This stifing of dissent on both parties is the natural product of a media who carefully scrutinise the comments of any parliamentarian for any evidence of disagreement with the party line. Then then blow this disagreement up into evidence that the party is a shambles. Why do we expect politicians to all agree with each other all of the time?

Rudd's fall has been a long time coming, and it was mostly self-inflicted.

Yo, BITEY

The Constitution is a legal document , it isn't Democracy.

An analogy: the Marriage Act is a legal document. The Marriage Act is not marriage.

It's possible to be a nasty spouse with breaching the Marriage Act.

It's possible to behave undemocratically without breaching the Constitution.

Nobody is saying that the Government acted illegally, or breached the Constitution.

Neither did the GG when he dismissed Whitlam.

If the ALP, or the Coalition when in government, chuck out the PM whenever they feel like it, what will that do to the country's political stability, and credibility with other governments?

And a leader in opposition is a very different animal from a leader in government. The leader in government has acquired another role as well: the role of PM. So chucking out him or her isn't quite the same .

If the Coalition had been in government this time, we'd have had three PMs chucked out by now.

The phrase banana republic comes to mind.

Cornflower,

you are dead right about the replacement of the underperforming Rudd.

He really was a disappointment right from the start and we the gullible should never have allowed our disgraceful media to gloss over the waffle and outright lies he presented to us as policy.

I agree totally with your concluding remark but think you should also add the phrase 'as well as unelected faceless factional leaders and self-interested union heavies'.

Then we'd have concensus.

As for Julia's lack of faith ... I don't give a toss and nor do the vast majority of us.
However while she professes her morality and ethics derived from such a source I think it selfish of her by her flaunting example, which suggests to youngsters and the impressionable, that her lifestyle which includes a lack of faith could possibly produce the exact same morality and ethics.

ie A faithless upbringing will not produce the civility and unusually relatively high moral standards required to produce a care for others, that is enjoyed by Australians today.

As for Kevin, I think he did care about Australians it's just his expression of that, like Lathams and Keatings, was misguided, was being forced upon us by a compliant media, and which was seen by themselves and the media as truth, was being mostly rejected by the thinking majority.

Name one Labor member in the last 15 years who crossed the floor? There were a few in Howards time. The author forgets Howard did manage to negotiate successfully with a hostile Senate... many times. I don't think Rudd ever did.

Not so briar rose. History shows us Howard was behind many times in the polls and retained the position of PM. He lost it in a peoples choice. Opposition leaders must become popular to become PM and jockeying for that position is natural and fraught with the possibility of dissmissal. Different unofficial rules apply in Government .. for the Liberals amyway.

Keith do you really think that "A faithless upbringing will not produce the civility and unusually relatively high moral standards required to produce a care for others, that is enjoyed by Australians today."

I'd agree regarding the earlier part about the unlikely outcome of the exact same morality and ethics but the latter point is seriously wrong in my view. People make of faith or non-faith what they want. It eventually gets down to personal accountability and what you choose to value regardless of what a faith might teach or the lack of an external authority for those without a religious faith.

R0bert

Ms. Wilson,
where have you been since you were born?
I think I know!
Academia is a good nook to hide into.
And now you get enraged by insults to Democracy.
What do you know about her? Tell me please.
I never met a Democracy before.