Well tapp it looks as if we are getting some of what we hoped.

Mr Rudd is changing his tack if ABC Insiders is indicative. A greater willingness now to accept responsibility for the mistakes thus far but couched in a spirt of "getting on with the job" of fixing those mistakes and deliver on promises.

Governments really need to think carefully about cash handouts even if they are well intentioned. It is almost impossible to oversight these programs without very careful guidelines and adequate checks and balances in the system. Those things take time to get right.

The Rudd government has put too many demands on public servants in this respect and failed to take advice on risks. Not only that but the budget cuts have had effect on staffing levels to be able to do their work with due diligence and care.

It is ironic that governments spend big to boost certain sectors but to pay for it have to make cuts to other areas and public programs/services which also means job losses and a disgruntled public who don't feel they get what they pay for.

I don't think I've read such arrant nonsense in my life....this bloke was a diplomat!

The Rudd government is just a bad government.

Macca I am not naive enough to know it is spin, but at least Rudd has stopped with the initial denial nonsense.

This approach is a litmus test and they have nothing to lose.

Oh god, the old Beattie cr4p. "I have failed, but now you have to let me fix it" bit, on the news tonight.

Well, if you look at what the polls are saying about Bligh, you wouldn't want to be putting too much faith in that one, it's worn out from over use.

I suppose Ruddy thinks he can do it better, he certainly thinks he's better than any one else, prettier too. I've got news for you mate, we don't think you can do anything better, or even well.

Really is starting to sound like desperation time to me.

Harry Evans, the recently retired Clerk to the Senate said it in the Australian in 1997...

"Australian two party system: "In any event...the real need for reform is not so much in the institutions of government as in the political parties. They have become narrowly based, factionalised, undemocratic oligarchies, apt to be controlled by too few people, closed to public view but open to manipulation and outright corruption. Reforming them would make the institutions of government work better without changing those institutions, but without reforming them the institutions cannot work very much better than they do at present."

Unless there is a public mood to discipline the party political system in western democracies, we, and more to the point our children, are doomed...