Hi Graham, IMHO your central thesis is right. It would not matter at this stage whether Rudd, shorten or anybody else was PM. Labor/Greens are on the nose. Why one may ask? Could it be that the electorate now sees Labor/Greens as disenfranchising ordinary Australians by seriously excessive political correctness in many areas, attacks on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, fiscal recklessness, hatred of wealth producers, empowering unions against the national interest etc etc. Is it wishful thinking on my part, or perhaps Australians are seeing Labor/Greens in their true colours for the first time?

It's all because of taxes!

I keeping saying this but no one seems to be listening.

I'm starting to think I should change my name to Robinson Crusoe!

I may be mistaken, but, isn't the leader the one that calls the shots. Labor is a toxic brand at the moment. This started with Rudd being axed by Paul Howe of AWU fame amongst others. This was the first mistake, Julia was the second. There is no scenario that I can think of that could possibly lead Labor to victory (of any sort) by years end.
Perhaps there is one thing that possibly could save some Labor seats. This is Liberal party IR policy. If they try to compete with Asian labour, Australia's living standard will need to drop dramatically. That together with self imposed austerity measures and I fear for Australia economically.

Robinson/opinion yes it is because of tax, but you don't go far enough. Many are way past that, & wondering why the tax.

Of course some of it is obvious with their incestuous relationship with the greens. That they are a bunch of tarts, who would sell anything to buy a vote is obviously part of the problem, leading to green taxes. Electricity prices anyone?

But then we have those other taxes brought in to try to save that silly little boy, pretending to have some idea of treasury business. Swannies carbon dioxide tax is part greenie price, & part "Oh my god, where did all the money go" tax.

Not enough to save his bacon with that one, well lets piss off the goose, & bugger the golden egg, that's too slow to save Swanny. If only he had been taught arithmetic at school, he wouldn't have done it, but arithmetic is a bit hard for our worlds greatest what ever he is, so we got the mining tax.

So Crusoe old mate, you had better start running to catch up, we're all very mad with them, for more than just tax reasons, although it was a good start.

Some say Rudd, and some say Gillard. This morning someone said Shorten. But isn't it the case that the Rudd/Gillard Labor Government has trashed the ALP brand, possibly for a generation? And didn't Shorten's hand help pull the chair out from under Rudd before holding it for Gillard as she sat down?
I don't see much to like in that lot, and the Greens will struggle without Bob.
Hopefully Abbott is not as bad as some would have us believe because unless something drastic happens, he looks to be holding a lay-down misere.

Mr Opinion, hear you loud and clear mate. However, as Hasbeen observes, it truly has gone waaaay beyond that now. The attack on 457 visas is just the latest in gutter politics from labour at the moment. Can't wait to see the next effort.