Very often when I come to this site, it's to wail and scream about one of two things - the fucked-up way people think about themselves, and the fucked-up way in which the Labor Party has been running this country for the past six years. This is a post about the second thing, but I'm not going to throw a tantrum today. I'm not going to get angry, because it just clouds the point. Instead, I'm just going to tell you, my largely left-leaning or Greens-voting friends, exactly what it is I believe as a Gen Y atheist with right of centre views, and why I feel that regardless of political persuasion, continuance of Labor government would be a poor decision for this country.
So first up, let's talk about me - because it's my blog and that means I get to be a narcissist. So there. I think I have mentioned this before, but I was raised in a Liberal voting household. I have a lifelong distrust of unions as a result, and personally I think it is wrong that being part of a union, or better, being a union lawyer, gets you a fast-track into politics. I think it is wrong that those unions have as much control over the Labor Party as they do. That was the building block, I guess. In the lead-up to the 2010 election, I passionately believed (and still do) that the best thing for the country at that time was a Coalition government. I spent an awful lot of time angry both before and after that election. The past six months have had a curious deja vu about them, what with the 11th hour leadership swaps and public opinion on a knife's edge. But the difference this time is that my political views have finally finished baking, after being put in the oven all the way back in 2007. Here are my basic desires from a government, and the reasons why they mean a vote for the Liberal Party:
1. Proper management of taxpayer funds
My major issue with the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd Government is their misuse of our money. You can go all the way back to the 'money for everyone' scheme, Building the Education Revolution, the insulation, the 2020 summit, etc, etc. None of these things were properly thought through, and money was wasted as a result. The vast majority of our current debt was born out of those days, and was only by compounded by the Gillard/Swan combination's baffling mismanagement for the last three years. In short, we have a massive debt going on, and though in terms of worldwide debt, it's small, we are in fact a small country, and we cannot act like a teenager with a credit card. Rudd has been behaving like that for the last six weeks. He has announced thing after thing, and while one in particular I do support completely (which I will mention later), most of these things have involved large sums of money going places. That is why the Budget update is even worse than the original Budget - because Rudd is happily spending money that he does not have, and cannot hope to have. I am all for things Disability Care, but the question I am
always going to ask is, "What money, and from where?" And the Labor Party generally doesn't care to answer that question, and on the rare occasion that they do, the response is, "Well, we'll just levy this little tiny bit of money from you...or you...or this industry..." They are only interested in what will look good and sound good, and if they realise they've fucked up on the money side, they'll just snatch more off us. Hence the fringe benefits tax which has destroyed the car industry, hence the fact our money is now going to get taxed just for being in the bank. If there's one thing the last six months of supporting myself has taught me, it's that you must keep your house in order. Labor doesn't do that. The Liberals do.
2. Stability
I don't think I need to explain this one too much. While I was typing the previous paragraph, I could hear Tony Abbott speaking on the TV about just how many different people have filled the various ministries and jobs in the government in the last six years. Four immigration ministers kind of explains why Labor has lurched from one stupid plan to the next. I think back to my high school years, and though I was definitely less engaged with politics then (and missing a fair chunk of my future understanding besides), I could have told you the names of just about every major member of the cabinet and what they were minister of. I feel quite strongly if Labor had been able to hold its nerve and unity for more than a month at a time, things might have worked better for them. That and not putting celebrity candidates like Peter Garrett in important ministries. The Liberals will pick a team and stick to them.
3. Refugees/Asylum Seekers/Border Protection/Immigration/Whatever
Trying to arrive at this country by boat is a bad idea. That has been proven tragically over and over during the Labor tenure...and with Tampa in the Howard years. Whatever your feelings about our immigration/refugee intake, I think we can all agree that stopping people smugglers from trying to bring people here in leaky tubs is the most sensible and humanitarian thing to do. I think if you can prove you're a refugee, then fine - come on in. The reason I support the Liberal point of view on this on is that the Howard version worked. As terrible as being shipped off to Nauru, Manus or Christmas Island might be, at least it stopped people from trying to traverse our bitch of an ocean and dying. And I don't like the PNG solution that Rudd has offered at all, because while it does offer the deterrent I believe is vital - we must stop people coming our way only to drown - it denies the chance at living here I think all genuine refugees deserve.
4. Same-sex marriage
When I was in high school, I didn't know of anyone who was gay...or perhaps it's better to say that I did, but no-one was openly so. There was one kid who according to rumour had been hounded out of his previous school by merciless teasing about that very issue. My memories in regards to how so many of male peers reacted to him makes me want to time-travel and slap them all for being such a motherfucking disgrace. It wasn't until uni I met openly gay, bi, lesbian people. And I came to the same conclusion I think pretty much everyone with a heart and a mind capable of stringing six words together ought to - it does not matter a single iota who the hell you prefer to love and screw. It does matter that same-sex relationships cannot currently be enshrined in law the way opposite-sex marriages are. It should be changed. It should be changed now. And this is why I identify as right of centre, not right. At the end of the day, while these points are in a definite order, and my vote will lie with the Liberals as a result, I think this is something any secular government should be doing for its people. If I could speak to Tony Abbott now, those are the terms I would couch it in. I know I'm not the only conservative young person with this opinion, I would dearly love to tell him that - and that a conscience vote would be a great start.
5. Banning cigarettes
This is the least important thing here by a fair margin, but it's still important to me. I was surprised to discover this week New Zealand's planning to ban cigarettes entirely in 2025, and that smoking has dropped by 11% since Rudd hiked up the tax on cigarettes by 25% in his first stint as PM. His latest increase on that particular tax I think is fantastic, though goodness knows he's done it because he needs the money. The fact is smoking costs the health system billions, and it's all preventable - stop inhaling tar and nicotine, folks. My paternal grandfather died of emphysema, and believe me, it's not something you want to happen. He may have lived to be 90, but the last two years were fucking awful for him. So yes - let's just get rid of the fucking things. It's a worldwide regime of stupidity. And for the record, yeah, I do not at all like the fact the Liberal Party still takes tobacco donations. In the aforementioned hypothetical conversation would Abbott, I'd remark about that too - if no tobacco money means less shiny brochures, at least you can sleep at night knowing you're not taking money from a company whose business is giving people cancer.
In short, of the the five things I consider most important, the Liberals offer me three of them. The other two - the institution of same-sex marriage and, if we're talking about the realistic near-future, the end of the Liberals accepting money from tobacco companies - I think we can work on. The polls are showing clearly that this will be a close race. I think a majority Liberal government, even if it is a small majority, will give me what I want.
And once again, because this is my blog and I am definitely on my soapbox, I'm going to quote 'The Newsroom' and the glory that is Will McAvoy:
And you know all those times you two asked why I'm a Republican, as if that's something that needs and explanation? I've never heard either of you ask anyone why they're a Democrat. Well, it's here - the purposeful suspension of common sense.
The reason I've put it here is that I often feel that people are surprised, even shocked, when they find I have conservative beliefs. I don't doubt there are people who have judged me on that fact alone. In my travails in the internet dating world I've certainly come across a fair few people openly saying that a person of my political persuasion shouldn't bother even talking to them. There is a mindset among my generation, I feel, that conservatism = coldheartedness. That conservatism = evil. That conservatism requires an explanation. While the difference between a Democrat and a Republican is not the difference between a Labor voter and a Liberal voter, I guess what I'm trying to say, and what I've tried to illustrate by outlining my views above, is that there are reasons for a sensible, decent human being to have conservative beliefs. And - this is the soapbox part - there are reasons why left-leaning people should be voting Liberal at this election. Firstly, if you want big programs and initiatives for this country, we have to pay for those things properly, not by getting into more debt. The bank only piles on more interest you if you max out your credit card and don't pay, and Labor has no real plans to pay. They have plans to spend. We need people who can manage our money, and that's not Labor. Secondly, the revolving door on Cabinet this past six years has not been good for the country. Rudd is not exactly the most popular bloke in the Labor caucus, despite being their leader - who's to say that the people who currently work with him won't very quickly come to feel as all the people who quit in the wake of his return do? The Coalition has a stable structure, and that is something this country could do with at the top.
And to come back to the line about common sense, that's what I believe we ought to be talking about in the context of this election. I don't think anyone could possibly believe that Labor has done even a passable job this past six years. It has, on the whole, been a pretty crappy job. Voting them back in would be very definition of a purposeful suspension of common sense.
