Comments on: We're They're all neo-liberals now?

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:25:56 +0000

I’ve just read Janet. IU’m still wiping the spew off my keyboard. Where the hell do these people get off? They seem to have no idea of the emotional pain and mental anguish these proposed schemes cause those people who are affected by such heartless welfare reform. I well recall the worry and anxiety I went through when the Howard Government, which Rudd, to his great shame sewems determined to clone, was considering kicking people on disability pensions in the head. Despite the fact I knew I was so bloody sick there was noe way O would be affected by any of Howard’s heartless changes.
Perhaps Rudd should think carefully about those blocks who voted against Howard because of his welfare reforms and helped lose him the election – single parents, Aborigines, disabled pensioners.
It is at least heartening to see thsat at least the entire ALP have not turned into Howardistas.
Its well and truly time for a night of the long knoves on the CPS. Get rid of all those arse-licking Howard loving bastards if you want to stay in power.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:31:01 +0000

My conscience is clear. I didn’t vote for either of the bastards.

In a preferential voting system you don’t really have any choice though. In the end you either vote for one of them or you don’t vote. You can only not vote for one person

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:50:22 +0000

No, Rudd isn’t Howard. The btrouble is the more right wing the Rudd Government goes, the more far right wing the next conservative government will go. One would have thought the ALP would have learnt the dangers of swinging to the right by now, when one consoders the horrors Howard built on the Hawke-Keating reforms. University fees, Workchoices, savage welfare reforms, detention centre, etc. etc.
My conscience is clear. I didn’t vote for either of the bastards.

By: Jacques de Molay

Jacques de Molay — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:34:11 +0000

I’m disgusted by this. I didn’t vote for the ALP to get a more extreme version of Howard! If Rudd hasn’t done a complete 180 on this come next election I won’t be voting for Labor again despite the fact none of this even affects me. Like I said at the time I thought Rudd would be a wolf in sheeps clothing, I wish I had have been wrong.

By: paul walter

paul walter — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:22:05 +0000

re 63, Pity what she thinks fit for others wasn’t applied to her once in a while.
Then we’d hear a change in tune.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:12:02 +0000

Planet Janet is over the moon at Rudd’s “tough love”:

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/janetalbrechtsen/index.php/theaustralian/comments/tough_love_is_now_bipartisan/

By: Lefty E

Lefty E — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:53:32 +0000

I ate your taxes with some lima beans and a nice chianti!

By: Paulus

Paulus — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:24:47 +0000

Nuance is for sissies, TAXEATER!

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:50:08 +0000

Geez, Paulus, lots of nuance there. Next you’ll be calling us TAXEATERS!

By: Paulus

Paulus — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:42:26 +0000

People are quick to pile on with their attacks on the ‘Third Way’, but at least it has some sort of ideological footing — some sort of theory behind it — whatever you may think of it. Ditto for free-market liberals and ‘neo-liberals’.

But where do we stand with the non-Third Way left? Most have (thankfully) abandoned the notion of the monolithic, omnipresent state, but they don’t seem to have found anything to replace the huge hole where their ideology once used to be.

Ask what we might do about, say, improving secondary education. The left’s answer will be, I guarantee it, “more resources”. What about health? “More resources.” Crime, the environment, child care, aged care, indigenous issues, universities, vocational training — pick any problem you like, the answer is always the same.

The modern left are just a bunch of mendicants, queueing in front of the government to have their begging bowls filled with tax dollars. I hope the ALP will generally have the good sense to ignore them.