7th Labor Government: 2004 - 2011

The 7th Labor Government was formed on the 20th of August 2004 in the Kingdom of Dissau with Ben Cutworth as Prime Minister. Labor replaced National Moderate in 2004 after the results of the 2004 Dissauian General Election, giving Labor more seats than National Moderate and giving the left-wing parties more than the right-wing parties. Labor came to an agreement with Socialist left and the Greens after the election, forming the first three-party coalition in Dissau for the first time. The new Labor government introduced progressive social policy, and more centrist/mixed economics to the party in an effort to appeal to moderate voters. Prime Minister, Ben Cutworth, called an early election in 2007 over coalition problems with Socialist left, hoping to oust them from government. Their attempt failed as Labor lost seats and Socialist Left gained more seats. Labor initially attempted to form a coalition with Free Liberal, something that upset the Greens and some members of their party. Labor decided to work with Socialist left after all and made concessions to the government's economic agenda. The fixed-term election in 2008 saw the left return to its stability and win the election with an increased majority from all of the parties. The government called an early election in 2010 due to poll numbers indicating a good election ahead of them but when the election came, the government was fractured and polls dropped. The election eventually gave the government a slim but reduced majority and left the government torn over their policies. After enough vacancies and party switches were made between 2010 and 2011, the right of Parliament managed to call an early election in 2011. The election ousted Labor from powers via a massive right-wing majority, throwing the left into a period of turmoil between the early to mid 2010s. The government officially dissolved on the 21st of February 2011 after the party's second shortest term in government at around 6 and a half years.
== Significant Policies ==
=== Domestic Policies ===
==== Immigration & Citizenship ====
The new Labor government wanted to be fully compassionate over immigration issues, pushing this mostly in their 2004 and 2007 election campaigns. James McAvon was appointed Minister for Immigration after the formation of the government in 2004 but was later replaced with Andy Wellins in 2009. The Immigration Act 2005 was a very progressive and controversial act that removed a citizenship test from the criteria of immigrating to country, allowed somebody to apply for immigration after only 3 years of living in the country, no longer need proof of a stable job, and no longer need to speak any English to become a citizen. The act was debated for many months and took a lot of time to implement but it was eventually passed with a slim majority of MPs voting in favour of it. The Illegal Immigration Act 2007 relegalized illegal immigrants if they followed a certain criteria; being an asylum seeker, refugee, are oppressed, or were forcibly removed from their country. Immigration under the 7th Labor Government saw massive increases, going from 4,500 immigrants accepted in 2004 to around 13,500 immigrants accepted in 2007 alone. This number would drop to 9,000 around in 2010 but was still considered pretty high for the government.
==== Economy ====
The economy under the 7th Labor Government was generally considered to be a disaster by many critics. Labor entered government with an inflation rate of 5.2% which they managed to quell down to 3.9% in 2005 and then 2.1% in 2006. Labor experienced economic growth in the mid 2000s which they used to their advantage in the 2007 election. Labor then experienced a 2.5% inflation rate in 2007 and then a good drop down to 1.6% in early 2008 but then subsequently rose to 3.4% around the end of the year. Inflation lowered to 2.8% in 2009 before launching up to 5.5% in 2010 and sitting at around a whopping 8.8% in 2011. Labor was criticized for its handling of the 2008 Great Recession, failing to introduce an effective economic package and failing to better people's lives. Labor was, however, mostly praised for their handling of inflation rates during most of their time in office until the 2010 - 2011 Recession. The government purchased many
Tax rates under Labor were generally considered "fair" until the end of the government around 2009 - 2011. Labor were consistently praised over the handling of spending as well. The Spending & Budget Act 2007 was praised for eliminating useless spending in the budget and prioritizing spending in key sectors.
Tax Year	£12,000 - £24,999	£25,000 - £79,999	£80,000+	Average Tax Rate
2004 	24% 	33% 	42% 	33%
2005 	22% 	30% 	46% 	33%
2006 	19% 	31% 	47% 	32%
2007 	17% 	30% 	44% 	30%
2008 	20% 	34% 	45% 	33%
2009 	19% 	36% 	47% 	34%
2010 	24% 	37% 	48% 	36%
2011 	23% 	36% 	45% 	35%
==== Social Policy ====
The Military Reformation Act 2004 allowed gay people to openly serve in the military without being kicked out. The Abortions Act 2005 increased the time in which a person could get an abortion from 14 weeks to 22 weeks (the biggest jump in the country's history). The act nearly failed to be passed because around 10 Labor MPs were unhappy with the bill which originally planned to allow an abortion up the 24th week of pregnancy. Negotiations were made with those Labor MPs and it was changed to 22 weeks. The Equal Adoption Act 2006 allowed same-sex couples to adopt as the legitimate parents of the child or children which replaced the Adoption Act 1995 that forced the other partner to apply as a stepfather to the child. Many LGBTQ+ organisations expressed their support for the bill and even most Free Liberal MPs voted in favour of the bill's passage. The Equality of Marriage Act 2008 equalized married in the country by allowing same-sex marriages in the country but allowed religious venues to refuse to marry two same-sex individuals if it goes against their values. The act also changed the previous marriage act by allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to marry again without having to get parental approval. The bill before the act was sent to Parliament in 2006 and took many months to be formalized until the final vote of the bill saw it struck down. The government then decided to strike a deal with the right-wing parties by promising to call a non-binding referendum on the issue and to act accordingly via the vote of the people. National Moderate and Christian Conservative agreed to the non-binding referendum and agreed to vote accordingly to the vote of the people. The referendum saw 53.4% of people vote in favour of legalising gay marriage and 46.6% against legalising gay marriage. Christian Conservative believed that the vote was too low to count and so voted against the bill but National Moderate held up their promise and voted for the bill which was passed in 2008. The Equality Act 2009 included measures that allowed people to legally change their gender from man to woman or woman to man but barred people from changing their sex on official documents, distinguishing the difference between sex and gender. The act also included changes such as: introduces a thorough amount of hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people, physically people, mentally disabled people, aged people, and religious people, as well as declassifying Transgenderism as a mental illness.
==== Education ====
The Education Act 2007 introduced new same-sex sexual education in all schools (private and public), increased spontaneous school checks, replaced the multiple boards of education under one called the Board of Education which would have multiple departments in dealing with education, lowering the age that you attend school from 5 to 4, legalized home-schooling, and decreased the student to teacher ratio in primary schools from 25:1 to 20:1.
Teaching saw a notable increase during the Labor government. Schools across the country went from 89% being fully employed in 2004 to 95% being fully employed in 2010. The Ministry of Education reported that the overall grading for public schools in the country went from B- in 2004 to B+ in 2010. Private schools went from a gradin of B- to B+ as well, indicating that private schools were managing to keep up to the standards of public schools.
==== Health & Environment ====
The Cigarette & Cigars Act 2006 required that all cigarette and cigar packaging being as minimalistic as possible and include health warnings on the box. The Environmental Protections Act 2010 introduced new environmental protections and regulations for the government itself as well as businesses. It set a target of increasing the current power supply of 10% of energy being reusable to 40% by the end of the decade.
== Foreign Policy ==
== History, Elections, & Formation ==
=== 2004 Dissauian General Election & Formation ===
=== 2007 Dissauian General Election ===
=== 2008 Dissauian General Election ===
=== 2010 Dissauian General Election ===
=== 2011 Dissauian General Election & Dissolution ===