London Boy and Barry Girl squabble about….immigration

A strangely lacklustre Australian Election campaign is drawing to an end. The Independent on Sunday had a nice article on the voting intentions of immigrants.
“Both parties have pledged to send asylum-seekers overseas for processing: the Liberals favour the South Pacific island of Nauru, which housed an Australian detention centre during the Howard era, while Labor has proposed establishing a centre in neighbouring East Timor. (The East Timorese are distinctly lukewarm about it.)”
Australia attracts half a million immigrants every year. Gillard has expressed her opposition to a “Big” Australia while Abbott is specific – capping immigration to 170,000 a year.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Paul Sheehan thinks the “brazen” lying Prime Minister will win. Why? – “Finally, we get to the most structural and disturbing aspect of the election, the growing primacy of the pie-eaters. As the recent British election showed, when sections of a country become addicted to government spending (Scotland and Wales), the electorate will vote out of self-interest and vote for the party of big government. That is, vote Labor, no matter how bad the record.
Voters are expecting more from government on healthcare, education and social security and expectancy creates dependency. One in four Australians now depends on the government for the bulk of their income. Another one in four Australians depends on government spending, directly or indirectly, for their jobs. That’s half the electorate depending on tax transfers.
The pie-eaters greatly outnumber the pie-makers”
Interesting comparisons there…
An Economic Debate might liven things up:
“Mr Abbott said that if Labor’s record was “so great, why did they execute the prime minister?”
And here The Diplomat discusses succession.

Dewi

Welsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…