Hivefleetplastic, you might enjoy Open Veins of South America , it gives a horrifying view of politics via corporation or corporation via politics ( I still can't figure out which is right ) and really shook my world view. It also has a nice foreword by Senora Allende. I found it quite confronting and quite depressing, it was recommended to me by my sisters Brazillian boyfriend.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I think they learnt their lesson on that. Either way, IR reforms have to happen. Labor have put in all sorts of daft regulations that have hurt businesses (eg. the minimum hours for casual workers).

The comedy is that we did get IR reform. When Labor came in and they didn't dismantle the whole of Workchoices, in fact they kept many of the major reforms.

 sebster wrote:
Yhe comedy is that we did get IR reform. When Labor came in and they didn't dismantle the whole of Workchoices, in fact they kept many of the major reforms.

That's because the idea behind workchoices was good. It just overlooked the fact that in many industries the employee doesn't have any bargaining power... so a system that relies on the employer and employee 'agreeing' to terms is always going to be unfair on those employees without some sort of enforcable structure in place.

Labour tried to give it that structure. Abbott wants to take that structure away again.

Read the whole thread. My perception. Is your about to have what we had in the USA. Obama or Romney. I didn't vote because to me. Both lacked serious experience. From the sound of it your two with our two.

Bullockist wrote:
Hivefleetplastic, you might enjoy Open Veins of South America , it gives a horrifying view of politics via corporation or corporation via politics ( I still can't figure out which is right ) and really shook my world view. It also has a nice foreword by Senora Allende. I found it quite confronting and quite depressing, it was recommended to me by my sisters Brazillian boyfriend.

I'll give it a look. Thanks for the suggestion!

 insaniak wrote:
That's because the idea behind workchoices was good. It just overlooked the fact that in many industries the employee doesn't have any bargaining power... so a system that relies on the employer and employee 'agreeing' to terms is always going to be unfair on those employees without some sort of enforcable structure in place.

Labour tried to give it that structure. Abbott wants to take that structure away again.

Well yeah, the issue is between balancing the benefits of letting individual workers and employers negotiate, against potential exploitation of workers who lack bargaining power... but we've known that was the balancing act since before the AWARD reforms. Probably a hell of a lot longer than that, its just that's as far back as my reading on the issue goes so I don't want to say.

Labor, despite their rhetoric, was never as opposed to work choices as they claimed. Instead, they liked some parts and didn't like others. It's just that ultimately 'The Liberal Party gave you workchoices and we got rid of some bits of it, and now Abbott is going to bring back the bits we took out again' doesn't have much of a ring to.

 n0t_u wrote:
I'm not even sure what their policies and such are, whenever I see them they're like "well labor does this"...

We need a third option.

Shooters and Fishers?

 Krellnus wrote:

 n0t_u wrote:
I'm not even sure what their policies and such are, whenever I see them they're like "well labor does this"...

We need a third option.

Shooters and Fishers?

Sex Party?