THE DONKEY VOTE

Just wanted to wish a happy birthday to my colleague and adversary, Brad. Hope he’s out enjoying himself today and not working too hard.

See, I do care…

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Wow well I learnt something off Sheldon, I didn’t realise that they hold off their campaigns because the longer they leave it the longer they can spend someone else’s dime. Sneaky bastards. But it also makes a bit of tactical sense to align everything for one final push.

I watched a fair bit of the Liberal Party launch on my 3 mobile in class. I thought John Howard was going to make a 30minute speech Im sure it went for much longer. I didn’t get to watch it all because I got in trouble. I’m sick of being in trouble, like getting kicked out of the computer lab for playing Dr Mario and the Adventure of Link and having my account suspended. I’m dirty on that. But just wait for the change of government then it’s time for pay back and reprisals.

I haven’t had a chance to look over all the policies out yesterday, but seems to be like a lot of….nah I can’t say that corny word….a bit of copying going on. With the education rebate and also the housing saving account.

OK so what if the Coalition will allow school fees etc. That ws an obvious addition for them, but will everyone just claim school fees and not try to invest in new technology for their children? Leaving us with a status quo? I don’t know, but the Labor education rebate should probably cast a wider net.

The housing savings accounts and all the first home buyers grants are all fantastic, but do they really do anything to stop the real problem? Lack of housing? We can’t supply the demand. All the savings accounts and grants and piggy backs only increases the amount of people in play and in turn the demand and puts more money out there for the same amount of housing.

I think we need to look at further developing and linking regional areas. But we need to make sure the infrastructure is on par with the metros, otherwise people aren’t going to make that choice.

Or the Labor Party could adopt some of my policies. Such as desert dome cities, underground metropolis or moon colonies. Laugh all you want, but one day those cool things are going to happen and they are only going to happen if visionary people like me who aren’t afraid of being paid out push the agenda of inter stellar colonies and dome zones.

Ah I had better go, I’m already 40mins late and it takes me lik an hour to get there. Whoops… Tomorrow is the Labor launch, I’m hoping for some significant education and health policies. We can not let Howard hijack and undermine our claims to being the education revolutionaries and the hospital….what’s our catch phrase for that….

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I’m back after taking a well earned rest over the weekend. Even us highly paid and respected Internet journalists need time to themselves. Brad’s pretending that he’s got assessment that he had to catch up on the weekend. Want to know the real reason?

Strip clubs.

There, I said it.

Anyway back to the important stuff.  Another Newspoll has come out with Labor ahead 55-45. I don’t think anything that the polls are saying at the moment is surprising anyone. I can’t imagine anyone is left that thinks the Coalition will win this election. I certainly don’t. As Brad was saying, it would have to be something way out of left field to save the government now.

Of course this doesn’t mean that our interest here in the election will wane at all.  We are nothing if not professionals. In any case we shouldn’t forget about the marginal seats and there will definitely be some interesting battles to focus on, especially the big one… Bennelong.

The Coalition had its campaign launch today in Brisbane. I’m impressed at the fact that a “launch” can be announced nowhere near the beginning of a campaign.. it’s very post-modern. To be honest I don’t think they’ve gone far enough, next election I want to see the launches as close as possible to polling day, a game of “chicken” with the party with the latest launch winning a set of steak knives or something.

Of course to be serious for a second, the reason that the parties hold their launches so late in the campaign is the fact that before the launches the tax payer is footing the bill for campaign expenses, after the launch it’s the parties that have to pay the costs. It’s a rort, isn’t it?

Anyway, the main points of the Coalition’s campaign launch was that the childcare rebate would now be paid up front by the government, more money would be spent on the building of childcare facilities, the creation of tax free home saving accounts for Australians who were yet to buy a house and the introduction of a new tax rebate for education expenses. Mark Vaile, who is the Deputy Prime Minister *not John Anderson*, released some policies to improve health care for rural areas and provide financial support for students from rural areas.

Nothing too hard hitting or surprising in the launch, I found and I’m not sure how much it will help the Coalition. Rudd attacked the launch, saying “I can’t see any new ideas for the future”. I think Rudd likes the term “ideas for the future” because he says it five times just in that one article. It’s abit rich Rudd having a go at the policies being announced by the Coalition because they are basically the same as Labor’s policies only the government isn’t hammering terms like “ideas for the future”or “plan for the future”. Or at least not getting the same level of press-love about it.

Rudd also declared that the launch policies of the Coalition have no real substance as Howard will be gone sometime during the next term and Costello will probably have his own view on the direction of government policy. A nice attack by Rudd there especially considering he could have pulled the trigger on it much earlier in the campaign.

Oh and the Australian Democrats released…..*yawn* their… human rights……………..

Sorry fell asleep there from the total lack of interest.  I really should stop making fun of the Democrats. But it’s just too much fun!

To paraphrase the Simpsons, if you want a taste of banality why don’t you read this interview of Janette and John Howard by the Age? You can read Janette make hard hitting statements such as “People are nice”. I’m being unfair, the interview itself isn’t too bad for what it is but I don’t know why anyone would care what Janette Howard would say about anything. Maybe if she was hotter, showed a bit more skin…

Brrr… there’s a mental image you don’t want to have.

Is that better than someone telling Rudd, “I want to have your babies”?

I don’t know but it’s taking me to a strange place I don’t want to go. I’m going to have nightmares now.

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