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October 15, 2007
Election 2007: 7:30 Report first interviews
In the only interviews worth watching in this federal election, Kerry O'Brien's interviews on the 7:30 Report are the only examples of engagement with the real issues and details of policies. Whilst the politicians in question keep repeating the same slogans and ideas, the point scoring is fairly easy to monitor, and Rudd is steamrolling a very irritable John Howard. (And has anyone noticed how Howard's teeth seem to be causing him problems? He's beginning to sound like he has dentures that are ill-fitting or falling out.)
But importantly, the release of the Government's current tax policy going forward may appear good for low-income families, but with WorkChoices delivering harder times than ever for the same families it's hard to see any overall benefit. The quality of life is reducing for Australian working families, and no tax break can make up for that. It will be cold comfort knowing that you're only liable for 15% income tax when your income is so low that you *qualify* for that tax rate.
This has always troubled me about taxation policy: no-one seems to be focusing on *building* wealth in the community. The only way you can build wealth is in investing in the fundamentals that create it - training, infrastructure and business incentives. And of these three, where Australia suffers the most is in telecommunications infrastructure. Oh we have one the highest penetration rates for plain old telephony services per capita in the world. We just don't have affordable and accessible broadband infrastructure to operate effectively as world competitors in business.
In my opinion, the future of Australia isn't about making poor families feel worse about themselves by qualifying for a tax break which was caused by unfair (or at least exploitative) workplace agreements. It's about *giving us the tools to grow*. Now I'm not even certain that Labor's policies are doing that. But right now in the election campaign, they seem a damn sight better than the efforts of Howard and Costello.
Posted by jj at October 15, 2007 8:22 PM
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Here's a possible reason for Howard sounding like he has teeth problems...
He's having to grit them to get what he's saying out without choking. Those kinds of lies don't come easily, even to him.
Posted by: Stephen Silk at October 15, 2007 9:48 PM
Your blog sits squarely behind Kevin Rudd...
I am a political philestine... and I rarely tune into interviews and articles... to be honest they bore and annoy me.
Can I take you on re "low-income families, but with WorkChoices delivering harder times than ever for the same families". I happen to like work choices... in the first instance they are exactly that... a choice... and low income families are getting a benefit from it... for example, we are seeing the emergence of job sharing schemes as a direct result, meaning mums with kids in school can work a few hours in the middle of the day, or work from home... and contribute to the income... not possible under the infexible awards system. Dads also see this benefit.
Tax cuts are inevitable in election years. They unfortunately impact the non infrastructure areas of spending, such as education and health. We are seeing the results of that shortsightedness in our current lack of training positions and poor quality of health care for middle to low income families. Of course if you can afford it, you can get it. Tax cuts are counter productive. I agree that such policies defocus "*building* wealth in the community". The real wealth of the community is education. What we teach our kids and ourselves impact our future. That is the real wealth.
The reasons we are not into affordable high speed broadband across Australia, most of us do NOT transact on line. We are spread out, with 80% of our population in cities. Nah we wont get into all of the reasons here, but if you want a broadband service and you can afford it, you can get one. Personally my service fills my need.
Your last paragraph is straight out admitting you dont understand Labors policies in terms of how they relate to your argument, but you bash Howard / Costello as not even close. The words are inflamatory, and quite frankly beneath you JJ.
Im not a Howard fan, I definitely like Kevin more as a person, but you really dont have to like your boss to recognize he is a good boss. It helps of course to make that recognition if you do.
If Howard came out in support of Daylight Saving in Qld to promote his green policy, ie the lights burn one hour less every night... would you change your stance? Or would you just say like me you dont like him, but his policy makes sense.
Dont buy into the rhetoric, just look at the field, and be objective. Cheers.
Posted by: wilecoyote at October 16, 2007 12:37 AM
Right program, wrong interviews. In my opinion the John Clarke/Bryan Dawe interviews are the ones to watch on the 7.30 Report.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/clarkedawe.htm
Ralf
Posted by: RalfM ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.joannejacobs.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 16, 2007 12:22 PM
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