Political memories

Let’’s get something off my chest before I get stuck into this little piece. I am not a political person, I neither support, nor am I a member of, any political party – as far as I am concerned they are all just as bad as each other! – but I do feel something needs to be said about what’’s going on at present.

I don’’t care what party you choose to support, or what you think of the various leaders we have been subjected to of late, one thing HAS to be accepted. During his period as Treasurer, Costello did a great job, clearing all this country’’s debts and even leaving about a hundred million dollars in the savings, to see us all through any difficult times that might have arisen in the future. Not many countries around the world could match that state of affairs; we were well prepared to survive anything the global economy decided to throw at us. But then the Liberals got themselves thrown out of Government, for no better reason, as far as I can see, than the fact that after ten years in power, the electorate decided they would like to try something else, coupled perhaps, with an unfortunate arrogance displayed by the then leader, John Howard.

So then Labor took over, and within the span of their term in office, they managed to turn all that lovely cash and lack of debt into a thirty-nine billion dollar overdraft, with millions of dollars being added each day, just to cover the interest, quite apart from any further borrowings. Not only that, but the money they spent went on such items as not-required school halls, unsafe roofing insulation and several other highly expensive adventures that didn’t work. It really was very sad to watch the country sink swiftly from healthy black into deep, deep red!

The electorate decided in their wisdom that they had had enough of this and last year they put the Liberals back in charge (just!), who immediately, on finding the situation we were in, instigated tough measures to start sorting it all out, unavoidably having to ditch some of their election promises in the process. It would have been either that, or have the place go bankrupt. ANY party taking over and finding the state of the books would have had to do the same, like it or not. This is just fact, with no party leanings, one way or the other!

And that’’s when things get a bit peculiar! Everyone ignored the financial position we are in and started shouting the Liberals down, calling them promise breakers, liars and idiots. It has been conveniently forgotten that it was the Labor Government that got us into this position, a position considerably helped by the private war between Rudd and Gillard, which did nothing but distract everyone from what was going on downstairs in the Treasury! It was a situation that HAD to be corrected, no matter what the public thought.

Now, whether the Liberals are going about things in the right way is another issue altogether. They unfortunately appear to be taking the required money from the less-able-to-pay members of the community, hence the public reaction to Joe’’s budget, a problem that still hasn’t been sorted out yet! Rather than taking the easy path of simply stealing cash from everyone, I would have thought they could do better, by finding ways of re-invigorating the country’’s economy, create jobs, make it easier for employers to take people on without all the bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo they have to put up with at present time. Cut back on the “political correctness” that stifles creative thought and action and as a small piece of public relations, remove some of the immense perks politicians still enjoy, even while the rest of us are doing it hard! But I guess I’’m just being a bit naïve, thinking this might happen!

What do you think of the state of the country? Is it a matter of parties or is it just what needed to happen? Do you agree with Brian’s sentiments? Tell us below.