Upload your own comments and thoughts about the ANYTHING political. Best one of the month will win A SIGNED KISSCHASY CD.
have you enrolled to vote man?
that thing above, is sooo annoying.
For young Aussies the iVote website is a one stop shop for news and information about the candidates & issues, how to register and vote and whats going on in the individual electorates during the Federal Election.
The Election will no doubt be called soon. So with that said and done, iVoteAustralia.com.au will move into providing coverage and information about the Federal Election, relevant for young people.
The MyCandidate page will be loaded soon allowing you to search for your electorate and find out who is running and what they are saying. View their videos, blogs or speeches.
Log onto iVoteAustralia.com.au to see our policy section which will be up as soon as the election is off and running.
The Election News feed will be rockin' soon.
Finally, thank you to the thousands and thousands of people who have used our website already, many who would have enrolled to vote.
iVote Australia is a youth based organization with 3 goals:
1. Educate
2. Involve
3. Empower
Australian youth in the political process.
Over 300,000 young Australians are eligible to vote but are not registered.
iVote is a non-government, non-partisan organization and does not support or endorse any political party or candidate.
We seek to make it easier for young Australians to enrol to vote and make informed decisions when it comes time to step inside the voting booth.
We need you to get involved. Be a friend of iVote and empower yourself and your peers.
see, in school we were the loners; the rebels. but now we're just analog kids in a digital world, lost and confused. myspace 'acceptance' gives us the appropriate digital 'pep' to keep going on.
Did you know that 100,000 child slaves work on cocoa fields in West Africa producing the very chocolate we eat? In 2001, all the major chocolate companies promised to end child slavery in cocoa by July 2008. We only have four months to go!
We need young people like you to lead the movement. Become an End Child Slavery Ambassador. Applications close this Friday 4 April!
Sign up to be an Ambassador by this Thursday you can win one of 100 free double passes to Operator Please this Friday night at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda (18+). Once you've applied on our website, just send an email to info@theoaktree.org with the subject line "ECS Ambassador - Operator Please Tickets" and you will win free tickets if you were one of the first 100 to apply!
As Australians indulged in over $200 million worth of chocolate this week, some 100,000 children were forced to work as slaves on cocoa fields in West Africa producing 70% of the very chocolate we eat.
In 2001, all the world's chocolate companies made a promise to end child slavery in cocoa by July 2008. We only have four months to go.
We need young people like you to lead the movement. Become an End Child Slavery Ambassador today. Applications close this Friday 4 April, so sign up today!
“Stop Third World Immigration” Are you alarmed by ever increasing immigration from the Third World? The issue of Third World immigration is of concern to many Australians. Yet none of the major parties are prepared to discuss this major issue and the subsequent effects this policy has on lives of Australians. The current government continues to elude genuine public debate on this unpopular policy, as previous governments have done so before – both Liberal and Labor. Would you like the opportunity to voice your concern this coming election? Here is how! Collect your ballot papers and vote as your conscious decides and then write “Stop Third World immigration” in the blank space at the top of each ballot paper. Place your ballots in the appropriate boxes to complete your vote. The Australian Electoral Commission have advised that marking your ballot papers as suggested above will not invalidate your vote “as long as it does not obscure your preferences”. What will this achieve? If enough people mark their ballot papers as indicated the message will get through regardless of which party is victorious. If you want to help this campaign along please copy and circulate this bill or inform your local newspaper about this campaign. The more people who are aware of this – the more likely that it will be noticed.
Matthew Guy - Vic - Liberal - MLC: Said the Victorian Labor State Government was completely unprepared for major population growth in the metropolitan area and had policies that were dated and inconsistent.
"We have a metropolitan planning policy that aims to contain growth, and a population policy that aims for growth at all cost. The two key components of planning policy are totally incompatible."
When considering the current population growth rate the following facts must be considered:
Melbourne has enough land supply for 25 years at a one per cent or lower growth rate but we've exceeded this rate since the late 1990s; Dwindling land supply and booming population will force up the cost of land and add to the housing affordability crisis; Population boom means greater pressure on infrastructure and services such as public transport, roads, water, education, health and aged and disability services. "While having full knowledge of these facts, the state government is doing nothing and allowing Melbourne to sleepwalk to an urban planning disaster," Mr Guy said.
The Greens & Labor!!! It's A Worry??? Rumour has it that if the Labor Party win the next Federal Election that Bob Brown will be offered a Junior Ministerial Role in a Labor Government. Which is to be used as a bargaining tool by the more Leftish Factions in the Labor Party.
Some things the Greens want:
* The Greens want to deny parents information about how Schools Perform - The Greens would end the public ranking of schools in 'league tables'.
* The Greens want a guaranteed Dole - No Matter What???
* The Greens would prevent the creation of new Schools and Universities. The Greens want to reintroduce the New Schools Policy which would prevent new development of new private schools that would threaten the viability and diversity of existing public schools in the same area.
*Why do the Greens dislike Private Schools? They relieve pressure from the public/state system. Those who educate their children privaely are saving the taxpayer a great deal of money. What would be the financial costs of limiting access to private schools?
*The Greens want to end subsidies to some private schools which would harm schools and universities.
*The Greens want a public transport system that is more attractive than the private family car. Would public transport be cheaper? In which case, where would the money come from? Or would they Tax Car Owners more? Or would they increase petrol prices? In which case, how much?
*The Greens want to remove the workers' right to decide whether to strike. The Greens will abolish the requirement for secret ballots before industrial action.
*Secret ballots allow members of unions to disagree with the union hierarchy.
* The Greens want to legislate to have more strikes.
*The Greens want to remove the concessional arrangements for capital gains tax. Concessions to this tax are available for individuals and small business.
*The Greens are explicity targeting small businesses at this election and
Rumour has it that if the Labor Party win the next Federal Election that Bob Brown will be offered a Junior Ministerial Role in a Labor Government. Which is to be used as a bargaining tool by the more Leftish Factions in the Labor Party.
Some things the Greens want:
*legalislate marriage for transgender and gay couples
*de facto relationships to have equal status in law and government policy regardless of sexuality and gender identity.
*access, regardless of sexuality and gender identity, to adoption, fostering, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilisation procedures.
*abolishing the 30% Private Health Insurance Rebate in order to increase funding for public hospitals;
*reducing tax breaks for high income earners
*removing Fringe Benefits Tax concessions
*removing the concessional arrangements for Capital Gains Tax;
*carbon tax levied on generators of mains-supplied electricity or gas;
*a national carbon trading scheme; and.
*other ecological taxes and charges at a level sufficient so that their prices reflect the full environmental cost of their production, use or disposal.
*introduce a system of minimum personal and corporate tax legislation to reduce the opportunities for individuals and companies to use loopholes to minimise their tax obligations.
*re-introduce an inheritance tax with full exemption for the family farm and exemption for the family home and other assets up to a total value of $2 million .
*return the company tax rate to 33% and broaden the company tax base by reducing tax concessions.
Every time the Coalition has announced a policy, like our policy to cut tax, Kevin Rudd said: ‘me too.’…Labor has no intention of actually implementing these things. As Peter Garrett said: ‘once we get in, we will just change it all.’
*$60 million to support the world's largest carbon dioxide capture and storage project in WA.
*$75 million to the Fairview power project which will extract methane from coal-seams to power a 100MW power station.
*$50 million for a world-first oxy-fuel demonstration project.
*$100 million to HRL Limited for a clean coal technology project in Victoria.
**The Government has also invested $450 million in technologies that support the management of emissions from coal activities.
The Coalition has provided significant support for renewable energy, with more than $1 billion of the Government's $3.5 billion climate change funding being allocated to renewable energy sources.
The Coalition Government put in place the $75 million Solar Cities program, with five solar cities projects announced for Adelaide, Townville, Blacktown, Alice Springs and Central Victoria. Together these solar cities will provide practical benefits for communities including:
*3,464 solar photovoltaic panels to be installed on private and public housing and on commercial and iconic buildings.
* 4,100 solar hot water systems to be installed in private and public housing.
*15,100 smart meters to give residential customers real-time information on energy use.
* 8,450 energy efficiency consultations to be conducted in households and businesses.
*71,500 energy efficiency packs to be available for households and commercial customers to support their energy efficient.
Australia is one of few countries on track to meet its existing Kyoto emissions reduction target on the basis of domestic action alone. :) The Coalition established the world-first Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) - a legislated national renewable energy market based on an innovative system of tradable certificates which has stimulated $3.5 billion of investment in renewable energy technologies since its introduction in 2001.
Australia played a leading role among 21 APEC nations to sign the Sydney Declaration - a historic commitment by all leaders to address the challenge posed by climate change.
APEC economies agreed to the need for an overall global goal for emissions reductions - a very significant step towards a truly comprehensive climate change framework.
The Australian Government has committed some $20 billion to a comprehensive range of measures to restore and protect our natural environment.
The Australian Government has announced that they will implement the most comprehensive emissions trading system in the world.
The cap and trade system will help Australia substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the lowest cost.
The Australian Government's commitment is evident to tackling climate change.
In 1998 Australia became the first country in the world to establish a dedicated climate change agency - the Australian Greenhouse Office.
The government will conduct careful analysis of a long-term goal for emissions reduction in order to ensure that we fully understand the economy-wide impacts as a nation.
The government has established the $500 million Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund which has supported six projects:
*$75 million towards a $420 million project to build a large-scale solar concentrator in regional Victoria.
*$50 million towards a $360 million pilot for a brown-coal drying and post-combustion carbon dioxide capture and storage project.
Good valid Points you established. I agree with you. We had 13 years of Labor at a Federal level from 1983-1996. We certainly don't need them back in power to stuff things up again. Kevin Rudd says that he is an Economic Conservative but his parliamentary record shows he is not. But there are lots of first and second time voters out there that don't know how bad things were for their parents or just don't care much at all.
Did you know the miliatry call-out amendment of 06 makes it easier for the defence force to be called out to a threat, the bill did not specify that the threat had to be a terror threat or not and changed the situation for 'life in danger' to 'infrastructure in danger'. The defence force can 'shoot-to-kill',and can police civillians, search without warrants, detain without charge, and do so anonymously. Furthermore the bill also states that soldiers have legal immunity from State law, as following orders can be used as a legal defense - this goes against Nuremberg! For more info visit our myspace and read our blogs.
Malcolm Turnbull should win his seat more comfortably than some commentators think. Remember last time the former Liberal for the seat of Wentworth Peter King ran as an Independent and got 17.98% of first preferences in 2004. So even on a bad day Malcolm Turnbull should easily pick up over 60% of the voters that voted for Peter King and more. Some adjustments might have to be made either way up or down because of the redistribtions. But overall I think their is a very positive outlook for Malcolm Turnbull. Because most of those voters are very smart and don't want wall to wall Labor Governments ... especially at the top of the tree.
Mr Rudd was unable to name a single tax rate or a single threshold for Australia’s income tax system:
JOURNALIST:… the Government’s tax plan, the tax policy in the Budget, can you name for me the rates and the thresholds which those rates kick in?
RUDD: Well if you look across the, you mean the ones when they…
JOURNALIST: Both of them, this year, July 1.
RUDD: Well as of July 1 if you went through the four thresholds, I think the high threshold kicks in I think at $175,000, then I think it cascades down the spectrum. When it comes to each individual tax rate and tax threshold for the future, what I have said when it comes to the future of the tax system is that our plan will be out there on the table for the Australian people to look at before the election.
For the record, here it is:
TAX SCALES FROM 1 July 2007
Taxable income ($) Tax rate (%)
0 - 6,000 0
6,001 - 30,000 15
30,001 - 75,000 30
75,001 - 150,000 40
150,001 + 45
It is extraordinary that a man who claims to have a policy on tax does not have the slightest idea of what the system is.
Mr Rudd doesn’t understand the tax system and he doesn’t understand the Australian economy. He should never be put in charge of people’s mortgages, their businesses or their jobs.
The Liberty & Democracy Party (LDP) stands for the Libertarian philosophy of greater individual freedom, smaller government and personal responsibility.
