April Omnibus - the issues

Tuesday, 25 May 2010 23:30 | Written by Graham Young

When you look at issues, it is clear that health has moved-up quickly, but also clear that this is a reaction to what is being discussed in the news. When the poll was taken Kevin Rudd was still in the throes of selling his new health policy.

Issue_10_04

What is also plain is that the economy endures as an issue and climate change (called just "change" in this table) has taken a dive. The new issue of significance is refugees, which is strongly associated with immigration, a theme that has been there for a while. What this suggests is that the refugee issue doesn't stand so much on its own but is entwined with a batch of other issues to do with growth.

If one side or the other were to tackle population growth they may well be able to carry those concerned about refugees with them without having to resort to dog whistles.

I'm going to deal with the Leximancer map separately, as a sort of treat. In the next post I'm going to upload a url which will let you play around with it and anlyse issues, just as I can.

Verbatims

Economy

"Since when should an unelected head of the Reserve Bank be the most important economic decision maker? The interest rate is a tool to adjust the exchange rate and the national current account/capital account, not something to sink the overextended family in the not so affluent suburbs!" Interest rates are starting to bite.

Health

"Health infrastructure is the key issue (eg the building of new hospitals and medical centres) and their adeqaute staffing and resourcing. Also we need a fresh look at mental health." A surprising number mentioned mental health given it wasn't one of the government's key health messages.

Government

"Control the government spending done in the guise of national development. Either through ignorance or lack of managemnt skills, the government is wasting massive amounts of money on projects that lack expenditure control and restriction of profiteering because the suppliers have quickly realised that the government are completely out of their depth in project management." Government is a word that I normally have to trim because it doesn't signify anything. However in this sample it appears to relate to concerns about government competence rather than just a reference to the government, so it stayed in.

Change

"Climate change: it's never going to be easy to tackle climate change as comprehensively as it needs to be tackled, but cowardice from our government is unacceptable... and if we don't take serious action on climate change, we can forget pretty much every other issue facing us, because they'll all pale into insignificance."

Debt

"The massive debt that the Rudd mob and the Labor Premiers have incurred. Where is a the money coming from to pay for all of the Rudd largesse to the Strates for heslth reasons - mainly his."

Global

"Australia will be greatly affected by warming. Much of the marginal grazing land will no longer be viable and the expected reduction in rainfall in the southern areas will have a big impact on Victoria and South Australia." This concept is obviously linked to "Change" but is significantly less likely to be mentioned.

Immigration

"Proper budget management and control.4 A sensible population policy and immigration policy that learns from others eg UK for starter"

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Comments

0 #1 I do not agree with the words in Climate — John Peach 2010-06-10 23:43

I do not agree with the words in Climate & Global paragraphs except those referring to Rudds loss of credibility over his complete backdown on his precious ETS. I think you will find that at that same time he & Swann had already secretly decided they now needed a big leap in tax receipts & the obvious target & two big new taxes going into an election was not politically wise.
I have closely followed both sides of the 'climate change' stuff and sifted out facts from the leaked emails, gory claims & isolated the pure research and facts.
The CC lobby has greatly distorted truth & overblown their claims & most adults are luckily now wised up to this. We nearly killed the patient rather than just keeping him healthy. I am by the way well qualified in Biology & agricultural science etc and also our weather history.