Liberals as hollow as ever

July 24, 2010 in Federal Election
Tags: Australia, ballot box, democracy, education, environmental sustainability, federal government, industrial relations, Liberals, politics, public health, public policy, theangle.org, Tony Abbott, voters, WorkChoices, workers rights

The classic saying, “Nothing makes more noise than an empty vessel,” describes the current state of the Liberal Party of Australia, very well as they have stepped up the revisionist rhetoric to paper over gaffes and public utterances. One major example is their attempt to re-write history on Abbott’s support for WorkChoices in the then Howard government. If you believe official Liberal documentation, the present Opposition Leader was never a committed supporter of WorkChoices and that he advocated against its introduction within cabinet.

But how can voters believe that when so many examples of his enthusiastic support for the legislation exist?

He was a key minister in the Howard government cabinet that pushed for WorkChoices. Everything he’s said about WorkChoices since the 2007 election indicates he’s a strong supporter and advocate for the controversial workplace reforms many credit for the defeat of the Howard Government. A very good piece was written recently on the R@W News blog (on the Your Rights at Work website) – Does Tony Abbott ever support workers? – listing some of
Abbott’s anti-worker activities.

The Liberals are also trying to take opportunities to make ‘policy’ announcements of big dollars, which recently included one for mental health. And they’re ramping up the anti-refugee rhetoric launching their ‘policy’ on asylum seekers. But can we take these as the gospel truth if elected? Since the acid test for the Liberal Party of Australia, by admission of its leader, is to only believe the things that are written down, I did some digging around on their website.

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Note Well: This piece was originally posted at theangle.org titled “Analysis: Liberals as hollow as ever“