I think root of the problem is Australian politics has become so presidential. The PM is no longer the captain of the footy team they are the CEO of the Government.
Most pople would know who the leader of each party was and thats about it. This I think has ben cuased by both the parties themselves and the media who expect the party leader to know everything.

An excellent article Bruce.As you have observed,why a 40% increase in tax? Take small amount of blood at a time to make sure the patient survives.

The other issue is that giving this Govt more taxes, we may well have to use the rest of the stimulus package to build more urinals for Labor to relieve themselves of our taxes.

I bet Costello is kicking himself right now,he would have been a shoo in.

Rudd has certainly been a disapointment and Labor seems to promise little but more of the same in the future. Whether the next government is Liberal or Labor, it seems likely that they will be facing a Senate where they will need to be negotiating with the Greens to pass their legislation. Hopefully this time they will do that and pick up the phone instead of digging in and blaming the Greens for lack of progress.

this article has already been run on the ABC's Drum. It was rubbish then and nothing has changed since last week. It is still an angry rant, it is not good political analysis or good writing, and it is better presented as a comment on a forum rather than an article. Giving genuinely good articles a second run on the internet is perhaps warranted but I can't see the point in this. Mr Haigh may have some insights on some subjects but political commentary is not his strength. This article dumbs down the political debate. Please OLO don't give us this...

Bruce seems to have picked up on what a drop kick Rudd is, It would be hard not to.

He then looses any credibility when he talks of the Wong girl. Has anyone else wondered if she was on sedatives. When ever I've seen her interviewed she has given the impression that she was just woken up, for the interview, & can't wait to get back to sleep.

If this is what passes for talented in our labor party, god help us.

...or ignoring the Greens completely.

Bruce your article rings true although I don't agree wholly with the assessment of Tanner and Gillard. Tanner is much less into the S&S than most politicians. They all get tainted with it to some extent under our current party-focussed system of government.

I believe Combet will eventually take the reins, but probably not before Gillard/Tanner carry the baton for a while. Faulkner and Shorten also appear to be less enamoured of the S&S, including Faulkner's hard work when he was in the CabSec portfolio and his work on FOI.

People are sick of S&S but this message has not been fully absorbed into the political psyche for real. Old habits die hard. Hockey is making the same mistake, Abbott less so but he should not be painted as a Saint by any stretch of the imagination.

Abbott's rise in popularity is more a direct response to the fall in Rudd's and constrasting personalities.