Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The colour chart of Australian politics

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The colour chart of Australian politics

Australian politics are a colourful affair.

We have the red team. It officially stands for the working person and is against big business. In recent years it has also claimed to adopt environmental agendas and has cuddled up with the green team (see below).

Then there’s the blue team. Historically this team stands for the wealthy end of town and holds the view that what is good for business is good for the country. They are also sceptical about environmental issues.

The browns are allied to the blues and stand for the man on the land.

A more recent entry is the green team – well, really a green-pink mix. They stand for the environment, income redistribution and ‘progressive ‘ social causes such as easing drug policy, abortion and same sex marriage.

At the last election the blue team defeated the red team by saying the red team had messed up the economy and also by promising no new taxes.

So now we have the first budget of the blue team.

The blue team (remember: ‘big end of town’ and ‘no new taxes’) wants to impose a new tax (sorry ‘levy’) on the big end of town and also revive an old red-team measure to index taxes on fossil fuels.To make it more confusing - it was a past leader of the blue team who had ended the indexation.

The brown team is not happy with the fuel tax indexing.

The green team is against the blue team's indexed taxes on fossil fuels and making high-income earners pay more income tax.

The red team is against the blue team’s revival of the red team’s indexing of fossil fuel taxes. They are also against the blue team’s proposal to put a new tax on the big end of town.

Clear? If so, please explain it back to me!