Marilyn Said:

Who u think is better candidate to vote for in upcoming Australian election?

We Answered:

Arya, we need to sort one thing out right away. Unless you live in the House of Representatives seat held by Julia Gillard which is Lalor in Western suburban Melbourne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gilla…
or
If you live in Tony Abbott's electorate in Eastern Sydney which is Warringah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott

You are not going to vote for either of them.

The way our democracy works you will vote for the candidate put forward by the party of your choice either Labor or Liberal if you live in the city unless you chose to vote for a minority party and then place your number two on the major party. You HAVE TO FILL IN ALL THE BOXES on the House of Representatives voting paper.

Have a search for your local federal electorate on this AEC site and see who your local candidates are and see who you will actually be voting for. It is from these House of Representatives members that the Prime Minister e.g. Kevin Rudd and then Julia Gillard are chosen. We don't get to control that under our system of government. It is also where the leader of the Opposition comes from e.g. Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and now Tony Abbott.

One thing that I don't like about all of it is that Australian politics has not been very stable for the last three years because of all the changes. In spite of all the bad thing said about KRudd he was the most constant of the lot of them. I agree with you that it is confusing. I also agree with you that Labor does try to give those less well off a bit more to come and go on.

However, there is an argument that the Libs are better economic managers. This is doubtful as they wasted a golden opportunity when John Howard was PM and didn't build a lot of the infrastructure that should have been constructed. Sydney and Melbourne could have done with at least two or three new teaching hospitals each. Their populations exploded in the 10 years that Howard was PM and he encouraged population growth. He could also have built more ports, railways and roads than he did and educated more doctors, veterinary scientists, teachers, nurses etc and he should have spent taxation money doing this instead of giving tax cuts. This may sound harsh at first but the tax cuts are gone before you get them as businesses put put the price of food and petrol in anticipation of getting the money from the tax cuts before they come and they end up having and inflationary effect on the economy.

I actually think that Labor has done well they have just had bad luck due to not being tough enough on those who abused the systems that they put in place for the BER, the pink batts scheme and the solar panels scheme.

I hope that this helps you make up your mind. I am still working my way through all the information.
Liberal Party of Australia
http://www.liberal.org.au/
Labor Party of Australia
http://www.alp.org.au/
National Party of Australia
http://www.nationals.org.au/Home.aspx
The Australian Greens
http://greens.org.au/
Julia Gillard
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memb…
http://www.deewr.gov.au/Ministers/Gillar…
Tony Abbott
http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memb…

Good Luck!!!

Pedro Said:

Do countries apart from Australia have televised debates between the candidates?

We Answered:

I live in the U.S. We have such debates for both national (presidential) and local debates (governor, mayoral - cities and states) which are sponsored by different political organizations depending on the debate. For example, The League of Women Voters sponsors debates between presidential candidates on network television.

Duane Said:

Americans if you were an Australian who would you vote for in the Australian Election?

We Answered:

This is so irrelevant!

Tom Said:

Australian Election?

We Answered:

Yes, with the exception of one person, I have always personally known the person I voted for in all the elections since I turned 21 over 41 years ago. (The voting age back then was 21 --- it changed to 18 around 1967).

Gordon Bryant and Bob Hawke in the seat of WILLS. Leary was the only person I did not know in WILLS.
Simon Crean in seat of Hotham.