White-collar workers look for an excuse to vote Labor by John Black

Now this is an interesting article, particularly because I think it has far more relevance to the next election than Mark Latham's books, interviews and general public tantrums will. It's all about tax, economics, money and white-collar workers.

Tax, economics, money and white-collar workers that could win Labor the next Federal election...

Aside from the current Labor party lacking interest (even with the Latham kerfuffle), I think that this could definitely be something that could get them up and over the line in 2007. If the Labor party can offer a "better" way of doing things with tax and the economy (especially the minimum wage and petrol prices, if the claims of price gouging are to be believed), they might have a chance of beating the Coalition.

I think people were willing to NOT vote for the Coalition last year. Australians are sick of the government back-flipping on everything, such as the implementation of the GST by John "I'll never introduce a GST" Howard. Just think back to the children overboard scandals, too. And the war on Iraq. And the refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol. And the way that the government seems to leap through hoops for George Bush (Australians do like Americans, but we aren't a fan of their policies). How the rich seem to get all the tax cuts while the lowest income earners don't get any cuts and the government sets up new procedures to try to ensure that the minimum wage won't be reviewed until sometime in the distant future.

A lot was made of the Latham plan to cut logging in Tasmania, which is something that is vitally important to do. Logging is one of the biggest industries there, but if they keep destroying the environment like they currently do, there won't be anything left there in 20 year's time. There's barely anything interesting about the place as it is, other than its natural resources. To get rid of them is definitely economic suicide. Much more could be done in Tassie with eco-tourism. People are interested in that sort of thing now days, provided that there are some creature comforts associated with it. I went to Tassie about five years ago now and it is a gorgeous place - beautiful forests and amazing wildlife. But they're being killed off by the forest equivalent of strip mining, where everything is knocked down and poison baits to kill the wildlife is put out by the logging companies. The main vehicles you saw on the more 'remote' roads in Tassie were logging trucks. Lots and lots of them, loaded up with the remains of trees. Oh, and did you know that the Commonwealth Bank is the biggest shareholder in Gunns, the major logging company in Tasmania? Yup. I have real ethical reservations with banking with them now *sigh*

But Tasmania and logging wasn't what lost Latham the election, I think. Sure, John Howard came along and said, "Hey, let's keep raping the environment here! It's worked for years. We don't want these poor people to lose their jobs for the sake of keeping a few old trees that could be made into some nice woodchips," so people in Tassie thought that was great and probably voted for him because of that one damn fool reason.

But in other States where we're a lil' bit less isolated and don't have six fingers on each hand, I think other economic factors were at play in why the Howard government retained power. If Latham and the Labor party had been offering up some great tax reforms and looking to reduce the rates for lower income earners, who really need it now with the increase in the cost of living, it would have been a much closer result.

Quoting from the article on SMH: If these higher-income professionals had an alternative low-tax party with a more independent foreign policy on offer - like a Greenish Pauline Hanson, but with brains - professional seats across the country would be lost to Labor and the Liberals. And if Beazley wants to avoid the mistakes of his 1998 tax package, he perhaps could consult the Labor MPs for Melbourne (Lindsay Tanner), Melbourne Ports (Michael Danby), Sydney (Tanya Plibersek) or Brisbane (Arch Bevis)... Before the last election, if Latham had listened a little more to these MPs and to what his fellow Sydney professionals were saying about tax reform instead of the US alliance, and had done his economic policy homework, he'd be implementing his new tax scales now, instead of retailing gossip about himself."

Hmmmm...