My posts on this thread may give the impression that I am a dyed in the wool ALP supporter. This
is not so.

I am very much anti the current government but that doesn't necessarily mean I support the other
mob. At the risk of boring you to death, here is a little bit of history that influences my opinion.
(Leave now or forever hold your peace).

I was an ALP supporter from the later Whitlam years (when I was old enough (21 was the voting
age)). The 'dismissal' was a dreadful thing, a blot on our nation's history. The perpetrator
Malcolm Fraser, a man who stooped to previously unknown depths to advance the right wing
ideology is now a vocal critic of the current régime – tell you something?

Fraser, a previous Prime Minister, was expelled from the Liberal party or to put it more mildly,
encouraged to resign for expressing his views.

In the 1993 election John Hewson (opposition leader) announced that the Libs would introduce a
GST. This was strongly and successfully argued against by Paul Keating (PM). He was on a hiding
to nothing until receiving this gift from the Libs. Australia didn't want a bar of it.

John Howard won the 1996 election, after he vowed to “never, ever introduce a GST”.

Opposition leader Kim Beasley (ALP) argued very earnestly against Howard's plan to introduce a
GST (breaking his word not to do so, familiar?) in the 1998 election. John Howard won this
election with 49% 2PP and ALP 51% 2PP. I believe the Libs would have won in their own right
were it not for the GST factor.

Clearly, the GST is an insidious tax. It costs the poor and needy in ways that it does not cost the
rich. 100% of income is spent just to survive by the lower socio-economic group, meaning GST
is paid on a high percentage of their income. The rich however, spend only some of their income
and invest the rest (often in a dodgy tax advantageous way) meaning they pay GST on a much
lower portion of their income and the richer they are, the less they pay as a percentage.

The GST under various names has been introduced in some other countries as well, to overcome
the shortcomings of their governments by fucking over the population, as it was done here.

After it's introduction in 2000 Kim Beasley said publicly that the GST would not be repealed if the
ALP came to power. He never won an election. (He may well have won in 2001 were it not for the
'children overboard lies' but that's another story).

They might bleat about the rate, or bleat about the coverage but to this day the ALP have not
mentioned repealing a tax they fought so justifiably and vehemently against.

Sure, they might be better than the neoconservative extremist lot we are saddled with, probably by
a fair degree, but they are still a gutless shower of bastards and I wouldn't piss on them if they were
on fire.

When I vote, I carefully judge the all candidates on their merits, not just the two major parties. I
then cast my vote for whom I feel would be the most beneficial to our nation, which will in turn
benefit me and my family; short and long term. I do so because I care, and I don't hold the view
that “I'm alright so fuck you.”

So fuck U 2. ;-)

WayneK.