"....the best way to deal with powerful interests is from a position of strength."
John Howard achieved this by taking his policies to the polls. Julia will never reach a position of strength. She has buried herself in a hole of weakness. The hole has been dug with lies and mismanagement.
This makes it very easy for any group wishing to sway public opinion.
I doubt the prime minister's meager doses of courage and intelligence will be sufficient for her to claw her way out.

"Yet, in-depth and substantive conversations are what is needed to bring the public along with its vision for our country's future."

"But win the government can, as long as it articulates a strong, substantive vision"

Both these statements reflect the current government's position, that it is right and the public, voters, are wrong, stupid and need to be droned at, and chided constantly.

They cannot, like the US Democrats, see their policies are wrong and unpopular, that their egos are so much in the way of clear thought and actually listening to the voice of the voters.

Every day brings more evidence, from the government and their followers, that all they need to do is keep talking to the people to convince them of their case. That listening is not required and talking down is all they know, 11 years in the wilderness and this is all they have for a plan.

The customer is wrong! The reason they are not buying, is they don't understand, so let's tell them again and again till they get it.

Who is advising the government?

What we need is some nation building, so infrastructure, some delivery of things we need, not gay marriage, not more taxes, not more foreign aid, not more stuffed up attempts to embarrass or find fault with previous governments or the opposition .. stuff for us, the majority not for the little loud self obsessed interest groups.

The stuff of government, roads, bridges, infrastructure, health reforms that are real and not just for media moments, things that help investment in industry, not cripple it, not more sneering at industry and small business, some recognition that outside the mining boom, things are not so rosy.

I'm beginning to doubt the government actually knows what it is that are meant to be doing, they are so focused on having power, they have no idea what to do with it, and constantly misuse it to attack perceived enemies. (which appears more and more, to be the general public)

""There is no more delicate matter than to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful in its success, than to set up as a leader in the introduction of changes. ...'

Of course this is perfectly true and I agree wholeheartedly with it.

But how is a leader who has been exposed as a liar, incompetent and obviously out of touch with the people she wishes to convince likely to fulfil the conditions requisite to propound change successfully?

I can hear the sycophants all droning together 'Of course it's all Tony's fault'.

And Damian,

as a potential political academic you should know our Government is using our money to try to convince us of how right they are and how wrong we are. Whereas the 'enemy' is using their own money to fund a campaign to defend themselves from what the vast majority of us see as 'our' govenment advocating a non-mandated minority supported idiocy.

Arrogrance at it's worst and destined for the trashcan of history and to become acknowledged ahead of Rudd and Whitlam as our worst Government ever.

Machiavelli was so right.

But when George Washington said this

'An army of asses led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by an ass.'

I guess he'd never have cotemplated our current Federal Government...

An army of asses led by an ass.

"John Howard achieved this by taking his policies to the polls." - except for Work Choice and that didn't turn out so well for him and the government he lead.

Voters have a way of responding to the type of disrepect that we are being shown.

The combatants are not on equal terms. Labor is using taxpayers money to put the case for it's tax, (despite much outrage over Howard doing similar). No taxpayer money is being used to put the NO case despite indications that a significant proportion of those taxpayers supporting the view that the tax will seriously hurt this country in a multitude of ways and do little or nothing to reduce AGW (possibly make the emission's worse if more processing is moved offshore).

R0bert

...Maybe we could anticipate some help from the military with a “coup d’état”… but for the entire Navy rusted into dry-dock; the Army distracted with a losing “war on terror” and the Air Force likewise distracted with refuelling short range jet fighters over the Simpson desert, from a dwindling stock of 44’s. Oh, anyway, with the entire service now totally impotent from an onrush of “Feminisation” and the inexorable march of the homosexuals towards all things equal, it’s all just too broken to ever work again!

…Go for it Julia, with your only opposition from the discredited Tony “Rabbit” Abbott sporting a reputation dating back to the jailing of Pauline Hanson on trumped up charges of fraud, so ably engineered, would surly make a weasel jealous; and all the help you obviously need from the band of masters of opportunism, Bob “Green” Brown and his independent “Merry-Men”, I am sure you have long concluded (evinced by your persistence with the universally unpopular “Carbon Tax” added to the now long list of past policy failures ), the complete lack of need you have identified, for the support of a constituency.