It's an interesting time an Australian politics at the moment. For the first time in years, we have an opposition leader who seems to be a serious threat to John Howard, whose political goals for the last three years or so seem to have been to try and impress George Bush.
Strangely enough, even the Murdoch and Packer controlled media out here seem to be singing the praises of the man who called GW "the most dangerous man in the world".
As it stands now, the most contentious issues are health care, education and free-trade.
On one hand we have a Prime Minister, who pledges to abolish universal free health care. On the other, an opposition leader who promises to not only retain it, but to extend it into areas like dentistry that aren't currently covered.
The education debate centres around John Howard's trashing of public education in the secondary sector and his desire to make university harder for the less well-off to attend, by reducing funding, lowering HECS places while increasing full-fee paying places and encouraging words such as "university isn't necessarily a good thing for a lot of people". Mark Latham meanwhile, wants to greatly increase funding to public education and universities.
And of course - the Free Trade Agreement with the US. The current government wants to sell out our television and film industry by abolishing local content quotas so any remaining notions of Australian culture can be replaced by even more re-runs of Relic Hunter or Battle-Bots and a double-dose of Freddie Prinze Jr flicks.
I wonder who I will vote for?
Strangely enough, even the Murdoch and Packer controlled media out here seem to be singing the praises of the man who called GW "the most dangerous man in the world".
As it stands now, the most contentious issues are health care, education and free-trade.
On one hand we have a Prime Minister, who pledges to abolish universal free health care. On the other, an opposition leader who promises to not only retain it, but to extend it into areas like dentistry that aren't currently covered.
The education debate centres around John Howard's trashing of public education in the secondary sector and his desire to make university harder for the less well-off to attend, by reducing funding, lowering HECS places while increasing full-fee paying places and encouraging words such as "university isn't necessarily a good thing for a lot of people". Mark Latham meanwhile, wants to greatly increase funding to public education and universities.
And of course - the Free Trade Agreement with the US. The current government wants to sell out our television and film industry by abolishing local content quotas so any remaining notions of Australian culture can be replaced by even more re-runs of Relic Hunter or Battle-Bots and a double-dose of Freddie Prinze Jr flicks.
I wonder who I will vote for?