Julia Gillard our PM is travelling to Canberra this morning and from news reports is certain to visist the GG and request an election probably for August 28th.
After an initial bounce in the polls when she became our first female PM, the popularity of the Labor party has dropped significantly. Julia's negotiations on the mining tax that had her reach an agrerement with 3 major companies out of more than 300 mining companies has not neutralized the issue as much as expected and only a major change in Treasury forecasts relating to iron ore and coal pricing avoided a major revenue collapse from the deal. Her new policy on asylum seekers arriving by boat from Indonesian waters has been a total disaster after she proposed a regional processing centre in E. Timor. Problem was she had verbal approval from the figurehead president of E. Timor, but its parliament has since said no, she spoke to the wrong people before announcing the policy in a rush.
The last days or so some of the bitterness and broken deals of the leadership coup that brought her to power has become public also, so the Labor party seems to be announcing policies that fail almost immediately and is divided. Although the opinion polls still show a minor lead to Labor party, this is likely to dissipate quickly and my prediction is that the opposition Liberal Party will win this election.
Tony Abbot the opposition leader is a staunch catholic who studied for the priesthood, but chose not to enter it. He however retains very forthright catholic views on moral issues. BK would approve of him I am sure. Normally Tony is the sort of person Australians would not normally elect as a PM, but Labor party has stuffed governing up in almost every state as well as federally in recent years, so is very much on the nose, particularly in our biggest states of NSW and Qld where the state Labor governments are very unpopular.
Tony Abbot was the 3rd opposition leader in 2 years when he took the job on, after the opposition party split right down the middle on climate change policy. At the time He won the leadership only because the party was upset that the previous leader had defied the party room on an Emissions Trading Scheme policy and tried to impose policies on the party that the members objected to by a clear majority. Tony stood with the climate change skeptics and took the leadership by 1 vote. He has surprised almost everyone by at least publicly unifying the Liberal party and mending the fences successfully with its traditional coalition partner the National party.
He has successfully opposed Governments policies and also made glaringly obvious the many failings of the government. As He done that and began to look a winner the party unified.
So on the surface it is an election between an incompetent Labor party with divisions and a unified Liberal/National Party opposition with many previous years of competent government and with a tough, socially rightwing, climate skeptic leader. Economically He may be less conservative than the previous leaders of the Liberal party, in many ways Tony's economic views are not well known, his social views and pro-monarchial views have always taken frontstage.
After an initial bounce in the polls when she became our first female PM, the popularity of the Labor party has dropped significantly. Julia's negotiations on the mining tax that had her reach an agrerement with 3 major companies out of more than 300 mining companies has not neutralized the issue as much as expected and only a major change in Treasury forecasts relating to iron ore and coal pricing avoided a major revenue collapse from the deal. Her new policy on asylum seekers arriving by boat from Indonesian waters has been a total disaster after she proposed a regional processing centre in E. Timor. Problem was she had verbal approval from the figurehead president of E. Timor, but its parliament has since said no, she spoke to the wrong people before announcing the policy in a rush.
The last days or so some of the bitterness and broken deals of the leadership coup that brought her to power has become public also, so the Labor party seems to be announcing policies that fail almost immediately and is divided. Although the opinion polls still show a minor lead to Labor party, this is likely to dissipate quickly and my prediction is that the opposition Liberal Party will win this election.
Tony Abbot the opposition leader is a staunch catholic who studied for the priesthood, but chose not to enter it. He however retains very forthright catholic views on moral issues. BK would approve of him I am sure. Normally Tony is the sort of person Australians would not normally elect as a PM, but Labor party has stuffed governing up in almost every state as well as federally in recent years, so is very much on the nose, particularly in our biggest states of NSW and Qld where the state Labor governments are very unpopular.
Tony Abbot was the 3rd opposition leader in 2 years when he took the job on, after the opposition party split right down the middle on climate change policy. At the time He won the leadership only because the party was upset that the previous leader had defied the party room on an Emissions Trading Scheme policy and tried to impose policies on the party that the members objected to by a clear majority. Tony stood with the climate change skeptics and took the leadership by 1 vote. He has surprised almost everyone by at least publicly unifying the Liberal party and mending the fences successfully with its traditional coalition partner the National party.
He has successfully opposed Governments policies and also made glaringly obvious the many failings of the government. As He done that and began to look a winner the party unified.
So on the surface it is an election between an incompetent Labor party with divisions and a unified Liberal/National Party opposition with many previous years of competent government and with a tough, socially rightwing, climate skeptic leader. Economically He may be less conservative than the previous leaders of the Liberal party, in many ways Tony's economic views are not well known, his social views and pro-monarchial views have always taken frontstage.
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