To the shapers of the future - what's important to you?? (1 Viewer)

[highpingbastard]

To all those first-time or newer voters,

What electorate are you in?
What political issues are important to YOU for the upcoming NSW state election?
And are the pollies making you all aware of the issues, or do you feel kind of lost?


I'm actually a UTS student doing a story for the Sydney Morning Herald website. We're doing a section called "grassroots" which means we focus entirely on everyday people...instead of going to interview politicians or what-not.

So, if you could answer those above quick questions, that'd be great. I just need your name, age, suburb and electorate and your thoughts!

Thank you!

 

[dilroy]

I'm a first-time voter and I'm voting for Labor both state and Federal.

First of all, I dislike private education. Even though I went to a Catholic high school, the brainwashing didn't have any effect on me and I'm glad it didn't. The government has taken out a lot of funding from public education forcing families to place their kids in these brainwashing schools to get a decent education. Look at the public schools today, a lot of them have become overrun by lil thugs and gangs who have no ambition in life but to split their hairs n look like complete retards. Public education is our future and public education promotes freedom of religion!

I'm an environmentalist, not an extreme environmentalist, but I support the fight against global warming... something which the Libs are still skeptical over. They destroyed our chance to be a green nation, whereas other nations had purchase patents which Howard has rejected funding towards.

The Australia-US relationship has gone way too far. We are now becoming the US-arse licker nation. I hope Labor can create a more professional relationship rather than a personal relationship aka Bush and Howard...

Oh and Kevin Rudd can speak Chinese, hopefully better relationships between Australia and China, so we can become more neutral.

 

[withoutaface]

Private education also promotes freedom of religion, as in parents are free to send their kids to schools which teach any religion they want. The fact is that more money is spent on the average public school than the average private school, and that this means private school parents are paying for their kids' education twice. Ergo, if private education were to be abolished, the public system would go even further down the shitter.

I'm in the Castle Hill electorate and will be voting Liberal because desalination is moronic and because I'd prefer not to see my state go into recession.

 

[Tulipa]

I'm a first time voter and I'm voting Liberal for State and no clue for Federal.

The whole water is a big issue and there is no fucking way I'm letting Iemma invest 2 billion dollars in something that's not environmentally sound. I'm fine with recycling water on the other hand.

Plus I'm a big fan of the 20 000 job kill in government jobs. Consolidation of that field is a good idea and one that Debnam will hopefully go through with.

I'm not sure about education which I guess is good because so are both of the major parties. I don't particularly care about the private/public debate but more the federalisation of education which I think is a fanfuckingtastic idea. Unfortunately no one cares about that either.

 

[jb_nc]

I live in Lane Cove for State and Bennelong for Federal and I'll be voting and [probably] campaigning for Liberal at both elections.

The important issues for me are crime, water and the state's economy. Reasons for voting Liberal at state are desalanation is a waste of time, Iemma can't balance a budget and Labor's awful past with things the said they will do but haven't. Can't stand Sartor or Tripodi because of how smarmy and conceited they seem especially how awful Sartor's decision on the redevelopment of East Darling Harbour and the hundreds of homes planned in Putney which is not good IMHO. They've had 12 years and broken the state and with four more I don't know what will happen.

First of all, I dislike private education. Even though I went to a Catholic high school, the brainwashing didn't have any effect on me and I'm glad it didn't. The government has taken out a lot of funding from public education forcing families to place their kids in these brainwashing schools to get a decent education. Look at the public schools today, a lot of them have become overrun by lil thugs and gangs who have no ambition in life but to split their hairs n look like complete retards. Public education is our future and public education promotes freedom of religion!

Public education is run by the states. i.e. Labor. Private education is also needed and very important. Public schools are pathetic because what Labor has done to them. I had to move from the public system to the private system when LABOR nearly closed down the public school I was attending to sell for real estate (It eventually survived thanks to protesting from hundreds of students, alumni, the community and parents - a few other schools were forced to close down to be sold off however).

Did you hear Iemma's announcement for "new funding"? About $180m to repair buildings and toilets. Basically things that should be done automatically. Well done spin-machine Dilemma.

 

[highpingbastard]

Hey people,
Thanks a tonne for your replies!

For fact-checking and accuracy purposes, could you leave the following details in your reply:
Full Name, Age, Occupation (or what you're studying) and Electorate.

These will only be used to maintain records of what all of you have said. It's important so that SMH can keep a record of it all these great responses!

Thanks a tonne to all those who already replied!

 

[Tulipa]

Hey if we don't leave our full names you're not going to quote us?

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Securing water is very important to me as I can see the decisions we make today will have a relatively dramatic impact on my future unlike any other issue at the forefront of the election today. Recycled water is a better approach than a wasteful, bad for the environment desalinization plant and should have been implimented long ago, Labor had their chance and they blew it. I'm slightly worried about what a debnam government could do to our criminal justice system but I'm hearing much of the same from Iemma.

On the whole though, I feel our votes make relatively little difference as to how our state/country is run. Time and time again we see the population disagrees with both parties on some of the most important issues of governance, yet elections are framed to make it so that only issues of character (i.e. Whether you'd like to have a beer with the guy) and some smaller (but not insignificant) policy issues which don't threaten the interests of either party or their powerbrokers are the focus.

Full Name, Age, Occupation (or what you're studying) and Electorate.

Chadd Gunton, 19, Law clerk, B Laws / Communications, State electorate of Mulgoa, Federal electorate of Lindsay.

Feel free to include that, edit out segments you feel are boring or whatever. Good luck with your assignment.

 

[highpingbastard]

Hey if we don't leave our full names you're not going to quote us?

We'll quote you. But, like all newspapers, if there's a dispute about something being said, and if you wanted to complain or whatever, there's no record of you having said that at all then. Or it'll be incomplete.

 

[The_highwayman]

i'm voting for liberals for state and fedral because i don't like the alternatives.

 

[Stott Despoja]

For fact-checking and accuracy purposes, could you leave the following details in your reply:
Full Name, Age, Occupation (or what you're studying) and Electorate.

These will only be used to maintain records of what all of you have said. It's important so that SMH can keep a record of it all these great responses!

---

We'll quote you. But, like all newspapers, if there's a dispute about something being said, and if you wanted to complain or whatever, there's no record of you having said that at all then. Or it'll be incomplete.

May I suggest that such information be sent in a PM rather than posted here in the thread for all to see? This is an open forum, after all, and a number of members may not be comfortable with such information, as mundane as it may seem, being publicly available.

 

[highpingbastard]

Yeah no worries. I'll PM anyone who makes a response and request their information. So far, I have everyone's details.

Thanks so much!

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Name: Jimmy C.

Age: 19

Occupation: Lay-by guy

Studying: Bachelor of Education (Secondary: Science)/Bachelor of Science

Electorates:

Camden (State, held by Labor [Geoff Corrigan])
Macarthur (Federal, held by Liberal [Pat "My wife is dead, so vote for me" Farmer])

Important Issues:

Taxes. Raise them to get some more money into health, education and public transport. There's no point in cutting taxes, none whatsoever.

Education. Get the money out of the rich private schools, and put them into poor public schools. Mark Latham's policy was that it didn't matter which school someone went to, all that mattered was the funding. If one school, like Newington is overflowing with cash while another one in Western Sydney is strapped for cash, that's simply unacceptable.

Public education is run by the states. i.e. Labor. Private education is also needed and very important. Public schools are pathetic because what Labor has done to them. I had to move from the public system to the private system when LABOR nearly closed down the public school I was attending to sell for real estate (It eventually survived thanks to protesting from hundreds of students, alumni, the community and parents - a few other schools were forced to close down to be sold off however).

The money that the state government puts into education comes in part from their taxes, but also from the federal government. Please don't blame it all on the state government. Perhaps if the Howard government hadn't have held onto this moronic, brain dead formula that they use whereby rich schools get richer and poor schools get poorer, then there wouldn't be any fucking problem to being with.

Did you hear Iemma's announcement for "new funding"? About $180m to repair buildings and toilets. Basically things that should be done automatically. Well done spin-machine Dilemma.

And what exactly is whats-his-face suggesting? Oh, that's right, nothing at all. Good job.

Healthcare. More money plz.

Public transport. Global warming, commute times and later on down the track, peak oil are all going to play a massive part in how people move themselves around. Public transport is the answer, but no-one seems to give a hoot at the moment. The labor governments in both states clearly care more about this than their liberal counterparts, so that's a point to them.

Climate change. John Howard is a hypocritical tool, and a despicable human being. His attitude towards climate change is the height of irresponcibility.

Water. Recycling for the win, my friends. It's a pity that Iemma is holding onto this desalination idea though, a real pity.

Industrial relations. Yeah, I'm not going to vote for someone that forces legislation through that abolishes unfair dismissal laws, amongst other things.

Responcible administration. Basically, as I mentioned before, Howard has been a very irresponcible, egocentric leader. He's created a culture of me-myself-I, he's put together absolutely absurd legislation, he's full of himself, he's kept Hicks in detention for five years without charge, he invaded Iraq for no reason, he outlawed the ACT gay marriage law, he's done not a thing for euthanasia, there's just so much reason NOT to vote for him.

 

[Tulipa]

One thing Nebuchanezzar, if you take ALL the funding out of private schools they're going to have to raise their fees making it harder for parents to afford it. Thus they send their kids to public schools.

It's not going to take long for those schools to overflow with students if the fees of private schools go through the roof. It's also going to take longer for those public schools to put into motion what to do with the money.

There is no simple way to even it out right now.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Education. Get the money out of the rich private schools, and put them into poor public schools. Mark Latham's policy was that it didn't matter which school someone went to, all that mattered was the funding. If one school, like Newington is overflowing with cash while another one in Western Sydney is strapped for cash, that's simply unacceptable.

But rich private schools represent a saving to the government. If you took all government out of private schools as to make them less adventageous than they already are then the government would end up having to spend more money on the private school kids that move over to public schools.

No matter how much funding you give public schools there will always be an opportunity for more funding if there are private school students to give less funding.

 

[ZabZu]

Ok im going to just focus on the state election.

Name: Lawrie
Age: 20
Studying: B Commerce (Human Resource Management and Economics)

I live in the seat of Lane Cove and I live in Lane Cove. I will be voting for either an independent or the democrats.

I am not going to vote for Labor because:
- they refuse to filter the Lane Cove tunnel
- the roads in my area are a complete mess
- desalination is a stupid idea, recycling is a much better alternative

I am not going to vote for the Liberals because:
- they want to axe 20,000 public sector jobs
- they are going to put thousands of workers on the federal industrial relations system, making them vulnerable to workchoices. Also, the liberal party has a history of promoting statutory individual contracts and they want to deunionise the workforce
- I dont like Debnam

 

[withoutaface]

I am not going to vote for the Liberals because:
- they want to axe 20,000 public sector jobs

They are putting on a hiring freeze for certain sectors, not terminating the employment of 20 000 people. I wish people would stop perpetuating this fallacy.

 

[Tulipa]

They are putting on a hiring freeze for certain sectors, not terminating the employment of 20 000 people. I wish people would stop perpetuating this fallacy.

Also aren't they looking at the consolidation of certain sectors?

 

[bshoc]

But rich private schools represent a saving to the government. If you took all government out of private schools as to make them less adventageous than they already are then the government would end up having to spend more money on the private school kids that move over to public schools.

No matter how much funding you give public schools there will always be an opportunity for more funding if there are private school students to give less funding.

All education should be private.

1. If all schools were made to be private the cost of education would come down significantly.

2. Schools would be forced to raise standards and compete, no more sub-standard schools and teachers slacking off on taxpayer money. Teachers would be paid on the basis of their performance, just like everyone else.

3. That would go the same for students, theres always a few bludgers who shaft through school failing everything on public money, as well as making more applied classmates lives a little more difficult. Everyone paying for school means that people who dont want to or shouldnt be in school wont be.

4. The cost of education would also be eased by the extra taxbreak everyone would recieve, a completely private education system accounting for how much tax and government waste there is in education would more than likely be cheaper in the long run. In extreme situations of poverty, a system similar to HECS loans could be used. The government and teachers unions are really middlemen nobody needs.

 

[bshoc]

Well said mate, well said.