While there is no overt claims made it appears obvious the article author is a proud member of the RED/green, getup, GAYLP/alp, Socialist Alliance. it has a "new left" flavour to it, dripping with old ideologies, papered over with "new rhetoric".

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/at-last-a-thorough-probe-into-what-drives-the-greens-machine/story-fn59niix-1226095160826 perhaps the author could try reading this book, i have my copy & my worst nightmares about the RED/greens have been confirmed.

On "boat people", the article author says $130,000 per person is too much, i agree, but i also think $10,000 per person is too much. Un accompanied minors should be returned to their mothers immediately for a cost of approximately $1,000 per person.

"Be careful what you ask for, you might get it". i propose welfare reform by providing "non cash" welfare, IE, a commune to live in.

Anyone who thinks: dismantling effective border control policy which results in 12,000 illegal immigrants who can cost us even 'only' $10,000 each, splurging 20 odd billion on handouts for chinese tvs and overcharged school buildings, pink batts was effective policy, going into deficit by over 100 odd billion and introducing unnecessary and onerous carbon and mining taxes is economicaly conservative frightens the hell out of me.

Please oh please Georgia understand this is the record of the current leftie labor greens coalition, is policy lunacy and not the policy nor practise of conservatives.

Georgie anyone with a brain will understand the stimulus merely postponed the effect of the Global Financial Crisis. Which btw was initially caused by Carter's socialist policy of forcing banks to lend to poor and disadvantaged people, who had no hope in hell of repaying, and worsened when Clinton legislated to allow the banks to parcel and on sell those toxic loans. And Georgie most of those toxic parcels are still on the books of many institutions worldwide including Australia. Now when they come home to roost and add to that the socialist policy that has put Europe in awful and disasterous debt along with the looming disaster of the communist Chinese internal debt and housing bubbles, and don't forget the socialist Obama's hyper-inflation inducing money printing... well you might realise just how disasterous things are becoming for the hardworking people of Australia.

The disasters and hardship of the next few decades is attributed
squarely at the feet of the stupidity of the socialists and their defenders.

It all depends on which side of the fence one sits or how one defines stuff. Have you ever listened to two people arguing about a topic and see that both are coming at it from a different understanding of what it means to be (Left, Right, Feminist, environmentalist, utilitarian, libertarian etc).

The first misconception in the author's assumptions is that the ALP is Left Wing. It left that platform years ago.

Simply, a good social democracy is one with a mixed economy, too much and too little government intervention is a bad thing IMO, balancing that equation is not always easy nor popular depending on the prevailing 'ethos' and trends. Try speaking against Free Trade ideology and see how far that gets you. It is the same reaction that the anti-nuclear groups have faced in Japan for years prior to Fukishima, belittling any concerns as being purely greenie activism without heeding the warnings about failures in safety standards.

Unfortunately on most fronts human beings are not known historically to take corrective action before it is too late and I suspect it will take more economic disruptions before the penny drops ('scuse the pun). Greed has always been the first and main 'enemy' of the people whether within a Right or Left scenario.

Maybe the human race is destined to always be employed in a continual tug-o'-war between the two opposing forces, and mabye that is what keeps it within the middle ground in a constantly moving bell curve where one minute Left is up and then Right is up - like a wave.

Personally I think we have to get away from a purist approach to Left/Right idelogies and look at what works best and what is best for the majority rather than a small elite and a social democracy fits that aim best IMO.

And would it not be comforting to believe (as we with past experience don't), that Abbott would turn all this nonsense around. Bet your "round ones" he wont.

...War in Afghanistan will continue.
...Boats will continue to arrive
...Poor will be oppressed with more anti poor draconianism aimed at reinventing the private welfare sector.
...Unions will suffer a prolonged attack as workers wages and conditions are further repressed.
...Escalating utility prices will continue to skyrocket in support of guaranteed profits to utilities sold at fire sale prices.
....Insurance and banking industry will remain insulated from societies grief of growing unemployment and reduced incomes.
...Government services will further contract to the ridiculous.
...Public education will continue its downward trajectory to oblivion.

The rest all too depressing to contemplate! Left right and center, Australians remain increasingly divorced from political power and influence.

Georgia Lowe,
I enjoyed your article, though I tossed and turned most of the way through trying to figure out what side you were on. That is before I got the point that you were critical of both, or rather that there's only one side. The lunatic fringe is now mainstream.
Our governments and oppositions' policies are predicated on poll-driven research and the like. Electioneering is a pseudo-science whereby the wishes of the people are interpreted as akin to the no-man's land shared by the antagonists. Neither side is represented there and confusion reigns. Populist debates are orchestrated by public relations bodies intent on securing the biggest catch, the most vaguely popular fears and sentiments, and the media ingenuously, often disbelieving, report it. They're right to disbelieve as the idiotic policies shared by both sides represent no one, least of all thinking Australians who do cleave to genuine conservative or radical policies.
Thinking voters are unrepresented in modern Western electorates. Mandates are derived from statistics, manipulation and modelling. Both sides use emotive issues in the same way as food producers add extra fat, sugar and salt to sell their nutritionless products.
Thoughtful politics long since gave way to the "well-made" political script.
I don't see a solution. I would say vote for a mad fringe party, but the popular centre holds sway. Politics is homogenous because the democratic centre is bovine.

diver dan,

the majority of Australians don't agree with you. You are among the 30odd % who still hang onto the labor green dysfunction and their lies.

Most of us, according to the polls, think Abbott will act in our interests and will be effective. I don't think he'll be able to deal with all the disasters that are coming but at least he'll put us ahead of the cockeyed hidden social engineering agendas of the lefties... and won't make things worse.