Ok, I’ve examined the policies from every perspective.
As someone whose income depends on superannuation and a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist, I have to say that the Liberals aren’t really doing much for me.
As an educator and a human being, who occasionally visits the doctor, I have to say that the Liberals aren’t really doing much for me.
As someone who hopes that humanity has a future and that the world doesn’t just use climate change as an excuse to give the planet back to the cockroaches and the crocodiles, I must say that the Liberals seem to expect that they’ll be quite happily able to survive amongst the cockroaches and the crocodiles because they’ve been doing it for so long that they expect that they’ll be able to live in the slime soup of the future.
So why are the Liberals winning?
Well, they seem to be able to switch the conversation onto the areas where they’re strong. Let’s talk about asylum seekers and how they’ve stopped 1200 people drowning under Labor’s slack policies. When SIEV-X sank and hundreds drowned under Howard’s watch, well, it was the height of bad taste to attempt to link that to the government and playing politics with such a tragedy, but that was then, this is now. Let’s not bring up that it was Labor that reinstated off-shore processing on Nauru and Manus; let’s suggest that somehow they’ll change the policy because one or two Labor members are speaking out. This shows disunity. And, we all know how one or two people can change a whole party’s policy. After all, look at the whole Safe Schools thing.
Yep, elect Labor and we’ll have people drowning at sea. Maybe even a thousand. Ok, we’ve got more than that locked up and they’re in a living hell, but that’s ok, because it’s saving the few who may drown. You see, potential drowning at sea isn’t a deterrent, but being sentenced to indefinite detention is. What we need to do is give these people no hope.
And the Liberals are good at that. And they don’t just restrict that to asylum seekers. Unemployed, pensioners, thinking people, artists, health workers… ah the list goes on… Like an Oscar thank you speech, too many to name. Plenty of people who have no hope.
So they’re winning.
Meanwhile, the left are arguing who’s best to protect penalty rates. The fact that both The Greens and Labor are trying to protect penalty rates gets lost, of course. It’s just a further example of how, if you don’t vote Liberal, then penalty rates may be lost anyway, so you might as well vote for the Liberals because then you’ll be sure where you stand. A reduction in rates, but this will mean “jobs and growth” because everybody’ll be working on a Sunday until firms start standing down people because, with everyone working, there’ll be nobody left to shop.
And, with a perfectly straight face, they’ll tell you that unless you’re prepared to sacrifice your standard of living, then your standard of living will be lost.
You’ll see it again and again over the next few weeks. Just when Labor edges ahead, we’ll have a subtle change of subject. When we discuss climate change, we’ll hear how it’ll send electricity prices up and how MUMSANDDADS would rather JOBSANDGROWTH so that they’re kids can get a job and what’s the point of saving the environment if nobody’s working for Rupert Murdoch or a mining company?
What do you mean that the economy can’t function in a world destroyed by climate change? Why haven’t you considered the great need for INNOVATION? Not to mention how well our submarines will do when Sydney’s underwater!
And then there’s all that money to be made selling lifeboats to those in low-lying areas. And thanks to Mr Abbott, we’ve got all those boats to send the asylum seekers back!
Education, pah! Health, pay!
Tony stopped the boats, and that stopped congestion on Sydney roads.
You want to talk about the future? The Liberals will say that they’re committed to mumsanddads and jobsandgrowth, and everything bad that ever happened can be traced back to the election of a Labor government, and let’s talk about all the mistakes they made without actually naming any specifically.
You want to beat the Liberals?
Don’t let them change the subject. It’s that simple. It’s always been that simple.
