Election 2013: Final Act

This is my final post on the 2013 Election, unless something extraordinary happens on Saturday night and I feel compelled to write about it on Sunday.

I was going to look at a comparison of small business policies.

A bit pointless, really. Whilst a lot was made of the small business vote, the policy announcements were Mickey Mouse, to say the least.

Instead, the political events of today have really highlighted some of the negative points of both this election, and politics in general.

Liberal Party Costings
At 2:30 pm today both Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb faced the media with their version of what constitutes a complete review of Liberal Party costings for their election announcements.

Truly an underwhelming document, with mean-spirited and poorly targeted spending cuts. Now that you can see all their costs and savings measure in one document let me highlight the key goodies that will disappear for you (all figures noted are the total for the next 4 years):

• Abolish Schoolkids Bonus $4.64 billion
• Abolish Instant Asset Writeoff for small businesses $3.1 billion
• Abolish Tax Loss Carry Back for small and medium sized companies $950 million
• Abolish accelerated depreciation of motor vehicles for businesses $425 million
• Reduction of Regional Infrastructure Projects $2.49 billion

 Can I humbly suggest that most families and small businesses (and a number of rural communities) will feel the pain of these cuts much more than any savings they will get from the removal of the Carbon Tax.

Also, take note of the $9.967 billion not being invested in both the NBN and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

In addition take $4.5 billion from foreign aid, and redirect it to building roads, or the PPL, or the company tax cut of  1.5%. Apparently because we can't afford it.

Greg Jericho summed up this beautifully in his blog:

Our two main political parties have become like people who live in a McMansion and who when the Red Cross come knocking say, “Oh gee, I’d love to but I don’t have any cash on me”.

And I am sure that South Australians will really approve of the delay in the Murray Darling Water Buybacks being extended out for an extra two years.

Or the warm feeling we will get by reducing the humanitarian immigration intake to 13,750 per annum (down from 20,000).

Goodbye ACT Pokies Trial. Goodbye Community Cabinets. Goodbye Rail Projects. Goodbye 12,000 public servants.

Hello roads, roads and more roads. Hello Green Army. Hello National Commission for Audit. Hello Marriage Vouchers Trial.

Pathetic.

Kitchen Cabinet
Over two nights the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition try to look human by cooking.

Big Brother
The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition tape messages to the Big Brother household (I didn't that was still on).

7:30
Leigh Sales apparently thinks talking over the person she is interviewing, constantly, makes for good journalism.

Internet Filter
The Opposition announce a policy on mandatory internet filters, then Malcolm Turnbull vigorously argues in favour of it on ABC JJJ, before denouncing the policy as an error on Twitter (I think backflip is the official term). His excuse was that he only read the policy just before going on air. Because, apparently, the Shadow Minister for Communications doesn't actually develop policies on Communications.

Twitter came alive like no other topic that I have seen, to date. Since his vain attempt at trying to explain himself, Turnbull has now retreated from Twitter, to lick his wounds.


Saturday is Election Day
When the election was first announced, I nominated the issues I was most interested in:

• How do we prepare our kids for the future (education, cultural development and broadband)
• How do we help those who can't help themselves (aged care, child care, health, welfare, Foreign aid, Refugees - as in helping them, not getting rid of them)
• How do we encourage and promote innovation (broadband and education - again)
• How do we grow, as a country (infrastructure, education, business, taxation, cultural development)
• How do we tackle the challenges of the future (climate change and environment)

One could successfully make the point that some of these issues were not even talked about.

Some of these issues were poorly dealt with. By both major parties.

The difference between the two major parties on some of these issues is stark.

Sometimes the decision is not who you want in government, but who you don't want in government. And with what oversights do you want that government to operate under.

I'll leave you to work out who you think I'll be voting for.