'Let his policies do the talking'? What policies would they be? - apart that is from a relentless, bloody-minded negativity and the many promises to negate every forward move introduced by the Labor government.
It is hard to imagine a worse political scenario for Australia than Abbott as PM, Hockey as treasurer, Pyne as anything at all, and the rest of the dis-functional coalition front bench being let loose with with the various cabinet duties.

Good article. Thank you.

“[Liberal Party supporters] are quick to stress that they are not advocating a change in the leader. Then they add the rider: "I can't put my finger on it but there is just something about Tony that worries me."

At this stage of the election cycle it would be foolish for Abbott to be rolling out the Coalition’s policies. Labor has far too much resource to throw at picking at bits and pieces of the total policy framework, taking bits out of context and creating doubt and confusion in the minds of electors. That is what Keating did against Hewsen’s policies in 1992-93.

Instead, what the Coalition needs to be doing is to continue to explain very clearly to the electorate why this government is incompetent, the damage it’s policies are doing to Australia and what it would continue to do if re-elected. The government is incompetent because it is comprised of union thugs who have negligible management experience. What Labor is very good at is thuggery. The Labor members, who are mostly ex-union bosses and apparatchiks, could not have got to the positions they achieved in the union movement unless they were thugs. They learnt the thuggery trade in the union movement and it is all they know. That’s why they behave as they do in Parliament. They know no other way.

Incompetent government – here’s just one example:

Rudd in the 2007 election: “I am a fiscal conservative”
Rudd: took a $4.6 billion NBN to the 2007 election. Then, Conroy got on a plane trip and sold Rudd a ten times bigger NBN – a $46 billion NBN. No cost benefit analysis whatsoever but Rudd and Cabinet signed up to it. Projections show it would cost hundreds of billions to complete and will be obsolete before it is complete. Furthermore, it is another government owned monopoly – the PMG (Post Master General’s Department) revisited. Perfect for enhancing union membership and more funds for Labor’s re-election campaigns.

This is just one of the many atrociously incompetent policies Abbott should be highlighting.

There will be a test for the coalition today in parliament, concerning the boat people.
Abbott has pledges in blood, that will concern the libs.
What policies do they have.
Turnbull should be the head man.

Seeking to let Abbott's policies do the talking is currently akin to seeking a conversation with a deaf mute statue.

If the last election's unsuccessful charade is anything to judge by, the uncosted, unaudited variable grab-bag of so-called Liberal policies which will emerge during the runup to the election will be completely unreliable. Why is Tony not doing something positive about building his team and informing the electors? Is he so ashamed of his party's stance that he cannot allow it to be discussed publicly?

I have advocated for some time that the Coalition should do NO talking at all.

Instead, it should simply be publishing the key graphs that show how effective and capable the Howard/Costello government was, and just how incompetent and wasteful the Rudd/Gillard government is.

Here is a starting list. No doubt there are more.

1. Budget forecasts v outcomes
2. Surplus/deficit
3. Total spending
4. Total revenue
5. Boat arrivals
6. Public service employees
7. Numbers on welfare
8. National debt
9. Unemployment
10. Budget v outcomes for spending, revenue, deficit

I think you will find that, presented with this information, the public will certainly "get it". Then all the Coalition has to do is to develop a plan to show how they are going to fix it.

Oh, and by the way, the $70 billion "black hole" that keeps being raised, as I understand it, is over 5 years which doesn't sound all that unmanageable. I have been baffled why the Coalition spokespeople don't simply say that.

"Then all the Coalition has to do is to develop a plan to show how they are going to fix it. "

Isn't that the point? The criticism of the Coalition (and Abbott) is that they have no policies (or plan as Herbert puts it). They are not going to come up with convincing policies in the next few months to the election because they do not have any and are unlikely to do so. Policy has never been a Coalition strongpoint. Their apparatchiks are motivated by the fact they don't hold power and that is an unconscionable thought from their point of view.

If one looks at the actions and policies of the present government it is actually quite difficult to distinguish them from the Howard years. Despite being allegedly from the "left" faction of the Labor Party Gillard pursues conservative policies. Her allegiance to the US and Israel is just as puppet like as Howard ever was. She shares many key social policies with Abbott and the points of difference are largely smoke and mirrors wrapped in the rhetoric of political correctness.

Even the currently much lauded (by Labor) Asian Century policy is largely a retread of a report written by Ross Garnault 20+ years ago.

As Chris Hedges brilliantly pointed out yesterday in his Truthdig column the choice is not between Romney and Obama but between corporate capitalism and us. Accordingly he is voting for a third party. Ceteris paribus the same equally applies in Australia. Anybody who claims otherwise is simply not being realistic.