Warning: The below contains unsubstantiated opinions and
sweeping general statements...
Whether we like it or not, we have 2 main political parties in
this country and as Peter van Onselen wrote in the Australian
this morning, “Parliament plods along party
lines" (Behind a paywall where the ever
helpful Google can you help you find it with a title
search), higlighting how all MP’s MUST adhere to party
policy. As a punter I find this slavish ‘follow the leader’
style of politics stupid, it is just not human nature to have a
group of people all blindly agreeing an anything, hell, the
average family can’t even do it at the dinner table, but this is
what both the ALP & LNP expect.
This sad state of affairs means comparing the ‘leaders’ of each
party, “he or she who must be obeyed” is the only way you can
decide which way to go when voting if you are a swinging voter,
as let’s face, the other MP’s in the party will just do as their
told and the minor parties are just not strong enough yet to
enter the Leadership
Stakes. I see all this
polling in the papers, well, in my 45 years I have never been
phoned, neither has one person I know ever been phoned, so this
rant is how a daggy, middle-aged mum, living in regional
Queensland, trying to survive running a small business and her
similarly balancing act, single & married, multi-tasking,
mates compare the two choices on offer...
Personality Perception – Yes, that does matter,
be it right or wrong, it is human nature to get a ‘vibe’ off
someone and a hell of a lot more people vote on that emotional
response to someone’s personality than what is given credit for
by the so-called political pundits. Julia
Gillard’s voice annoys the hell out of me, but is balanced by the
fact that she is actually our first female PM (it matters), plus
I ‘feel’ there is a real passion there when she talks about
Education, something all mums really care
about, so big tick. Tony
Abbott on the other hand gets my back up, he appears patriarchal
and dismissive. The ‘smirk’ really pushes me
over the edge, reminding me of the Private School kids in the
mall on a Friday night looking down their noses at us because we
were not wearing designer clothes. I know,
shallow, sorry, not proud of it, but it is what it is...
What they say – I know a big segment of the
media cracked a poo when Mr Abbott didn’t win the last election,
kept harping on about a new election, sorry, out in the burbs it
is starting to backfire. A lot of people like
me are seeing the bias and it is in our
nature to support the under dog and Tony Abbott turned Julia
Gillard into an underdog. The constant “NO”
has not helped him either. Most mums have
little tolerance for tantrum throwers. The
fact that every time I think of the saying “If you can’t say
something nice about someone don’t say thing at all” when Mr
Abbott talks give Ms Gillard the points here too.
Money – Hard to compare here, no policies out
from Mr Abbott though as he keeps harking back to PM Howard I
will therefore use that as the measuring yard.
Mr Howard upped Super for baby boomers, upped private school
funding, upped private medical insurance, and the big killer for
me, made single mums try to find work when their kid hit
school. Thanks for that, we now have a
generation of latch-key kids roaming the suburbs, nice
work! Ms Gillard doesn’t get any points here
either, kicking single mums in the teeth, yet again, with the
Newstart business just makes what Howard started even worse,
demonising single mums even further. You want
to help your budget, stop giving money to private schools (that
is a choice, not a necessity, you choose not to use the state
school you have, stiff bikkies) and stop the baby bonus totally,
for god’s sake, generations have survived without being paid to
have a kid? Both parties fail as far as I am
concerned when it comes to money.
Big Picture Stuff – We mums like to have hope
for the future. On one hand, being in the
regions the NBN is going to be massive for us (when we finally
get the bloody thing) so big tick there for Ms
Gillard. Gonski & NDIS are also big
winners, but not started yet, so get cancelled out by the
appalling exemptions for legal tax payer funded
Institutional discrimination by faith based organisations, no
way! I am hoping the public outcry on that one
will make them have a rethink as it does not seem set in stone
yet? Mr Abbot, well, he has not told us of any
big plans as yet, so he is not helping himself
there. Being a Queenslander, if he is going to
be anything like Mr Campbell Newman, well, he can go
jump now! Government is NOT a business, it is
a service provider for the community and what is happening here
with cuts, closures and sackings is depressing the whole state,
most telling, even life-long Libs are getting feral about
it. Ms Gillard only slightly ahead here as the
jury is out as to whether Mr Abbott will
‘Newman’ Australia.
We will watch very carefully on that one?
I am not bothering to cover the Economy
orClimate Change as most people don’t think that
the Government really has a lot of control over either of them
and due to so many external factors, you can only deal with what
you are handed at the time. Carbon pricing has
not really hurt us, too many scientists, too many economists and
none of us really understand any of them, so doesn’t factor into
my comparisons, Journo’s keep plugging those two as the most
important factors, but the ladies on the back deck agree with me,
those 2 are just too big, too hard and we just don’t feel
knowledgeable enough to tackle them without looking like idiots
just copying what we think we should say.
Last but not least... Leadership style – Ms
Gillard is the big winner here. The likes of
Senator Doug Cameron publicly disagreed with the discrimination
exemptions, quoted in the newspaper with “Review 'missed opportunity' to separate
church and state”, besides me agreeing with him, the fact he
was not slapped down for it is promising and gives me hope that
the ALP may start showing a bit more diversity in opinion to
reflect the public's views.. Other ALP MP’s
have said stupid things on the likes of Twitter and been forced
to apologise, actually the sheer fact that some MP’s even
interact with punters is a win. On the other
hand. Mr Abbott thinks Mal Brough is a ‘fine
man’, umm I live in his backyard and want to know to know the
ducks nuts about the #Asbhy gig thank you very
much. He has also had Bernardi, Hockey and now
Laming as the latest to toss out stupid bloody comments, yet Mr
Abbott seems to think they are not relevant for
comment? Gee mate, any mum will tell you that
sort of irresponsible, insensitive behaviour is not on and always
demands a smack down, so big red cross here too!
Minister Gillard has her nose in front in the Leadership stakes,
at the moment... BUT, I dare both leaders to
actually allow some representation from their MP’s instead of
blind obedience and Ten bonus points to the
Leader who will refrain from repeating the same phrases over
& over again, I and my fellow voters are NOT morons.
Then again, I am just a punter, what do I know?
Cheers
Noely @YaThinkN
I have put the question out on Twitter, as it is the weekend
& hot, I don't expect too many answers, as to further pro's
or con's come to hand about either Prime Minister Gillard or
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott I will list them below with the
link (if applicable) in the comments :)
