Anthony Albanese - How long? -3-

[faible]

I agree, Albanese has not risen to the leadership required of a PM. He's forever on the back foot and looks like he's upset that he gets asked questions. People might have called Dan Andrews condescending, but you have to be if you get asked stupid questions.

Whether one likes him or not, Andrews was very good at politicking, very few pollies have gone head to head with Murdoch media and won, but he did it pretty convincingly.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Whether one likes him or not, Andrews was very good at politicking, very few pollies have gone head to head with Murdoch media and won, but he did it pretty convincingly.

Can you really compare one pretty progressive state to the whole of Australia though?

 

[Saint]

Can you really compare one pretty progressive state to the whole of Australia though?

Pre-Andrews, nobody thought it possible.

When polled, Australians actually support progressive policies. Major parties are just either unwilling or unable to sell them, until Andrews.

Who actually opposes an increased tax on exported gas to above world-record lows? It's literally just the major party politicians and people who own lots of Santos shares.

 

[faible]

Can you really compare one pretty progressive state to the whole of Australia though?

Maybe, maybe not. Teflon Dan was no lightweight in the media though, he'd have run rings around Dutton (and Albanese).

 

[E Shed]

Token candidates. Will barely get a vote.

But an ordained minster for the Teals. Now, there is a surprise. I thought they only believed in the climate change religion.

Telling that fossil fuel interests have sought to denigrate Climate Science by casting it as religion. Spot the hypocrisy?

Most of the politicians of the right claim moral superiority by a belief in an imaginary being they justify by faith yet seek to undermine faith in science which is based on objective, verifiable facts.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Neither of the major parties want to "solve" the housing crisis by making housing affordable. It means prices coming down and neither group wants that for personal and for electoral reasons.

But Cost of Living overall is what they should be addressing. And they're steadfastly refusing to do anything of substance. Tinkering around the edges and celebrating that inflation has fallen to normal levels and then pretending like the massive wave of inflation which made everyone with a mortgage or without existing wealth much worse off never happened.

They can talk about what they've done, but if they pretend that everyone's hunky-dory now, they're going to lose.

My only question is: Which advisor is telling them to pretend the Cost-of-living crisis isn't happening, or is over? Those people should be fired into the moon. Why are they doing this? The Libs will win if the ALP keep on this tack that everything is going great thanks to their management.

Because things are going worse for people (the majority) now than they were when the ALP was elected. That's a fact. Trump won most under $50k earning voters in the US election for precisely this reason.

What can the Liberals do to address cost of living?

 

[the_interloper]

Definitely, it's important to push back against the media and their gotcha questions. Andrews was good at this. I thought Bandt gave an excellent response to the sort of question that tripped up Albanese on the campaign trail, "Google it, mate". Though Bandt has been less good in the media since then.

I thought that was a fair response to a genuine "gotcha" question. I don't GAF if the PM doesn't know the current inflation rate, he's got a heap of nerds who can tell him that.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

How could they improve cost of living?

Genuine question.

Because I agree, something needs to be done.

Easy. Outlaw monopolistic/duopolistic etc market practises for starters.

It's been well established that the main driver of cost of living rises was companies with market dominance screwing the consumers as far as they could push it. Not workers' push for wages keeping pace with inflation, as the BCA and other employer groups would have you believe.

Even America has better laws against this stuff than we do.

 

[nut]

Where's the proof of this please?

here ….”The changes will remove the burden on banks to ensure people do not take out loans they cannot afford”

The Government wants to make it easier for you to get a mortgage amid the coronavirus recession — but there's a catch - ABC News

amp.abc.net.au

 

[Gavin Excell]

Easy. Outlaw monopolistic/duopolistic etc market practises for starters.

It's been well established that the main driver of cost of living rises was companies with market dominance screwing the consumers as far as they could push it. Not workers' push for wages keeping pace with inflation, as the BCA and other employer groups would have you believe.

Even America has better laws against this stuff than we do.

As if the LnP would place regulations on corporate sector to limit profiteering

 

[nut]

I thought that was a fair response to a genuine "gotcha" question. I don't GAF if the PM doesn't know the current inflation rate, he's got a heap of nerds who can tell him that.

It was the unemployment rate that stumped Albo…

The important thing is the unemployment rate is now lower… and Labor are not getting anywhere near the credit they deserve for Keeping it low.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

As if the LnP would place regulations on corporate sector to limit profiteering

Maybe I misunderstood the question. I was talking about Labor.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Maybe I misunderstood the question. I was talking about Labor.

Oh

 

[peetoo]

A rent freeze, a moratorium on evictions, following the Victorian example of extra taxes on investment properties to spark a mass selloff, all of these would buy time for a big public housing building program to solve the crisis in the long term.


Where's the proof of this please?


It's also the responsibility of an aspiring PM proposing a change to make the cause for that change. Failing to sell policies well is a fatal flaw in a progressive politician.

The Victorian ‘solution’ isn’t that state govt area though?

 

[Saint]

What can the Liberals do to address cost of living?

Who says the Libs have any intention of addressing the cost of living problem? Many of their voters are beneficiaries and the rest of them are more concerned with social conservatism (anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, pro-religious-discrimination).

The Greens are proposing cost-of-living solutions. The teals hint at it, but do not have a singular approach.

 

[JackOutback]

How could they improve cost of living?

Genuine question.

Because I agree, something needs to be done.

Adding dental to medicare.

It doesn't solve the cost of living crisis, there's no immediate solution to that, and many of the policies that would help would unfortunately be a tough sell because the media would go on the attack (lifting corporate tax rates etc). But this is one that would benefit everyone and not be open to a media attack because the public would reject it.

Labor need to start highlighting the changes they have made that make small improvements (Medicare changes, corporate tax floor etc) without making it seem like they are bragging or that they cost of living crisis is over. Talk about it as the beginning and how the Liberals will wind it all back and make things worse. It's a fine balancing act.

 

[Carn The Berries]

What methods could have they used to “solve” the housing crisis in 2 years?
The LNP caused the crisis by relaxing lending laws and allowing banks to lend to people who would not normally be afforded the loans they issued!!! Forcing house prices to almost double during a pandemic!!!
Remember Australia preferred to have Scomo as PM instead of winding back negative gearing.

Evidence please? Yes, prices increased, but I don't recall seeing any data to suggest they almost doubled...

 

[Gavin Excell]

Who says the Libs have any intention of addressing the cost of living problem? Many of their voters are beneficiaries and the rest of them are more concerned with social conservatism (anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, pro-religious-discrimination).

The Greens are proposing cost-of-living solutions. The teals hint at it, but do not have a singular approach.

The Libs say they do without any specifics
The reality is in the era of globalisation, governments ability to influence cost of living is at best, limited

 

[faible]

Adding dental to medicare.

It doesn't solve the cost of living crisis, there's no immediate solution to that, and many of the policies that would help would unfortunately be a tough sell because the media would go on the attack (lifting corporate tax rates etc). But this is one that would benefit everyone and not be open to a media attack because the public would reject it.

Labor need to start highlighting the changes they have made that make small improvements (Medicare changes, corporate tax floor etc) without making it seem like they are bragging or that they cost of living crisis is over. Talk about it as the beginning and how the Liberals will wind it all back and make things worse. It's a fine balancing act.

This is pretty key; if you're talking about stuff at the macro level and saying 'look everything is wonderful' while the average punter is getting smashed at the shops every week, it's not going to connect.

Telling people; 'hey we've done x, y and z which is the beginning of fixing some really long-running issues in society and should show you we've actually got some shit done this term, and in the next term we're in a really strong position to also do a, b and c which is going to benefit <insert groups of people here>.

Of course, those things would need to actually be relevant to those demographics, not be obviously things they could have done this term and simply haven't, and be maybe actually economically progressive in some way.

Take some Greens policies and pitch them, you know you'll get the support from the Greens and other left-leaning parties to actually implement them, and a number of them are economically progressive without being 'scary' progressive.

From a quick look here are some policies I guess might be fairly broadly palatable among 'left' leaning voters;

• redirecting funding from subsidising private health insurance towards direct public provision;
• reforms to the taxation of superannuation to benefit lower income earners;
• strengthening the progressivity of the income tax and transfer system across all income levels including by reducing effective marginal tax rates for low-income workers, and increasing the marginal tax rates on high-income earners;
• the implementation of a progressive wealth tax on large concentrations of wealth, including anti-avoidance measures; and
• the implementation of a tax on company super-profits.

All of these are aimed at the top end of town; the ALP have already fiddled with the tax brackets to share the tax cuts, the ALP have already fiddled with high asset value Super accounts, so none of this is drastically out of the realm of what they've said they'll target but would represent something genuinely progressive and appeal to the average punter.

 

[JackOutback]

This is pretty key; if you're talking about stuff at the macro level and saying 'look everything is wonderful' while the average punter is getting smashed at the shops every week, it's not going to connect.

Telling people; 'hey we've done x, y and z which is the beginning of fixing some really long-running issues in society and should show you we've actually got some shit done this term, and in the next term we're in a really strong position to also do a, b and c which is going to benefit <insert groups of people here>.

Of course, those things would need to actually be relevant to those demographics, not be obviously things they could have done this term and simply haven't, and be maybe actually economically progressive in some way.

Take some Greens policies and pitch them, you know you'll get the support from the Greens and other left-leaning parties to actually implement them, and a number of them are economically progressive without being 'scary' progressive.

From a quick look here are some policies I guess might be fairly broadly palatable among 'left' leaning voters;

• redirecting funding from subsidising private health insurance towards direct public provision;
• reforms to the taxation of superannuation to benefit lower income earners;
• strengthening the progressivity of the income tax and transfer system across all income levels including by reducing effective marginal tax rates for low-income workers, and increasing the marginal tax rates on high-income earners;
• the implementation of a progressive wealth tax on large concentrations of wealth, including anti-avoidance measures; and
• the implementation of a tax on company super-profits.

All of these are aimed at the top end of town; the ALP have already fiddled with the tax brackets to share the tax cuts, the ALP have already fiddled with high asset value Super accounts, so none of this is drastically out of the realm of what they've said they'll target but would represent something genuinely progressive and appeal to the average punter.

I agree with your suggestions in principle, but those kind of economic reforms tend to fly over the head of the average punter and the ones targeting the top end of town will be treated to the mother of all scare campaigns, such as the mining tax. These are the kinds of changes they need to make during their term, while going to an election with easy to sell benefits like dental, improvements to medicare etc.

 

[nut]

Evidence please? Yes, prices increased, but I don't recall seeing any data to suggest they almost doubled...

The average price rise was about 50% from 2019 to 2023.
Regional areas it was close to 70%

Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities, December 2021

Estimates of changes in residential property prices and the total value of Australia's dwelling stock, and preliminary housing market activity data

www.abs.gov.au

 

[Carn The Berries]

The average price rise was about 50% from 2019 to 2023.
Regional areas it was close to 70%

Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities, December 2021

Estimates of changes in residential property prices and the total value of Australia's dwelling stock, and preliminary housing market activity data

www.abs.gov.au

So not nearly doubled... Cool, just wanted to check.

The hyperbole in here is amazing sometimes.

 

[nut]

So not nearly doubled... Cool, just wanted to check.

The hyperbole in here is amazing sometimes.

Some places it almost doubled

The point is, low interest rates fuelled by relaxed lending rules during a pandemic caused the housing crisis

 

[Saint]

The Libs say they do without any specifics
The reality is in the era of globalisation, governments ability to influence cost of living is at best, limited

The Libs have an even better trick. They just state an ideology or policy will fix it, even when experts and history tell us it won't.

They'll propose some form of trickle-down economics. It's lying, but they'll never admit it.

Or Nuclear is another example. They're selling it as bringing prices down, while there's not a serious economist in the world who thinks nuclear will be cheaper than any of the alternatives (except maybe bringing gas from Mars).

BUT......They're saying CoL is a problem and that they have a plan. That will defeat the ALP's "CoL is over, fixed it, we're all good now" every day of the week.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Adding dental to Medicare would be such a life changer for so many people.

Expect the tediously predictable "we can't afford it" protestations from the sectors of society (and their hard-working Murdoch propagandists) who can afford bloody well anything they want.

I'll just repeat, in case anyone has forgotten:

We are one of the richest nations in the richest period in human history.

We can't afford everything, but we can afford anything.

It's just a question of us as a society deciding what we want our priorities to be.

Anyone who says otherwise is either talking bullshit, or has a vested interest in the status quo.