THE DONKEY VOTE

The election is on and it’s civil war! It’s time to try and educate your neighbour on the virtues of the Labor Party or if not hate them Latham style.

It is game on and every single day is an eternity in the world of election politics, one gaffe or outflanking and your campaign could be sunk! SKY NEWS will be a valuable resource and allies during the battle and so will the ABC but The Donkey Vote will be your best friend!

I am delighted to hear that John Howard wants to debate Kevin Rudd next Sunday! Something Kevin challenged Howard over months ago but over a series of three debates. I have no fear of a debate with Howard as he always has been a poor debater and even Mark Latham scored a victory over him in the last Election debate. As a former representative of my high school debating team, I think I can say with some authority that Kevin certainly has it over Howard in skills, intellect and debating skill. Kevin also has an overwhelming stronger position to debate from with morality falling with Kevin and many facts and historical events heavily stacked against Howard.

It should be great entertainment, exciting and fantastic material for The Donkey Vote! It is certainly what we all wanted, Australia deservces to see it’s candidates for leadership go head to head.

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We have a new poll and with three votes already in, I am starting to wonder who voted for who.

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Now I haven’t seen the ACTU ads that Yak is crying like a girl over, but I am certainly looking forward to seeing them. He must live in some parallel universe where all employees are just, kind and honest. Well they are not, they are out to make a dollar and they will run over you to get it, they don’t care about you. The government has enabled unscrupulous employers and morally corrupt companies to rip off employees and they will. It is a scientific certainty, the opportunity has been granted and there is no way it won’t be exploited. Companies are forever after more profit, now the government has enabled them to slash one of their greatest costs, YOU.

I sometimes wonder why Yak is so PRO Work(NO)Choices. Maybe he wants to start his own buiness or maybe his hatred of rugby union has some how overflown to trade unions but there is certainly a complex here.

Workchoices is just a device to turn our nation’s workforce into a disposable slave army. It is the harbinger of the casualisation of Australia’s workforce. A fulltime job or even a part time job is becoming an extinct species with 13,000 FT jobs recently disappearing around this country not only are most new jobs casual these pathetic new Industrial Relations laws pollute every description of job with uncertainty, instability and intimidation. That isn’t the Australia I want to live in.

With housing affordability at backbreaking highs and personal debt skyrocketing, how is anyone supposed to build a life in today’s Australia?! How is anyone supposed to plan and build for the future? You can’t even get a loan!

That is what Howard doesn’t want you to know, unemployment on paper may be at 30 year lows but that is a sham because anyone classed as doing one hours work a week is classed as being employed and the figures don’t include students who don’t have a magic tree in their backyards that grows money and it is impossible to live off austudy.

I am sick and tired of people being casual or on call or not getting penalties or not getting regular work or getting no hours or not even getting a roster or being rung for work that day. You can not build a life around that.

With rent at obsence levels, how are people supposed to make ends meet in today’s casual Australia?

Not only is there no certainty in the workplace anymore, now you have no certainty even under your own roof with people not knowing if they will be able to pay escalating rent or mortages, especially with a likely 5th consecutive interest rate rise (Even though Howard promised this would not happen at the last election.) it is likely to get a lot worse.

I happen to know know people that are personally affected by unjust AWAs and I have seen what they do to people’s pockets and self esteem first hand.

That isn’t the Australia I want to live in!

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Well its no surprise that just hours after John Howard announced that the Federal Election would take place that the advertising for both parties and their partners would kick off, filling the commercial breaks between our favourite shows, with assumptions, what if’s and as it seems with the latest from the ACTU, outright lies.

Their recent commercial, titled ‘Real Australians, Real Stories’, features two groups. One is a girl, aged between 16-18 who has a casual job, and the other is a group of employees claiming they want their union to represent them when it comes to negotiating their pay.

Now in the case of the girl, she claims that due to the WorkChoices legislation, if there are no customers in the café or restaurant she works in, she doesn’t get paid. The punishment is then supposably compounded because if a customer doesn’t pay their tab, this money is then meant to be deducted from her pay… now I’m sorry, but I can’t believe this is real, or if it is, this girl needs to call 1300 363 264, because her AWA is illegal and she is being ripped off.

No employer can deduct money from your wage if a customer refuses to pay or doesn’t pay their bill. Next an employer can’t stop paying you just cause there are no customers in a shop, they can ask you to finish a shift early, but no offence, that was happening way back when I worked at McDonalds as a young 14 year old, over 11 years ago.

That girl, would be better served challenging her AWA or taking one of the thousands of café jobs available on seek.com.au, there were over 1,100 on there when I checked tonight, than having a whinge on a misguided ACTU ad.

The next group wants a Union to represent them in their pay discussions, and thus get a Union Collective Agreement. They claim their employer is forcing them all to get AWA’s and if they don’t they will sack them. Again this is another huge breach of the WorkChoices legislation!

First off, no employee can be forced to sign an AWA, that is a fact, next it is illegal to sack someone for signing an AWA, and as for the Union Collective Agreement, well guess what the new WorkChoices laws made this easier to happen, reducing the required number of employees that have to be part of that Union from 50 (as set in 1992) down to 20.

The sad part is most people won’t do the simple research to find out the facts and will feel that these people have been hard done by, rather than the reality which is, either they are lieing, or they are too lazy or ill-informed to challenge these illegal practices occurring within their workplace.

The Government, and this doesn’t matter who is in charge and whether it is set at State or Federal, sets laws to try and protect people. They setup structures to try and enforce these laws, but seriously unless people try and help themselves, they are naturally going to get themselves into situations like this, and you can’t blame the government or a political policy for that.

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Well we’ve finally been put out of our misery and an election date has been set for November 24th. While I’ll probably be without net access for the next week, I’ll still be following the campaign closely and you never know, I might still make the occasional comment.

Let the fun begin.

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Congratulations to the 55 people who correctly selected Saturday, November 24 as Election Day 2007, your votes will now be counted as we head into what appears to be one of the most tightly fought elections in the past 11 years.

With Australia currently torn between wanting change, and also not wanting to compromise what the currently have, the next six weeks are certain to get very interesting.

TheDonkeyVote.com should also get very interesting over the next six weeks as Brad will be sure to continue his ‘all things Rudd’ stance, whilst myself and Sheldon will try and provide a bit of a balance to limit the Kevin07 logos plastering the site.

Be sure to check back every day, as both sides will provide an analysis of the new policies and controversies that occur every day leading up to November 24!

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