I have a question for the people who are taking the "Moral High Ground" in this thread.
How many of you have a family? How many have children I mean? And how many own property?
Once you have children and have other mouths who are totally and utterly dependent on you for every little thing they need, many peoples' perspective will quickly change. I know many of you will say - oh no, I have my opinions and they won't change, but in reality it will. Not completely, I won't be that over the top, but perspectives will change.
Johnny is one who does own property, as we have seen but he does not have children, and has stated he has no plans for ever having children. That itself changes perspective, as he can always sell the property and survive if needed. With dependent children, economic conditions personally mean a lot more, as you can't "just get by" if that means your kids are missing out on various things.
If you can't afford new shoes for your child, the fact that David Hicks trained with terrorists means a hell of a lot less.
Well, for one, I own a house in Canberra, have a wife and a 18 month old daughter.
I'm 35, I grew up in the Campbelltown area of Adelaide primarily so it's not what you'd call and affluent area but it's not low socio economic either.
Having completed my schooling at year 12, instesad of repeating my final year and heading to uni I got myself an electrical apprenticeship with the South Australian Railways, did my time plus one year as a tradesman and then applied for mature age entry to university in Canberra to study the Conservation of Cultural Materials (preservation of museum stuff). I finished my degree in late 98 and I've been working at the Australian War Memorial ever since. My HECS debt is paid off. Although I work in one of Australias cultural institutions I don't beleive I am a culture snob. (probably because as a technology conservator I'm welding, driving a lathe, spraypainting etc and getting grease under my nails).
My home is not yet paid off, but my wife and I were very lucky that we got into the market before the big price hike triggered by the approach of the GST. Although there was no GST on houses, there was GST on the labour costs and materials so they jumped nearly the full 10% anyway. As a proportion of the standard Canberra APS pay scale, homes have shot
way up in price to the point where for folks trying to get into the market it's pretty much impossible now. This is not a case of "property has always gone up, always has, always will, nothing is any different than it ever has been." In real terms,
affordability as a proportion of income is lower than it has ever been.
I have private health insurance but I wonder at the amount of money that I'm sinking into it. We were certainly glad to have it when our daughter was born premature. It didn't change the level of care we got one iota, but being private meant that the NIC Unit at the Canberra Hospital was fully funded for the services they provided, which they wouldn't have been if we were public patients.
So, my wife and I are both uni educated, but (and I beleive this is where the difference perhaps lies) she had to spend many summers in sheds cutting apricots to pay her way through uni and I worked my way through an industrial apprenticeship first before doing uni as a mature age student.
We have both worked with and seen the conditions under which some of our co-workers, their friends and partners grew up, worked and lived.
I see execs getting paid multiple hundreds of dollars and I think they ought to thank their lucky stars that circumstances have brought them to where they are today. They dont work
any harder than a bloke in a foundry, a welding shop, a carpenters, a fish and chip joint. But they get paid 4 times as much for the same sweat from their brow. Certainly many have got there by hard graft, but many have got there because they were born with a silver spoon, went to the right school, went to uni, became junior partners at the right firm through family contacts etc etc. There's nothing wrong with that, but to think the world owes you something more than it owes everyone else when you do little more than anyone else to deserve it, quite frankly, sucks.
Born and raised in Burnside, went to St Peters, through Adelaide Uni and then on to a highly paid management job sets you up for life in a way that being born in Elizabeth to a single mother with 5 kids is almost never going to and anyone who argues otherwise has their head shoved so far up their date that it's terrifying. The guy working on the production line at Holdens is paying the CEO's salary at Holdens. Therefore, should there not be some reciprocal responsibility on the part of the exec to support (through higher tax rates) the needs of the workers that he can easily afford but they cannot (say, health care and education...)
Sure, I'm earning way more than most of my previous colleagues from Snail Rail probably ever will (and it's sad because some of them had soooo much untapped potential and brainpower). I know I've got it good but I don't forget what it was like to be a first year apprentice earning stuff all, or what I got paid as a cleaner in my first job.
I could say: "I got into the housing market at the right time, my HECS is paid off, I want more money to spend on my kid, so screw the little guy, lets up Hecs, reduce access to free or cheap healthcare and education, full fee user pays at uni from now on, lower taxes for me lets vote lib for ever."
But for me, I feel that to take the cream without supporting the guy who milks the cow is morally wrong.
One day, my daughter is going to have to grow up and fend for herself in this world, will there be prohibitively expensive health care available only to the rich, higher education available only to the rich, purchase of homes avaialble only to the rich while everyone else rents with no hope of ownership ever?
The fact that I care about my daughter and her future is
precisely why I don't think Howard and his decisions are a good choice.
Just reinforces my opinion that the average Liberal voter cares more about themselves and money, than people/ethics/society etc. 
