I think Bazz is on to something. Perhaps, on a pro bono basis, the following Ministers might put our faltering ministries back on track:

Defence: Liang Guanglie (China)
Industry: Miao Wei (China)
Technology: Bill Gates (USA)
Health: Roberto Morales Ojeda (Cuba)
Refugees - well take your pick, there are dozens of administrations doing better than us.

At very least, Question Time would be livened up!

Like your thinking, prialprang.

Mind you, with our luck, politically speaking, we'd probably get:

Defence: Tomasz Siemoniak (Poland)
Industry: Abib Hassan Fil-fil (Somalia)
Technology: Kokouvi Dogbe (Togo)
Health: Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia)
Refugees: Ri Myong Su (North Korea)

Not that I'm saying it wouldn't be an improvement...

The Westminster system was alive and well in parliament today.
With the rebirth of Julia, and an assassination attempt from the noalition. The vote was 69 to 72 in favor of labor
So in two votes today the noalition has failed.
So where to now for Abbott, Turnbull was looking pleased, maybe he has ideas.
How long do we have to put up with the negativity from the noalition. They are showing no ambition at all in parliament, just a continual hunt around for something that is not there

Using modern communications technology such as internet and perhaps mobile phones, the public could vote for what policies they want. The job of a minister is to then carry out the policies as voted for by the public.

Indeed, the public could have voted today for the Prime Minister they wanted, and not the Prime Minister the ALP wants.

The Westminster system is a very blunt and imprecise instrument in acheiving democracy.

Here we go again. Two incompetent Labour politicians are unable to iron out their ambitions and personality differences. What's the solution? Change the Westminster system. Please!! We the people will decide and the sooner the better.

Despite the sneering of the ABC and its fellow travellers, we actually have an opposition leader willing to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy of ever bigger government paid for by ever higher taxes, taxes disguised as attempts to save the planet and other high-sounding nonsense, whle the ALP at the same time is turning the country over to the big unions who put the current Prime Minister there in the first place.

Tony Abbott has committed two unforgiveable crimes in the eyes of the Green - Left elite in this country: he believes in God; and, like an increasing majority of people, he doesn't believe in the AGW climate change thesis. Hardly surprising since even Phil Jones is struggling to believe it any more.

Klaas makes some strong points, but his analysis is two-dimensionsal.

I agree entirely that a weakness of the Westminster system is that Ministers know nothing about their portfolios. But the job of governments is not just to come up with the right policies, but to marshall popular support behind them. For this, unfortunately, we need people with political skills.

If technocratic ministers are chosen who are not skilled in building popular support, their technical understanding may be to no avail. And it takes decades to build up that know-how. Look at the comparative success of Malcom Turnbull and Tony Abbott as opposition leaders. Most people, myself included, would rather have Malcom as PM any day, but Tony has run rings around him as one of the most effective opposition leaders in recent history. A lifetime in politics has been the foundation for this.