'However, the remnants of Howard's regime couldn't deal with the idea of someone even remotely left of their ideology.'

and then again we have a fraudster who is pretending to be much further to the right than her convictions. I suppose that's the difference (ie one fraudster and one who maintains some of his convictions). Then again a woman prepared to stab the PM in his back after being one of the privileged four is not going to be terribly honest. That is probably why the left feel so comfortable with her.

"I had a job for twenty-five bob
And I socked the manager in the gob
And I left, left, left, right, left!"

Sorry, I couldn't resist it!

Left? Right? - who really cares?

Why is it that if we made the members of
both major political parties swap places,
after two days no one would notice the
difference?

The question we need to ask ourselves is -
Which Party do you think would better run the
country? Then go vote for it!

The voters always get it right in the end.
Fingers-crossed they will this time as well!

"Moving forward" one step

and back two.

After watching QandA last night, I agree with Severin that if Malcolm Turnbull was still in charge of the Liberals, we would have a much tighter race.
He is the far superior leader that the foolish Liberal party should never have stabbed in the back.

I agree that Julia and Labor will probably win this election, given the dreadful alternative of the embarrassingly poor public speaker, holier-than-thou, 'action' man, Abbott.

If Malcolm Turnbull was still at the helm, I would consider voting for the liberals. I am upset that Julia Gillard will not agree to all citizens having the right to marry- regardless of their sexuality.

However, I would sooner have the Greens in power than suffer having Tony Abbott as our Prime Minister.

This article is actually a good summary.
It says a lot about Liberal politics that the writer, who seems a reasonable enough individual, is utilised as a blog moderator/editor etc, while the sort of dill the libs had to sack the other day for racist remarks, is presented as a rational, state of the art choice/alternative even for Australians.
Not that Labor, also infested with factions filled with empty careerists, does much better or different.
To me, this election really bespeaks of the changes in autonomy and power visited upon nation states through globalisation: None of our supposed politics, is where real decisons are made any more.

I can’t find any inspiration in either LAB or LIB. Domestically their policies are pretty close with the LIBs further right wing and harsher on those on the lower economic scales.

The international policies of LAB and LIB are what have turned me off them.

The kowtowing and allegiances are invariably in the interests of foreign powers and rarely in Australia’s. Politicians openly compromise their suitability for election to office when they accept fully paid holidays overseas, offered by agents of foreign Gov’t’s in the guise of “study or familiarity tours”. Spouses of politician’s employed or closely associated with foreign lobbyist’s doesn’t enhance, it compromises the politician’s integrity.

Promoting the Anzus Treaty to being of the highest priority in foreign policy maintenance and strategy is stupid and firmly embedded in WW2 principles. The world since WW2 has changed immeasurably in the conduct of war making the posture of Anzus outdated, irrelevant and inoperable which goes doubly since the treaty is a hollow document that has never imposed any military obligation on the US.

The LIBs and LAB often yield submitting instead to adopting the policies of “Allies” that ultimately support corrupt regimes or regimes that are clearly pursuing polices of genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of their indigenes. But nonetheless LAB and LIB platforms embrace such policies for reasons of craving continued membership of the world dominating “Club” regionally serving only to alienate Australia further from its own neighbours.

Tiny little NZ has shown us the way of acting in its own best interests first, regardless of souring relations with larger powers. For instance NZ’s declaration of the NZ Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act including the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. NZ barred nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from using NZ ports or entering NZ waters in protest of continued French nuclear testing in the South Pacific and in opposition to US policy of continued aggressive confrontation of the Soviet Union. The US Navy could no longer enter NZ territory and so they expelled NZ from the Anzus Treaty, downgrading NZ’s status from “Ally” to “Friend”....ho hum!