"Abbot shows no capacity to respond to the real threats, especially climate change".

Those increasing numbers of us, who do not define the above as any sort of threat, may well see Abbots responce to this as being precisely the capacity we seek in the lead?

< Gillard and Abbott have been in many ways a double act, each making the other look better than they are. >

Really? Not from my perspective. They both just look completely dismal!

< … they both represent the bankruptcy of the two major parties and their rise to power signifies big problems for the Australian political system. >

Yep. I’m with you there Peter.

< Bob Brown must retire soon, and the leadership succession process will be tricky. >

Now wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Greens’ next leader took the party strongly in the direction of a sustainable society philosophy. Yeah…..fat chance!

I share your pessimism Peter. 2012 will indeed by interesting… although I expect the same old grossly antisustainable momentum to be further entrenched and exacerbated.

"Gillard and Abbott have been in many ways a double act, each making the other look better than they are."

"Really? Not from my perspective. They both just look completely dismal!"

Ludwig, your reading of the author's comment was mine too, but then I thought that yours and his might be the same.

Gillard is a dunce, without a doubt, yet Abbott is somewhere beneath even that high award, but maybe even that assesment is too high for them both?

One can only hope the ALP wash their hands of Gillard at the same time as the Libs flush Abbott away, resolving our immediate concerns.

This bit of political fluff has got to be one of the worst yet.

Not only do we get the discredited global warming bull dust dragged out of the cupboard, the man actually stoops to the "well resourced" anti AGW rubbish, after billions of tax payer money has gone into the warmist camp. I wonder how much, in research dollars, has gone into sustainability & AGW at Murdock?

Surely they haven't missed out.

We get a little ode to Turnbull, common for the lefties looking for someone they can admire. With Turnbull they must be desperate.

Then we get the final straw from an argument, looking for justification, of all the natural disasters. Heaven help me, it is so hard not to say what I think of this rubbish, & not be banned. Paper after paper has detailed the low level of cyclones around the world, & less tornadoes despite the publicity.

If we are getting worse fires, of which I'm not sure, we can lay that down to greenie pressure, preventing good forest management causing that one.

Yes it must be hard to see that for half a career you have backed the wrong horse. Watching that horse break down would be worrying, but get real man. Read something not promoted by your mates, & join the real world.

One hopes that Dr McMahon has a better grip of the Mayan world view than he does of the concept of Human Induced Global Warming, but suspects that he has more work to do on both topics.

In case he had not noticed, the ‘evidence’ supporting the notion of catastrophic global warming is simply not in good shape. The phrase ‘consistent with predictions related to global warming’ is simply – well, not sustainable!

I will concede that those who live in the virtual world created by mathematical models of climate may have good reason to be afraid, perhaps even very afraid. The ‘end of days’ seems to be approaching as rapidly as a terminal and low flying hypothesis, and the grants to investigate sustainability might dry up even faster than a computer generated model of the Murray Darling basin.

However, those who live in the rather more prosaic real world, where observations trump ‘projections’ every time (not even the mathematical modelers are prepared to call them predictions) it seems that AGW and all the AGW related catastrophes may well be as accurate as Mayan speculation on the end of everything.

I am not sure what the Mayan’s predicted about the capacity of Tony Abbot to react to threats such as climate change might be but my money is on Abbot, or anyone with reason, who can spot a dud.

But look on the bright side. I am sure that if Faculties of Sustainability in universities everywhere find that their work is done, and they need no further funding as the Mayan era draws to a close, the Faculties of Engineering or Science will be happy to absorb any surplus funds. There are still a few promising and potentially lucrative leads they can follow.

Who knows, this might even go some way to perking up production in those countries which found themselves in such an impecunious state worrying over a catastrophy which was never going to happen.

<< One can only hope the ALP wash their hands of Gillard at the same time as the Libs flush Abbott away, resolving our immediate concerns. >>

Yes Blue Cross, they should get rid of their current leaders, but to be replaced with whom?? And would it resolve our concerns, immediate or longer term?

Crikey, if Gillard goes, Rudd’ll probably rise from the ashes, and that is one thing this country needs like a huge hole in the head!

Someone who’ll break the mould of never-ending expansionism and really concentrate on achieving a sustainable society, that’s what we so desperately need.

Who has Labor got that might be able to do this? No one!

Would Turnbull possibly fit the mould for the Libs?

Or is the system so hopelessly tied to the wishes of the big business sector and economic growthists that no one could ever achieve this?