Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Difference

It's weird how Australians seem unable or unwilling to understand the motivators of the major political actors. Most people seem to select a political party at voting time either because - that is how their parents voted - or because they like or dislike the look of one or other of the available candidates.

I am amazed by the rather large number of working people and small business people who are inclined to support the Liberals - usually for one of these reasons.

Heaven forbid that these actual voters would bother to dig deep and understand what a) The Party or b) The Candidate actually stands for.

Workers and small business people are the very last people who ought to be supporting the party that is now so obviously anti-worker and anti-small business.

Once upon a time, the Liberals were actually a moderate, middle of the road party. Prior to the Howard era they looked out for the people of the nation and tried to ensure that fairness prevailed. This was once the party of small business - whose interests are closely aligned with working folk because they both need each other to survive and prosper.

But since the 1990's the Liberal party has lost its way. Big business now pulls its levers, drives its agenda and tells its leaders what to do. Both small business and working folks are way down the list of priorities.

How else to explain some of the things that Howard and Co. did? Like.

* Defunded and dumbed down the tertiary education system - seriously impacting our supply of skilled workers.
* Defunded the state education systems - with the same result.
* Got rid of the worker training guarantee scheme - ensuring a further reduction of skills in the workplace.
* Seriously expanded the 457 visa scam - used to import cheap labour and displace Australian workers.
* Allowed foreign students to buy citizenship with a 3 year education visa and work for peanuts while they studied.
* Introduced WorkChoices - all designed to reduce job security and remuneration for Australian workers.

This raft of anti worker programmes were designed to dumb down the Australian workforce and reduce their pay and conditions.

And it all worked spectacularly well - because rates of pay in 2010 are pretty much what they were in the 1990's across most industries. In my own industry for example, incomes are currently about 30% of what they were in 2000 - largely due to a surplus of imported workers. It's an absolute disgrace that in 2010 Australian adults can be paid as little as $15/hour for their effort.

And it’s even more of a disgrace that the same people who have been thoroughly done over by previous Liberal governments will happily vote Liberal at the coming election.

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