Sorry Peter, this is just another “leftie whinge”.

All the bad nasty neo-conservatives – lead by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

Turning away from protectionist policies which nourished the “entrenched” and toward a world with more of a “level playing field” (oh I remember Bob Hawke using that turn of phrase - maybe he was a closet neo-con too).

Reality is this

The World is a changing place.
Protectionist policies and practices have been repealed and torn down just like the Berlin Wall.
Socialist ideals and mantras are as out of place as trench warfare would be in a contemporary conflict today.
The Siege mentality (Fortress Australia – protected by huge tariffs and import quotas which in turn indulged inefficient local manufacturers and union practices and were confronted by like tactics in potential export markets) does not compete on a world stage.

Politics nowadays is a matter of interpreting and representing public opinion. It is not a matter of paternalistic shaping and controlling of society, as preferred by the old socialists.

Politics is not dead.
The “politics of your comfort zone” may be dead.
But possibly it is the limitations of your “comfort zone” which defines your real problem.

Sorry col, politics is dead, we have no choice any nore and are in the control of corrupt monopolies that control the political scene. As to comfort zones, I feel that they are about to be removed from us all. We are about to enter a world and time that will change the way life is viewed here and political monopolies are to blame for that. only those to blind to se won't see it coming, until they hit the wall

"Protectionist policies and practices have been repealed and torn down just like the Berlin Wall."

Come on Col which planet do you live on?

The alchemist – what a cynical view – I am not responsible for such

Because the liberal/ conservative side of politics is not in the pocket of the union bosses (like socialist politicians), does not mean they are in the pocket of monopolists.

If our government were in such a pocket, institutions like ACCC, US Trade and UK Monopolies Commissions etc. would not exist.

Kenny – I live on this planet. I suggest you ask any Australian clothing or Shoe manufacturer if they now experience anything like the degree of “protectionism” they had in 1970.

You will have noticed you pay less on clothes and many other manufactured products than you would have done 30 years ago – a benefit of free-trade, or do you only see with one eye and measure but one side of the equation?

Col - what about the Reagan Sugar Bill, so totally sacrosanct it was the sticking point of the Australian/US FTA (and before which, Australian canegrowers were thoroughly competitive)? EU subsidies and dumping? Free trade exists, except when it doesn't. And the bigger the player, the less interest there is in free trade. Free trade, sadly, is the mantra of the powerless. And the mantra of the powerful wanting cheap exports, while protecting their own industries.

Priminister Howards call for party unity over the unpalatable sale of Telstra and IR reforms signals to the community that not all of their candidates who represent communities agree with these reforms and changes.

Mr Howard needs to put aside the gun that he is holding to heads in the name of party unity and insist that the Candidates who have been elected for their electorates, represent their community who voted them in.

Not all communities have the same needs and this was realised in the implementation of our Constitution and the implementation of the Westminster system for a fair and equatable representation of the people voice.

These bully boy tactics that have gone on within our parliament walls for far too long need to cease and parliamentary representatives of community need to start standing up for their constituants.

Australians have been deceived with our current representatives who have been in our Ivory Tower, parliament. Their representatives have become store blind over the fifteen to twenty years they have held their seats.

Political members of political parties can still have the moral and value of the party but it should not stop our representatives of parliament from being honest and in the Nations best interest for all, not some.