[bunny]

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I doubt either of them is going to have the stomach to do anything substantive.

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I don't see where you get this from. Liberals have done a heap of very unpopular stuff that was great for the country ...

...I'm curious what the basis for your quote is, and why people hold this perception.

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I meant specifically with regard to climate change. Both sides seem to me to be making lots of long term undertakings without any real plan as to how it will come about. I doubt either party is going to be advocating drastic change through fear of being labelled extremist a la Brown.

With regard to your other points:
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introduced consumption based taxation (GST) - a massive and highly unpopular change

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I agree this was a good thing, though would quibble that it was really expanding rather than introducing. Also, my preference would have been to make it more progressive but that's my leftie nature asserting itself.

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sold off Telstra

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I dont consider this here nor there really - I dont see why it's "great for the country". I'm not really for or against privatisation, although I dont yet accept the arguments of the "privatisation leads to lower cost" proponents as it doesnt match my experience.

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work for the dole

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From what I've seen this was nothing but hype. I would agree it's a good thing in theory, but dont think what actually eventuated was anything like what it could/should have been. Also, I dont think it was particularly unpopular (notwithstanding the horrified rhetoric put out by the usual suspects).

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made industrial relations laws more competitive, given people freedom of choice with respect to unions (forced association is pure communism)

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I agree forced unionisation is obviously wrong - I dont know they can claim to have abolished that though, it's hasnt been even remotely compulsory for quite some time. Nonetheless, I agree they have made it "less compulsory" and that that's a good thing. I dont agree that they have made the industrial relations laws more competitive (or dont really know what that means really) we seem to have the same amount of red tape with less protection for dumb people who cant advocate effectively for themselves.

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and privatized a couple of large sectors.

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As I said, I dont see that this is inherently good (though dont think it's inherently bad either).

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And changed the higher education system, which was very unpopular and may or may not have been good for the country.

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Again I'm a leftie, but I think it was bad. I like HECS and dont find it too expensive, but I do think the cuts to funding for the non-industry related disciplines were too much.