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From a philosophical viewpoint it could be said that at present the gap has been too wide between the two major Australian parties for a healthy democracy.

Economic Rationalism has brought the two main parties too close together to be genuine electoral competitors. For example, it was Bob Hawke who first used this right-wing economic concept to get around behind the more slower-thinking Liberal Party back in the late 1980s.

It could not last because, historically, economic rationalism has proven to be an extreme right-wing concept, favouring corporatism, as with the East India Company, and also the free-market, which in the colonial 19th and early 20th centuries was really only the last hurrah of national piracy and general contrabanditry, with workers in Britain having to be saved by not themselves, but first by Adam Smith, who said that because man’s natural greed was needed to propel competition, the labour-force in turn needed to be looked after. Later the philosopher John Stuart Mill advocated the forming of worker’s unions.

One does not have to be a Marxist to press the above point of view, because it was really the reason that Robert Menzies changed the moniker of the (UAP) United Australia Party to the Liberal Party to show that though the party was still pragmatically right-wing it saw the need to take a lesson from Stuart Mill’s classic "On Liberty".

To be more genunine, Labor could also have taken a lesson from Canada, by not supporting the attack on Iraq, and not allowing Australian troops to get involved. The US Democratic Party got caught in the same trap, John Kerry foolishly declaring that the Democrats would send even more troops there to prove the operation a success.

We could also worry about the Labor Party supporting the bi-lateral Trade Agreement with America, when the US had refused to stick to one of the main principles of the WTO, trade protection by a single competitor. Labor must have known that George W Bush had budgeted for 80 billion dollars for the next ten years to protect mostly Mid-West graingrowers

Economic Rationalism has brought the two main Australian parties too close in economic doctrine to be genuine electoral competitors. It was Bob Hawke who first used this right-wing economic concept to get behind the Liberal Party back in the late 1980s. Paul Keating carried it on, keeping Labor in power for a record period.

For Labor it could not last because, historically, economic rationalism has proven to be an extreme right-wing concept, favouring corporatism, as with the East India Company, and also the free-market, which in the colonial late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries was the last hurrah of national piracy and general contrabanditry, with workers in Britain having to be saved by Adam Smith, founder of Laizess-faire, who said that though man’s natural greed was needed to propel competition, the labour-force in turn needed to be looked after. Later the philosopher John Stuart Mill advocated the formation of worker’s unions.

One does not have to be a Marxist to press the above point of view, because it was the reason that Robert Menzies changed the name of the United Australia Party (UAP) to the Liberal Party proving that though the party was still pragmatically right-wing it saw the need to take a lesson from Stuart Mill’s classic “On Liberty”.

Politically to be more genuine, Labor should have also followed Canada, by not supporting the attack on Iraq. he Democratic Party in the US was caught in the same trap, John Kerry foolishly declaring that the Democrats would send even more troops to Iraq to finish the war quicker.

Labor Party supporting the bi-lateral Trade Agreement with America, was also bad policy, as the US had already refused to stick to one of the main principles of the WTO, the banning of trade protection by a single competitor. Indeed, Labor should have also known that George W Bush had budgeted 80 billion dollars for the next ten years to protect mostly Mid-West graingrowers. Australia has also a 400 billion plus foreign debt, which Labour could have used as an election target