Mark Fish gives his advice as to how the Liberals can win government and create a better Australia.
Well the ups and downs of politics hit the Liberals again.
The good news is that the Liberals still have a solid chance but they must understand the mood of the swinging voters. Most suburbanites are sick of Rudd and his endless nonsense. The Liberals need to take the initiative early so as to shut the knockers up.
Most voters are stressed and have the desperate desire to have a Government that can make life less stressful. Of course we had Mike Rann (South Australian Premier) talking about cutting red tape and that was sheer nonsense. Wherever we turn now State and Federal arenas are causing ordinary Australians stress.
It seems to be in every walk of life, taxation, family allowance payments, child support, motor vehicle registrations, hospital waiting lists, endless training programs for all categories of beneficiaries, uncertainties about pensions and fear of having their super evaporate in another crash.
Yes the average voter is not positive these days. Gone are the carefree days of the 70's and 80's. Much of the freedoms we knew then have all disappeared in a morass of regulation, compliance, bank fees, mindless telco's and what I term social engineering. We seem to have designed systems to capture the 5% ratbags and inadvertently made the lives of the other 95% bloody miserable. Its not that people don't have money, its just that more of us are working longer, seeing our relationships under stress and generally wondering why we are still having a tough time in the lucky country.
I want the Liberals to win the next election by a big margin. I want them to be very different to the Laborites in policy and commitment to ordinary Australians.
I want the Liberals to introduce a new type of Government that makes life less stressful by reforming key areas of Government, simplifying the systems that we all work under, reform the public service and regulate where necessary to protect ordinary people from excess. I believe that most voters are waiting for a new government that offers a better deal on all fronts.
The laborite crowd have made so many mistakes they are as bad as Whitlam's mob. They deserve to be punished heavily but right now they may get back again. So we must have a stronger plan that is part populist and part economically responsible.
Of course we must attack the Laborite excesses and mismanagement especially the mining debacle and its impact. But that will simply sound like the expected negativity voters expect an opposition to be immersed in.
I think the Liberals will win handsomely if they put out messages such as the following:
Tell voters that a Liberal Government will reform the systems of government to make ordinary Australian lives less stressful. Promise to simplify the tax system so that ordinary Australians have an incentive to work harder and gain real benefits if they save, have children and want to work.
Promise to simplify the family support systems. This will result in a three level payment system based on actual income. They need to say that they will reform the child support agency and simplify the entire system to ensure that there is no disadvantage for children and parents caught up in failed marriages. (That alone will deliver 500,000+ votes from severely disaffected fathers being treated as virtual criminals by the CSA).
Promise to strengthen the pension system to allow our retirees to earn more without penalty and have a secure life. Remove annual Centrelink re-assessments for pensioners aged over 75.
Promise to cut red tape and reform the legislation that so often works against individuals and businesses. This will remove many costly and arduous systems that confuse ordinary Australians.
Do not be afraid to regulate where ordinary Australians are unable to protect themselves from corporate excesses especially with the telco's.
On the economic front promise to rebuild the surplus that Rudd squandered, put Australia back into the black and remove the massive debt that Rudd has handed us all by his silly and expensive schemes. A key part of this plan will be the reform of the public service and the plethora of regulations that beset ordinary Australians. Create a streamlined Government that works for ordinary Australians. Have a clear infrastructure plan to build the capacity of our economy and create jobs and security for all our lives. Create the economic conditions that reduce real interest rates and make housing more affordable.
Housing is a priority as housing waiting lists grow in every State. Labor has abandoned the poor and the homeless. By creating a strong economy the Liberals can deliver on public housing and put an end to the nonsense of the Labor Government that is filled with cheap talk and wasteful schemes. Offer to work with all State Governments to deliver affordable housing for the homeless and ensure that public housing targets are met to reduce the long waiting lists there are at present.
On hospitals, ensure that the focus is on adequate levels of funding and systems that focus on care and not the systems that remove professionals from patients. Unlike the Rudd Governement's smoke and mirrors national hospital system, ensure more funding will be directed to actual patient care in a new and streamlined management system model that does not compromise on quality.
It’s also time to reform the entire skills system by providing greater industry ownership of the skills agenda. This will result in the reform of the current competency based system to align with industry needs.
Develop a more responsive migration system that is driven by actual skills shortages. They must shut down the illegal migration systems and make sure that migration meets a sustainable population level.
Offer to provide more direct support for industry through manageable taxation systems that maximise productivity and create jobs. This will build a strong and diverse industry sector that can compete globally.
It’s about time that we ensured that imported food meets stringent safety and residue requirements in line with EU standards. We will not tolerate importation of food that can harm Australian families.
Promise to decentralise many of our cities before they become dysfunctional. This will entail support for regional towns and cities and the creation of a national network of regional centres that sustain viable rural food producing industries. New city developments designed around 21st Century ecologically sustainable principles should be planned and developed for our expanded population.
Water will be a key priority with improved storage and re-use in all urban centres. River Murray flows are critical to the welfare of a number of States and the Liberals need to ensure they maintain natural water flows whilst using water in an efficient manner for our cities and farms.
They should also move towards a cleaner society where incentives are tied to clean production sytems and clear national agreements to reduce harmful emissions.
The Liberals must also ensure that Australia does not abandon its youth. By establishing a National Youth Corps to provide training and work programs that build practical and employability skills, they will provide real work opportunities that benefit communities and offer hope for the thousands of young people who are caught in long term unemployment.
A Liberal Government will give back hope to the people, not create despair as Mr Rudd has done.
Yes the average voter is not positive these days. Gone are the carefree days of the 70's and 80's. Much of the freedoms we knew then have all disappeared in a morass of regulation, compliance, bank fees, mindless telco's and what I term social engineering. We seem to have designed systems to capture the 5% ratbags and inadvertently made the lives of the other 95% bloody miserable. Its not that people don't have money, its just that more of us are working longer, seeing our relationships under stress and generally wondering why we are still having a tough time in the lucky country.
I want the Liberals to win the next election by a big margin. I want them to be very different to the Laborites in policy and commitment to ordinary Australians.
I want the Liberals to introduce a new type of Government that makes life less stressful by reforming key areas of Government, simplifying the systems that we all work under, reform the public service and regulate where necessary to protect ordinary people from excess. I believe that most voters are waiting for a new government that offers a better deal on all fronts.
The laborite crowd have made so many mistakes they are as bad as Whitlam's mob. They deserve to be punished heavily but right now they may get back again. So we must have a stronger plan that is part populist and part economically responsible.
Of course we must attack the Laborite excesses and mismanagement especially the mining debacle and its impact. But that will simply sound like the expected negativity voters expect an opposition to be immersed in.
I think the Liberals will win handsomely if they put out messages such as the following:
Tell voters that a Liberal Government will reform the systems of government to make ordinary Australian lives less stressful. Promise to simplify the tax system so that ordinary Australians have an incentive to work harder and gain real benefits if they save, have children and want to work.
Promise to simplify the family support systems. This will result in a three level payment system based on actual income. They need to say that they will reform the child support agency and simplify the entire system to ensure that there is no disadvantage for children and parents caught up in failed marriages. (That alone will deliver 500,000+ votes from severely disaffected fathers being treated as virtual criminals by the CSA).
Promise to strengthen the pension system to allow our retirees to earn more without penalty and have a secure life. Remove annual Centrelink re-assessments for pensioners aged over 75.
Promise to cut red tape and reform the legislation that so often works against individuals and businesses. This will remove many costly and arduous systems that confuse ordinary Australians.
Do not be afraid to regulate where ordinary Australians are unable to protect themselves from corporate excesses especially with the telco's.
On the economic front promise to rebuild the surplus that Rudd squandered, put Australia back into the black and remove the massive debt that Rudd has handed us all by his silly and expensive schemes. A key part of this plan will be the reform of the public service and the plethora of regulations that beset ordinary Australians. Create a streamlined Government that works for ordinary Australians. Have a clear infrastructure plan to build the capacity of our economy and create jobs and security for all our lives. Create the economic conditions that reduce real interest rates and make housing more affordable.
Housing is a priority as housing waiting lists grow in every State. Labor has abandoned the poor and the homeless. By creating a strong economy the Liberals can deliver on public housing and put an end to the nonsense of the Labor Government that is filled with cheap talk and wasteful schemes. Offer to work with all State Governments to deliver affordable housing for the homeless and ensure that public housing targets are met to reduce the long waiting lists there are at present.
On hospitals, ensure that the focus is on adequate levels of funding and systems that focus on care and not the systems that remove professionals from patients. Unlike the Rudd Governement's smoke and mirrors national hospital system, ensure more funding will be directed to actual patient care in a new and streamlined management system model that does not compromise on quality.
It’s also time to reform the entire skills system by providing greater industry ownership of the skills agenda. This will result in the reform of the current competency based system to align with industry needs.
Develop a more responsive migration system that is driven by actual skills shortages. They must shut down the illegal migration systems and make sure that migration meets a sustainable population level.
Offer to provide more direct support for industry through manageable taxation systems that maximise productivity and create jobs. This will build a strong and diverse industry sector that can compete globally.
It’s about time that we ensured that imported food meets stringent safety and residue requirements in line with EU standards. We will not tolerate importation of food that can harm Australian families.
Promise to decentralise many of our cities before they become dysfunctional. This will entail support for regional towns and cities and the creation of a national network of regional centres that sustain viable rural food producing industries. New city developments designed around 21st Century ecologically sustainable principles should be planned and developed for our expanded population.
Water will be a key priority with improved storage and re-use in all urban centres. River Murray flows are critical to the welfare of a number of States and the Liberals need to ensure they maintain natural water flows whilst using water in an efficient manner for our cities and farms.
They should also move towards a cleaner society where incentives are tied to clean production sytems and clear national agreements to reduce harmful emissions.
The Liberals must also ensure that Australia does not abandon its youth. By establishing a National Youth Corps to provide training and work programs that build practical and employability skills, they will provide real work opportunities that benefit communities and offer hope for the thousands of young people who are caught in long term unemployment.
A Liberal Government will give back hope to the people, not create despair as Mr Rudd has done.
Mark is an independent consultant from South Australia.
Yes and all you need to do is waive a magic wand and "whalla". I think you need to do some really serious thought about this and do some costings in what you say. You are too light on detail for too many of your points. Its easy to say "they should to this or that" but really, yours in just waffle. If you want to be taken seriously, do a bit more research and put more thought into it rather than put up this garbage.
I'd like to see Rudd go as well and I'm not saying I have the answers but really I can't see anything beyond "we should do this" in your points and it hasn't won me over. Recipe for success, sorry but for me is under done, undercooked and even raw in places.
Posted by: Former Liberal Voter | May 28, 2010 at 01:17 PM
Jeez, relax FLV.
This site is about ideas, it's a BLOG. Some ideas were presented and some are pretty good, too.
Are you saying that everyone who has an idea can't express it and leave it open for discussion without doing a full fiscal analysis??? That's just dumb.
Pop a chill pill.
Posted by: Ray | May 28, 2010 at 01:40 PM
If Abbot wants to win, he should adopt the income tax reform policies of the Henry Review.
Programmes should be cut beginning with those with the lowest return on invesmtent.
Problem solved, FLV.
Posted by: Semi Regular Libertarian | May 28, 2010 at 02:24 PM
No you're wrong. The article is about what the Liberals have to do to win government. Some points outlined in the article are pure fantasy. If this is the current thinking among Liberals then get used to being in opposition for a few more elections.
Posted by: Former Liberal Voter | May 28, 2010 at 02:36 PM
More Telco regulations, EU food laws, central planning of new cities, a National Youth Corps. Something to think about I suppose. What colour will the uniforms be? Can I be in charge of interrogations?
Posted by: TerjeP | May 28, 2010 at 03:18 PM
That is the biggest load of crap I've read in a long time. 80% of it is meaningless platitudes like "cut red tape", "create a strong economy" and "create a streamlined government" and the 20% that is specific is incompatible with Liberal values - eg National Youth Corps (sounds like expensive government run childcare for teenagers) and EU food laws (of all the failures of the EU this is probably one of the biggest, I've no idea why you would want to copy it).
Posted by: Party member | May 28, 2010 at 05:46 PM
TerjeP...surely the uniforms should be red. Or perhaps pink would be "kinder and gentler?" And sorry, but I want to be in charge of interrogations! Ok, I might settle for head of the national propaganda ministry. OH! We've already got that. It's called the Australian Federal Department of Climate Change. We can merge all plans for youth corp, centralised city planning and water control nicely within that department.
Posted by: Janet H. Thompson | May 29, 2010 at 04:07 PM
Sounds like a plan. What time does the revolution kick off?
Posted by: TerjeP | May 29, 2010 at 04:29 PM
Idiotic dribble.
Posted by: Mr X | May 29, 2010 at 06:55 PM