[HP]

ah right gotcha. I guess I should have said in my post simply Labour was more left than Liberal.

btw if no one minds, I'd like to derail the thread a bit

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- A ridiculously high minimum wage ($13/hr = ~$11 US)
- Enforced employer paid contributions to superannuation of 9%
- Free education for all who want it (with a token loans scheme)
- Holiday leave loading, generous sick days and other worker entitlements
- Otherwise strong employee protection that goes to point of being economically harmful and overly restrictive on the choices of entrepreneurs
- Free health care for all, which is getting strained with an ageing population
- A relatively large government and high taxation

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This is what I love about Australia <3

Yeah I like high taxes (relative to say America). necessary obv for all of the above. If anything I would like higher taxes overall

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- Universal social security benefits which people used to bludge off under a labor government.

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hmm you really think it's that bad? the benefits are obvious. I was under the impression it's actually quite annoying these days to abuse the doll. You have to apply to 4 jobs a week or something (and they randomly check your applications to see if it's legit), and if you don't get a job after a while you have to take a course on how to properly create a resume and stuff. This is just anecdotal evidence from a friend of mine who was on it

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All of these things are, imo, much too far to the left for Australia to remain prosperous in a global economy and a long way from a streamlined and free society.

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well by now you can easily guess I'd disagree here. But a lot of it probably comes down to personal preference, I am willing to sacrifice quite a lot of overall prosperity for the sake of the poorer half of the country. But anyway, haven't we been doing ok for a while without a "streamlined and free society"?

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The US on the other hand has a great deal more wealth and population and some serious social justice issues which have massive hidden economic and human costs. I think the Democrats are the only way to correct these issues.

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Couldn't agree more. I've lived half my life in the states, half in Australia (dual citizen). Simply put I much prefer Australia, and would not want to veer towards America's way of doing things for fear ending up like America (poverty and lack of social mobility, mostly)