"It should be clear which days are for campaigning and which days are for governing'

Great Julia but you appear to be doing neither.

Alan Austin,
A similar question might be asked as to what do you make of the hypothesis that Ms Gillard announced the election now to stymie Wayne Swan's gathering of numbers so as to lock herself in as P.M.?

Call an election one day, see one of your mates charged with 150 fraud counts the next, then the next watch NSW implode at ICAC, then the next see two of your senior ministers resign. And one of them your supposed youngest and brightest. Jeez what a good start. I reckon we are going to watch the Australian Labor Party absolutely implode over the next 8 months. I reckon it won't be the coalition wishing the election cannot come soon enough. It'll be the Labor party.

What a gigantic farce.

Really Alan have you in all your experience ever seen the likes of this current absurdity?

Wow imajulianutter, Wayne Swan. Do you really believe that even the Labour party could be stupid enough to make him leader?

I watched it take him 2 years to learn how to read & present the press releases produced for him by his department, & minders. It looked for a long time he perhaps couldn't read.

It is hard to believe his IQ could struggle up to 85, even on a good day. Talk about the bottom of the barrel, hell, in any decent organisation, he would never have been put into the barrel, having been rejected as sub standard in the packing shed.

Keep it up 579, the more you squeal, the more it convinces people that Abbott is the right bloke.

Yes Don Aitkin, I can see your fervent hope.

The only chance the horrible Gillard has is Turnbull. If the libs were ever stupid enough to put that stuffed shirt in leadership, it would cost them so many votes, that Julia might just have a chance.

Far too many smart people can see Turnbull is another Rudd, & would be just as incompetent to all our detriment.

I don't know why labor don't recruit him. Bad as he is, he is head & shoulders above anything labor has. He would be a way of having Rudd for your leader, when you can't have Rudd.

Hasbeen,
on their record Wayne Swan would be their logical choice.Don't you agree.
lol.

One advantage of calling an early election is that it gives your entire front bench the opportunity to resign the lead up.

It's funny to see Abbott throwing the switch from "aggressively negative" to "reassuringly positive" but it will be interesting to see how long it lasts before he reverts back to his true form.

Dragging out his wife and family as spokespersons to vouch for his new persona is as hollow and honest as his policies.

Until he faces up to real media scrutiny and stops avoiding certain media outlets who may be critical or just want clarification he will remain an unknown quantity.

Campaigning and photo-ops are one thing but detail is what has been lacking up until now and it's up to the media to bring both sides to account.