What a waste of bytes this article is. Politicians must always be judged on their lies and intent to mislead the public and marked below those who are more honest (that is, less prone or willing to lie)- the top of the ballot should be a fightout among the most honest individuals we've got- over to whom you most strongly agree with- Abbot and Rudd shouldn't even factor in unless you're a dunce.

Anything else discussed in this thread is not important.
Any debates trying to make Abbot/Rudd look better than the other are flat-out stupid.
That's all.

Mirko you quoted the following,
"A study by Friends Provident showed more than 80 per cent of people admitted to telling at least one lie a day",
"Cornell University showed respondents lied during a quarter of their social interactions".
"60 per cent of people lied at least once during the course of a 10-minute conversation".

Why bother to defend a truism. Abbott was telling us nothing new regarding the fact that politicians promise the plebs things without guarantee of commitment in their own minds, they lie.

The issue is not what Abbott said, but the fact that the fool said it. Abbott was the only hope for those who did not want a carbon tax imposed on Australia unilaterally, and he did the job. But all that has transpired since then has been disappointing. What sort of right wing fool would go on the 7.30 report with the likes of O'Brian and not be able to turn Kerry's question around 180 degrees and start where they began it, with Kevs lies.

Many moons ago when Howard was opposition leader Kerry had him in a similar situation of blatant pot calling the kettle black. Howard admitted nothing, but said whether I am guilty or not, we are talking about the deceits of the Prime Minister of Australia not a mere minister....and then hooked into Keating, Kerry had nowhere to go, and Howard continued dissecting Keating. Abbott is a lightweight.

This Labor government got to go; another three years will sink our great grandchildren. Abbott is no talent, he is a plodder ready to take the kicks and follow guidelines, a caretaker. The important bit is that the Libs can manage debt and the administration of our funds a million times better than Labor, hang on, that should be 20 billion times better than Labor.

We could have the proverbial drovers dog as prime minister, & the world would not laugh as much as it does at the pretentious peanut we have in that position now.

Talk about hanging a dead weight around our necks.

If Rudd is not going off half cocked, [big mining tax] he's cocking up again, [pink bats anyone].

He's got no idea where the next back flip will land, & thinks you announce the thought of the moment as policy, then negotiate with those effected, before the inevitable backflip. If the party don't start sitting on his head soon, to keep his fool mouth shut, they really will be history.

Abbott is a paragon of virtue compared to this clown, but of course so would be that afore mentioned dog.

"Yes, if it is a means to improving the greater community good by removing an incompetent government."

And we end up with an endless chain of lies.
- No doubt many saw the previous liberal government as incompetent on many front's.
- No doubt many governments see the opposition as incompetent (eg were Bligh's lies about the sale of public assets etc justifiable on the basis that it kept what she perceived as a worse government out of office?

In contrast to Rudd world of spin, Abbott's willingness to be upfront about his own weaknesses is refreshing. That does not make him a great potential prime minister but it does bring into contrast what we seem to have learned to accept from those holding public office.

R0bert

What to say about an article (the latest in a series) that argues that morality and ethics are all relative. How do you argue against a profoundly cynical view that in an given situation people will (naturally) act in an expedient and unprincipled manner.

The answer is to see how most people actually do act, in a thousand little ways, every single day. If you look around you will see people acting with honesty and decency and care towards others (if they have a choice). We live in a world full of civilized values, and 100 posts to the contrary (like the one above) will not make an iota of difference.

Tony Abbott's remarks were blatantly honest & only someone with an agenda against commitment to decency would exploit the easily misconstrued context of his words. It's a sad indictment of Australians indeed to see that bandwagon so overloaded.