Hard to know where to begin with this ideological tosh (yes, Malcolm, it's "ideo"). Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Funny how we are the economic envy of the financial world because of Rudd's response to the GFC; even The Australian admitted this. Funny too how planning for the future with the NBM (to name but one policy) draws such opprobium. And funniest of all to accuse Labor of using the Howardesque "un-Australian" criticism. And so on.

By the way, name one clear and cogent policy offered by Tony Abbott? I thought so: there aren't any - only "Don't...", "Stop ..." and "Great big new ..."

As far as as I can see, Tony, most of the time, has his foot in his mouth, and he hasn't, he should have. The Liberal party, sixty years ago, had the best treasurer and Prime Minister, Harold Holt, not one of the parties since have even come close to having such a good economy. It would have been better except that the other Prime Ministers even Bob Menzies, insisted on relying on mining exports, the reciprocal imports have systemically destroyed our own manufacturing industries. The only other Prime Minister of any note, was Ben Chifley, even Bob Menzies shed tears for him, when he passed away.

As far as as I can see, Tony, most of the time, has his foot in his mouth, and when he hasn't, he should have. The Liberal party, sixty years ago, had the best treasurer and Prime Minister, Harold Holt, not one of the parties since have even come close to having such a good economy. It would have been better except that the other Prime Ministers even Bob Menzies, insisted on relying on mining exports, the reciprocal imports have systemically destroyed our own manufacturing industries. The only other Prime Minister of any note, was Ben Chifley, even Bob Menzies shed tears for him, when he passed away.

Whilst I'd agree that Labour has been pretty weak since Rudd and Julia has not performed well, there is nothing Tony can now do to appear as a credible leader. The Libs would do well to be rid of him ASAP.
As for economic credibility...Howard was a lucky man, inheriting the positive results of Keating's "recession we had to have". The financial systems were stretched to the max and we *almost* followed the rest of the West into the GFC. Rudd's bank guarantees may have saved us to some extent but the moral hazard involved in banking is now a real threat. Too big to fail should not apply in Australia...that's what governments and transparency are for! (Too much "commercial in confidence" in semi-private business.)
Now we have no public prime assets to sell off and the workforce is over-taxed it will be interesting to see where the next government gets it's funding from. It won't be from the "highly successful" (parasitical) uber-wealthy...the shrinking middle class will cop it again.
Now we really have the economic tiger by the tail, alas I think the winners and losers have already been selected.

What I would like to see is true, sustained and intelligent argument/discussions in Parliament on climate change and the carbon tax, not the incessant personal mud slinging by both Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, they waste too much time. Their actions in Parliament are a disgrace. This posturing in Parliament must surely be because no one acutally knows what to do about climate change.
As I see it the main question to be asked and answered is; What and how will a carbon tax in Australia help the world's climate change problems by stopping the big polluters?
I think it needs a country bigger than Australia to start work on carbon reduction. I think that whatever we do would be so little in the overall scheme of things it will be a useless exercise. This is the government that the people voted in and Julia has to find a way to govern properly within it.
Julia Gillard needs to stand up to Bob Brown. Bob Brown seems to have an agenda of his own.

MAREELORRAINE, nobody who has been in parliament over the last forty years, knows what to do about anything. Fifty years ago, we had a good economy except for the mining exports that were starting up, and not one of the parties in power since have had either the integrity or the intelligence to know how do we get the economy of our country back out of a recession, and back on track, they just don't have a clue, and won't listen to anybody who is not in their "wonderful?" party. We need a new party, who works on their own constitution to make really acceptable, and ensures that all members sign that they will honour and obey that constitution. Not one of the existing parties follow this, they follow the demands of having a constitution, but promptly forget it, and don't care what it says.