I’m pretty sure Laurie Bloakes is being paid a retainer by the Libs

I wonder if this is due to the Rodent giving Messers Packer, Stokes and Murdoch free reign in the media playground ?

Here is a tip from somebody who has correctly called every election result since he first started (mid 1990s)

Good point James Hamilton, us political junkies are HOPELESS at picking what the greater electorate thinks.I am an optimist, and no matter how hard I try, I always seem to overestimate the political awareness/intellectual capcity of the swing voters.

Mate, it ain’t the proles’ “political awareness/intellectual capacity” you’ve been over-estimating; it is the Luvvies’

Its just sad that politics has degenerated into choosing the party you hate the least.

I suspect the contempt you describe comes from the accumulation of let downs. Costello is capable, sure. But he is harldy visionary. If we are so awash with money why is it that in my city, canberra, there are over 1000 children sleeping on the streets every night? Why is there so much uncertainity when it comes to health and education if the times have ‘never been better’?

But hey, we can easily cut income tax for people earning over 70 g’s, bonus. Us rusted on’s have just grown cynical James.

That’s a bit harsh, Carl. Calling people who might disagree with you, stupid and uninformed is so Keating. We could argue that the fact that they are swinging indicated more mental activity than we rusted on types.

I haven’t been at LP for a while. I like to learn from those I am not alligned with but in an election year it is all too polarised and draining so I left. I stuck my head in the door to see how you were all going post-budget and I was surprised at your reaction. I expected negativity, sure, but the level of contempt surprised me. It was like we had been watching a different 730 Report.

As I said, and I have not been a Costello supporter in the past, I thought he was masterful, I thought the panel thought he was masterful too. He believed in his budget and fielded comments and questions with aplomb. If there was a negative it was his smugness again. He looked like somebody who was comfortable in his skin and job and knew that he would get Howard’s job very soon.

We weren’t watch a different show of course but that’s perceptions for you. We all have to be careful of trusting our own eyes.

Costello looked like somebody who knows something we don’t vis a vis the polls. The lection is sometime off and I think Costello at least has decided being flustered is counterproductive.

Cripes, glad I went to uni when I did. How long until HECS is just a thing of the past?

“Good point James Hamilton, us political junkies are HOPELESS at picking what the greater electorate thinks.I am an optimist, and no matter how hard I try, I always seem to overestimate the political awareness/intellectual capcity of the swing voters.”

Since I’m not a political junkie and I am just an ordinary voter, I can say that I’m unimpressed, but then I spent the night watching the second series of the American version of The Office and I certainly haven’t read this morning’s newspapers. I’m blissfully ignorant and I’m voting Labor.

“I think the Labor Party is finished for this election. I’ve argued with you about this before and I bet I’m right.”

Nothing like a good old-fashioned defeatism from Labor supporters. Come on.

The budget is predictable. I’ll get an extra 14 bucks a week, which will help, but I’d rather be confident that some day when I have kids, they will be a able to go to uni. (sigh)

Lefty E

“We admit that ALP has been right about everything all along (education IS underfunded; workchoices IS unfair; skills ARE a problem; we need to think beyond the mining boom; climate change IS a problem). We are so out of ideas we have become ALP lite, overnight, and are following Rudd around like a lost puppy needing direction. So might as well take the money and vote for them.�

Actually, we are in the beginning stages of a chess game where the opening move, by virtue of succession to the ALP leadership close an election, went to Rudd. The real strategies and playing style or skills haven’t come out yet. It’s a cautious game with heaps of probing and blocking taking place, each side waiting for the other to create an opening. Howard is having to adapt somewhat, but knows a few sneaky moves, and can’t be written off simply by claiming age or tiredness, which are silly arguments, given the fact he has an ambitious team directly behind him in succession that he has to have the skill, freshness and fortitude to stave off even before he counters Rudd.

Both sides are relatively centreist, so you’d expect similarities in style, application, and a tendency to cross-purposed goals. One thing you know, Howard is a Master, and has won a few games, offsider Costello has a few tricks up his sleeve, whereas Rudd is ambitious but an unknown when we get into the nittygritty, although he obviously knows how to play the game, and has so far shown that he has studied the Master well, but has a team behind him, including Swan, which has lost a few games, and will be a worry for him when the end-game arrives.

Costello has just made a good move. The counter will be telling!

I have the privilege of teaching in a building equipped with cutting edge world class hi tech motion sensor classroom lighting rather than traditional, lame, third-world light switches. If we all sit very still and think, the lights go out. But there is not enough money to pay for more than three part-time level As to teach the ENTIRE hum & soc. sci programs.

Kim, this budget is a blatant vote buying exercise and full of borrowed ideas from Labor. Heaven knows what ordinary people are going to get out of it for the future - nice universities but no one on AWAs being able to afford to go there and having to do plumbing apprenticeships. But people seem to really like it - I think the Labor Party is finished for this election. I’ve argued with you about this before and I bet I’m right. In despair….

Also they are maintaining the charade of calling the GST a state tax when it was set up under Commonwealth legislation,is collected by the Feds and is a commonwealth tax that has never appeared in a Costello budget as such.

[LINK]

I predicted Labor would win last time (I blame Back Pages and the fact that I admired the way Latham hated luvvies) and I was pretty wrong on that one (the resultn not the luvvies). I am banning myself from predictions or even quietly held expectations this time. It’s a contest and could go either way.

What I will say, with confidence, is that you guys are delusional like you are drugged. I think you can’t handle a good poll result. Optimism is good and, yes, results are encouraging for Labor but whatever you do, don’t place any faith in your ability to read what the greater electorate is thinking. You have proved you are simply not wired to do that.

Rudd is right about one thing, if he wins it’s 51/49.

Truth be told, we’re not even close. Many of the proposed (important qualification) changes will, in fact, put the Commonwealth Government in more of a position to dictate course offerings at universities - as a response to the demands of the economy, business, industry, national need &c - not in response to student demand. This is just continuing the trend of the past decade. And I am sure there are many who’ll see this as a good thing.

‘Proposed changes’ is an important qualification because many of the changes depend major revisions of the legislative, regulatory and reporting arrangements for universities. These are hopelessly tangled up, and some streamlining is long overdue, but it’s important to remember that all the increased complexity of these arrangements has happened at the federal level. The Government will ask the states to make a raft of legislative and other changes to implement its ‘Education for Life’ (names are so important) program. That means amendments to at least 38 separate pieces of state legislation - not counting those relating to reporting to, say, Auditors-General. How long is that going to take? and what are we likely to hear from the Government while this is going on? “Gee, we’d like to give you all that money we promised … but the states … y’know …”

You know, having slept on it: I reckon the meta-message of this budget to the electorate - despite the OZ’s ravings - is this:

“We admit that ALP has been right about everything all along (education IS underfunded; workchoices IS unfair; skills ARE a problem; we need to think beyond the mining boom; climate change IS a problem). We are so out of ideas we have become ALP lite, overnight, and are following Rudd around like a lost puppy needing direction. So might as well take the money and vote for them.”

Is say Shanahan at the Government Gazette is confusing the terms “wedge” and “capitulation”.