GREEN'S HUNG PARLIAMENT THE MAIN PROBLEM

Never mind about Schubert's short, shallow, pretentious, article - "I have previously written about..." indeed.

The main issue before us is Hung Parliament. Not who is leading/led the Coalition or Labor - but the pack of Greens coming in on Friday (1 July).

The extremist attitudes (not "policies") of the Greens will deepen the disfunctionality of any Federal Government. Its only incidental which major Party shares power and incidental what leader heads each major Party.

Australians get the leaders they vote for (at electorate and Senate/State level) and therefore deserve. Too many Australians voted for Independents and Greens. That is why we're stuffed.

Pete

To dispense with the obvious, Gillard and Abbott are both clowns. Gillard is useless and Abbott is definitely dangerous. The melancholic and the psychotic.

Rudd is the alter ego of Alexander Downer and therefore as an egocentric ponce would be more suited for leading the Liberals while Turnbull as a confused bleeding heart would be ideal for leading Labor.

The indistinguishable political duopoly has got it's ying and yang mixed up.

The hung parliament says it all.

To be frank, I am disappointed with all four names discussed. I have no doubt that all four are very talented, able, intelligent, compassionate people. Any one of them could be a fantastic leader, if only they took time to set down their personal manifesto and then stuck, doggedly, to their beliefs.

I like Malcolm Turnbull. He is clearly an intelligent, capable dude. However, I can't believe his position on CAGW. He is well read, and thoughtful. He has the capacity to assess the evidence and form a view. The only explanation that I can come up with for his 'warmist' position is that he needs to retain Wentworth, and that is what he has to do. The only other alternative explanation (that I don't buy) is that his prior connections benefit greatly from the CAGW scare and CO2 tax.

Tony Abbott I respect. But clearly the spin merchants are snowing him with advice that says: "pretend to believe that CAGW is a major problem and we must deal with CO2" coz "Otherwise you will be out of sync with majority opinion."

The reality is that many politicians on both sides know the truth of the matter, but they are all 's..t scared' of the polls and pander to those.

A true leader would stand up (as Vaclav Klaus has) and say "Enough! Lets look at the science first." Hopefully it will be Tony Abbott. But Malcolm will do just fine too. I don't think that Julia has the foggiest clue what I am talking about. K Rudd does, but is so poll driven that he can't respond appropriately.

Australia is becoming too focussed on personalities and less on policies. There is not much difference between the two major parties - that is woeful in a democracy and other than the Greens very little to choose from.

Both parties are too weak to really make any real reforms to reduce wage disparity, (real) government waste (not the pretend to look like we are cutting government spending), percentage of foreign ownership, inequitable economic foreign policies, free trade and globalisation.

Whether it is Rudd, Turnbull, Gillard or Abbott is asking the wrong question

They are all for the "big Australia".

All their policy settings will lead to a rapid doubling. So they are all hopelessly internally conflicted to pretend to stop habitat and farmland loss.

Additionally, they all want to pour billions into growth infrastructure.......which is an investment in pollution.

Those billions should have been spent on emerging technologies, free tertiary education, health and family planning overseas aid.

This is the "opportunity cost", of their failed policies.

I'd like to see evidence of Julia's "incompetence" and Turnbull's "psychological issues".

Gillard may have trouble engaging effectively with the public but she is actually far from incompetent.

Turnbull is far more psychologically balanced than Abbott. Abbott offers nothing to this country but his desire to be PM.

I agree with those posters that say Rudd is doing a good job and should stay where he is.

And the Greens are only "extremists" if you're sitting on the extreme right.