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（只有摘译，题目是另加的） 托尼 艾伯特 已经领导了一场顽强的宣战，在2010年我们期待一个全新的充满活力的总理。虽然艾伯特对数字世界只有基本的常识，但是我们清楚的知道他是一个坚定的自由市场主义者，而且从来不害怕表明自己在其他一系列重要问题上的立场，我们知道他会坚守自己的立场，他过去的经历已经证明了这一点，同时在现在的自由党中的很多骨干都曾经在霍华德政府工作过，他们有丰富的经验。 反观工党，在过去的2年10个月执政期间，在5周的竞选过程中，在花费几千万的广告和宣传费用来轰炸我们的神经之后，我们仍然不知道他们的立场，工党依然处于迷失之中而回到反对党的地位是他们最好的药方，可以使他们有时间治疗自己的伤口并重新找回自己的士气和方向。 A Government that’s lost its way Garry Linnell - Editor Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 08:31pm http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/yoursay/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/a_government_thats_lost_its_way THE Labor Party has an exceptional talent for executing leaders it believes are past their use-by date. But it also has an equal fondness for raising them from the dead. This federal election campaign has been no different, despite Julia Gillard’s insistence that we all “move forward”. Old leaders have been revived, resuscitated and revered for their wisdom. Even the political body of Kevin Rudd was not allowed to grow cold before his greatness was acknowledged by his assassin. One of the favourite ghosts of Labor past is Ben Chifley and once more we have had a campaign in which his famous proclamation about Labor values - “the light on the hill” speech of 1949 - has been trotted out and echoed endlessly. But Chifley must be spinning in his grave. In the past few years his light on the hill, the hope offered by Labor, has turned out to be nothing more than a tawdry, flickering neon sign outside a cheap roadside motel. There is a cancer eating away at Labor, an illness that is stripping the party of the values it once proudly stood for. It is why The Daily Telegraph cannot in good conscience recommend its re-election tomorrow. This newspaper supported the ALP in 2007, drawn by the shingle Labor hung outside its Kevin07 campaign that read “Hope Lives Here”. After 11 years of a buoyant economy and a steady guiding hand, we believed the Howard government had grown tired, undisciplined and bereft of vision. It was time for change. It has taken Labor less than a term to replicate such a feat. Like many, we feel badly let down. The hope and many of those promises of 2007 quickly vanished, stripping bare a party that now seems to stand for little more than a desire for power for its own sake. Nothing better illustrates this than the South American-style coup that ended Rudd’s prime ministership. If ever there was a blatant admission by a party of its own failings, this was it. The polls may have shown the Australian public no longer liked their prime minister. But his removal offended many people’s sense of decency. It is not the right of a handful of party machine hacks to oust the elected leader of a Western democracy, particularly when he has not even completed a first term. That right belongs to the people. To those in NSW the coup was just another example of a party machine strangely indifferent to the people it supposedly represents. It is laughable to suggest that we should view federal Labor through a completely different prism. The very DNA that drives Labor produces an often talented but always tightly-controlled gene pool. Voters are intelligent and instinctive. They recognise the borders that separate federal from state politics. Equally, they also know that the fingerprints of NSW’s factional overlords extend to Canberra. What have we seen in the past three years that would justify this government’s return, the very government its current leader admits was losing its way? It has been an unedifying spectacle of poorly scrutinised programs bordering on negligence. The Building the Education Revolution has seen rorting and overspending on an almost unprecedented scale. The insulation batts debacle, had it occurred in the private sector, would have resulted in mass sackings and a management overhaul. The climate change debate, the so-called greatest moral challenge of our time, became another subject quickly dispatched when focus groups grew listless and bored. And then there was the great mining tax. Weeks of bluster and chest-beating by the Government about how the large mining companies had pillaged our resources without paying their dues quickly turned into a whimpering chorus of appeasement. So much for sticking with your values and your beliefs. There has been good, of course. In its early days the Government’s apology to the stolen generation was a symbolic moment that drew the country together. Gillard has personally overseen promising reform to the education system, including significant inroads into targeting national numeracy and literacy standards. And then there was the stimulus package and the protection of jobs during the global financial crisis. Labor has hung its economic credentials on how it handled the GFC, despite emerging data that too much may have been spent too late. Yet no one can dispute the Government acted quickly and decisively. Anything less at the time could have left the nation in a far more vulnerable state. So why could it not replicate such decisiveness on so many other issues? Its achievements have been paralleled by inaction bordering on paralysis, a government whose shining brilliance was in commissioning reports and forming study groups. And what of the Opposition? To be frank, it has not offered a great deal of vision, probably because it never quite expected to be in such a challenging position at this election. Yet we do not believe it is unready to govern. Many in Opposition have the benefit of having served in the Howard years. Tony Abbott has run a strong if unenlightening campaign. In 2010 we would expect to see a viable alternative prime minister familiar and comfortable with the technology that will shape this nation. So far he has shown only a basic knowledge of the digital world and the unprecedented speed of change we all face. But at least we have an instinctive knowledge for what Abbott represents. He is an unabashed free marketeer (isn’t everyone these days?) and has never been unafraid in stating his views. He has resigned from the frontbench on a matter of principle. On key policy areas such as immigration and boat people, we know where he stands. But after two years and 10 months in office, and five weeks of campaigning and assaulting our senses with tens of millions of dollars of advertising and slogans, we’re still not sure what Labor stands for any more. Labor is in a sick state. It needs to heal itself and only a stint in opposition can give it the opportunity to rediscover its moral compass. [ 本帖最后由 wdmznzd 于 2010-8-20 08:40 编辑 ] |
